The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-01

handle 5000 articles of various sizes
at each performance, and they would
consider it personal disgrace to have
chorus girl ask, Where is my BAN
ner?" They are drilled as carefully
as the men who handle the scenery,
and so deftly do they manipulate the
thousand and one breakAAle trinkets
than an accident is almost unknown.
In a production of this scGt, loss
and breakage are serious, because
many of the props" cannot be re-
placed on this side of the water, and
the artisans are at their wits end when
called upon to fake" limitations of
the originals. American stage me-
chanics are masters of trick props"
such an animals, automobiles and fly
ing machines, but trinkets like arms,
fans, banners, crowns and pottery Pc
culiar to certain countries, are more
accurately reproduced by foreign
manufacturers.
Rehearsals in Many Halls.
During the process of perfecting the
mechanism of the production, the ac-
tors have been selected and rehearsed.
In choosing principals for a spectacle,
the honors must be divided between
men who will make merry and women
who will dress the stage. AT least two
well-advertised beauties are deemed es-
oSlAlAiAt NllllG Tic OIL COIneQIa1lS
is limited only by the roles. The mas
culine members of the chorus are Sc
lected solely for their vocal abilities
but the young women are divided into
two classes-the workers and the show
girls. The latter may have little or no
ability as singers, but they must dress
the front row and feast the eye by phy-
steal charms when arranged in groups,
The workers are the singers and dane
n N-h lnes 1,l,,,
manded. The show girls try the soul
of the practical stage manager, and he
swears by the little girl with sharp fea-
lures who has to be padded to fill a cos
tune, but who never fails to lead her
line whittier it should go.
RehearSalS of the 300 actors go on
simultaneously in as many halls as the
management can command The bal
let master has one large stage, the di-
rector of ensemble specialties another.
the director who makes a speciality of
rag-tfme numbers a third, and the prin-
cipals have smaller hall all to them
selves. Each director has his assist
ants, varying in number from three to
1--WE, and several pianists. The work Is
practically unceaSing-for the director,
for while groups and rows are drilled
separately, the director never rests. His
assistants are useful principally in
keeping order and in drilling what
might be termed the awkward squad.
Rehearsals begin at 10 o'clock in the
morning, and, with an hours recess at
noon, last until $50 o'clock. Whenever
hall can be secured for the evening.
they are resumed at o'clock, the direc-
tor making his announcement in the
afternoon, something after this fash
ion:
THE butterflies meet me at O'clock
at Lyric Hall: the moths at 7:45. An
OF you report at SIS"
1t is nearly midnight when the word
of dismissal comes.
RehearsaIs Most Business Like.
The amount of energy expanded in
one of these preliminary rehearsaIs is
marvellous to behold. The director in
his shirt sleeves, or, if the weather
is cold, in a sweater, takes the center
OF the stage and holds il with unflag-
ging limbs and an iron-clad voice all
through the day and evening. One
hears much of the exhausted, heavy
eyed young women who are undergo
ing the drilling process. but any one
who penetrates the darkened theater
during a rehearsal will stumble over
young women in short skirts, knicker-
bockers, shirt waists, dressing Jackets
aid every form Of negligee imaglna-
BILE, practicing as II life depended upon
IL These young women have been