Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
A reporter from Chicago’s “Inter Ocean” interviewed Walter Burridge on June 8, 1902 (page 42). His interview took place while Burridge worked on the stage set for “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz;” the production opening at the Grand Opera House. This is a great snapshot of information pertaining to his approach to a design and the production process.
“How Scenic Work is Done.
“How does the scene painter go to work on a new production? “ Mr. Burridge smiled at this question. “I don’t known just how to begin explaining,” he said. “There are so many details that it is a hard matter to explain. Suppose, however, that a manager tells me he has decided to produce a play or opera or a description of the scenes furnished by the author. In such a lay-out there is a detailed write-up of the action, as to whether a character enters through a door and jumps over a cliff. These points are called the practical notes, the artist making a careful study of the play and noting all the important points, action, and locality, the period, time of day, etc.
“If possible the studies are made on the ground, and should the scene be laid in the present time and in a place easily accessible to the artist he obtains photographs and makes studies and sketches. When Mr. Hamlin put on “Arizona,” three summers ago at the Grand he sent Frederick Remington and myself to Aravalpa valley, and a delightful pilgrimage we had, positively one of the most enjoyable artistic experiences in my artistic career.
“In the case of “The Wizard of Oz,” however, the story is laid in fairyland, so I am obliged to draw from my imagination for the scenes to fit the action of the play. First of all I make a ground plan of each act and the separate scenes, drawing a diagram on a scale of one-inch to the foot. On this scale I draw the different parts of the scenes on cardboard, finishing the model in watercolor, pastel, charcoal, or sometimes simply in pencil. When the different parts are ready and cut out they are fitted and glued together upon the line of the ground plan upon a miniature stage, the front of which is modeled in shape like a proscenium opening of a theater. The model is a reduced copy of the stage setting, so that one realizes the relative proportions in color and composition.
“At the Paris Exposition, the scene model exhibit was one of the features of the fair, being a picture history of the theater in France for a hundred years. The creation of the scene and the model is one of the most interesting of the many processes that constitute the scene painter’s art. The uninitiated in the theatrical world would be surprised to see the odds and ends used in the make-up of a model – glue, pieces of coal, clay, plaster of Paris, sticks, wire, gauze, muslin, and colored gelatins. In one of the scenes of “The Wizard of Oz,” the entire depth of the stage will be used to represent the approach to the throne room of the Wizard, and it will be lighted with hundreds of illuminated globes. In making my model I was obliged to use small pearls to indicate the globes. The time spent with the models pays in the end. With a complete model one thoroughly understands the practicalities of the scene, its color, lighting, etc., and changes are easy to make. To re-make and alter the scene proper, however, would entail an enormous amount of expense.
“After my models have been approved they were given to the master carpenter who superintends their construction, builds the scenes and delivers them to the artist to be painted. The different sections of scenery are taken from the carpenter shop to the paint-room or ‘bridge.’ The paint frame I am now using is the largest in this country. It is seventy-five feet long and forty feet high, and it is lowered and raised by water power along the rear wall of the stage of the Auditorium. The carpenter attaches to this frame the different portions of scenery to be painted. Drops are tacked on the paint frame, which are then raised to a level with the paint bridge floor. The assistants then ‘prime’ a canvas with a coating of glue and whiting, and artists begin work with charcoal placed in a crayon-holder on the end of a stick, observing the proportions as they appear in the model. The artist, as a rule, paints by daylight, so he must make allowance for the effect of artificial light on his colors. He must make his tones stronger because the calcium and footlights invariably bleach them out, and when a daylight effect is called for of a moonlight one he must allow for the lighting-up of the scene as the time and action differ in each set or scene. “Yellow or amber light dominates the daylight effects; blue is the tone for moonlights-green is used by some, but I prefer blue, as experience has taught me that a green tone tends to make the faces of the characters appear ghastly.”
To be continued…
