Stage Equipment

In the last decade some progress has been made in projecting scenery to replace the always somewhat hard and non-atmospheric painted back-drop. The first was the Linnebach lamp. (See sec tion on Modern stage design.) The Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was projected by means of this same lamp. The principle is that of the shadowgraph thrown on a drop trans parent sheeting. The general forms are outlined by an opaque silhouette painted in lamp-black on a glass slide about 24 by 3o in. which is then coloured and slid over a square hood containing a carbon arc light. The line divergence of the arc rays achieves the magnified projecting without the aid of a lens. For this rea son definition can not be exact, and although a large space can be covered approximately 3o by 24 ft. at a distance of 15 ft., dis tortion begins if any wider space is to be covered. The lamp is large and difficult to conceal and cannot be shot at an angle.

The G.K.P. lantern recently perfected in Vienna is a great improvement ; the plate as small as the average lantern slide is mathematically distorted so that it can be thrown from any angle or height and cover the background of the largest stage. Any drawing can be reproduced with photographic accuracy and keep the exact quality of the artist's work. Schwabe and Co., of Berlin have perfected an elaborate motor-driven lamp which projects moving clouds and similar effects with remarkable realism. But such efforts are unimportant to current stagecraft except for certain traditional interpretations of operas.

The control of the colour of light is still in a primitive and experimental stage. Light is coloured by a series of gelatine slides placed over the spot-light lens. But the colour steps are a crude series of yellows (light dark and medium amber), a few pinks, and greens and three or four blues. Gelatines fade quickly. The colours are not standardized. Glass slides which obviate these disadvantages are not produced on a commercial scale except in Germany. The relation of the colour of lights to the dyes of materials and paint has not yet been worked out. The only scien

tific step has been a number of systems for illuminating the sky drop by three-colour systems of light primaries. Red, blue and green being the light primaries, with a proper mixtpre of groups of all three, i.e., by dimming one group or another, the colour on the sky can be moved through the entire range of the spectrum if the colour mediums used are spectroscopically pure. These have not yet been produced on a commercial scale. The present range of colour is only approximate. But the Schwabe or A.E.G. in Europe, the Pevear system in America are an indispensable unit in theatre equipment.

The Cyclorama.

Another necessity in the average theatre is the cyclorama as a substitute for the sky-drop, in open-air scenes, the angle of sight from each side of the house being such that a third of the audience can see past the ends of a sky-drop into the wings of the stage. A cyclorama is either a cylindrical expanse of canvas with an arc wide enough to block these sight lines, or an arched plaster dome that covers the whole stage. The drawback of the canvas cyclorama is that it usually hangs in wrinkles; the plaster dome blocks the use of the gridiron except on exceptionally large stages. Both Hazait and Linnebach have perfected a wrinkleless canvas cyclorama that unrolls in II- min. like an up right window shade, on an overhead track. These are driven by motor-power and leave the stage entirely free for shifting and striking of settings. But either these or the plaster dome in conjunction with a good system of light primaries, produce the necessary illusion of infinite depth of sky, the ambient of open air, and the subtle gradations of colour necessary to outdoor settings.

A gridiron with properly counterweighted lines, used if possible in conjunction with a revolving stage or sliding stages, a cyclorama, a three-colour border for lighting it, an ample array of focusing spot-lights on dimmers flexibly controlled by a large dimmer board constitute the present day stage equipment which producers and designers must use. (See THEATRE : Modern Tendencies.) (L. Si.)