3. By the introduction of screens—not to be confused with the large screens mentioned by Gordon Craig, however—practically any realistic play can be produced. The diagram below will afford some idea of the very simple principle:
Three screens, about seven feet high, made in three sections, and covered with burlap or some similar material, are all that will usually be required on a moderately small stage. These can be set in various ways. If an ordinary room is called for, they may be set as in the above diagram.
"Brignol and his Daughter" may be staged by using three screens (as in the diagram above): the opening at the back is the center door; the doors on the right and left are the openings left between the lower ends of the side screens and the inside of the proscenium arch. The furniture is set in this scene as it is required in the stage directions. If the proscenium opening is too large, then the grand drapery can be lowered to within two or three feet of the top of the screens, and the side screens, behind the sides of the proscenium arch, brought closer together. Behind the screens representing the room, burlap or a suitable substitute may be hung. To take concrete examples once more, the setting of the first act of "A Scrap of Paper" (the adaptation by J. Palgrave Simpson) is thus described in the text:
Drawing-room in a French country house. Windows to the floor, R.C. [Right Center] and L.C. [Left Center], at back, looking out on gardens and park. The window L.C. is at first closed in with barred Venetian shutters. The window R.C. opens on the garden. Fireplace, C. [Center] between the windows, surmounted by a mirror. On each side of the mirror is a bracket, within reach of the hand; the one R. supporting a statuette of FLORA, the other, L., empty. Doors, R. 2 E [See diagram] and L. 2 E. Sofas R. and L. up-stage. At C. of stage is a round table, with a lamp, and an embroidery frame, a book and other objects scattered upon it in great disorder. Chairs R. and L. of table. Arm chairs R.C. and L.C., downstage. The furniture is to be rich but old-fashioned, and a little worn. Carpet down.
Five screens are here required: one at the back, behind the fireplace; and two on each side of the stage. Only two of the three folding sections of each are used.
The fireplace must be "practical"—that is, it must have a wooden framework. In case a mirror is desired, it can be lower than a mirror usually is, and made of mosquito netting, to avoid reflections. A very few pictures may be hung on the screens. The hangings at the back of the stage—masking the bare walls—are of the same sort as have been described before, but the color of the screens must harmonize with them.
With such a background, and by means of screens, shrubs, and a few necessary set pieces, like the wall in the Rostand play, the author has seen a dozen widely different plays produced by amateurs, in not one of which was the slightest noticeable discrepancy or anything that would shock even the theatergoer who is accustomed to the elaborate and often unnecessary settings of David Belasco.
As may be easily imagined, the possibilities of variation upon these simple settings are infinite. Experimentation, as always, will reveal new fields.