THEATRES

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 38, 13 August 1921, Page 9

THEATRES

LOCAL AND LONDON STAGES

LIGHTING AND ACTING

A correspondent, "Theatres," has asked for a ruling as to the correctness of her opinion that the stage of the Grand Opera House is quite as large as that of His Majesty's Theatre, London, and the gathering of information upon the point hae proved a very interesting task.

The question was first referred to Mr. Robert Greig, the producer' of "Chu Chin Chow," which play, as most folk know, ran for 2000 odd sessions at His Majesty's Theatre, London, and his answer very definitely backed up the opinion of the correspondent. "Speaking from memory," he said, "I am sure that the stage of the, Grand Opera House is, taken all round, every bit as big as, that of His Majesty's. Maybe it is a foot to 'eighteen inches smaller in the proscenium opening, but in width, depth, and "get-away," that is, working room off that part of the stage upon which the action appears, this stage is bigger. Just why the boys who ct» back gathered the impression that Old Country stages are so immense I do not know, for actually the majority of English stages are comparatively small, though there are -. several huge " stages combined with huge auditoriums—Drury Lane, the London Opera House, the Lyceum, Covent Garden, and the Cojoseum, for instance. Some of the more important London theatres eeat but seven or eight hundred, in round numbers, and naturally one does not find stages built out of all proportion to the auditorium. This theatre seats close on 2000, His Majesty's, London, 1700 odd. "As a matter of faot, the tendency nowadays is not to build huge theatres, ior this is the day of intimate acting, *nd, for certain productions, a big theatre has marked disadvantages, since the finer work may be lost in distance. America is not building big theatres as a general thing, and apart from considerations of acting there is another reason why huge theatres are not now built in England or America —the land is too expensive in the heart of great cities." , FIGURES. '. A theatrical year book referred to threw more light on'the question, and the facts are perhaps moot clear in tabular form. Statistics as to the stages of many theatres are - set out, but the following will servo to show the points made: — :'• Iff?s. at Theatre. a^ s ft in ft in ft Adelphi '. 50 0 43 6 63 1297 Comedy 24 4 24 0 47 854 Criterion 25 0 21 6 48 717 Drury Lane ...... 3710 80 0 80 2516 Garrick 28 6 32 0 52 1250 Hayraarket 27 0 38 0 57 1060 London Opera House 46 0 106 0 84 2670 Lyceum ..„ ...418 46 0 82 3000 Savoy 30 0 41 0 62 986 Strand 31 6 29 3 68 1190 His Majesty's (London) ?4-7 45 0 70 1720 Wgtn. Opera House 33 0 54 0. 70 1840 LIGHTING AND ITS EFFECT. Mr. Greig h«d much to say on the question of lighting, not alone as regarded his produotion, the lighting of which is in a olaas by itaelf in many respects, but as to stage lighting generally. "Often enough I hear it said by old theatre-goers that i 'they cannot act as they used to.' That is right enoujjh, but it is nothing to complain about; it is something to be thankful for: In the. dim old days of rush lights,' to go right back to very early days, then to dips, then to better but etill bad gas lighting, and even in the, early days of electric light, an actor had. bo rave,and rant to convey hie expressions, to the audience, the violence, so to; speak, of his raving decreasing ''as the lighting was bettered. There is no play to-day for the heavy tragedian who.trampled up and down the stage,l and the Shakespearian; actor of _ fifty years ago would eeom a strango sight on a modem stage. "Ijighting is well nigh perfect to-day, and an expression or an impression is oonveyed by a flash of the,eye, a sraita, the smallest natural movement. There is no doubt that the immeasurably finer acting of to-day is due to the wonderful lighting facilities. No actor may take liberties when his every movement. and expression is revealed to the audience." "Infusion of light," _ said Mr. Greiff, was the very last word in stage lighting. It consisted, in a. few words, of flooding the stage in a veritable glare of light and then softening that glare by means of a 'baby spot or spots,' i.e., crces-lighting, which broke up the glare from the main series of lighting unite. By the aid of the _ spots in the hands of trained electricians, many wonderful effects were obtained; and of particular use was the system in scones in which an actor or actress, no longer young, was to be given the ap-' pearanoe of youth, or when youth was taking tho part of age. Not alone was the 'spot' used to obtain high effects and to bring a star into prominence; ite uses were brought to a very fine art. Speaking of the. lighting of "Chu Chin Chow," which, aa in the case of. the whole production, with the exception of cast, is precisely the same as that of the London production—scenery, dressing, and general expense—Mr. Greig referred particularly to the easily-overlooked faot that footlights were not used since the stage was flooded with light from overhead, from arcs in the wings, and off the Btage proper, and from a pendant bunoh lights adjusted on the reverse sides, of many wing scenes to light up a particular portion of the wing behind or the background.

The Wellington City supply, he said, was bad, so much so that it had been found necessary to supplement it by a stand-by dynamo, and the best lighted theatre he had experienced in New Zealand was undoubtedly the Hastings theatre. There the lighting facilities were as good as one might 1 wish.