Author: waszut_barrett@me.com

One of the most interesting Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry stage sets that I have ever encountered is in my home town of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It is for the thirty-first degree and was designed by the Twin City Scenic Company for the Minneapolis Scottish Rite.

The Minneapolis Scottish Rite building was once church.  When they transformed the space for Masonic uses, the altar became  the stage.  There is also use a lodge space for ceremonials that is used for certain degrees and is referred to as the Red Room (named for the color of the carpet).  This beautiful space used to be the area that I converted into a paint studio whenever I had a large project and is now the home of Lodge No. 19.

Like the theatre space. there is a horseshoe balcony surrounds three sides of the auditorium.  The central floor in both rooms do not have fixed seating in the center.  In the Red Room there is a small recessed area for the stage.  There used to be a roll drop that hung above this area, depicting the rebuilding of King Solomon’s Temple.

The Egyptian setting scenery by Twin Cities Scenic Co. for the Lodge room transforms the entire space.  Flats (scenic walls) are place against the walls under the balcony.  A scrim ceiling obscures the ceiling, yet members seated in the balcony areas are able to view the activities on the floor below.

The pictures below are depicted with a photographic flash so you could see some of the colors and painted details.

This image appears at various archeological sites, including Edfu (Temple of Horus, Edfu). Without going into a long explanation of its meaning and mystical properties, this image was incorporated into ornamental decoration for Ptolemaic, Sumerian, Assyrian, and Hittite. Below are some examples from Edfu.

To accompany Geis’ printed image and photographs of corresponding archeological sources, I have included painted details form various Scottish Rite drops for the 31st AASR degree.

And when the serpents became interpreted as two birds…

Maybe this artist didn’t have an original source or design book!

The thirty-first degree for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry typically includes an Egyptian setting.  The popularity of for the exotic on the commercial stage carried over to the fraternal stage. This will be the topic for the next few posts.

Below is an example of an Egyptian source from Geis’ design book. It is a print titled, “Scene from the New Egyptian Drama of ‘Nitocris,” at Drury-Lane Theatre – the Coronation Procession.”  This production premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1855 and was announced as “an original Egyptian play.”  The image from Geis’ print was originally published in the Illustrated London News.  The production and the creation of an historically accurate setting for both the commercial stage and the fraternal stage is worth comment.

The production of “Nitocris” was primarily intended to be amazing display of scenic illusion and effects, as well as depicting exotic locales.  In “Punch” (London: January issue, October 20 1855, page 159) the author writes: “Antiquarian research has become fashionable among theatrical managers, who appear to be up to their eyes in the dust of the ages; and it will soon begin to be a question or rivalry as to which theatre lessee shall be regarded as a regular dust man of the past, and which theatre shall be looked upon as the original dust hole of antiquity.”   The author further comments, “Nobody, we believe, claims literary merit for the piece itself which is merely a vehicle – a rather slow one – for the effects arising out of it.”

For me, one of the most interesting sections from the piece was the author using quotes from the theatre lessee in the following excerpt: “‘No research has been too trying’ for the patience and purse of the lessee, who has distributed his agents and money over every spot where anything was like to be found to aid the ‘reviving the associations of the Pharaonic Period.’ Everything bearing any pretensions to an Egyptian character has been ransacked, from a coffee-cup to a Colossus, and we dare say that even the Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly – where the lessee of Drury Lane exhibited the African Twins was occupied in the hope that some Egyptian notions be got out of it.”

Geis’ image in his design book:

Here is an example from the setting originally produced for the Albert Pike Consistory of Little Rock Arkansa and currently housed in the Pasadena Scottish Rite, ca. 1920

And a few details from the backdrop…

Below I have included a variety of other early- to mid-twentieth century Scottish Rite scenes for the Thirty-first degree.  The first is from Fargo, North Dakota

Winona, Minnesota

Grand Forks, North Dakota

Here is a mid-nineteenth century design sketch by Maj. Don Carlos DuBois (held in the University of Minnesota Performing Arts archives).

..and his realized scenery painted in Atlanta, Georgia.

Frank C. Ambos submitted the following in the 1927 August issue of “Scenic Artist.”

“The Ten Commandments for the Stock Scenic Artist” by UNO

1.  Thou art a worthy member of an organization – a union of your fellow craftsmen.
2. Thou Shalt never labor for less wage than the amount thy brethren in convention assembled decided was necessary for the every day needs of life.
3. Even though thou art a poor bachelor, without kith or kin, perform your work in eight daylight hours.  Many of your brothers are fathers and enjoy the evenings with their brook around the fireside.
4. Even thou art blessed with the sincere friendship of thy employer – obey the rules of the Union – not boastfully but with quiet dignity – by so doing you will cement that friendship and preserve your self respect.
5. Avoid careless speed.  A work well done stands as a monument to your efficiency.
6. It is your right to demand a helper.  You have served your apprenticeship under many hard masters and deserve all consideration that should  be given a Master Craftsman.
7. Think not only of you Union when you are enveloped in a black cloud of ill luck – but treasure the sound principles on which it is built while you are enjoying sunlight and prosperity.
8. It s vital that you should realize that you are blazing a trail for some brother that will take the position you hold after you are gone.  Be contented in your own heart that you left nothing undone that will make his way an easier one.
9. You are the Captain of your own soul.  Your position can be a lowly one – subject to ridicule – or respected and esteemed by everyone.  Let your decision as to which it shall be rest in your own heart.
10. Thou shalt always remember that first – Thou art a human being.  Second – An Employee.  Third – An Artist.

Here is a print kept by Andrew Geis in his source book.

Here is a similar composition in a design by one of the companies he worked for, Twin City Scenic Company.  This sketch is available online at http://umedia.lib.umn.edu/scenicsearch

Over the years, I have tracked down a variety of scenic artists and their work, finding bits and pieces of information regarding their life and painting. During this time, my primary focus always remained on Thomas Gibbs Moses (1856-1934) and his Masonic installations.

Recently, I have branched off to look at some of Moses’ contemporaries. Andrew Geis will be my first subject as I have an immediate connection to him.

Many years back, I received multiple packages from a friend in Chicago. I have often become the depository of “things a local museum won’t take and I can’t store them anymore.” Each once is loving placed in a file or stored in my studio until I am able to find a better home – one that the future generations can access. This is one of the reasons that I have started a blog.  I want to get the information out sooner rather than later as it takes years to process a museum/archival collection ad digitize it. The blog also provides a searchable format for the information that I am sharing with the public.

So, back to my story…One of the Chicago boxes contained a portion of Geis’ design book.  My training introduced me to this type of source book as a “painter’s morgue.”  This term was introduced to me by my Professor Emeritus C. Lance Brockman at the University of Minnesota. In short, it is a source book for painters and designers with a variety of images to reference when drawing and painting.

Looking at Geis’ imagery with “older eyes” (and a tad more experience) I was able to pair up some of Geis’ sources with Masonic stage compositions.  This excited me and I immediately went to my “Andrew Geis” file.  Unfortunately, it only had four images of his design, currently held at the University of Minnesota Performing Arts archives.  I contacted my friend in Chicago to see if he had any idea about Geis’ background.  He recalled seeing the name in the 1927 Scenic Artists’ Ball program.  Bingo.

I finally stumbled across a single census entry from 1920.  Here is what I know to date about Geis.  Both of his parents were born in Germany, emigrating the the United States before Andrew was born.  Andrew is born in 1888 and eventually marries his wife Elizabeth (b. 1891).  They lived in Chicago’s 34 Ward at 3906 West 19th Street in Chicago, Cook County. His profession was listed as scenic artist for the art industry.  Both Geis and his wife are listed in the 1927 program as helping with the event.

The Scenery Collection renderings also his union affiliation: United Scenic Artists Local 350-2021.  Again, here is the link to the online collection – http://umedia.lib.umn.edu/scenicsearch.  You can find his rendering by typing in “Geis” in the Keyword option and hitting the “search” button.

Today, I will start with sharing his four rendering of interiors that were created for the Twin Cities Scenic Co.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

The “Christmas Carol” script that accompanied yesterday’s backdrop

and a photo of a “Christmas Carol” cast in from of another Peoria Scottish Rite drop.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

This is one of the only times that I encountered something that was too damaged to save. As it was on my own dime, I had to be selective with what I kept for future training. The reason for the disposable was because of the newspaper plastered on the back of the drop (for opacity from upstage lights, I’m sure). This, combined with massive dusting pigment and a pretty ugly composition made it undesirable to salvage and store for restoration training. We unrolled the drop in the parking lot of the Minneapolis Scottish Rite because of the mess. It was one of 70+ scenes! This is just drop that I salvaged from the Peoria, Illinois Scottish Rite Cathedral after they transitioned to rear projections and gutted the rigging. All of the Peoria Christmas Carol Scenery had to be thrown out due to the contaminants. I ended up only saving the Peoria Scottish Rite Masonic scenery for future experimentation with restoration methods. The remainder of the collection was from the turn-of-the-twentieth century (Volland & Toomey) that Becker Studios refurbished and sold to the Peoria Scottish Rite in 1924. Over time, Twin Cities Scenic Company contributed a few pieces to the collection, such as the “Christmas Carol” in the 1940s.