Home Pastimes; or Tableaux Vivants | Page 3

appropriate music, the drafting and erecting of the stage, and many other minor matters, should all be completed, before the tableaux can be produced.
But before proceeding farther, we will give directions in reference to the size and formation of the stage. It should be strongly framed of joist, and covered with smooth boards, and placed at the end of the hall, at equal distances between the side walls. It should be twelve feet square, and six feet in height. The front of the stage should be made to represent a large picture frame; it can be easily made of boards ten inches wide, fastened together in a bevelled manner, and covered with buff cambric, ornamented with gold paper. Oval frames are frequently used, but they are not so easy to arrange and manage as a square frame. Cover the floor of the stage with a dark woollen carpet, drape the ceiling with light blue cambric, the background with black cambric; the sides should be arranged in the same style as the side scenes of a theatrical stage. Stout frames of wood, two feet wide, reaching to the ceiling, and covered with black cambric, should be placed on the extreme edge of the stage, in such a manner that lamps from the ante-rooms will throw a light upon the stage and not be seen by the audience. Make the drop-curtain of stout blue cambric; fasten a slim piece of wood at the top and the bottom; and, at intervals of one foot on both of the poles, fasten loops of thick leather, containing iron rings one inch in diameter, and between the bottom and top rings, at intervals of one foot, fasten small brass rings; these should be attached to the cambric on the inside of the curtain; then fasten the top pole to the inside of the top of the frame, and attach strong lines to the bottom rings; pass the cords through the brass rings and the iron rings at the top; then gather them together, and pass them through a ship's block fastened in the ante-room. As the lines will be quite likely to run off of the wheel, a piece of hard wood, with a circle at one end, fastened on the inside of the frame, will answer a better purpose for the cords to pass through. After passing them over the block, tie them together, and the curtain will be ready for use. When the ropes are drawn, the curtain will rise up in folds to the top of the frame. The floor of the stage should be built out on the front twelve inches, for the placing of a row of gas-burners with tin reflectors, painted black on the outside; this row of lights should be furnished with a stopcock, which can be placed in the gentleman's dressing-room. A row of strong lights should also be placed on each side of the stage, within three feet of the ceiling; these also should have reflectors and separate stopcocks, for the purpose of casting the proper lights and shades on the stage.
The Dressing-rooms are on each side, and beneath the stage. The floor of the stage should extend out on each side, making small rooms for the placing of the scenery, furniture, &c. A trap-door should be cut in the floor of each room, and flights of steps reaching down into the rooms below, which are used for dressing-rooms. A partition placed under the stage divides the ladies' from the gentlemen's room; these rooms are covered on the front with strong cloth, and decorated with flags.
A stage for tableaux in a private dwelling-house should be formed similarly to a hall stage, but so constructed that it can be put together in a few minutes. The platform should be fourteen feet square, made in three sections, so that it can be handled easily, and should rest on a frame of small joist, which can be mortised together at the corners; place the frame on four boxes, two feet square; at the corners of the platform mortise four square holes, in which insert pieces of joist which will reach to the ceiling; around the top fasten strips of board, by means of screws. Make the frame in three pieces, cover them with cambric, and fasten them to the front joist, and on the top board with long screws; arrange the curtain and scenery similar to the hall stage. The wardrobes and furniture can be furnished by the members of the company, and with a little ingenuity and taste, many suits can be gotten up with little expense. As the view of the tableaux is but momentary, the quality of the costumes will not be noticed.
For a single evening's entertainment, the following arrangement will suffice, providing there be a long