Central High School - Mirror Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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Behind the Scenes at the Jefferson Theatre III ' first thing to attract your attention when you enter the stage door of the Jefferson theatre is a large sign proclaiming the fact that it is a violation of the law to smoke in any part of this theatre. Having received flue warning, you must rid yourself of anything that will produce a fire before you are allowed to go on to the back and sides of the stage where the scenery is packed. A great deal of miscellaneous scenery is kept hack there by the management of the theatre for the use of local musical organizations and other entertainers who are not provided with their own stage property. Back of the stage is a pretty dull place if you happen to l c there when no play is in progress. Numbers of arcs, teasers, carpets, brooms, sprinklers, braces, blinds and other stage paraphernalia are scattered indiscriminately about. The big. bare asbestos curtain is down, and as a rule only one row of lights is burning and this does very little toward lighting up tile dark corners. One or two stage hands are always sitting over near the electrician's stand, eating their lunch or playing with the numerous dogs that hang around the theatre. Occasionally the scene is enlivened when one of the men goes over to an old piano in the left wings and bangs out such a ragtime tune that you almost wish things had remained quiet. But if a play happens to be going on, this is all changed. True there is less light as the scenery used in the play shuts it off, but everything has assumed a position of order, none of the aforementioned articles are scattered about, hut each is put neatly in its place. While some »f the actors are on the stage playing their parts, others are standing in the wings awaiting their cues, and still others are pacing up and down in the back, bands folded behind them, heads bowed and some of them presenting a very grotesque appearance in their fantastic makeup. They are always ready and eager to talk with you and with very little questioning you can learn their names, home state, whether married or single, what induced them to go on the stage and the first play in which they appeared. The mechanical devices which some of the plays use to produce certain effects are very interesting. The pray of this season which had most of these was ’Ben llur.” Especially interesting was the staging of the chariot race. In the hack of the stage were two immense upright rollers. Around these was an endless strip of canvas on which was painted the picture of ;i crowd of people in stands. This was rapidly revolved by an electric motor in an opposite direction to that of the chariot race. There were three large platforms, one to a chariot, r n each of which were four runways, one for each horse. These platforms were pulled across tlie stage by a block and tackle. Ben llur’s was geared so that his was pulled just a little faster than Mes- ft 31

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I found her. and in the battle I lost her. The man who would have snatched her from me died, and lie a king. -Von would like to hear the story? I will be brief. My tale of sorrow will weary von. nce when 1 thought of it I wept. Now my heart is made hard by sorrow. I do not weep. '‘Early one morning I left the king's city with a full regiment. I was a captain then. Three thousand men followed me .eager f« r the fight. We traveled far. For about a month we struck towards the north, farther than anv ot our people had been before. t last we came to a beautiful stretch of veldt. Here, crouched a village, surrounded In high grass, at this time of the year, very dry. Armed men. moved to and ft , awaiting us. for runners had told of our arrival. At once 1 prepared for the fight. A king’s orders were mine to execute. The men were to charge by the company, a captain leading each. But. lo! as we waited, the dry grass around the village burst into flame, lighted by a hundred torches. The wind was quiet and the way to the village led thn ugh the flames. The defenders roared taunts at us. such as ‘Fight the fire, then us.’ My blood boiled within me. There was no time to wait. Night was falling and the village must be a ruin by dark. Yet. it was foolish to charge the flames. Behind them stood the enemy leaning on their spears, waiting for the slaughter. It must be done though. With a shout I leaped to the front, waving my spear: ‘Yonder, children of the Zulu.' I cried, 'wait the enemy. They wait for vour spear. 'They are as children. Let the jackals feed upon them. On. children of Chaka, oil!’ “With a roar the first company leaped forward toward certain death. They ran swiftly, heads low and spears outstretched. 'They were on the flames. 'They raised their shields for protection, ami vanished into the smoke and flames. Alive we never saw them again. They died as men should. “'Then mv blood was on fire. I rushed forward. After came the impis. The fire had been smothered 1 the first company, but the ground was hot. The suit ke blinded. Somehow we passed through, and fell on the enemy. We struck. Their nation was stamped flat- all except one. She was a maid. Her beauty blinded my eyes. It was fitting 1 should have her. I loved her, she learned to love me. After a short rest, we returned to Zululaud. Through the gates 1 led less than fifteen hundred men. 'That was all left out of three thousand. “At last I had found a greater joy than war. My wife was all. For her. a king died, and for her 1 am an exile. The king saw her. he wanted her for his own. She hated him. She loved me. So I decided to flee the country with her. I he night came ami carefully we made our way to the gate. We were almost there, when three forms stepped forward and I recognized the king and two of his men. He knew at once my intention. He spoke. ‘So. ungrateful ettr, whom I have nursed, von would leave in the dark? Then go.’ His spear flashed forward, missed me. hut struck my wife. With a moan she fell at my side. Then 1 went mad. Swinging my kerry. I struck down the two captains. Then through a mist I saw Chaka advancing with knife raised. As lie struck 1 raised mv shield. 'The short knife stuck in the tough hide, and left him helpless. He leaped quickly hack, but as he leaped he fell. I was quick with the war club. Then I turned and ran far out into the night. Since then I have been litre.” EDWARD DCHGER, ‘14. M)

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sala's, thus giving him the appearance of gaining. The whirling canvas confused the crowds so that they got the impression that they were moving instead of the canvas. The wrecking of Messala’ chariot was a mystery to me until I went back in the alley and examined it. The wheel while on compressed a powerful spring about the axle. When the moment for the wreck arrived. Messala had only to press a small pedal in the bottom of the chariot releasing the spring and the wheel which was pushed off by the spring. 1 never did quite understand the way iti which the “moonlight on the water effect” was produced, but it was bv a small instrument about the size of a man’s fist in which a powerful light was directed through a colored concave lens. Two other plays had devices which attracted me. In “Young Wisdom ’ the automobile was imitated by directing the clapper of a powerful electric bell against a drum, and every now and then blowing an automobile horn. The terrible noises attending tin destruction of the newspaper office in the “l.ocpard’s Spots were produced by simply standing a large pole on end and pushing it across the floor. Next one may go to the dressing rooms. I he one nearest the stage and therefore the most desirable one is assigned to the star and has a large star painted on the door. Just outside of the door is a blackboard on which are posted the dressing rot m assignments, a paper telling the next town to be visited, its hotel rates, the train to catch and the time at which that train leaves. Now and then an appeal for aid from some stranded actor is posted here and it always meets with a generous response, t'ndcr the stairs is posted a sign which reads. “See props for laundry, and on the wall, a Union directory of Birmingham. Ascending these stairs you enter the fly room. There are “ropes, ropes, everywhere ’ and not a rope which you can pull, for each rope controls one of the numerous “drops”’ and no one except the experienced fly man is allowed to tamper with them. n the wall here the smoking sign is also posted with one which says, “25 cents fine for loud talking. ftci watching the performance here as long as yon care to (you «.an see hut a small part of the stage) you must depart as softly as possible, for there is no crime in the actor's eves so cruel and heartless as 1.1 eating a disturhanci while some one else is trying to speak his lines. TIIK I )RE WKK.in . ’15