House vs. Stage Directions
People often talk about “stage right” and “stage left” in the theater. I know from play production class that this is from the perspective of the performer facing the audience, so it’s the opposite of what the audience sees – “stage left” would be the audience’s right.
It turns out there’s an opposite – “house left” and “house right” are directions from the audience’s perspective.
Why I Looked It Up
I was in a church service, and the pastor asked some people to come and stand in front. He said:
Stand here to the left… house left.
I got to wondering if that was a standard term. I had never heard it before, and I guess I had always kind of wondered if there was an opposite to the stage directions.