St. Paul daily globe., 1885-05-31
An Unvarnished Picture Of 0peratic Work
As Seen Prom the Prompt
ers Stand.
Appearance and Demeanor Of Stage Beau
ties After the Fall Of the
Curtain.
The Profession Not as Pleasant as
Painted by the Imagination
of the World.
Hardship of Rehearsals at A. NJ.
The Paint Washed off by a Globe
Correspondent.
Special Correspondence of the Glob

| gone down on the first act of Sullivan's
tuneful 'sPinafore." amid the plaudits of a
| crowded house, as the GLOBE emissary en-
tered upon the stage by thelear entrance of
the theater The stage manager was found
at his post at the pipes and tubes and
whistles, at the right of the proscenium
arch, giving sharp, crisp orders to carpen-
ters, property-men and actors. His well
come to the newcomer was hearty, and
proved that the invitation given few days
before to ''come round when we're at
work" was genuine and sincere. In s'Pin-
afore' there are no changes of stage setting
or costumes necessary, as all readers must
know-fOr who is not familiar with the
Opera?-and every one was lOlling about the
wings and dreSSing-rooms employing the
ten minutes intermissi0n between acts as
best suited them. Josephine, who had
just declared her love for Rackstraw,
with Sir Joseph Porter, who had dotted his
wig, as the evening was very warm. But
tercup and Dick Deadeye were eating sand
wiches and drinking cider from pitcher
/ which the call boy had just brought up
from neighboring restaurant. The cap
| tain of the PinafOre, who short time be-
fore declared he ''never used big, big
| D." was
RELATING A FUNNY STORY
about noted tragedian, in which stronger
words than the ''big D." took a leading
part. Groups of ''British tars" and isis
ters, cousins and aunts" were scattered
about the stage, chatting so noisily that fire.
quent remonstrances were uttered by the
stage manager. But they know the old
fellow to be good-natured in spite of his
crusty ways, and paid but little attention
to his sharp commands. They're a hard
lot to manage" sighed the old man. s'But
they're all young and frisky, and real ly
strive so hard to please when there's re al
work to do that l haven't the heart to be
severe with them. You see
second act!" glancing at his watch,
and turning to the call boy, who was nod
ding sleepily from his post ON step-ladder.
And then turning to his tubes and whistles
he called the orchestra from the music
room, the gas man and prop man. while
the call boy had gone through the dark pas
sages leading to the dressing rooms on
either side and above the stage, calling
''Second act!' so loudly that his voice must
have been heard in the auditorium. The
groups on the stage retreated to the wings,
while the captain put on his coat, that had
been taken off during the relation of his
funny story, and seated himself in a pensive
attitude gazing at the moon, awaiting the
rising of the curtain. The brief overture,
| and then the curtain went up slowly in re-
spOnse to the stage managers touch on one
of the half-scOre of electrical annunciators
in the little box by his side. Then sharp
whistle, and gruff voice that came from
| the managers Office in front of the building
| through one of the tubes,
'sFIX UP YOUR MOON,
| it's caught in the rigging" And sure enough
| the ropes that suspended the canvas and
candle, of which the unconscious moon ,
| was composed had become tangled in the
| ropes of the canvas mast and presented
| only quarter view to the front of the
stage. A step-ladder and spry carpenter
soon obviated the difficulty. 'sThis is one
manager Yott see there's no change of
scenes or costumes, and even the gas-man
has but little to do except watching the
lights in the auditorium" ''Oh yes, this is
an easy play, this ISL growled Sir Joseph
| Porter. X. G. B., who had overheard the
stage managers remark. ''Those people
out in front are not satisfied with the seven
verses of ''When l Was Lad" but insist
on lot of local hits and gags, and the more
| you give 'em the more they want. And
now I have to go on in the Bell trio and
dance around till my breath's all gone and
| then the audience will clap and stamp and
| whistle and demand that we keep on. One
| would think we were antOmatOnS wound
| UP OF had a string tied to us, to see the
amount of jumping around we have to do
| in that trio"
Everything worked smoothly until the
captain applied the lash a little too hard on
Dick Deadeye's back in the ''Silent be, it
was the Cat!'' chorus. Dick sang his lines,
| ''It was the Cat" with an expression of
| pain that was very natural, and then in an
aside that was plainly heard at the prompt
stand he said to the captain, Oh
| it, don't hit so hard" The chorus retreated
| toward the rear of the stage, presumably to
make their way to the boats
THAT THE ELOPEMENT
| of Ralph and Josephine might be carried
| out. when the captain, stepping from his
place of concealment, exclaimed, ''Holdw
and the chorus turned back in great alright
at being discovered. At this point the gas
should be turned on, but the gas man was
fully half a minute behind time. 1t would
have done Bob Ingersoll's heart good to hear
the language of the stage manager. PiOus
old man that he is, had no idea that he
was so familiar with certain words that are
used in the Bible-both old and revised
| editions. That was the only hitch in the
whole performance. A few minutes latel
the echoes of '.He is an Englishman" were
dying away in the lofty ceiling, the from
| bone gave it's last boOhoop, and the curtain
fell with the last wave of the leaders baton.
Dick Deadeye removed his un-
slightly eye and the bundle of
paper from under his coat that
| had given him the hunchbacked appearance.
Wigs, heavy coats, uncomfortable dresses
and bonnets were hastily thrown aside and
the company were reassembled on the stage
| for a rehearsal. ''It's ralher hard ON 'em,"
explained the stage manager, s'but we have
to change the bill every week and it takes
lots of work to train them so that the first
performance of new piece shall go
smoothly. We have 10 o'clock rehearsals,
too, every morning, and then the afternoon
and evening performances every day in the
| week, so you can see
THE OPERA SINGERS LIFE
| is really harder one than an actors. The
performers have very little timeSto study at
home. and that makes the rehearsals more
difficult. Get good place where you can
see the whole stage, but don't get in the
way, or Pll put you out" The
| GLOBE man !. then climbed upon
the cabin of the good ship
\ IL 1a