Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... VII THE STAGE AND THE SCENERY The disadvantages under which most companies of amateurs give their performances are so many and so formidable, that one often wonders how they attain the success they often do attain. Improvised stages, ill designed and ill fitted costumes, inappropriate scenery, very bad lighting--against all these obstacles the amateur contends blithefully. Most frequently he simply ignores the obstacles; and perhaps this is a mercy, for if he realized his handicaps, he might not run at all. But the better way, one may venture to think, is frankly to recognize the difficulties of a mechanical sort in the way of the manager; to learn what are some of the really indispensable requirements in the matter of scenic investiture; and to try very hard, for the sake of the play, to live up to them. THE DIMENSIONS OF THE STAGE Most amateur plays are produced on far too small stages. Perhaps the old fashion of "private theatricals" in somebody's drawing room is responsible for the continuance of the habit of staging even pretentious plays, oftentimes, under conditions of space which are really impossible. There may be a dozen reasons for this convention; but there are a hundred better reasons for breaking with it at every opportunity. Schools which take their dramatics at all seriously ought to use the greatest care, in building new auditoriums with a stage, that the latter is something more than a platform suitable for a concert or an address. Unless plays are to be only/semi-successful as artistic productions, the actors must have plenty of room. On the small stages, too often deemed appropriate for non-professional players, there is quite lacking all opportunity for the free and slightly exaggerated movement so necessary for...