HOW TO ACT, DRESS, MAKE UP, AND HOW TO RIG A STAGE FOR PRIVATE THEATRICALS.
[INTRODUCTION.]
In placing this little book before the boys, and the public in general, the author has endeavored to show up the mystic art of stage performances as clearly as possible—explicitly enough to enable the greenest amateur to erect a stage in his own drawing-room, and to place before his friends the accompanying plays in a manner that shall give entire satisfaction.
The growth of private theatricals has been very large of late years, but the one cry has been: “How can we get up a home performance properly, and with as little expense as possible?” Nothing easier, say I; and if my reader will but follow the instructions herein after given, I have not the slightest doubt that he will be fully able to do all he desires in the home-circle in this mystic art; and with this little prelude, we proceed at once to the work in hand.
[THE STAGE AND EFFECTS.]
If the room in which the performances are to be given is furnished with folding doors there will be no need of a proscenium, but if not, any enterprising lad can, by means of a few boards, rig up one to suit, and drape it with colored muslin, to be bought for a few cents per yard at any drygoods store. This done, a sheet may be tacked securely across the top, with a heavy pole at the bottom to facilitate its falling. Four rows of brass rings may next be sewed at intervals of a foot apart, from the top of the curtain to the pole at the bottom. Strings must then be fastened upon this pole, brought up through the lines of rings, and attached to a larger piece of twine running horizontally across the top, and passing through a screw-eye in the proscenium, leaving a long end to dangle down, handy for the person who is to attend to the rising and falling of the curtain. By simply pulling this piece of twine, the drapery will be found to ascend in graceful folds, and at the signal for descent, will drop easily by the weight of the pole. In the following diagram a is the upper cord, b the rings through which the others pass, c the dangling end, e the pole at the bottom.
“Wings,” or side pieces, may be constructed by stretching muslin over an ordinary frame of common wood, and braced by a stout stick to the floor, thus completely obscuring the performers after they have made their exits.