Question of seating platforms...

[Colyngbourne]

Okay, here goes - anyone got a useful way of referring to the type of seating in an auditorium where it's all ranked-up benches on scaffolding? And also how to refer to the kind of metal rear staircase structure that is a handy fire escape route for people on the top rows?

Also, anyone who knows the approximate present day location of where Calgacus gave his empassioned battle speech at Mons Graupius in the highlands (in Tacitus' 'Agricola' chapter 31)? I'm thinking it's the northern side of the Cairngorms but I'm not sure.


Thanks,
Colyngbourne

[amner]

Colyngbourne, the seats you describe are - in the states anyway - called bleachers. Like this?:

http://www.wolfpark.org/images/bleachers-big.jpg


from the bizarre but clearly very wonderful Bleacher Fundraiser (http://www.wolfpark.org/bleachers.html) website. No idea what the rear exit steps are called though.
.

[Colyngbourne]

Thank you, Amner. I will probably use the term 'bleachers' then, though it feels very American and outdoorsy compared to the context, which is British and indoors.

Colyngbourne

[amner]

You're welcome.

As for the other question, I've just spoken to a bloke here (I work at the Uni in Cambridge) who says that the actual site of the battle is unknown but in Battlefields of Britain David Smurthwaite places it at Bennachie (http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=hcgaz&addr1=&client=pu blic&Submit.x=28&addr2=&advanced=&Submit.y=4&addr3 =&pc=&X=365135&quicksearch=Bennachie&Y=822367&scal e=100000&place=Bennachie,Aberdeenshire&coordsys=gb ), a mountain north west of Aberdeen. Hope that helps.
.

[Colyngbourne]

A bit higher up than I imagined but sufficiently isolated enough for my purposes. Thanks, and to your colleague also.

Colyngbourne

[Wavid]

Book for young adults in progress, near completion - 108,000 words. If anyone's interested in knowing more, I'd rather PM them than put the whole premise on public view.

I quite understand! is this your first writing project, Colingbourne?

[Colyngbourne]

Well, it's my first 'completed' writing project.

[Lucoid]

Back to the bleachers - though I would also hate to use such an American-sounding word, from my memories of films and terrible teen romances, bleachers can be indoors as well as out. The big scary monster in The Faculty chases the kids under some in the school gym, and the seats at the basketball game in American Beauty look like an indoor version of Amner's picture (which looks just like the outdoor bleachers in Grease).

[Lucoid]

Oh, good luck, by the way.

[Colyngbourne]

Thank you. I think I'll need it. Books for young adults seem to be all heading in the same predictable direction at the moment (wizards, fantastical universes, proactive plucky heroes/heroines - but never anything so good as Earthsea or Pern, methinks) so this one might not fit the present requirements. The strong female character moreorless vanishes after the first half of the book as well so I'm sure that will count against me!

Colyngbourne

[skanky]

Back to the bleachers - though I would also hate to use such an American-sounding word, from my memories of films and terrible teen romances, bleachers can be indoors as well as out. The big scary monster in The Faculty chases the kids under some in the school gym, and the seats at the basketball game in American Beauty look like an indoor version of Amner's picture (which looks just like the outdoor bleachers in Grease).

From what I know (very little) bleachers are just the US name for what we'd call "stands".

I'm not sure we have a general name for that type of stand, though I'm sure if you found a company that deals in them, they'd be able to tell you.

I'd go for the (what I call) Arabic method and call them "temporary stands" and "metal fire escape leading from the top tiers". Obviously only the first time round, after that you can shorten the descriptions to "stands" and "fire escape".

[Colyngbourne]

Yes, I've moreorless decided to go with this more long-winded desc.
hard forms ranked up on permanent scaffolding
I also mention 'scaffolding steps' and 'the rear staircase of one of the platforms' which sounds rather turgid but does pretty well in context. I just couldn't bear to go with 'bleachers'. I sat on one of these in Leominster Leisure Centre to see the RSC do Henry VI Part 3 but in the story I'm envisaging it as a permanent set-up in an arts centre.

Thanks for all for your advice on this.

[Philb]

Just a few other thoughts...

"stepped banks of seating"

"tiers of a multi level auditorium"

"seats rising in curved rows around a stage"

Alternatively you could call it a Cavea which is a vaguely technical term for the seating area of a theatre or amphitheatre.

But 'hard forms ranked up on permanent scaffolding' sounds pretty damn accurate to me!

Phil.

[Colyngbourne]

Thank you kindly ! :) 'Stepped banks of seating' sounds pretty good to me, and I'd not thought of 'cavea' but it would take a certain amount of explaining in a young adults' book.

Colyngbourne

[wshaw]

My partner who knows about these things because she has run venues -including one here that uses them - says that they're called "bleacher seating" amongst the techie types in the UK. She says the name for the fire escape stairs is probably, ah, "fire escape".

[amner]

So, just for the hell of opening a two-year-old thread, which of these many terms did you go for in the end Col?

:D

[Colyngbourne]

:wink: Thank you for making me go and look it up... :roll:

I used 'rear staircase' for the fire escape thingy, and 'bleachers' once and 'scaffolded steps' once.

[kumquat]

Did the novel get anywhere? Are you secretly Dianne Wynne-Jones? Do tell!

[Colyngbourne]

It's half-way - exactly half-way - at the moment. Someone is v. interested in it but it has some problems that need addressing, and for obvious reasons we have named one of our pet snails after the interested publisher, so maybe in another two years it might be solved :wink:

Sadly I am not Diana WJ.

[Jerkass]

I'd go for 'risers.'

Wait...I'm a bit late, huh?

[wshaw]

I'm so glad to see this thread revived. I think it's where I came in.

[rick green]

Risers is a good choice... somewhat obscure, yet intelligible. It gives a sense of command of the language. If bleachers is blue-collar, risers is illuminati.

[Lucoid]

Sounds a bit rude though doesn't it? Might get a snigger in the young adult readership.

[Colyngbourne]

I read 'risers' (meaning 'bleachers or whatever) for the first time in a book yesterday.

[Lucoid]

Looks like it's set to become the word on everyone's lips soon then. We'll all be saying it by 2006.

[Jerkass]

Yeah, I was going to say that I didn't create the term 'risers'....I'm pretty sure that's one of the real-life terms for them.

I know it's the standard term for the miniature ones used for choral groups: choral risers.

However, if everyone thought I had made the term up, it's probably not the universally recognized term Col would have wanted to use. Two years ago. So, er, don't, Col. Thanks.

[HP]

Okay, according to my Countdown copy (Twice Nightly Whiteley is twice as nice in the flesh believe it or not!) of The New Oxford Dictionary of English, a riser is:

a) a person who habitually gets out of bed at a particular time of the morning.

b) a vertical section between the treads of a staircase.

c) a vertical pipe for the upward flow of liquid or gas.

d) a low platform on a stage or in an auditorium used to give greater prominence to a speaker or performer.

e)a strip of webbing joining the harness and the rigging lines of a
parachute or paraglider.

So there you have the official version. Not sure (b) is quite the ticket as meant by Col, but there you go ....

[NottyImp]

So Honey, you've been on Countdown?

[HP]

Sorry. Mentioning it wasn't a great idea. Never was any good at doing 'cool'. :oops: I just like doing something 'different' every so often. A sort of annual or six-monthly Why Not? Adventure.

But that aside, anyone in need of a very fine dictionary (we won't mention the t-shirt - too awful to describe and big enough to house several Whiteleys and half a dozen Vordermans all of 'em wearing fat suits) - could do worse than ask Carol for a consonant or two. As dictionaries go, this one's an absolute corker - if you can lift it, that is. Weighs 7lbs -without its jacket.