Tormentors / Teasers

[Shez]

I've just received a venue tech spec that mentioned tormentors / teaser - not terms I'd ever encountered before. A quick search revealed what they are (now added to the BR wiki) but I'm intrigued as to where those rather wonderful terms came from. Anyone know?

[ramdram]

This might be the answer:

 

http://www.theatrecrafts.com/glossary/results.php?wordsearch=teaser&searchtype=1&submit=Search

 

And plenty more glossary stuff from the search page, see link.

[paulears]

I'm not sure I agree with some of the descriptions on the net, and the wiki. Teasers and Tormentors seem to be talked about as alternative names for borders and legs, and my own understanding is that while the teaser runs SL/SR as usual, the tormentor has an upstage/downstage component too, and is hard framed, not a soft. Indeed, the ones I saw in my early years would often have doors and windows cut into them for specific purposes. If we're not careful we will be starting off a new meaning, with people using tormentor to describe bog standard pros masking - as in a leg. So I would only consider masking to be a tormentor if it has a 3D component - and back in my early days, tormentors were free standing towers - so almost set. The BR wiki now suggests they are simply a false prosc, with no mention of the up/down character.

 

To make it worse, by my own definition, the big heavy 3D false pros's we use in panto would then seem to be tormentors and teasers, because they have depth - but I wouldn' thave have called these by this name. I've not changed the wiki, because it's clear we have multiple views and mine just goes back to 6 months on an RSC tour when I was very young - and memory could be faulty?

[kitlane]

Paul's definitions match my own understanding of the terms.

[IRW]

I've always known tormentors to be hard masking that runs US/DS from the back of the pros to mask the downstage-most part of the wing.

[WiLL]

Indeed, tormentors in the way I've always understood the term always meant a hard framed masking, often with more depth because of supports or framing on the reverse.

Teasers is a new one on me though.

[paulears]

Looking through Google's search results for theatre terms does seem to produce far more entries that simply refer to masking of the legs and border type as tormentors and teasers. I'm positive that this is a new distortion of the old understanding - Somewhere in the loft are my old books, and some of those, when I got them in the seventies were quite old then. One day, they may appear and I can check!

[jonathanhill]

I have always understood a tormentor to be the hard maskers that run upstage/downstage from the prosc opening.

 

I think that teasers are an American term for the same thing.

 

I believe that they were called tormentors because they used to be painted with scenes of hell and souls in torment. But I may be making that up.

[indyld]

Nah, they are called Tormentors because they are always in the f****n' way!!!!

 

I've worked in places where they call on/off hard masking just upstage of the pros by those names too. Well, at least the vertical part. They are topped off with the "house header". Equally, I've known the up/down nature to be the clincher in the T & T nomenclature.

 

A bit like the origin of "gobo", it's at least something to while away the long winter evenings arguing about. We seem to have had a few debates about terminology on the BR recently, perhaps it's time to bring back the Westcoasting debate ** laughs out loud **.

 

I think it's one of those things that doesn't have a "right" answer, as different theatres use different terms for their own particular fittings and architecture.

[Stuart Basson]

Interesting. I see a definition of the latin tormentum includes something about twisting, like a rope, and I wonder if the turned aspect of the flat (ie to up/down, rather than on/off) might have something to do with the name?

[IRW]

Interesting. I see a definition of the latin tormentum includes something about twisting, like a rope, and I wonder if the turned aspect of the flat (ie to up/down, rather than on/off) might have something to do with the name?

 

How about maybe hard masking hinged to the wall, so that it can be set to any angle from across stage to upstage/downstage?

[kitlane]

 

I've worked in places where they call on/off hard masking just upstage of the pros by those names too.

 

I've come across that useage quite a bit as well.

[iains]

I've been in this business nearly 30 years and I have never heard the term "teaser", however looking on google and the link provided in an earlier post suggests it's just another name for the house border which is normally the flying bar immediately upstage of the tabs, typically the No. 1 Lx bar is upstage of this. As for tormentors they run upstage/downstage and are normally a permanent fixture, they are not usually a means of altering the pros width, this would typically be done by a false pros on either a track or freestanding. I had the job of constructing the tormentors at the first theatre I worked in which was going through a major refurbishment, never having worked in a theatre before I asked what the origin of the name was, the answer was to torment the audience by cutting off the sightlines into the downstage wings. These tormentors had a return flat set OP to PS which was used in some cases to reduce the pros opening, while the tormentors were a "permanent" fixture there were some instances where they could not be used and so they were struck, I can testify to the size and weight, since they were not the easiest item on the planet to move. If any one is interested I can post a drawing showing the original design and a subsequent rebuild which took place some six years after the initial install

 

iains

[ramdram]

Could very well be a national "cultural thing; from a US site:

 

http://www.iar.unicamp.br/lab/luz/ld/C%EAnica/Livros/Larry%20Wild/Scena%20Design.pdf

 

Or, this wiki; note spelling:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_drapes_and_stage_curtains

 

Note too the aspect/alignment of the tormentor in this particular diagram.

[indyld]

Interesting. I see a definition of the latin tormentum includes something about twisting, like a rope, and I wonder if the turned aspect of the flat (ie to up/down, rather than on/off) might have something to do with the name?

 

How about maybe hard masking hinged to the wall, so that it can be set to any angle from across stage to upstage/downstage?

 

Just to add to the terminology confusion, the usual term for bits of set/flattage hinged at one end such as this would be a "flipper" in my experience. When it comes to panto style sets, even if we dispense with the term "false pros", we might still be left with "portal" for the most downstage version along with the others. If the portal had depth, then those parts may be called "returns", "reveals" as chosen by the set crew.

 

I've also encountered the "tormentor" use for a hard channel or right angle of masking just US of the pros, where the house tabs ride their tracer. Back to the Up/Down element again.

 

Interesting to see Ramdram's references to the possibility of a cultural thing across the pond. I've definitely seen the terms used in a variety of ways even in British theatre, such is our interesting and rich history. And culture travels. I now find myself referencing US terminology when introducing a something to students, possibly because they may well work with that word in their professional lives and partly so they'll understand US references to similar things online.

 

Surely the best thing about this thread is that it highlights the fact that such speciality terms are only really given meaning by those that use them, which includes this discussion.