ALL ACTORS LIKE “FAT.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18340, 17 December 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

ALL ACTORS LIKE “FAT.”

SLANG OF STAGELAND. Those in the “ profession ” —actors always call their work the “profession,” or sometimes the “ profesh ’ —have many w’ords and expressions quite their own. some of which are seldom heard outside stageland (says a London paper). For instance, the people behind the scenes never speak of footlights as footlights, but always call them “floats.” This word is used because in the days before gas and electricity the footlights were tallow candles floating in water.

Sometimes an actor, through an attack of nerves, does not say his lines as the author wrote them He rpakes a muddle of them, but manages to get through somehow. This is known as “fluffing'' If he forgets his lines altogether and stands dumblv so that, hr has to be prompted, he has “ dried up Very occasionally an actor may fail to make an appearance on the stage at the moment timed for his entrance. Then a stage wait occurs, and everyone becomes very agitated! If those on the stage are experienced players, most likely they will be able to hide the wait so that the audience will not realise what has happened. This is done by inventing lines tu fill,

in the interval, which is known as " gagging.”

No one is disliked more by the rest of the cast than an actor who “ kills laughs.” lie may do it through ignorance, but sometimes one actor kills another’s laugh through sheer selfishness. Killing another man’s laugh is a very easy thing to do. The actor says a funny line, and if the other man plays up to him and gives him a chance the house has a full laugh over it. But if the other man carries on quickly with his own line, the audience forgets to laugh. lie has “ killed ” it. An actor “ poaches ** or “ burgles ” a laugh if, by making a quick remark directly after another man’s funny line, he diverts the laugh to himself. “ Getting all the fat ” is a common theatrical expression. All the best lines in a play are called the “ fat,” and if one of the principals has all the best lines to say himself he has “ all the fat.” Sometimes it happens that the authetr of the piece will be asked to make alterations in his work so that some of the good lines given to smaller characters will be transferred to the principals. When a member of the “ profesh ” remarks that So-and-so is very “up stage’* to-day, he is implying that the person in question is taking himself rather seriously and riding the high horse. The expression has come about from the stage procedure when an actor is going to give a dramatic delivery. He draws all the attention of the audience to himself by going “ up stage,” that is, by going to the back of the stage. Through doing this, the other players have to turn towards him so that only their backs or profiles can be 6een by the audience, while the actor “up stage” faces the house squarely and so stands out in bold relief. • Each side of the stage has its name. The right-hand side from the audience is the "prompt side,” and the other the “ O P.” The prompt side is the side at which the prompter stands during the performance, while the other side is so called because it is opposite the prompt side.