Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

VI BETTER THEATRES SECTION OF January 3, 1925 as we all know, from a mixture of different colors in the transit of light from its source to the object of illumination. Here, however, the performer was so “on top” of the footlights that the colors had no chance to mix, and the face became red, green, or yellow as it came opposite to different colored lamps. The border by itself, shining directly downward back of proscenium arch, left the face deeply shadowed, or darkened if one came too far forward. I was at a loss what to suggest, but noticing some panels missing in the coffered ceiling of the auditorium, I was informed that they contained concealed projectors for throwing light upon the stage, but that they were not ordinarily used, and were out of commission. I had them repaired and lighted the stage entirely from the front of the house, which is in general the most successful kind of lighting. The miracle was lighted entirely in this way. A long throw gives a softer, more natural light. * * If one can “see” light, and can imagine the effect desired before producing it, the C. K. HOWELL HORACE L. SMITH, Jr. Architect Engineer C. K. HOWELL Incorporated Theatre Architects National Theatre Building RICHMOND, VA. “We Specialize in Acoustics” Boiler Brothers Architects 1 14 W. Tenth St. 531 Douglas Bldg. Kansas City, Mo. Los Angeles, Calif. Geo. E. Eichenlaub Theatre Specialist Design — Finance — Construction Commerce Bldg. Erie, Pa. simplest equipment can sometimes be made to produce the desired result. At Madison, Connecticut, one summer, a group of people had a barn theatre and I was called in to light a show. All they had was the current and a few lamps — no dimmers, projectors, or even colored gelatines. But we got some bright tin crackerboxes, put a lamp in each, dipping the ones we wanted blue with shellac and Diamond dyes. Then I made covers for the boxes, filled with architect’s tracing linen and hinged at the bottom. A string attached to this lid passes through a screw-eye above each box, and thence to the wings, enabled us to get a fine dimming effect in one scene simply by slowly closing the lids by pulling the strings. The scene was supposed to be laid in the Egyptian department of the Metropolitan Museum, late afternoon, changing to night. The moving shadow of the lid of the box, translucent because the linen let through some of the light, looked like the slowly rising shadow of some building across the way, a perfectly natural and familiar effect of light, but one which I have never seen reproduced in Henry L. Newhouse Architect 4623 Drexel Blvd. Chicago, lU. R. L. SIMMONS Architect Elkhart Indiana Leonard F. W. Stuebe Architect Theatres and Auditoriums Twenty Year’s Experience 415 Adams Bldg., Danville, 111. Louis L. Wetmore ARCHITECT Theatre Specialist 'Tuudufg Glens Falls, N. Y. the theatre before or since, it being one of those infrequent happy accidents. What is the ideal toward which one should strive in theatrical lighting? One should know first what effects it is desired to produce before concerning oneself with how effects can be produced. My own opinion is that for true human drama — for great plays acted — the lighting should be made strictly subordinate to the work of the dramatist and of the actor, enhancing both, never competing for the interest of the spectator. The lighting should be so good that it can be forgotten, just as in living in the light of the sun we are able to forget the sun. The finest compliment I ever received for the lighting of Mr. Hampden’s Hamlet production was given by an artist who I sent to see the play that he might pass upon the lighting. In some embarrassment he said to me afterwards, “You know, I forgot to look at the lighting I got so interested in the play.” That was as it should be. Usually it is the novice and ignoramus who strives for startling effects in the lighting of plays. I do not mean to be understood as saying that the lighting of plays should be naturalistic — no, not even in the most realistic productions. A cyclorama as bright, or anywhere nearly as bright, as the daylight sky would make a background fatal to the actor who must appear before it. As in the art of acting itself, one must often depart far from nature in order to give the impression of naturalness. What the lighting should express and be true to, is the mood of the play, and it psychological values, whatever these may be. It is, therefore, of the first importance to discover these things at the start. >i< * * Hamlet, for example, is a spiritual play — a winter’s tale, a northern tragedy. Its keynote is sounded in the first scene — “ ’Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart.” In color it clearly belongs to the electric rather than to the thermal division of the spectrum. We made the scenery, accordingly, in grays, blues, violets and tans and maintained a quality of light throughout which would keep these tones pure. This was done by mixing in a few bare daylight lamps to reinforce the blues of the border, which by reason of their feebleness are usually too much overpowered by the yellows and reds. In Macbeth the color scale used in the scenery and costumes to express the mood of the play was as follows: Black, for the powers of evil; red, the color of blood, for murder; gold, for ambition, kingly power; orange for the flame-like love which existed between Macbeth and his wife; blue-green — “glint of steel” — for cruelty, and indifference to human suffering; and brown for that quality of murkiness which permeates the play. There is perhaps no play which contains so many references to the weather as Macbeth and the weather is always bad. The keynote is struck in the opening lines when the witch says, “When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain.” In the lighting of Macbeth I attempted to give this sense of fog and murk; an effect achieved by means of gauze curtains, keeping the top and sides of the stage dim, and using local lighting for the most part. The apparitions of the kings appear from nothingness, pass behind a gauze curtain, their figures defined against the wan light of a dying sun, and vanish into nothingness again. As so often happens, an accident helped us to one of the most telling effects. Instead of having the curtain go down on a lighted stage at the end of every scene we blanked all the lights sud(Continued on page XXVIII) DIRECTORY OF THEATER ARCHITECTS B. P. RUPERT Architect L. L. HARRIS Superintendent SAJWUEL KLEEN Consultingr Engineer REUBEN LEVINE Promoter and Financier R. LEVINE & COMPANY, Inc. 822 W. 70th St. WENTWORTH 0322 Chicago, Illinois Theatres Designed, Built, Equipped and Financed Largest Financier and Builder in the U. S. A.