McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-04-23
FORESTS STAGE MANAGER.
He Contrasts the Present With the Past In
Stage Decoration.

! lie Contrasts the Present With the Past In
Stage Decoration.
! ''The stage costuming of to-day is
| nothing as it was few years ago."
said one of Boston's best known cos
| tuners, once favorite actor. He
| stood, busily engaged in transform
ing, three bright-eyed, beardless boys
into relocated soldiers of the Queen,
in one of those peculiar rooms, an
cient medieval and modern in decora-
ton, that often are so fascinating to
the visitors eye.
"If you look at the earlier pictures
of Garrick or Slddons, in Hamlet, Lear
or Macbeth, you will find that, in ev-
cry character, they are dressed in the
costumes of Washington's time, the
Continental costumes rs they are call
ed. They never made any attempt to
follow the costumes of the period.
"Who started the reform in this
matter?''
SIT was first introduced in England
by McCready and Charles Kean. For
merly the actors wore either just what
they happened to have, or just what
the wardrobe woman gave them, and
it often made the most motley combi-
nation you ever saw. / remember
once was playing with Forrest, and
was stage manager also. Now For
rest was one who was very particular
about his costumes. He would 90 on
to play his part, and | could see him
casting his eyes all over the stage to
see how his people looked, but he new
er would say anything. Well, one
night we opened somewhere with
King Lear, and when l went to get the
costumes from the wardrobe woman [
said:
What are you going to dress the
doctor in?''
A domino, of course. We always
play him in a domino"
''Why, how is that?" l said. ''The
doctor is a gentleman, and should play
in gentleman costume
"Well, he always has played in a
domino, and he can either use that or
'.faked" up some kind of costume of
the gentleman of the period, and we
played him in 1t that night.
during the play Forrest came
round to me and said:
Where did you get the idea of
playing the doctor in that costume?'
"'The idea is partly historical and
partly my own told him.
'''It's a good idea-a mighty good
idea, he said, with few of those or
Damental words he often used; let him
keep it on
''That is one instance of how these
little changes for the better creep in"
"Where do you obtain all your ideas
foracOstuming historical play9"
''Chiefy from reading and expert
ence. have library of works ON
the subject, and of general literature,
L wouldn't take 81 900 for. Yes, plates
help us great deal in getting the col
or. We can't gain much information
from the ordinary novelist. He isn't
definite enough. Now there is one
thing don't think every one has no.
ticed about Henry Irving's costumes
and those of his company. He owns
and designs them all, as you know, but
there is hardly one of them that has
any gold or silver ornamentation, ex-
cept little on the cloaks. He has
the very richest stuffs; and the actor
has no choice but to take what IRVING
gives him. consider Irving one of !
the very best stage managers we have
ever had"
''DO the star actors, as a rule, look |
after the costumes of their company"
''NO; the costumer and the stage !
attend to that. Lawrence |
Barrett, | believe, designs many cos
tunes, and is, perhaps more particu-
lar than most of them. The lady stars
have all they can do to look after their
though, is simply marvel of a stage
She will dodge behind the
scenes and set six different persons 90
ing in different directions all at once,
steps into her dressing-room and
change her magnificent costumes SO
quickly you can hardly believe she has
done it, and reappears on the stage
smiling. Janauschek, too, when she
brought out Brunhilde here for the
first time, procured a lot of copies of
the German stage setting-she was the
original Brunhilde in Germany-and
the scene painter made up all his
scenes from them, and they were, of
course, accurate. Take it in Hanlon's
Fantasma, for instance. The artists
sent US word that in one scene we
must use only silver and white to
match his scene, and then we know
just how to go to work"
eyes, the Germans have the finest
stage settings in the world, simply be-
cause they have schools where the bus
mess is taught. But look at us! We
have nothing of the sort. We have
great deal to learn yet. "-BoStOn
Globe.