How To Produce Amateur Plays Part 8

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In Constance D'Arcy Mackay's book on "Costumes and Scenery for Amateurs"

the author describes how a "desert and oasis" scene can be made from the simplest means:

"A plain sand-colored floor cloth. A backdrop or cyclorama of sky-blue against which very low sand mounds appearing as if at great distance, with palm trees, also made small by distance.

These mounds and palm trees should be painted low on the backdrop, since a vast stretch of level sand is what is to be suggested. It would even be possible to use a plain blue sky drop, and run some sand-colored cambric into mounds across the back of the stage, so as to break the sky line."

It is not necessary, though, to _paint_ the cyclorama: darker cloth, made to represent mounds, thrown across the lower part of the cyclorama, would be equally effective. Further examples of what can be done with the cyclorama will be cited in the chapter on "Lighting."

Another of the recent innovations which is of particular value to amateurs is the system by which the proscenium opening can be made large or small, according to the demands of the play. Usually the proscenium looks like the following diagram.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN ORDINARY BOX-SET. FROM DUMAS _FILS'_ "THE MONEY QUESTION", PRODUCED AT TUFTS COLLEGE.

(Courtesy of L. R. Lewis).]

Suppose one scene of a play calls for a large courtroom filled with people. Obviously, all the stage s.p.a.ce is required. But suppose that the next scene is a small antechamber. On the average stage the discrepancy is at once observed, and the effect is more than likely ridiculous. Even if the sets used are "box sets" (that is, with three walls and not mere conventional screens or curtains), the effect of great size can easily be obtained in the first scene, and smallness in the second, by means of the device about to be described. This applies, of course, to plays where the same set must be used for both scenes. If, however, a different set is used for the antechamber scene, the new device is imperative.

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First, construct two tall screens (on a wooden framework), made either of painted canvas or draped cloth, of some dark and subdued tone, and place them on each side of the stage, just behind the proscenium arch, as in the diagram:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

These screens can be easily set closer to the center of the stage, thereby diminishing its size on the sides. Then the "grand drapery"

above, which hangs down from behind the top of the proscenium arch, and which should be of the same color and material as the side screens, is lowered. This process makes, from the inside, a smaller proscenium arch.

Many of the German and some other stages have added a fourth side to this frame, by "boxing" the footlights:

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This last, besides giving the effect of a detached picture to the set, prevents the direct rays of the footlights, when they are used, from shining up into the gallery.

To return to the smaller scene made by the inner proscenium arch, it will readily be seen that the cyclorama--if there is one--or back wall of the set, or else the curtain, must usually be brought forward a little. The advantage of the inner proscenium becomes apparent when such a play as "The Merchant of Venice" is performed, and the absurdity of using a stage of the same size for the Portia-Nerissa scene in the first act and the casket scene, is forcibly brought to our attention.

=The Revolving Stage= and =The Wagon Stage=. These are fully described in the books which have been referred to. They are both extremely valuable, but as yet too complicated and expensive to be seriously considered for amateurs.

The introduction of simpler scenery and simpler lighting does away with much that was difficult to manage under the old system, and a few well-trained amateurs should be able to set and attend to almost any production without having recourse to the revolving stage and the "wagons."

As much s.p.a.ce as possible should be kept clear behind the curtain; occasions are likely to arise when the entire stage may be used, and manipulation of scenery on a full stage is a difficult task.

A few suggestions as to lighting and its relation to scenery and color and action will be set forth in the next chapter.

CHAPTER VIII

LIGHTING

It has been rightly urged that recent inventions and discoveries in lighting const.i.tute the greatest contribution to the modern art of the theater. This manual is intended primarily to help the producer and the actor, but the present short chapter may a.s.sist the former or his a.s.sociates in their effort to improve the physical conditions of the stage.

The prevalent system of using footlights and border lights is on the whole bad, because it is false, unnatural, and above all unnecessary.

Says Moderwell (pages 107-108, in "The Theatre of To-day"):

"Before we can begin work in artistic lighting we must do some destroying. One element in the old lighting must go, and go completely. We can say this with careless ease now that the Fortuny system has given us a better way. But even before this invention was made known, the case against the footlights must have been obvious to any sensitive man of the theatre; that the 'foots' continued as long as they did indicates the stagnation of the old theatre in all but purely literary art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From "The Architectural Review."

OPERATION OF THE FORTUNY INDIRECT LIGHTING SYSTEM.]

"The footlights, with their corresponding border lights from above, give a flat illumination. They make figures visible, but not living; they destroy that most precious quality of the sculptor, relief.... It is the shadows, the nooks and crannies of light and shade, that show a figure to be solid and plastic."

The Fortuny system mentioned is a device by which light is reflected and diffused: "An arc-lamp and several pieces of cloth of various colours--these comprise the Fortuny apparatus in its simplest form."

While only an expert electrician and, if the effects are to be artistic, an artist, can erect and manipulate a system built on Fortuny's principles, still amateur electricians and directors should do their best, by means of experimentation, to use indirect lighting.

Just how this can be done must rest with individuals, but two or three experiments may be briefly described.

Suppose that the cyclorama, or the hangings masking the back of the stage, are made of white or light-colored cloth. In this case, an arc lamp or ordinary calcium light can be placed up in the loft, above the top of the cyclorama, and behind it. A little experimenting will reveal many striking light effects. If one light or lamp is not sufficient, others can be placed in various positions to reenforce it. As conditions vary so greatly, it is impossible to supply more concise directions.

Where box sets are used in which there is at least one window, and provided the scene does not take place at night, it is much better to have all, or at least an appreciable portion of the light come in through one window. In the second act of Charles Klein's "The Music Master" played by David Warfield and produced by David Belasco, the stage was at one time brilliantly lighted, supposedly by sunshine from the outside, from the two opposite sides of the stage! If, however, screens and curtains are used (see chapter on "Scenery and Costumes"), then it is best to introduce some sort of central reflected light. To station lights on all sides of the stage will first of all make the stage too bright, and furthermore produce unnatural and distorted shadows: there is no chance for effects of relief or any illusion of plasticity. If possible, the footlights should be entirely eliminated; if not, then most sparingly used. Our stages are for the most part overlighted.

The production of Lady Gregory's "The Rising of the Moon" by the Irish Players was one of the simplest and at the same time most effective of stage pictures. The following diagram will show in a rough way the general disposition of the settings:

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The back of the stage (the shaded area) was flooded with white light to suggest moonlight. There were no "foots" or "borders"; anything besides the single light would have ruined the effect of perfect placidity.

CHAPTER IX

SCENERY AND COSTUMES

Very little need be said regarding the usual conventional sets, whether they represent interiors or exteriors. The purpose of this chapter is (1) to suggest simple but effective means of staging without using the conventional sets, and (2) to lay down a few principles as to costuming.

By means of the simple devices about to be described, the amateur is enabled to do without "box sets" and all the paraphernalia of the old stage. The tendency nowadays is away from naturalism in setting; the aim is rather to supply simple but beautiful backgrounds with as little obvious effort as possible; to suggest rather than to represent. When the word "conventional" is used it is intended to convey the meaning not of "old" and "hackneyed", but of "simple", "suggestive." Beardsley's drawings are conventional because att.i.tudes and lines are conventionalized.

In the main, there are three sorts of setting which may be used for practically all kinds of plays. They have been successfully tried out on numerous occasions, and few plays have been found which cannot fit at least one of them.

1. The first and simplest of them all consists of draperies and tall screens. The Greek cla.s.sics and Shakespeare are particularly effective with this sort of background. Where Greek plays are given, a peristyle of wooden pillars up-stage, behind which may be hung white or tinted curtains, is especially desirable. Any Greek, and most Latin plays, can be produced with this setting. Often such plays are given in the open.

If the performance takes place in the daylight, there is no difficulty as to artificial lighting; but if it is at night, then a flood-light must cover the stage. This is placed toward the back, or else behind the audience.

Shakespeare is seen at his best with the simple background. A sort of cyclorama may be constructed by using curtains hung at the back of the stage, upon which is thrown light from one place: behind the proscenium arch, from above, or from one of the sides. Suppose that "The Comedy of Errors" is the play to be performed. The first scene of the first act is "_A hall in the Duke's palace_." This, of course, should be printed on the program, but on the stage all that is needed is a suggestion or two, like a gilded chair, and a painted white bench or two. These are not needed in the action, but they serve to create an atmosphere. The second scene is "_A public place_." Absolutely no "props" or furniture are needed; indeed, their very absence indicates the "place." The first scene of the second act is the same. The curtains around the stage must be made in sections, in order to allow the actors to enter and exit through them. The lines are always sufficient to indicate where a person is coming from or going to. In the first scene of the third act, Dromio of Syracuse says:

DRO. S. (_within_). Mome, malt-horse, capon, c.o.xcomb, idiot, patch!

Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch: Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'st for such store, When one is one too many? Go, get thee from the door.