If you wish to throw the background of a tableau in shade, intervene
screens between the lights at the sides of the stage and that part of
the picture you desire to have dark; _vice versa_ with the foreground.
Particular points or characters can be more brilliantly lighted than
others by placing at the side of the stage a strong light within a
large box, open at one side, and lined with bright reflectors. Light
of different colors can be thrown successively on a picture, and made
to blend one with another, by placing the various colored fires in
boxes three feet square, open at one side, and lined with bright
reflectors; these, arranged at the side of the stage on pivots, can be
turned on, one after another, so as to throw their light on the stage.
Before one light has entirely vanished from the scene, a different
color should gradually take its place.