The arrangement between the owner of the the atre and the manager of the company is a sharing plan. The latter furnishes the play, the actors, such special scenery and properties as have to be carried, the costumes, the street bills, and win dow advertisements; he also employs a man known as the advance agent to go ahead of the company to awaken interest in the performance by the insertion of newspaper articles and by Any other devices that may serve. The manager of the theatre furnishes everything else, includ ing as many extra stage hands as may be neces sary to handle especially heavy scenery. The average division of receipts it 60 per cent. to the manager of the company and 40 per cent. to the theatre. A very popular actor may insist upon better terms.
The business of carrying a company through the country is so complicated that it has now largely fallen into the hands of a few large firms, who undertake to lay out the route, to make the engagements with local managers, and the contracts with the railroads for transpor tation. To lay out a route for a traveling com pany it is necessary to know (1) the seating capacity of every theatre in order that the com pany may not be sent to a. house which it might pack and still lose money; (2) the number, character, and taste of the population, in order that a play wholly unsuited to it may not be offered; (3) the cost of railroad transportation. The company has to be kept going. In some places it can play a week, in others three nights, in others only one. The manager of the company has to pay all railroad fares, so that the nearer the towns in which he plays the better. Further more, he must as far as possible know what other attractions will be offered against him; a circus in a country town will 'kill' any play. The dra matic agencies do all this work for the companies, receiving a certain share of the profits in return and also payment from the managers of theatres to whom they furnish attractions. The most im portant agencies some years ago organized them selves into a syndicate, which made it almost impossible for any outside manager to engage 'time' in any of the best houses of the larger cities. The syndicate refused to send companies to any theatre which received all outsider. It not only controlled theatres, but it produced plays, recognizing only such playwrights and actors as consented to its terms. As the members of this powerful syndicate are business men rather than artists, art. has suffered. A few prominent actors and managers, tired of the syndicate rule, have within the last year or two cut loose from it and have encouraged the building of independent houses in the largest cities of the country. There are now such independent theatres in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and a few other cities.
The ordinary dramatic company is divided somewhat as follows: (1) leading man and woman, to whom are allotted the most import-ant .parts of the play; (2) juvenile man and woman, who play the two parts next in importance; (3) character actors, men or women, who play parts requiring eccentric acting or appearance; (4) old man and woman; (5) heavy man, who is mostly the villain of the piece; (6) utility peo ple, minor actors who can be trusted with small parts; (7) walking gentlemen and ladies, people who simply appear but have nothing to say be yond a few unimportant words; (8) supernumer aries, commonly known as `super; people who fill up stage pictures, but have no lines to speak and are usually under the direction of a (9) the stage manager. Other necessary employ
ees in every theatre are the wardrobe woman, who cares for all the costumes, the property man, who looks out for the furniture and any articles needed upon the stage, the stage car penters, the electricians, who attend to the lights, and the scene-shifters. The stage manager is responsible for the smooth working of the per formance. lie sees that the stage is properly pre pared for each act, he 'rings' the curtain up and down, and makes sure that each actor is ready for his cue to come on. The stage manager usu ally plays a small part that will give him time to attend to his other duties. In large com panies there is also a stage director, who re hearses the play, calls extra rehearsals when he thinks they are necessary, and is generally re sponsible for the artistic part of the performance. Each part is studied by two persons in the com pany, so that in ease of sickness the understudy can step in. Rehearsals made necessary by the substitution of an understudy are conducted by the stage manager, who also has charge of the music, the behavior of the supernumeraries, stage bands, etc.
The 'greenroom,' where in the old days the actor could wait while not on the stage, has been sacri ficed in most modern theatres to the need of room for the elaborate scenery now used. In Europe it is still an institution and in important theatres, such as the Thatre Francais of Paris. it is a reception room handsomely fitted up, to which the favored patrons of the house are admitted. All important European theatres maintain stock com panies, the important members of which are State employees. The company as a whole seldom plays outside of the home theatre, but leading actors are allowed to appear elsewhere as 'guests,' when they receive double pay. This visiting system, which is much in vogue in Germany, enables the chief actors to see what is done in rival theatres and provides variety of entertainment.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Pougin, Dictionnaire histoBibliography. Pougin, Dictionnaire histo- rique et pittoresque du theiltre (Paris, 1S85), a good account of French theatres and actors; Malone, History of the Stage (London, 1S21), an exhaustive account of the English stage to the beginning of the nineteenth century; Lewis, On Actors and the Art of Acting (New York, 1880) ; Dunlop, History of the American Theatre and Anecdotes of the Principal Actors (ib., 1832), the best account of the early American theatres; Hubert, The Stage as a Career (ib.. 1900). an account of the actor's life, its requirements, re wards, and hardships; Blum, Allgemeines Thea ter-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1S42).