The following comes from a 1906 master’s thesis by Allie V. Parks titled, “Stage Properties, Costumes, Scenery and Music of the English Miracle Plays†(see part 1 here). These were religious pageants performed in England from the 10th to the 16th centuries. I’ve reformatted the text a bit to make it a little more readable, since it is already challenging trying to decipher the Middle English text:
In regard to the use of fire on the Mystery stage, Mr. L. W. Cushman in “The Devil And The Vice,” says on page 24, “None of the great Mystery-cycles contain, in the stage directions, any mention of the use of fire. Sharp found in the account books only one entry for fire in hell-mouth and that of a late date; 1557, “Item payd for keeping of fyre at hell mouth iiijd.”
In the ‘York Plays,’ however, Lucifer complains at the time of his fall, of intollerable heat, “alyke hat,” 5/97 and again, he complains of the heat and smoke, which rolls up from below, “ye smore me in smoke, 5/117.” This statement may easily be disproved by the following stage directions, in the ‘Abraham and Isaac Play’ already quoted, p. 65, Heare Abraham taketh a sworde and fire, shows that fire was used on the stage.
On page 391 of Mediaeval Plays, Chambers gives stage directions of a very early play, at Cornwall, “Lucifer voydeth & goeth downe to hell apareled fowle with fyre about hem turning to hell and every degre of devylls of lether & spirytis on cordis runing into ye playne and so remayne ther.” In the stage directions of the Chester cycle by the Early English Text Society, p. 42, Then a flame shall Descende upon the sacrifice of abell.
Parks, Allie V. “Stage Properties, Costumes, Scenery and Music of the English Miracle Plays.†Thesis. University of Illinois, 1906. Internet Archive, 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <https://archive.org/details/stagepropertiesc00park>.
The following comes from a 1906 master’s thesis by Allie V. Parks titled, “Stage Properties, Costumes, Scenery and Music of the English Miracle Plays.” These were religious pageants performed in England from the 10th to the 16th centuries. I’ve reformatted the text a bit to make it a little more readable, since it is already challenging trying to decipher the Middle English text:
We find in the stage direction mention of the stage properties as follows.
In the Coventry Mysteries page 249 —Â and ther xal be a lytil oratory with stolys and cusshonys clenly be- seyn plyche as it were a counsel-hous.
page 259-Â Here Petyr and John gon forth metyng with Symon leprows beryng a kan with watyr.
page 261-Â Here Cryst enteryth into the hous with his dispiclis, and ete the Paschas lomb.
page 277-Â Here he takyth the basyn and the towaly-
p. 283 —Â and some dyagyaed in odyr garments with swerdys, gleynys, and other straunge wepons, with feyr and lanternys and torchis lyth.
p 296-Â Here thei xal bete Jhesus about the hed and the body— and settyn hym on a stol, and castyn a cloth ovyr his face-
p. 316Â And qwhem he is skorgyd, thei put upon him a cloth of sylk, and settyn hym on a stol, and puttyn a kroune of thornys on hese hed with forkys; and the Jewys knelyng to Cryst, taking hym a septer and skorning him, and than thei xal pullyn of the purpyl clothe, and don on ageyn his owyn clothis; and leyn the crosse in hese necke to berynt, and drawyn hym forth with ropys.
p. 335– a ladder to take Cryst from the cross.
p. 337–Â and leve the Maryes at the Sephulchere.
p. 336Â Here thei shall leyn Cryst in his grave.
The last named reference would seem to indicate that some sort of grave or tomb was one of the stage properties of this play.
p. 332–Pylat, Annas and Cayphas go to ther skaffaldys.
p. 25-Â Then God douthe make the woman of the ribbe of Adam.
It would seem that a rib-bone was actually used in the creation scene. On p 388 of Chambers ‘Medieval Stage’ in the inventory of the Company of Grocers, Whitsun Plays, this item also relating to the rib occurs, A Rybbe colleyrd Red.
Another reference to the use of swords on the stage, occurs in the stage directions of the ‘Chester Plays,’ Early English Text Society edition, page 81. Â “Here Abraham takes and binds his sonne Isaake upon the alter, and makes a signe as though he would cut of his head with the sword; then the angell comes and takes the ends and stayeth it saying”—
In the Chester Plays by the Shakespeare Society p. 65, Heare Abraham taketh a sword and fier. In this play also Abraham is directed to take a “sorde” and make as though he would cut of his son’s head.
Chambers in The Mediaeval Stage, p. 377, from “The Hall book of the Corporation of at Leicester” gives, 1546-7 Pd. for makynge of a sworde & payntinge of the same for Harroode. This sword was probably made of wood, as it required painting, and on page 345- For the hyre of a sworde. On page 345 are also items of expense, For two bagges of leder, and For gunpowder.
Parks, Allie V. “Stage Properties, Costumes, Scenery and Music of the English Miracle Plays.” Thesis. University of Illinois, 1906. Internet Archive, 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <https://archive.org/details/stagepropertiesc00park>.
The following first appeared in an issue of Theatre magazine in 1908:
by Mary Gay Humphreys
That for the most part virtue must be its own reward is the scene painter’s ethics of his own profession. When, as it sometimes happens, the curtain goes up on an empty stage, and the audience breaks into involuntary applause over the beauty of the scene, such are his crumbs of comfort, and he takes them thankfully.
His own standards are much higher than he is able to realize. In this respect there seems to be but little difference between his attitude and that of the painter regularly accredited to the Fine Arts. But at no previous period is his discouragement greater than at this moment, when to the man in the orchestra scenic productions seem to have profited so greatly by modern inventions and scientific developments, as that, for example, of the electric light. Nor on no other man has later managerial conditions borne more hardly.
Physioc and Hawley
“There is no book that gives the history of scenic art. It would be too sad. It would tell only of disappointed hopes, of melancholy failures.”
This was said by Mr. Unitt in his interesting den at the Lyceum Theatre:
“Scene painting differs from the paintings known as among the Fine Arts only in degree. The principles are the same as in miniature painting. The only difference is you have forty feet of canvas. A portrait must resemble the subject more minutely than the scene resembles a situation, but that does not concern the principles involved. But, unhappily, to say that a picture represents scene painting is to make a disagreeable criticism.
“But it should be remembered that in painting, as the term goes, the artist does as he wishes; he consults no ends but his own. It is not so with the scene painter. His painting furnishes only the background, and this as a picture is likely to be thrown out of key because the other parts, of which he has no control, are not consistent with it. The lighting of the stage, for example, may not agree with the atmosphere the scene painter has given the scene. He also has to contend against costumes out of key, and as the living element of the picture is most prominent, the scene suffers.
“But nothing has tended to retard the development of scene painting as has the decay of the old stock companies. In those days the scene painter was part of the working staff of the theatre, and in daily intercourse with his principals. It took time, if you will remember, to produce such scenes as those in ‘The Amazons.’ This could be only accomplished by having a manager with artistic perceptions, and a staff that felt that pride and enthusiasm which must accompany good work.
“The method of production is now entirely different. The scene painter is not part of the theatrical staff. His is an employee of a firm. He is required to produce as rapidly as possible the scenery for perhaps twenty plays. The greater number of these will be failures, and others must be ready to take their place. This means a large plant and more rapid work. The scene painter cannot follow up his work; frequently he never sees it afterward. He has absolutely no opportunity for individuality, and naturally does not take the same interest as he did in that artistic atmosphere engendered when he was a member of the staff of a theatre.
“The conspicuous defect to-day in stage production is the lack of team work. The men who now control these matters are not distinguished for their keen artistic sense as was the manager in the old days. The commercial element, that has to be considered in view of the number of plays and possible failures, requires that the plays be put on as cheaply as possible. Suppose the scene painter attempts to carry his point and the play fails. He would probably have to listen to such comments as:
“‘Now, if you had put that girl on the fence and thrown a lot of color around her, the play would have gone far better. See?'”
Stage scenery and the men who paint it. M. G. Humphreys, il. Theatre 8: 203-4, v-vi, Aug 1908.
Yes, even back in 1920 it was a bad idea to use real guns as props:
Props is Props
“Props is props” thinks the police judge here. But props, to be props, should be in a property room, and not a bedroom. Roy Burness, Broadway theatre property man, was fined $25 under the anti-gun law, after he had explained that the revolver found in his room was theatre equipment.
The following comes from the May 3, 1903 issue of The St. Paul Globe:
When the curtain drops at the close of every act of a drama or opera it is the signal for the players to rush for their dressing rooms, some of the men in the audience to troop up the aisles in search of—a change of air, and the women to chat and—possibly to note what the other women are wearing.
But there is another class of individuals for whom the falling of the curtain means business, and the liveliest kind of business at that. They are the “stage hands.”
As the curtain strikes the floor a stentorian voice cries:
“Strike!”
“Strike!” echoes another equally robust voice, and instantly there is a commotion on that stage that would bewilder a bystander, if he were permitted there at such a time—which he is not.
The first voice is that of the stage manager of the company playing at the theater. The second is that of the stage carpenter attached to the house. The commotion is the scurrying about of the stage hands, the property men and the electricians whose duty it is to clear the stage with the greatest possible celerity of all scenery, furniture and lighting paraphernalia that encumbers it. For perhaps the first act presented a street in a large city or the parlor of a rich man’s mansion, and the second is to picture a country lane or the wretched hovel of the poor but virtuous. Hence this bustle.
