change from day to night or from night to day. Of these the former
is the more striking, and a description of it will serve to explain
the principle of both. In order to produce the proper effect the
back drop is made nearly double the height of the usual scenes.
The upper half of it is painted to represent a sunset sky, and the
lower half to represent moonlight. It is hung so that the upper half
alone is visible. The scenery of the distance is then painted upon a
separate piece, which is “profiled”; that is, the irregular line of
the horizon made by trees, mountains, or houses, is sharply cut out
with a circular saw. This piece is placed immediately in front of
the sky drop. A few feet further in front is hung what is known as a
cut gauze drop. This has sides and top of canvas painted as the case
requires; while the centre is filled with fine gauze, which lends an
aerial effect to the distance. Red “mediums” are employed to give a
soft, sunset glow to the scene. At the proper moment, the back drop
is very slowly and steadily hauled up, while the red “mediums” are
slowly turned off and green ones turned on. The moon is made in the
night half of the sky drop, and rises with it. When it rises above
the distant horizon the green “mediums” are turned on to their full
power and the green calcium light is brought into play. The effect of
this change, when carefully managed, is always very beautiful, and is
sure to draw forth applause from the audience.
Moonrise, in a scene where there is no change from daylight to
darkness, is often produced with a muslin drop and a “moon box.” The
muslin drop is painted to represent the sky, the clouds being painted
on strips of canvas cut in the required shape and sewn on. The moon
is made with a box on one side of which a circular hole is cut. Over
this hole is pasted a piece of white muslin. A couple of wires serve
to draw the moon upward. Of course the white illuminated circle shows
plainly through the muslin sky, but disappears when passing behind
the canvas clouds. By having another piece of muslin painted red
and imperceptibly fading to white, placed at the back of the drop
in the moon’s path, the orb of night can be made to appear red at
the horizon and gradually change to pale yellow as it sails slowly
upward. Floating clouds are easily imitated by hanging in front
of the sky drop a gauze drop upon which are sewn muslin or canvas
clouds, and moving the whole slowly.
An ocean of heaving waters is made in this way: Each bounding wave is
cut out separately. The first row is set up with a distance of three
or four feet between each billow; and the second row is set so as to
show in the openings left by the first. Small boys furnish the motive
power. The waves are rocked back and forth, not from side to side;
and the effect is very good. The noise of water rolling upon a beach
is well imitated in a simple manner. A box of light wood is lined
with tin. By putting two or three ounces of bird-shot into this and
causing it to roll around, the desired sound is produced.
Fire scenes are sometimes dangerous; but with proper care they may
be rendered comparatively safe. That they are not so hazardous as
is generally supposed by the uninitiated beholder may be learned
from the following description:--One of the most familiar fire
scenes is that which occurs in the “Streets of New York,” in which
a three-story house burns down, the roof caving in, the shutters
falling, and the walls breaking with a wonderful appearance of
realism. The house is painted on three separate pieces, the top one
of which is swung from the flies; this constitutes the roof. Upon
the second is painted half the wall, and it is joined to the bottom
piece in an irregular zigzag line. The simple dropping in succession
of these pieces to the stage produces the falling of roof and wall.
The fire itself is represented by chemical red fire and powdered
lycopodium used separately, the former to give a red glow and the
latter to represent flames. The shutters, which are to fall, are
fastened to the scene with a preparation called “quick watch.” This
is made of powder, alcohol, and a lamp wick. The window frames and
sashes are made of sheet iron, covered with oakum soaked in alcohol
or naphtha. These sashes and frames are not fastened to the canvas
scene at all, but are placed a short distance behind it on platforms.
The quickest possible touch of flame ignites the oakum, and, in a
moment, the fire runs round the sash, and nothing apparently is
left but the blackened and charred wood. Steam is used to represent
the smoke that issues from the crannies in the walls of the burning
building; and an occasional crash, followed by the ignition of a
little powder to produce a sudden puff of smoke, gives the spectator
the idea of a falling rafter. Behind the entire scene is placed a
very large endless towel, upon which is painted a mass of flames.
This is kept in constant upward motion, and, when viewed through an
open window in the house, gives a good idea of the supposed furnace
raging within.
_Selecting a Play._--The following excellent list of plays adapted
for amateurs was published in the _Queen_ some years since.
IN 3 OR MORE ACTS. M. F. REMARKS.
Babes in the Wood 7 4
Don Cæsar de Bazan 9 2 Drama.
Game of Speculation 9 4
Heir at Law 10 3
Jealous Wife 12 5
John Bull 14 3
Ladies’ Battle 5 2 Robertson’s translation.
Love Chase 10 7
New Men and Old Acres 11 5
Palace of Truth 6 5
Plot and Passion 7 2 Drama.
Pygmalion and Galatea 5 4
Rivals 8 4 Five acts.
Society 11 5
Still Waters Run Deep 9 3 Can be acted in a drawing-room.
Most of the above are beyond the talent and stage resources of any
but the strongest amateur companies.
IN 2 ACTS. M. F. REMARKS.
Bachelor of Arts 8 2 Good comedy.
Charles XII. 7 2 Very good dress piece.
Charles II. 4 2 Popular comedy and dress piece.
Court Cards 5 4
Follies of a Night 6 2
House and the Home 3 3
Jacobite 3 3
Liar 4 3
Little Treasure 5 3 Very pathetic.
My Heart’s Idol 7 3
Not a Bad Judge 9 2 Capital for amateurs.
Our Wife 7 2 Good dress piece.
Paul Pry 7 2
Secret Agent 8 3 The best dress piece for
amateurs.
Sweet Hearts 2 2
Time Tries All 6 2
Who Killed Cock Robin? 2 2
Wonderful Woman 6 3 Very popular.
Woodcock’s Little Game 4 3 Capital light comedy.
IN 1 ACT.
Area Belle 3 2
As Like as Two Peas 3 2 A little vulgar.
A.S.S. 3 2
B.B. 4 2
Bamboozling 6 3
Betsy Baker 2 2
Birthplace of Podgers 7 3
Boots at the Swan 4 4 Very sparkling.
Book the Third 2 1 French _Proverbe._
Box and Cox 2 1
Box and Cox Married 3 3
Brown and the Brahmins 4 7 Burlesque.
Comical Countess 3 1
Conjugal Lesson 1 1 A little vulgar.
Cool as a Cucumber 3 2
Cozy Couple 2 2
Creatures of Impulse 4 3 Burlesque.
Cup of Tea 4 1 French _Proverbe._
Cut off with a Shilling 2 1
Day After the Wedding 3 2
Dead Shot 5 2
Deaf as a Post 4 4
Dearest Mama 4 3
Delicate Ground 2 1 Light comedy.
Diamond Cut Diamond 7 1
Done on Both Sides 3 2 Acts well in a drawing-room.
Double Bedded Room 3 3
Doubtful Victory 3 2
Dumb Belle 3 2
Eclipsing the Sun 3 2
Eton Boy 3 2
Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady 6 2 Pretty dress piece.
Fitz Smyth 6 2 Funny.
Give a Dog a Bad Name 2 2
Grimshaw Bradshaw Bagshawe 4 2 Funny.
Happy Pair 1 1 Sparkling _Proverbe_.
He Lies Like Truth 5 2 Very funny.
He’s a Lunatic 3 2 Very amusing.
His Excellency 4 2
Household Fairy 1 1 _Proverbe._
Ici on Parle Français 3 4 Popular, but difficult.
Irish Tutor 4 2
John Dobbs 5 2 Capital for amateurs.
Lend me Five Shillings 5 2 Funny.
Little Toddlekins 3 8 Almost the best farce for
amateurs.
Loan of a Lover 4 2
Love and Rain 1 1 Pretty _Proverbe_.
Love Laughs at Locksmiths 6 6
Mad as a Hatter 5 2
Morning Call 1 1 _Proverbe._
Mummy 6 2
My Heart’s Idol 7 3
My Preserver 5 5
Nice Firm 8 2
Nice Quiet Day 5 3
Night at Notting Hill 3 2 Funny.
Nine Points of the Law 4 3
No. 1 round the Corner 2 0 Good two-character piece.
Only a Halfpenny 2 2 Funny.
Our Clerks 8 4
Pacha of Pimlico 6 2 Funny extravaganza.
Perfection 3 2 Easy and pretty little piece.
Phenomenon in a Smock Frock 4 2 Mathews’ piece.
Pipkin’s Rustic Retreat 5 3
Poor Pillicoddy 2 3 Very funny.
Pork Chops 3 1 Extravaganza.
Quiet Family 4 4
Raising the Wind 6 3 Capital old farce.
Regular Fix 6 4 Very good light comedy.
Retained for the Defence 5 1 Difficult.
Rifle, and How to Use it 4 3
Rough Diamond 4 2 Popular farce.
School for Coquettes 3 3
Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing 7 4 Pretty drama.
Slasher and Crasher 5 2
Slowtop’s Engagements 2 2 Light comedy.
Spectre Bridegroom 7 2 One of the most telling of
farces.
Spitalfields Weaver 4 1 Telling.
Taming a Tiger 3 0
Thumping Legacy 7 1 Very funny.
To Oblige Benson 3 2
To Parents and Guardians 17 3
To Paris and Back for £5 9 7 Funny, but a little vulgar.
Too Much for Good Nature 4 7
Trying it On 3 3 Very good indeed for a
drawing-room.
Turkish Bath 5 2
Turn Him Out 3 2
Tweedleton’s Tail Coat 4 2
Twice Killed 6 3
Two Bonnycastles 3 3
Two Flats and a Sharp 1 2 Pretty comedy.
Two in the Morning 2 0 Best farce for two males.
Uncle’s Will 2 1 Very sparkling.
Unwarrantable Intrusion 2 0
Under the Rose 2 2 Good.
Vandyke Brown 3 3 Good farce.
Whitebait at Greenwich 3 2 Popular, but difficult.
Who Speaks First? 3 2
Your Life’s in Danger 3 3
First catch your actors, then choose your play. In other words, fit
your available square men into a square piece, and do not try and
pare them down to the exigencies of a round one. As a rule dramatic
talent and ambition is more common among the emotional than among
the sterner sex. Women, too, adapt themselves more easily to any
part. Also, their range of parts is narrower. It is easier to make
people laugh than to cry, and they also prefer being amused to being
harrowed. Of course low comedy is just as difficult as a higher line,
but a feeble imitation passes muster better than in the serious
parts. Englishmen are less averse to playing the fool in a fool’s
part than risking an exhibition of deeper feeling. It is easy,
therefore, to group your lesser lights round the central low comedy
man, reflecting his genial glow, more or less, according to their
several abilities, and to graft upon the whole a farce. A farce need
not be vulgar. A farce, too, like charity, covers a multitude of sins
in the way of dress, properties, or scenery. Almost any incongruity
of the former is allowable, and any makeshift or hitch in the latter
can be carried off by a ready wit. But supposing comic talent to
be altogether absent in your company, you will probably find the
“old man” element predominating. The younger, better looking, and
more stalwart the individual the more convinced he will be that his
strong point is the impersonation of old men. Yet old men’s parts are
difficult. The very make up in anything but the broadest farce is a
work of art in itself, and the gait, the tone of voice, the laugh,
the down sitting, and the up-rising must never be lost sight of for a
moment. Usually, too, the old man character is an adjunct rather than
the central figure in a piece, and does not bear upon his shoulders
the burden and heat of the day. Yet in skilful hands it is capable of
unlimited expansion, and with weaker vessels can, at worst, but sink
to the level of low comedy.
Of all the parts most difficult to fill that of the lover is the
worst. Like good tenors, there are not enough stage lovers brought
into the world. Englishmen are so shy, so afraid of making themselves
ridiculous by exhibiting sentiment and emotion. They are not given to
making love particularly prettily in real life, much less upon the
boards. The result in amateur circles is generally a stick. All the
same, the lover is an absolute necessity in most plays, and must be
procured somehow or other.
A judicious weighing of the strong points of each member of your
company, and a nice balancing of their weak ones, must decide
you finally in the choice of the piece to be acted. Take into
consideration which characters have much to do together, and whether
the weaker one can be pulled through by the stronger. The performance
is sure to hang fire if a pair of feeble knees have the stage all
to themselves for long, making each other and the audience nervous.
On the other hand, if your company is much of a muchness, choose a
“level” piece in which the parts are fairly equally divided. If the
opposite is the case, give your best actors the strong parts, and
subordinate the others to them.
Make up your mind from the beginning that some one is sure to
consider him or herself ill-suited and ill-used. Women are greater
sinners in this respect than men--more vain, more jealous. But if
a piece, however small, is to “go,” each one must subordinate his
own importance and his own part to the general effect. The cleverer
the actor the more he will make of the smallest part. Nevertheless,
the fact remains that private theatricals are productive of more
quarrelling and bad blood than any other known form of social
amusement. For this reason a stage manager, pure and simple, is
absolutely essential. His word must be law and his rule of iron. He
must give an eye to the general effect; he must order the sitting
down and the getting up, and the crossing, and especially see
that there is plenty of the former. He must see that when several
characters are on the stage together they group well, do not get
behind each other, and balance on the stage. At full rehearsals he
should see that, if it is not practicable to rehearse on the stage
itself, they take place on a square as large as the stage, and with
each piece of furniture and property in its right place; also that
the correct exits and entries are adhered to. This prevents amateurs
feeling strange when they come to a final dress rehearsal on the
stage itself. Any special little scenes between two characters can be
gone over and over again privately.
Finally, having got your ingredients together, do not aim too high.
The more plot, the more action in a piece, the easier it is to act.
Beware of plays which read well, are full of smart dialogue--they
require very finished acting.
A “dressed” or costume piece, though more trouble to get up, is more
attractive than one of modern time. But when feasible, evening dress
refines a modern play very much. Powder must be carefully put on, or
after much heat and action, the performer assumes merely a grizzled
aspect. In a dressed piece do not neglect the smallest details, and
take care the female and male characters are dressed in the same
period. In an outdoor scene, avoid an open parasol or umbrella as you
would poison. It shades the face unless very dexterously manipulated.
Let ladies look well to their “chaussure,” and the length, and
especially the hang of the short skirts. These ought to be round,
nothing looks so bad as a dab behind, showing the lining from the
front.
“Making up” is a very delicate matter in a room where the audience
is so near. It is generally overdone. Rouge is usually put on too
low, it ought never to come below the cheek bone. Many people do not
need to pencil their eyebrows at all, and a mere dab of black on
the lower lid is better than a continuous line. When this latter is
used, however, it is becoming to continue it a very little beyond
the junction of the two lids towards the temples. For a bucolic part
of either sex, a nice fat rosy cheek can be made by adding a little
cotton wool judiciously rouged. Remember an “old man” does not want
his eyes blacked at all.
Now, to touch on a few faults of amateurs.
Firstly, there is a tendency to play too much to the front of the
stage. Do not be afraid of the stage; use it all. Do not come on and
stand front face to the audience, addressing your remarks to them
instead of to the character with whom you are conversing. Turn well
away for your asides, or they sound ridiculous, and give the other a
similar chance of making his. Remember, it is no crime to take a turn
up the stage, with your back to the audience, and say a sentence,
with your head well thrown back over your shoulder.
A second most important point is not to run your sentences together.
Divide them well, giving each its particular character and its full
value. Pause between them. Each word tells, and is put there for
a purpose. And here let me beseech the amateur prompter to have
some mercy on his victims, and not to hound them on, if they stop a
moment, as if their lives depended on their getting the words out.
This brings me to a vital point, that of playing slowly enough.
Amateurs can hardly do “business” of any kind--such, for instance, as
writing a letter--too slowly.
Do not be ashamed of over-acting; it is better than under-acting a
part. Learn your cues with your part, and insist on getting them
correctly. Amateurs cannot take too much trouble.
One word as to elocution. Find out the pitch of your voice which
carries best, and which is at the same time the most natural and
the least exertion to you. You cannot fail then to be heard, always
providing you remember not to drop your voice at the end of a
sentence, and not to clip the final consonants of words.
A few practical hints, to close, as to stage and scenery. Do not
attempt to put a piece with much action and several characters
on to a small stage. The result is simply ridiculous. The stage
_must_ be raised, but a foot or so is enough in any ordinary-sized
drawing-room. If it is too high, the players’ heads appear too near
the ceiling. If possible, keep the front row of audience at least
five feet from the footlights. Take care these latter are not too
strong, but have plenty of lamps fixed on the back of the front
wings and over the curtain inside. For this reason wings, though
more trouble to set up, are preferable to a box scene. They also
obviate the necessity of practicable doors, which do not shut or
open properly, and never look real. It looks better to cut off the
corners of the stage at the back, or, at any rate, to make the side
narrow towards the back. Any trouble devoted to details of furnishing
and setting the stage is well repaid by the effect; but of course
the size and quantity of furniture must be ruled by the size of the
stage. In an evening room scene, take care the lamps or candles are
in the centre of the stage. Outdoor scenes are very difficult to
manage on a temporary stage. A back painted scene is necessary, and
in a room painted scenes look so coarse.
Any carpenter can run up a temporary stage in a drawing room, from a
slight sketch, in a day, without doing any damage to the walls. The
curtain ought to be rehearsed as much as the play, till it goes up
and down or pulls aside without a hitch. (E. E. C.)
=Tricks and Illusions.=--Much amusement may be derived from the
practice of conjuring tricks and illusions, and such entertainments
are not without an educational value, as they excite curiosity and
develop a desire in young minds to acquire knowledge, and induce an
exercise of the reasoning faculties in endeavouring to learn how they
are performed.
_Sleight of Hand._--The following notes on sleight of hand tricks are
taken from a chapter in _A Curious Company_, by that entertaining
writer, Max Adeler.
“Before beginning to explain the _modus operandi_ of the impromptu
illusionist, let me just tabulate eight golden rules, which you must
always bear in mind if you hope for anything like success.
“1. Never look at your hands, unless to attract attention to one of
them.
“2. Cultivate the art of chattering freely, with as much original wit
as you can invent, or plagiarise without fear of detection.
“3. Never tell a lie that you cannot stick to, and illustrate if
necessary. You can always ward off an explanation for a few instants
whilst you remove the chances of discovery, and you will find as
you get on that you can boldly do the most outrageously transparent
things _coram populo_, without being found out or observed.
“4. Your hands must always work _together_, never be easy with one
hand and constrained with the other; unless you can by no other means
distract the attention of some horribly sharp person from one hand,
when an awkward movement of the other will often divert his undesired
watchfulness.
“5. Cultivate the art of scoring off rude people, who ask awkward
questions. If any one _thinks_ he has discovered ‘the way it’s
done’ (but not the right way), _let_ him think so, and swagger his
astuteness, and his desire to slip through to New Zealand will be
all the greater when you prove him wrong. _Sæpe interereunt aliis
meditantes necem._ If you are really found out beyond recovery, don’t
try to carry it off; throw yourself at _once_ on the generosity of
the discoverer or discoverers, and ask him or her not to expose you;
remember you are only an amateur, and not getting your living.
“6. _Never_ go on an instant after you detect the least signs among
the audience of ‘having had enough of it.’
“7. When doing anything quite harmless, make a great _unostentatious_
parade of your innocence; your audience will be all the more ready to
take you on trust when you are taking them in.
“8. Never perform a trick in public which you have not amply
rehearsed in private.
“Your dress will of course, as a rule, be the ordinary evening
dress, and unless you have a great reputation as a prestidigitateur,
no alteration is required. However, a little pocket an inch deep,
contrived in and hidden by the seam of the trousers just where the
tips of the fingers fall when the hand is naturally lowered to the
side is a great convenience for getting rid of small articles when
palmed, or for producing them suddenly by the same means. Otherwise,
the natural movement of getting at one’s handkerchief, &c., will
answer the same purpose, if neatly and unostentatiously done. It is
as well to turn up the coat-sleeves, for though they are _never_ used
in legerdemain, it is impossible to disabuse people of the notion
that they are.
“These maxims (which are, after all, the chief art to be acquired
by the amateur conjuror) having been digested, let us turn to the
considerations of the principles and practice of the science of
legerdemain. These may be summed up thus: Every conjuring trick
or illusion, not involving the use of a stage, apparatus, and
accomplices, is performed in, and has for its foundation one of three
proceedings; these are, (1) The Palm, (2) The Pass, (3) The Slip, and
the motive power of the trio is the same, and is expressed in one
word, viz. ‘cheek.’
“1. _Palming_, is the art of holding in one hand any article (coin,
card, &c.) unknown and unseen by the spectators, or of retaining in
one hand anything which, by the ‘pass’ has apparently left it.
“2. _Passing_, is the art of so palming any article that it is
_apparently_ transferred to some other receptacle, or altering the
position of the cards in a pack unseen by the audience.
“3. _Slipping_, is the art of moving, altering the position of, or
getting possession of any _single_ card without being detected, and,
“4. _Cheek_ is--[3].
“Coin Sleights.--Palming.--1. Place a penny or florin across the
middle joints of the second and third fingers of either hand, as
at _a_, Fig. 99, reproduced from illustrations by Miss Dora Noyes;
on slightly bending the hand in an easy and natural manner, the
coin will be clipped, as at _b_, by the fleshy part of the other
two joints, and the hand may be turned over, and in fact placed in
any position, so long as the back of the hand is presented to the
audience. This is a useful palm on an emergency, as when people
suspect that the coin is in the palm of the hand it may be shown
empty, the top joints of the fingers hiding the coin thus held.
[Illustration: 99. Coin and Card Sleights.]
“2. Place the coin between the joint of the thumb and the hand, and
on slightly bending the thumb the coin will be held flat. This is
most useful for changing, described further on, but as an ordinary
concealment of a coin it is too dangerous except for small coins
which the thumb is large enough to hide.
“3. The principal palm (from which the manipulation derives its
name) is as follows: Place the coin so that one edge just touches
the highest of the three marked lines that cross the palm of the
hand, rather towards the thumb. On slightly bending the hand the coin
will be retained; you will find it difficult at first, but practice
will show you the exact spot, where the difficulty is reduced to a
minimum. If you take the coin flatwise between the thumb, the tips of
the second and third fingers, by naturally closing the fingers over
and clasping them tight in the palm of the hand, the coin will be
brought into the exact position, so that if you pick up a coin, by a
sudden outward sweep you can cover this movement, and on recovering
the hand the coin will be palmed and the hand apparently empty.
“Other means of holding a coin _en cache_ will naturally present
themselves when these have been thoroughly mastered.