For the sake of facing the most difficult form of the problem of amateur
staging, let us suppose that this play is to be given in a parlor or
hall, without platform, without proscenium arch or curtains, with the
walls, floor and ceiling of such material and finish that no nails may
be driven into them, and that the depth of the stage is only nine feet.
It looks hopeless but it can be done.
Under such conditions the only possible form of scenery is the screen.
If the "scenery-man" is a bit of a carpenter, he can build the screens
himself, making them as strong and as light as possible, with four
leaves a few inches shorter than the height of the room in which they
are to be used, and proportionately wide.--The framework should be
braced by cross pieces in the middle of each leaf, and should have stout
leather handles nailed to them for convenience in lifting the screen.
The right side should be covered with canvas such as is used for
scenery, and the screens can then be easily repainted or recovered for
later plays.
If it is not possible to have the screens made to order, ordinary
Japanese screens may be borrowed or rented, and made to serve as front
curtain, and framework for scenery.
Those indicated in the plan as A A and B B serve as the front curtains,
the center sections (marked B B) being drawn aside by persons stationed
behind them to show the interior of the hut when the play begins. The
four screens marked C D and E E form the walls of the hut. In using
screens it will be necessary to do without the window and the actual
door unless the person in charge of the scenery is clever enough to
paint in a window on one panel of the screen and make a door in another.
If not, turn the end panel of the screen marked C to run at right angles
with the other part, giving the impression of a passage with an imagined
door at the unseen end, and wherever in the business of the parts, the
children are said to look out of the window, let them instead look down
this passage, as though they were looking through the open doorway.
On the right side of the room in the screen marked D, a fire-place may
be constructed by cutting away a portion of the screen to suggest the
line of the fire-place, putting back of this opening a box painted black
inside to represent the blackened chimney, and finishing with a rough
mantel stained brown to match the wall tint. Of course if the screens
are borrowed the fire-place will have to be dispensed with.
At the moment when the vision of the cathedral is to appear, the screens
marked E E are parted and folded back disclosing the chancel. Perhaps
some church nearby has stored in its basement an old stained glass
window, which may be borrowed and used as background for the church
scene. Such a window was used in a performance of "Much Ado About
Nothing" given some years ago at one of the Eastern colleges. It was
dimly lit from behind by electric globes and proved very successful in
creating a churchly atmosphere. If this can not be done, cover two of
the tallest possible screens with any rich sombre colored drapery and
stand them against the back wall. In the Los Angeles production, the
chancel was represented by a curtain of black velvet, flanked by two
silver pillars, between them the altar. Black makes an exceedingly rich
and effective foil for bright colored costumes. Whatever is used for
backing in the chancel can be masked if unsatisfactory by Christmas
greens, which should be arranged in long vertical lines that carry the
eye up as high as possible and give a sense of dignity, or in the Gothic
curves suggestive of church architecture.
Against this background, and in the center of the space, place the
altar. This can be made of a packing box painted gold or covered with
suitable hangings. In one performance of this play a sectional bookcase
which stood in the room was hung with purple cheese cloth and served as
an altar. Should the stage space be deep enough broad steps before the
shrine will give an added height to the priest and the angel.
If it is possible to have real scenery the most illusive method of
revealing and hiding the chancel is to have the back of the hut painted
on a gauze drop, which is backed by a black curtain. At the cue for
showing the chancel the lights in front of the gauze go out leaving the
stage dark, then the black opaque curtain is rolled up or drawn aside
and as the light is slowly turned on the chancel, the vision begins to
take form through the gauze, the latter becoming invisible and
transparent when there is no light in front of it. The gauze prevents
Holger from actually placing the pennies in the priest's hand but if the
two approach the gauze as though it were not there, and stretch out
their hands so that they seem to touch, the priest being provided with
additional pennies which he holds up at the altar, no one in the
audience would guess that the coins had not been given him by the child.
Very few halls ostensibly built to house amateur play-giving are
adequate for the purpose.--Often the stage is merely a shallow platform
without curtains to separate the actors from the audience, and the
ceiling and walls surrounding the stage are so finished that the
necessary screws for hanging curtains, may not be driven into them. The
amateur manager reaches the depths of despair when he finds that even
the floor of the shallow platform offered him, is of polished hardwood
and may not be marred by the screws of stage braces.
Amateurs who have any voice in the preparation of the stage being built
for them, should urge the following specifications:
1. The ceiling of the stage to be at least twice as high as the
proscenium arch.
2. The depth of the stage to be at least fifteen feet, deeper if the
size of the place permits.
3. The flooring, walls and ceiling of the stage to be of soft wood, into
which nails and screws may be driven; or if the main construction is of
brick, concrete or metal, some inner wooden scaffolding or other
overhead rigging capable of supporting scenery should be provided.
4. There should be some space on both sides of the stage for keeping
scenery and properties to be used later in the play, and as a waiting
place for actors temporarily off the stage. The platform forming the
stage proper should be continued over these wings so that actors leaving
the scene may walk off on a level and not seem to plunge cellarward in
making their exits.