from Latin scaena, Gr. σκηνή “curtain, backdrop of the stage.
The meaning is inextricably linked to the world of the theater and the stage and can have both practical and metaphorical resonance, such as in the phrases, “it’s showtime!” or “that person has left the stage (also in the political sphere).”
Although they tend to have the same meaning scene and stage differ in their use of the two terms. The word stage in fact necessarily implies a physicality and materiality while the word scene has also developed the sense of doing and acting, “going on stage” precisely.
When “an artist” goes on stage he brings with him his own identity with its many facets, his own experience he is not just playing a role.
The contemporary actor attempts, often, to remove the mask or the many masks he wears daily to deal with society, private life, work and his thoughts in favor of a nudity that paradoxically is more artificial because it takes over on the stage of a theater during a performance.
The stage manager takes the best care of the physical performance by following the director’s directives.
In Renaissance theater there were also stage servants who set up the stage, disassembling and reassembling it according to various needs even during performances.
To embellish and enrich it, there can also be incidental music, which eases or lightens the tension, can heighten it, and also have the function of instilling feelings such as anger, fear, or sadness in the actor and the audience. They can also represent the feelings of the director or music curator at the time they envisioned the scene.
The term scene, at a later stage, with the birth of cinema, was taken up and adapted to this new field. It came alongside the word cinematic, and roles and objects were retrained and reborn along with a different point of view brought to light by this new way of making art.