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A thrust stage provides a more intimate relation between performers and their audience since, from virtually any vantage point in the audience, both the performers and the audience can be seen. Entrances are most readily made from up-stage,although some theatres provide for performers to enter through the audience using vomitory entrances.

Care must be taken in staging a performance on a thrust stage to ensure that scenery or stage furniture does not unnecessarily block the audience's view. A high backed chair placed down-stage,for example, would effectively block much of the action from view.

Thrust stage theatres

• Chichester Festival Theatre
• the Festival theatre at the Stratford Festival of Canada
• the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis