Stage directions are a shared map. A director who says "cross down left and stop on the second line" is saving everyone ten seconds of pointing, and over a four-week rehearsal those seconds add up to days. Once the vocabulary is automatic, you stop translating and start acting, which is the whole point.
The system has one rule that trips up nearly every beginner, and it is worth getting out of the way first: directions on stage are given from the actor's point of view, facing the audience.
Upstage and downstage
Upstage is away from the audience, toward the back wall. Downstage is toward the audience, toward the edge of the stage. "Go upstage" means walk away from the house; "come downstage" means walk toward it.
The names come from the raked stage. For centuries, many European theaters built their stage floors on a slope, rising as they went back, partly so the audience could see actors at the rear and partly to make painted perspective scenery look deeper. An actor walking away from the audience was literally walking up a hill. Most modern stages are flat, but the words stuck, and a few theaters still have a rake. If you ever perform on one, you will feel it in your calves by the end of the first week.
Stage left and stage right
Stage left is the actor's left as they face the audience. Stage right is the actor's right. That means stage left is on the audience's right, and the two will always feel backward if you are sitting in the house reading a script.
The quick way to keep it straight: stand on the stage, face the seats, and hold your hands out. Your left hand is stage left. When you are reading a script at home, picture yourself standing on stage, looking out at row F.
House left and house right are the audience's directions, used for anything in the auditorium. House left is the audience's left as they sit facing the stage, which is the same side as stage right. Front-of-house staff, ushers and the lighting team use these, and so will a director who wants you to make an entrance through the aisles.
In the UK you may also hear prompt side (PS) and opposite prompt (OP), named for the side of the stage where the prompter or stage manager traditionally sat. Prompt side is traditionally stage left, but not every theater follows the tradition, so check on your first day.
The nine areas of the stage
Combine the two axes and you get a grid of nine areas, each named with an abbreviation you will see in stage managers' notes and in your own script margins. Center stage is simply C, or CS. The map below is drawn from above, with the audience at the bottom. Picture yourself standing in the center square facing the audience: your right hand points to stage right, which is the left side of the grid.
| Back wall (upstage) | ||
|---|---|---|
| USR Up stage right | USC Up stage center | USL Up stage left |
| SR Stage right | C Center stage | SL Stage left |
| DSR Down stage right | DSC Down stage center | DSL Down stage left |
| Edge of the stage (downstage), then the audience | ||
Some directors and textbooks split the stage more finely, into fifteen areas with "right center" and "left center" columns between the outer columns and the center one. You will see RC and LC on those maps. The nine-area grid is the one nearly everyone uses day to day.
The areas are not equal. Downstage center is the strongest position on a proscenium stage, because it is closest to the audience and squarely in front of them; big speeches and final moments tend to land there. Upstage areas feel more distant and can read as formal or isolated. Directors use this deliberately, and once you know the grid you can start to see why you were placed where you were.
What does it mean to upstage someone?
Picture two actors talking. If one steps upstage of the other, the downstage actor has to turn away from the audience to look at them. The upstage actor's face is now fully visible and the other actor is showing the house the back of their head. That is upstaging in its literal sense, and it is why "don't upstage your partner" is one of the first notes young actors get.
The figurative meaning grew out of the literal one: to upstage someone is to draw attention away from them when it should be theirs. Fidgeting during another actor's big moment counts. So does a laugh you milk past its natural length. Sometimes the director wants you upstage, and sometimes a scene is built so that focus shifts on purpose, but taking it without being given it is the habit to avoid.
Other stage terms you will hear in rehearsal
Cross. Any move from one place on stage to another. "Cross DSL on that line" means walk to downstage left as you say it. In scripts it is written as an X: "X DSL."
Counter-cross. When one actor crosses past another, the second actor often shifts the other way to keep the picture balanced and stay visible. Good directors ask for it; experienced actors do it without being asked.
Cheat out. Turn your body partly toward the audience while still playing to another character. Real people talking face each other in full profile, which on stage means the audience sees half of each face. Cheating out to a quarter turn lets the house see you without the moment looking staged.
Open up and close off. Opening up means turning more toward the audience; closing off means turning away. Body positions are sometimes named by how much of you the audience sees: full front, quarter, profile, three-quarter and full back.
Give and take stage. To give stage is to turn or move so another actor gets the focus; to take stage is to claim it, usually because the scene says you should.
Onstage and offstage. As places, these mean in view of the audience or out of it. As directions, "onstage" can also mean toward the center, and "offstage" toward the wings.
In one, in two, in three. Old terms from vaudeville and musical theater for depth. "In one" is the narrow strip downstage of the first set of wings, often in front of a curtain or drop, where a scene can play while scenery is changed behind it. "In two" and "in three" are progressively farther upstage.
Wings are the hidden spaces at the sides of the stage; the house is the auditorium; the apron is any part of the stage that extends downstage of the proscenium arch.
When the stage is not a proscenium
All of the above assumes a proscenium stage, where the audience sits on one side, looking through a frame. On a thrust stage, with audience on three sides, upstage still means toward the back wall, but "cheating out" becomes a juggling act, because some part of the audience is always behind you. In the round, there is no upstage at all. Companies working in the round often use clock positions ("cross to four o'clock") or compass points, fixed to some agreed landmark in the room. Ask how the company names its directions in the first rehearsal and write the key at the front of your script.
Using stage directions in your own script
Every one of these terms becomes shorthand in your margins once rehearsals start. Directors give moves quickly and rarely repeat them, so actors write them down in pencil as they go: "X DSR, sit" next to the line where it happens. That record of who goes where and when is called blocking, and it has a whole notation system of its own; see what blocking is and how to write it down. If you are moving from stage to screen, the vocabulary changes again, and the film set terms every actor should know covers the words you will hear on set instead.
One last habit worth building early. When you read a play for the first time, read the writer's stage directions with the map in your head. When Nora walks out at the end of Ibsen's A Doll's House, ask where that door is: a long exit upstage with her back to the audience, leaving Helmer alone downstage, tells a different story from an exit close to the house, before a single word is said, and the more automatically you see the stage, the more of that information reaches your first read of the script.
More questions
Is stage left the actor's left or the audience's left?
The actor's left, when the actor is standing on stage facing the audience. That makes stage left the audience's right. If a direction is meant from the audience's point of view, theaters say house left or house right instead.
Why is it called upstage?
Many older theaters had raked stages, floors that sloped upward away from the audience so everyone could see the actors at the back. Walking away from the audience meant walking uphill, so the back became upstage and the front downstage. The names stayed after most stages went flat.
What does it mean to upstage someone?
Literally, to stand upstage of another actor so they have to turn their back to the audience to talk to you. Figuratively, it means stealing focus from someone who should have it, onstage or anywhere else.
What is house left?
House left is the audience's left as they sit facing the stage. It is the same side as stage right. Ushers, lighting crews and front-of-house staff use house directions because they work from the audience's point of view.
What does cheat out mean in acting?
To angle your body partly toward the audience while still playing to another character, so the house can see your face. Two actors talking might each turn a quarter toward the audience instead of facing each other in full profile.
Do stage directions work on a thrust or in-the-round stage?
Upstage and downstage mean less when the audience sits on three or four sides. Productions in the round often use clock positions or compass points instead, with one side named as a fixed reference, and each company agrees its own system on day one.