Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1894-05-26
BEHINDTHE SCENES
How a PLAY Looks Viewed
From The Rear.
ACTORS AT THEIR WORK.
Lights and Sounds in the Wings, the
Flies and the Dressing Rooms.
ACTORS AT THEIR WORK

| III IN very simple ana easy lnlnB 10
walk up to the box Office Of the Grand
| Opera House about a quarter OF eight
some pleasant evening, aud quietly ask
Mr.. RankiDe, in an OFF hand sort OF a way,
IL he can give you couple OF good re-
served seats. But did you ever think, as
you sit comfortably In row q, perhaps, on
| the left, In front OF the footlights, how
things would appear and what would be
your impression, II instead you happened
to be standing behind the scenes and
watching matters from the rear? Well, 1t
Is novel and very pleasing experience.
| Would you like to hear about itf
At fhe managers suggestion and invi-
| tatioD, the writer saw how II was done
one night this week, and he will remem-
ber 1t for many II long day. glance at
the stage about one minute before eight
showed everything In readiness. The
music Of the well trained orchestra was
| filling the house with harmonious sou nds,
the mem bers OF the cast were standing
about I'm the wings, "the brokers' Office"
was In apple Die order-the play was "The
. Plunger"-lights were burning In such
/ ways and places as "to do the most good, /"
although IT didn't look just thst way
from behind, when faint tap on the big
long gas pipe told the gripman perched
up Ia the fly gallery, like the "sweet lit.
tie cherub who sits up aioft" in the old
ballad, that II was time for the curtain to
rise. A repetition OF the signal, and the
curtain did rise and the play began.
As the scene was TO remain unchanged
for a couple of acts, 1t was suggested that
It might be we'll to go up among the files
ant see how It looked there. So to the
rear OF the stage ana upa long flight OF
steps dark as a Guinea niger, and re-
mindiDg one very strongly OF the "wind-
ing stair" up which the willy spider want
ed to take the fly, to where sat the grip
man alone in his glory. A huge drum
and crank encircled by three ropes run
ming TO the drop, showed how the picture
| OF Shakespeare at the Court of England's
Queen was made to go out OF sight when
not wanted, and glance around revealed
perfect wilderness OF ropes, pulleys,
cleats, guides, borders and drops, seem
ingy without any clue as to what they
meant OF where they went to. Bnt the
gripman, Mr.. Giblin, who has reigned
here ever since the house opened, explain
ed all that. Each rope, twisted around It's
cleat, held border or drop, and, when
wanted, he knew just how to release 1t
from its fastenings and send II down in
to place.
"Didn't he ever get confused and cast
the wrong rope loose?"
"Oh, no; ho knew 'em all by heart and
could almost put his hand on 'em In the
dark. All he had to do was to upfssten
the twist, and let 1t go, the end of the
rope was fixed and the drop or border
could go Just so far and no farther"
"That queer little thing up there, like q
hammock"
ooh, that was snow storm. 1t was a
big cloth with couple OF sticks, one in
each side, that could be alternately raised
and lowered by ropes. The cloth was full
OF holes, and when a bushei or two oi
snow was dumped into IL, and the cloth
was jiggered up and down, the pure un.
sullied crystals went sailing slowly dowr
to the ground beneath, for all the WORLD
In perfect imitation OF the feathers which
the children say the old woman is pluck.
ing from the geese, when the Autumn
twilight is darkened by the falling pei
let's of white"
You see, sitting up there alone so muct
this gripman has an opportunity to culti.
vate his powers OF Imagination, and h,
improves 1t. An examination OF the man y
ropes, lines and cords here.a- bouts, eact
for its own special use, told in unmistak
able way the origin OF the saying abou
wise man that "be knows the ropes, ,
for II the gripman didn't know his, good
ness only can tell what would happen
down below on the stage. Back at tn,
rear, close up against the brick wall, hun,
an immense wooden square, we'll braced
like huge picture stretcber, that coult
be run up or down as wanted, and thi
was the paint frame. The canvass for
scene Is put on this frame, the painte
stands in front on the bridge and, as h
works, the frame is moved up OF down t.
suit the necessities of the case. When MI
DeVere Is "at IL" up here his palett
stands behind him on four sturd,
leGs. 1t IL ssout'six feet long by thre
wide, and has paint enough on IL to de
pict the Rocky Mountains, a whole fores
of great oaks, or half the Atlantic ocesn
l. is no such little piece of bric-a- brat, ,thi
palette, as Charles Barringer handles
when sketching his portrait OF Fayett
Harrington In Furnished at Last" or a
some "artistic" maiden hangs up on tn
walls OF her pink, satin and omolu- fur
nished boudoir beside dainty plaques an
"vahses." No, no; this palette is ther
for business and it Is capable OF doing II
too! A little farther on IS a carpenter
bench, with full kit of tools, and her
Mr.. Marshall holds sway. He can max
anything, from locomotive to a Frenc
window, from track for the al" ros
In the fourth act OF "The Plunger" to
water wheel for scene In "The Insid
Track" In fact here is a water whee
now. IL Is not exactly "turbine,' bu
at will go" and that's enough. Mr.. Mar
shall, like Manager Smith and Enginee
Hughes, hss been at the Opera Hous
from the very first, and what he DON
know about IL has not yet been mad
public.
But what Is going on down below al
this timer Let's go and find out. Dow
stairs in the dark, and we are just In tim
to sec them strike the first lot of scener
and set the stage for the third act. I