V.

Mise En Scene

With a return to higher and better ideals in plays, directing and acting, we are coming to new ideals in stage craft. We are realizing that play writing is an incomplete art, that acting does not exist to glorify the actor's personality, but that both play

and actor are the means to create a semblance of life. But the actor and play must be framed; the stage setting is the frame. This frame is a machine, a mechanical device used to set for the play; but it must not be used as a machine for effects, such as train wrecks, horse races, chariot

races, and the mill ponds of melodrama and the movie.

Two primary demands should be made of the stage machine; that it is able to do the work necessary, efficiently and with a minimum danger of breakdown, and that the machine be subject to control. We may consider this stage craft as scenery,

scene painting, and lighting.

SCENERY

Scenery is of two types; pieces suspended from ropes which are termed hanging pieces, and pieces that stand on the floor, set pieces. The first type includes interior "drops," "borders," representing fo

liage, "leg" drops representing trees, pillars, arches, house-fronts, every thing which may be raised overhead to save floor space when not in use. Hanging pieces also include such interior scenes as ceilings and sometimes back walls. The second type, set pieces, are any low standing units, such as walls, hedges, fences, tree trunks, "wings," the back and side walls of the room.

The stage machine also includes the grid iron which is a slatted plat form of steel or iron or iron joists, built a few feet below the roof of the stage, just enough below to allow a man to stand on it. Along the center of the grid iron, at right angles to the foot lights, and again equidistant right and left of center by half the width of the stage opening, should be fastened rows of blocks and sheaves. Ropes are passed over these sheaves to one side of the stage, and all three ropes carried to the "pin rail," from which they may be operated.

In our small amusement halls the "pin rail," should be on a side wall of the stage, within easy reach from the stage floor. This will save an extra stage hand-the "fly man." These lines must be of the best hemp rope, not less than one-half inch. The ropes should be inspected often to prevent scenery falling, with consequent danger to scenery, play, and actors. When the lines are not in use tie sand bags to the loose ends so the ropes may be raised and lowered when needed.

Scenery which stands on the floor may be made to fold in screen like pieces or may be braced. Every Every stage should be supplied with twelve to twenty stage braces for the support of set pieces. These are made of hard wood, which can be lengthened, and have prongs at the top to hook into a screw eye fastened in the sides

of the scenery, and a foot iron at the bottom, which is fastened to the stage floor by a stage screw or "peg."

The curtain of the theatre, if it is raised or lowered should be operated on the floor level, and on the same side as the "pin rail." Draped curtains made of canton flannel, rep, or velour, give the finest proscenium. This curtain is made in two parts, overlapping in the center, fastened to a 2x4 just behind the proscenium opening. Rings are sewed, on the back of the curtain, from the lower center corner to the upper outer border where the curtains are attached. Put pulleys on the 2x4 sides at the outer ends and centers, and if the opening is large at quarter distance. Ropes fastened to the lower center corner of the curtain are run through the diagonal rings, and then passed over the pulleys at the upper outer corner. One rope is passed over the pulleys at the top and with the other rope over the pulley or the "pin rail" side of the stage, so that both sides of the curtain draw together. This is a most attractive curtain, closed or when opened takes the place of the "awful" old "grand draperies." A pleated valance should finish the opening, falling low enough to mask the fastening of the curtain. Grev or green are the most pleasing colors.

The stages in schools and amusement halls are usually too small. A proscenium opening should not be less than twenty-five feet, and the depth of the stage must be at least three feet to back wall, while the ceiling must be from fourteen to fifty feet. Scenery cannot be hung with less than thirty feet.

Get real doors and windows from some one's attic or from a house wrecking firm: The initial cost is small and a set will last a stage lifetime. These help so much with the solid frames, hinges, latches, and

locks to make the reality of the scene. Discard your flimsy lath and canvass doors. For windows, have them with weighted sashes properly made to open and shut, and hung in solid frames. Use bright wire screening for glass, which in artificial light has the appearance of glass.

Replace the rows of drop "borders" with a canvass ceiling, which can be lowered and hung. This will not only look much better but acts as a sounding board for the actors' voices. In setting the interiors, break the monotony of the straight walls by cutting off corners and making jogs.

The scene must be set back of the "tormentor." Never use the "apron" of the stage for the play- the space between the "tormentor" and the foots. Do away with the garish tormentors and make a frame of canvass and 2x4 sides, to mask the ceiling and to attach the scene. This is called a faise proscenium and should be painted a neutral color, as dark grey to harmonize with the curtain and any color of scene.

Back all doors and windows with interior or exterior flats, to simulate the idea of rooms or out of doors, and to mask the back of the stage.

If your stage is low, not more than fourteen feet and small you will find the screen stage, which was used at the Social Hall in Salt Lake for three seasons, very effective and it can be made very attractive, and developed into any stage needed. A false proscenium and ceiling, are recessary. Make frames, like large picture frames, 4x11, the width of the frame at sides and top 6 inches, with a 12 inch base. The inset screens are made of light wood framework covered with canvass. "Buttons" on the frames will fasten the screens into the frames. You may cover both sides of the frame with canvass so that your changes of scene may be

made by just turning the inset. The color of the screen may be painted to suit each play. The frames outlive the form of the stage setting and are braced permanently for each play. The screen makes the change of room, with doors and windows changed. It is surprising what a change of interior can be made on the same plan. We had some half frames and screens 2x11 to help give variety, and also one large double folding screen (8ft.), with an iron brace for footing to use for large entrances, and when necessary to enter on the floor level. Folding screen wings are used for exteriors, and set inside your frames. Take the lights off your ceiling and they need not be removed for out of door sets.

We had a number of hollow box steps, 4ft. x 12in. x 6in., and 2ft. x 12in. x 6in., which could be used for platforms, stair ways, and entrances and exits over the frames. An entrance and exit is made much more effective by steps on and off stage. Our windows and doors fitted in the frame like the screen.

The illustration page 149 is one scene from School for Scandal. From this outline, five different scenes were developed, and by the use of the screen the changes only took from three to six minutes. This screen se is a great time and labor saver between acts.

PAINTING

Simplicity! Throw away or paint over all "studio" scenery, horribly painted flats and drops you may have on hand, and begin new. A scene must be suggestive, furnish a pleasing back ground of color and be in harmony with the character of the play. Cover your frames with heavy, unbleached sheeting and paint. with calsomine, mixing your own colors. In every town is some one with

an artisitc eye and sense of color. Draft such a person on your theatre staff.

Avoid red or bright colors which obtrude unduly. Your scene must be in harmony with the costumes worn in the scene. Paint interiors in plain, flat colors, using only lines or very simple borders. Make the room one you would like to live in were you the character of the play. How many could endure in our own homes the garish decorations we see on the stage. These scenes certainly do not "hold up the mirror to nature. Windows and doors should have simple curtains and draperies to harmonize with the walls. By aying and stencil very artistic draperies can be made of the cheapest material.

LIGHTING

Electric light has made possible a theatre illumination which is so dependable that light may be used not only as a means of illumination but as an art medium. Good stage lighting is your most difficult and expensive problem. When you build your stage, have the back wall plastered and made in a quarter sphere, like the shells placed behind band stands, high enough to be masked by the proscenium arch from the audience. This sky dome or cyclorama may be made of canvass, and will take the place of back drops and borders by playing lights upon it. It will also act as a reflector, reflecting the light on scene or through window or door as in nature. this "Cyc" wonderful sunsets, mystic sun rises, moon and storm effects may be made by the use of dimmers and color screens.

On

The light should tell the atmosphere of the play, as well as illumine the stage and actors. Light is used to show hour, season, and weather.

Light helps paint the scene by shadow, and color values; it helps act the play by symbolizing its meaning and reinforcing its psychology.

Get the most interested electrician in your community, and give him entire charge of the switchboard and all stage lighting apparatus. Do not allow anyone else to touch the lights. He should remove all accessable lamps after each performance, and lock them up with all other moveable apparatus. This will save a good deal of money and prevent petty thievery and breakage. The switchboard should be also placed under lock and key.

If you are interested in the marvels of stage illumination read of how Nicholas de Lipsky paints scenes and costumes with his lights. It reads like an Alladin fairy tale. See "Literary Digest" of Dec. 10, 1921.

The construction of board and the mounting of switches is controlled in every town by a board of five underwriters and need not therefore be explained here. However see that each light unit is subject to repeated control. The white, blue, and red lights of the borders and foots should be controlled by separate switches. All the blue, white, and red must have controlling switches. The auditorium lights must be placed on the stage switch board. The dimmers are the most expensive of the light equipment but are absolutely essential to modern stage lighting. There should be as many dimmers as switches. The house lights should be on a dimmer, so that the lights may be gradually lowered, the curtain raised in darkness, and the stage gradually revealed by bringing up the stage dimmers. This helps very much the illusion.

Amber lights are much to be preferred to white lamps. The amber light is softer and more pleasant.