Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ve al telón y pon la silla aquí. - Go to the curtain and put the chair here.

Context is key! While ve is the 'he/she' present tense form of ver (to see), here it is being used as the irregular affirmative tú (informal 'you') command for the verb ir (to go). In this sentence, it is a direct order telling someone to 'Go!'

Is pon the normal way to tell someone to put something down?

Yes, when you are talking to someone you address as tú. Pon is the highly irregular affirmative command form of the verb poner (to put/place). If it followed the normal rules, it would be pone, but poner belongs to a small group of verbs that have short, one-syllable commands (along with verbs like hacer -> haz and salir -> sal).

Why does the sentence use 'al telón' instead of 'a el telón'?

In Spanish, whenever the preposition a (to) is followed right away by the masculine word for 'the' (el), they are forced to merge to make the contraction al. Because telón is a masculine noun, 'to the curtain' becomes al telón.

Does 'telón' mean the same thing as 'cortina'?