Arena or Theater-in-the-Round: This type of performance space allows the audience to completely surround the action on all sides. The advantage to this type of theater is that audience members can have an intimate view of the performance, and it enables producers to offer more experimental programming.

Black Box Theater: A Black-Box theater is a flexible space that allows for a variety of seating arrangements. Usually this kind of space accommodates anywhere from 50-200 people, and is used in experimental theater productions. The name is derived from the common practice of painting the walls black.

Multi-use Auditorium: A Multi-use Auditorium is a large room that can be reconfigured to accommodate a variety of uses, including lectures, performances and film screenings. The University has a number of spaces that fit this definition.

Proscenium Theater: In a Proscenium-style stage, the audience faces the performance in one direction, as if the action were in a 4-sided room with one side removed. Usually, the stage is framed in some way and equipped with a curtain. Sometimes, the stage has an apron, or area in which the stage juts out into the auditorium. Unlike a Thrust Stage design (see below), the apron is not sufficient to accommodate the full staging of a production. The advantage of the Proscenium-style theater is that this design allows for stage machinery to be hidden from view.

Thrust Theater: A Thrust Theater is one in which a raised platform juts into the auditorium, allowing the audience to surround the stage on three sides. The stage is large enough to accommodate the full staging of a performance and performers can enter a Thrust Stage from all sides. Productions must be staged to accommodate multi-directional performances and the design allows for less illusion, since most of the lighting equipment and set design is visible to the audience.

Continental-style seating: This refers to seating in which there is increased space between rows of seats so that the rows serve as aisles. Typically, these houses have a hidden orchestra pit and pitched floor.

Raked seating: This refers to a steeply-pitched floor that slopes upward from the stage to the back of an auditorium.

Venue: This refers to the space in which a performance, exhibit or literary reading is held.