Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-28

IS; !: !: :: !:
in every other
place, the eye al
ways travels to-
ward the strongest light. Thus it has about that
the careful play producer gains his most vital dramatic
effects largely through light manipulation. Light and
its manifold relations drama have been hobby and
study with since first began putting on plays many
wears ago. And although the theatergoing public is
rarely willing believe that this question OF light
ing largely responsible for lack OF success
in the of drama, the fact there just the
To be concrete it may be said honestly that without
the proper manipulation of light considerable portion
of such drama as for instance, "The Dawn of a To
morrow might fail in its effect. As will be recalled, the
first of this play takes place in thick London fog
The lighting of this fog literally makes the act
Consequently in the proscenium preparation of this
act exercised far with the question OF light
than with either the acting or the dialogue
In the instance of such play as "The Squaw Man,
light rather than action dialogue had to be relied
upon to suggest the torrid lazy atmosphere of the
prairie country, and in final result this light
proved vastly effective in projecting the pervad-
ing spirit of the play the footlghts than either
acting or dialogue could possibly have proved.
One thing | always keep uppernost in my mind to
make the audiences feel as much in the atmosphere
of the play locale it is possible to make them Once
gain effect of this kind in your audience and you
have brought that audience into highly developed
and promising state Of sympathy-physicals sympathy
with the characters in your play For instance, when
| was making @Salomy Jane ready for production, |
knew that to gain the proper and all necessary effect
should have achieve the stage the warm, roman
tic atmosphere of California. Naturally enough. this
could be accomplished in the main only through light
and light effects. If "only" is too strong a word
Chiefly" assuredly is not. | experimental for many
weeks before arriving the precise mixture of lights
but when once succeeded in obtaining the effects
was eager to approximate | felt certain that had
taken the one great step toward winning the future
audiences mood.
THERE is no place need, for that matter for the
purely technical side Of the light question here The
specific names of this that species of artificial light
lighting apparatus would avail the layman little
nothing general appreciation of the subject in hand
believe, therefore, that can best convey my meanings
in terms of drama.
Let us then take for example, play dealing with
romantic love story, the being laid IN villa in
Southern California, Mexico, Florida any land
at all. | might take you into the theater during
hearsal and indicate in few precisely what IS
the proportion of the Importance of light and its divers
direct effects in such That being out OF the ques
ton. let ask you to imagine the scene have sug
gested The action of the play is of the romantic order
Love in the air The general atmospheric sense to be
conveyed is one of drowsy contentment of languid,
pleasurable comfort Beyond the open windows lead
ing to the broad veranda there hangs SOFT purple
hazy rnoon-issed veil. Within the soft-shaded
lamps emphasize the warm, purple halfglow OF the
open and battle the interior in a mellow, seidreamy
incandescence. The audience reels all this, the
characters in the play supposed to feel 1t.
In short the whole story is sort of duplex demon
sraton of the Spencerian theory of color-n this in
stance color born of the artificial light that have
taken as our subject One is the other. The better
this particular lighting effect is developed the greater
will be the audiences subconscious feeling for the feel
ings OF the characters the stage And IN equal pro-