Theatre Terminology – Page 2

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 602 – Chicago Athletic Club, 1908

Part 602: Chicago Athletic Club, 1908

Happy New Year!

In 1908 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Chicago Athletic Club. We fitted up a complete stage to be ‘Struck’ within an hour. I have been obliged to stay at the Annex, an awful place to heat.”

Postcard of the Chicago Athletic Club, 1908

To decipher his statement, the main studio for Sosman & Landis was located on Clinton Street. In 1892, the Sosman and Landis Company opened a second studio space on the West Side of Chicago, renting the “old Waverly theatre” and referring to the second space as “the Annex.” According to Thomas G. Moses, the first annex studio had four paint frames with plenty of floor space for all kinds of work. This space was specifically secured for Moses and his crew to accept additional work for the Columbian Exposition. Moses’ arrangement with Sosman & Landis was to receive all of their sub-contracted work.

Another annex studio was secured in 1907 for Moses and his crew at Sosman & Landis to accommodate the increase in special projects and Masonic work. Moses wrote, “We opened our annex studio at 19 W. 20^th Street in July, and Ansel Cook went there as a manager. He did some very good work but was a long time doing it, which, of course, didn’t pay us.”

The stage and scenery for the Chicago Athletic Club was produced at the second annex studio on 20^th Street. In this studio, Moses also wrote that they completed “a good sized job for Wichita, Kansas” during 1908.

Chicago clubs, including the Chicago Athletic Club

In regard to the actual Chicago Athletic Club project, I have uncovered very little information about any theatrical event mentioned by Moses. I located one advertisement in the Chicago Tribune for an amateur actor “tryout,” however, where participants could make their first appearance on stage at the Chicago Athletic Club in 1908.

Here is the 1908 Chicago Athletic Club advertisement for amateur actors:

“Amateur actors wishing to make their first appearance on stage will be given a tryout at the Chicago Athletic Club next Saturday evening April 11 at 8:30; a representative committee of Chicago and New York managers will be present. Prize money will be given to those making the biggest hit. Apply today between 3 and 4 p.m., to the stage door of Auditorium theater” (Chicago Tribune, 10 April 1908, page 21).

What I find most interesting about Moses’ entry, however, is his use of the term “Struck,” typed in quotes. Moses seldom used quotes in his writing, unless he was referring to something new or an unfamiliar term. He typed this sentence in 1931 when he assembled his “My Diary,” based on his annual handwritten diaries started in 1873. So by 1931, he still treated the term “struck” as something unfamiliar. He did not create his diary for the general public, but his family and colleagues, writing in 1922 “I trust my diary will be of some interest to my relatives and brother scenic artists.”

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 309: Stage English

Stage English

Every once in a while you stumble across an unexpected gem while doing research. In many cases for me, it has absolutely nothing to do with what I was looking for on my quest. It just magically appears on the same page, or somewhere nearby. That is why I always like looking for books in the library; three rows over there might be a book that I would have never otherwise encountered.

Today’s discovery looks at something that is evasive, even for theatre technicians – stage terminology. It changes from country to country and decade to decade. Unless there is an article that clearly explains the vernacular for the stage at a certain point in time, we can only hazard a guess or piece together bits of information from memoirs, trade journals and newspaper articles. The current words that we are familiar would seem foreign over a century ago to our predecessors. I discovered an article from 1895 that defines “meanings of some behind-the-scenes technical terms.”

It was in a January 6, 1895, article for the Detroit Free Press titled “Stage English” (page 15). I am posting the article in its entirety, as it is extremely valuable for deciphering our past and should be available for my colleagues. The attached photographs are of a model that I recently built for the Matthews Opera House in Spearfish Matthews when I was asked to depict what their original 1906 Twin City Scenic Co. collections would have looked like at the time of delivery.

“Stage English”

“The patrons of the theatre hear a great deal about “flies,” “borders,” “tormentors, braces, wings, traps and many other things belonging to the arcana of the stag, but comparatively few have anything like a definite idea of their meaning. Some industrious recorder of facts has taken pains to make a cursory collection of these for the general information.

The pieces of canvas running across the top of the stage, representing sky, ceiling, and so on, are “borders,” and the “flies” are the galleries on either side of the stage, made continuous by “the paint-bridge” at the back.

Wood, interior and sky borders created for the Matthews Opera House model by Wendy Waszut-Barrett in October 2017.

The back scene is generally in two pieces called “flats,” but when the scene descends from above or ascends from beneath the stage an is one piece, upon a roller or otherwise, it is called a “drop.”

Roll drops for the Matthews Opera House model created in October 2017 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett.

The narrow side scenes are “wings,” and they run, top to bottom, in “grooves,” which are divided into “cuts.”

Wings for the Matthews Opera House model created by Wendy Waszut-Barrett in October 2017.

The inclined platforms are “runs” and used in mountain scenes, battle scenes and so on. The small painted frames used to hide from sight the audience the “runs” are known as “masking pieces.” A “box scene” is a room with solid walls and ceiling, and you cannot “box in” a forest scene. The pieces of canvas overhead are “sky borders,” and the space over these, sometimes stretching up to a great height, is known as the “rigging loft,” and the intricate webs of ropes up there are all worked from “the flies.”

“The “paint bridge” is the continuation and connecting part of the two galleries constituting the “flies,” which are stationary galleries and immovable. But the “paint bridge” is made to rise and lower as the pleasure of the scene painters and others, and immediately behind it is the “paint frame,” also to be raised and lowered so as to bring within easy reach all parts of the scenery the artists may be painting.

Paint bridge illustration from an 1890 article in the Philadelphia Press.

The holes on the stage are called “traps,” and underneath them are the trap cellars.” The “star” or “vampire” trap is a hole in the stage through which disappear r shoot upwards some of the principles in the pantomime and other spectacular pieces.

Stage trap at the Matthews Opera House in Spearfish, South Dakota.

The noise resembling the breaking of timber and the falling of houses is made by means of a gigantic rattle, moved by a handle. Against the wall of the stage, generally at the exit to the street, is the “call box,” upon which, or rather within which, are posted the “calls,” or notices of rehearsals and other important events to occur. A “sea-cloth” is a piece of canvas, which is painted to represent water, and is shaken to produce an imitation of waves. The instructions from the author to the carpenter concerning the scenes in the play are called “scene plots.” The particular part of the stage where the stage carpenter stows his scenes is called “the dock.” This term is elastic, however, and applies to any place in or out of the theater where scenery is stowed.”

Garden scene for the Matthews Opera House model as originally designed by the Twin City Scenic Co. in 1906. Created by Wendy Waszut-Barrett in October 2017.

Scenic elements for the original garden scene for the Matthews Opera House model designed by the Twin City Scenic Co. in 1906.

An angle view of the street scene for the Matthews Opera House model created by Wendy Waszut-Barrett in October 2017.

Scenic elements for the 1906 street scene designed by the Twin City Scenic Co. for the Matthews Opera House in Spearfish, South Dakota.

To be continued…

Defining a Panorama, Cyclorama and Diorama, by Gene Meier

A view of the cyclorama, Battle of Atlanta, by the American Panorama Company.

Many of my posts mention painted illusion for the stage and their connection to moving panoramas, cycloramas and other large-scale visual spectacles. Today, I received an email from Gene Meier about defining panoramas, cycloramas and dioramas. It is probably the easiest definition that I have ever come across and decided to pass it along. It was written by Meier and simplifies something that is often confusing to many individuals.

From the pen of Gene Meier:

Writers attempt to explain what a panorama is to their readers and begin by saying “A panorama is a cyclorama…” Both terms mean “all around view.” “Panorama” is the term used in Europe and America. “Cyclorama” is used in America. This is how I introduce the subject to others: “A panorama is an inside-out diorama, and a diorama is an in-side out panorama.” A (rotunda) panorama consists of a painted circular canvas with foreground, middle ground and background, plus faux terrain (objects) to add to the tree-dimensional illusion. A 3-D diorama (as opposed to a DIORAMA PAINTING) consists of a main object (an up-graded “faux terrain”) and a painted panoramic background suggesting foreground, middle ground, and background.

Thank you, Gene!