09/25/2026
If someone on your production team says, āWeāll put the lectern downstage left,ā do you know exactly where they mean?
If not, you are not alone. Stage directions can feel backward until someone explains whose point of view they are based on. Once you understand that one ruleāand why we say upstage and downstageāthe whole thing becomes much easier.
Here is the simple version: stage directions are given from the perspective of a person standing onstage and facing the audience.
That means stage left is the presenterās left, stage right is the presenterās right, and those directions do not change based on where anyone else is standing.
Why Is It Called Upstage and Downstage?
The terms come from older theaters with raked stages. These stages were built on a slight incline: the back of the stage was physically higher than the front.
So, when a performer moved away from the audience and toward the back wall, they were walking up the slopeāor upstage. When they moved toward the audience, they were walking down the slopeāor downstage.
Most event stages today are flat, but the terminology stayed.
Upstage means toward the back of the stage, away from the audience.
Downstage means toward the front edge of the stage, closer to the audience.
An easy way to remember it is: downstage is down by the audience.
