Editing Vomitorium

{{short description|Passage in a theatre allowing crowds to exit}}
{{italics}}
[[File:Ancient Roman Pompeii - Pompeji - Campania - Italy - July 10th 2013 - 06.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''Vomitorium'' at the [[Amphitheatre of Pompeii]] in [[Pompeii]]]]

A '''''vomitorium''''' is a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre or a stadium through which large crowds can exit rapidly at the end of an event. They can also be pathways for actors to enter and leave stage.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vomitorium|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/vomitorium|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224061422/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/vomitorium|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 24, 2011|work=Oxford Dictionary|publisher=Oxford Dictionaries|access-date=2 December 2010}}</ref> The Latin word ''vomitorium'', plural ''vomitoria'', derives from the verb ''[[wiktionary:vomo|vomō, vomere]]'', "to spew forth". In [[ancient Roman architecture]], ''vomitoria'' were designed to provide rapid egress for large crowds at amphitheatres and stadia, as they do in modern sports stadia and large theatres.<ref>{{cite book |title=A cyclopaedia of works of architecture in Italy, Greece, and the Levant |editor=Longfellow |editor-first=William P.P. |url=https://archive.org/stream/cyclopaediaofwor00longuoft#page/xxxii/mode/1up/ |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |year=1903 |page=xxxii}}</ref>

==Modern examples==
[[File:Vomitorium.png|thumb|Rendering of a ''vomitorium'']]
[[Smock Alley Theatre]] in Temple Bar, Dublin, has two ''vomitoria'', one stage left and one stage right, as does the [[Stratford Festival]] in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/AboutUs/OurHistory/Timeline |title=Timeline &#124; Stratford Festival Official Website}}</ref> The [[Oregon Shakespeare Festival]], for instance, has ''vomitoria'' in two of its theatres, the outdoor Elizabethan Stage and the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The "voms", as they are called, allow actors to mount the stage from halls cut into the amphitheatre. The [[Guthrie Theatre]] in [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]], has two permanent ''vomitoria'', one at stage left and one at stage right, of its [[thrust stage]]. The [[Circle in the Square Theatre]], designed to reflect the theatres of ancient Greece and Rome, is the only [[Broadway theatre]] that has a ''vomitorium'', which is still used in many of its productions as an entrance and exit for the actors.

The [[Cockpit Theatre (Marylebone)|Cockpit Theatre]], built in London in the 1960s, is one of the very few purpose-built theatres in the round in London, and features four ''vomitoria'' as corner entrances between four banks of raked seating arranged in a square.

The [[Chichester Festival Theatre]], founded in 1962, was the first of its kind to be opened in the United Kingdom for 500 years, because there is no [[Proscenium|proscenium arch]] or wings. Instead, there is a thrust stage with ''vomitoria'' or "voms" for the audience and performers to enter and exit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Friday Night Is Music Night |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/03/friday-night-is-music-night |publisher=BBC Press Office |date=26 January 2016 |access-date=5 February 2018}}</ref>

In addition, the Mark Taper Forum, one of the three theatres making up the [[Los Angeles Music Center]], has two ''vomitoria''. It has a strong thrust stage such that the audience sit in an amphitheatre-type array.

Winnipeg's second-largest theatre, [[Prairie Theatre Exchange]], has two ''vomitoria'' on either side of its thrust stage, with seating on three sides.

The Space Theatre at the [[Denver Center for the Performing Arts]] is a theatre "in the round" with a [[pentagon]] configuration. It contains five ''vomitoria'' spaced 72 degrees apart, creating five equal seating sections.

== Historical notes ==
A [[List of common misconceptions|commonly held but erroneous]] notion is that [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Romans]] designated spaces called vomitoria for the purpose of literal [[vomiting]], as part of a [[Binge eating|binge-and-purge]] cycle.<ref>{{cite web |title=World Wide Words: Vomitorium |url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-vom1.htm |website=World Wide Words |access-date=27 November 2023 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/03mtg/abstracts/radin.html |title=Fictitious facts: The case of the vomitorium |date=8 January 2003 |publisher=American Philological Association |work=APAClassics.org |last=Radin |first=Alice P. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030320192257/http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/03mtg/abstracts/radin.html |archive-date=20 March 2003}}</ref>

==References==
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==External links==
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[[Category:Ancient Roman architectural elements]]
[[Category:Misconceptions]]
[[Category:Parts of a theatre]]
[[Category:Stage terminology]]