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120 SCENES AND SCENE PLOTS a studio set. Witli tliis he has absolutely nothing to do. His sole duty is to indicate to the director what should be made. How it is to be made is the director's business and not the concern of the author. 3. Interior scenes are generally referred to as sets or settings, be- cause l^hey are to be set or built up. The word is almost as confus- ing as scene, for the stage hands set the set and in the scene they have set the players act the scene. To set the stage, the flat pieces of scenery are assembled in accordance with the sketch given the stage carpenter. This gives the outline of the floor plan, drawn to rough or exact scale as may be the studio practice. With the flat pieces of scenery the stage hands get this outline, which usually shows two sides of a room. Door and window openings are backed up by scenery to show exteriors for windows, and other apartments for door- ways. Sometimes a set will show a vista through two or more rooms. 4. Once the stage is set with the scenery, then it must be dressed. The rug or carpet or painted floor cloth to suggest a marble tile or parquetry is put down, furniture is put in place as the diagram di- rects and pictures and other decorations are placed upon the walls. Before the set is passed upon, the director looks it over and either ap- proves or orders changes made. # 5. In the dramatic theatre you are familiar with the waits that occur between the acts. Perhaps there is a printed note that there will be a wait of eight minutes between acts one and two and twelve minutes between the second and third acts. This is because the stage hands and property men know precisely what is wanted. All of the flats for that set are in one place in the scene pack. All of the properties are collected. It is merely a matter of orderly haste to replace one scene with another. When "The Heart of ^Maryland" was ending its long run at the Herald Square theatre in New York an exhibition was given for the press in which a heavy interior scene was struck or taken down and an elaborate exterior was set up in less than five minutes, but some of the stage hands had been working that same scenery for something more than a year. Before the play was given its first presentation the stage hands were drilled in the set and the stage manager worked over the decorations until everything was just right. There was no speed work then. An elaborate set may take a week to prepare so that it can be erected in five minutes. In the same way each studio set is new to the director and the stage hands. They cannot work with certainty. They must feel their way. A set will take from three hours to a week to build and dress. Only the simplest and crudest set can be built and dressed in less than an hour, at best. 6. This very naturally makes for delay. If possible, the director takes his people out on location and makes some exteriors while he waits, but if there is an excess of interiors, he and his people must wait on the stage hands. It may cost only a few dollars for the sal- aries of the stage hands, but the delay also wastes the time of a high salaried director and his acting company. It follows that each set is