STAGE EFFECTS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 129, 5 June 1929, Page 16

STAGE EFFECTS

HOW THEY ABE PRODUCED

Another, mystery play has come to Wellington and probably not one member of the large audiences which greeted "The Wrecker" tias^ yet ceased 10 ask himself how the effects were produced that lent to the play such a realism. Weird lights that came and went the roar of an express train thundering through a railway station"/the hiss of es caping steam and the whistle and puff pjift of the engine, were all so vividly portrayed-that-one might as well have been transported to the- railway itself. Yet the production of these effects was simple in the extreme. The master piece of the production lay noi in the individual ; noises ana lighting effects but in the perfect synchronisation of a number of effects being worked under very difficult and noisy conditions. So great is the noise and the din of a scene such as the passing of the railway train in "The Wrecker" thai it is impossible,for the-stage hands to re ceive theii instructions by command m the ordinary way. There may be 20 or 30 men each controlling an in dividual affect in the one big scheme, and each man is directed at His post by a little signal light which flash es on and off according to whether the noise or light of a particular effect is Wanted or not.: These signal lights are operated from a specially installed switch-board under the control of the stage manager. On Saturday night there were anything up to a dozen such signal lights in operation gov ernirig the actions of the men who operated the effects.

Many of the weird noises that prey with such telling effect on tht ernot ions of those who see""The. Wrecker' • have their origin in four big cylinders of compressed air, to which are attach ed valves governing the rate of es cape of the air when it is "turned on." The puff-puff of. the engine was produced by attaching a piece of an old .wireless loud-speaker to the valve of the compressed air cylinder and pushing a large piece of rag in and out of the funnel. while the air waß escaping, the piston-like motion of the hand being made more and more rapid as the valve was opened, thus creating the impression of an engine gathering speed. The rumble of the train was chiefly produced by means of two iron tanks., suspended from above, being struck in; a cunning manner with muffled ham mers. The laboured puffing aoise of the engine was made more realistic by the use of a shallow wooden tray turned. upside down. On ita base was a metal sheet covered with little pro jections like studs on a motor-car tire, and the noise was made by rubbing a wooden block over the surface.

Probably the .most impressive part of the whole performance was the signal-box scene. The rain falling monotonously on the roof was in real ity a shallow tray, measuring about three feet by two feet, lined with metal, and ' partly filled with shot, be ing rocked about so that the shot rolled slowly- backwards and forwards »ver the metal lining The clanging of the couplings came from two chains of three huge links each, and weighing about 20 or 30 lbs, which were sus pended from the ceiling and rattled as. : occasion demanded. The actual spectacle of the glow of. the fire-box and steam from tho. engine aa the train rushed past was effected by fil ling a metal trough about 20 feet long with a mixture of gunpowder and magnesium, and lighting it at one end A spot light, which was played on it through a "flicker" wheel heighten ed the reality.

Very similar in many respects to "The Wrecker" was "The Ghost Train'• which visited New Zealand not so long ago. The effects in thai ease were much the-same, though an extra noise for the rumbling of the train was manufactured by pushing a .gar den roller over some loose boards It is in the effect of the whole ensemble of noises, carefully governed by the stage manager, that. the intense real ism is produced. Patrons of -'The Ghost Train' will remember tht spec tacle of lighted carriages passing be hind the two windows of the railway station and' moving more and more slowly until they came to a standstill before moving off again. The station windows were composed of semi-trans parent canvas which had been oiled. On to each of the windows waß played a spotlight, in front of which, was pas sed a cardboard strip with slots in it, giving the effect of lighted, carriage windows.

Various methods are used to produce storm effects on the stage, but some are more common than others. The wellknown "thunder" sheet is a sheet'of metal about 8 feet by 3 feet which is suspended vertically and shaken vigorously as required. It. is often augmented by the nse of drums.. The effect of wind is often created by revolving an urn-shaped cylinder, covered with longitudinal slats like a cheese crate and having a large piece of ordinary floor carpet stretched over the top of it Rain is sometimes made by revol ving a' handful of nails in a nail keg which has a large number- of spikes driven into it from the outside and projecting inside.' Leaves which flut ter about the stage as in "Lilac time.--are generally blown 6n: by a machine resembling a blacksmith's rotary bellows; Flashes of lightning. are' usu ally manufactured by touching together two ■ sticks of carbon alive with current, thus producing arcs uf light. Smoke on the stage is often the result of a union between hydrochloric acid and ammonia, which as every schoolboy knows produces dense white fumes.

A "vision scene," with misty effect such as the one in "Rose Marie, "and scenes such -as sunrises and sunsets, are produced by lowering a curtain of fine gauze between the audience and the players and focussing light on it from the floor of the stage.