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HI
Friday, Juae 11, UH
Stage Drama Goes Unrecognized
Mi iwipdiii artwM ia the beet feature iterj ippearlif fat
■Ilf MMPf M minted at the doathweet Journalism Cou-
held earlier this year In Baton Retire, La. Writing! from
milf paper* competed. The anther, ion of Mr. and Mn. Meyer
•t Attaafa, received hia Baeheler of Arta Degree in Joarnal-
aad Ms Meat am of Arte Degree ia Fine Arta la Theatre from
University. Be hlmaelf directed the “Glass Menagerie,” aa
several other Talaae theatrical*. He plana to enter the aerv-
July 1*. —THE EDITOR
By MICHAEL PARVER
Curtain raiaea on the
of “The Glass Mena-
It, there will be only
lirted in the
\ William* Drama,
there will be an-
taking place out of
view; a drama
k few will ever know
there are only
four acton on stage there is a
email, but 1 efficient army of
Stage-hands Working behind the
■canes. These will be the peo-
ple whose na
on the progrs
often overlook
Up in a
11. dark, stuffy
cubicle. affectionately called the
"Hot Box” five sweating peo
ple are pulling the switches and
turning the dials that bring the
lights up pr down,' the thusic, on
or off. Behind the soundproof
glass wall, one of the five lis
tens carefully through his head
phones to the Stage Manager’s
cues. Another one listens to the
Acton on stage, their voices
coming metalically through hid
den Microphones in the Audi
ence. »
Backstage, four macabre fig
ures sit in the dark, waking for
the signal which will tell them
it is time to make a scene shift.
Dreased from head to foot in
black, their eyes strikingly white
throiigh the black hoods they
wear, will never be seen by the
audience.
Standing guard, at two small
tables, piled high with enough
assorted and unrelated, pieces of
paraphernalia to make even the
Collier Brothers happy, are
those stage hands, working
props. By some unfathomable
method they can grope through
their grab-bag of supplies and
provide the props needed. Some
times it is an empty liauor bot
tle. or a noise maker. Other
times, it is a powder puff, a bou-
auet of Jonquils or a tray of
lemondae. with a cherry in each
glass. But whatever is needed,
it is always there on time.
8omewhere in the back of the
theatre stand two apprehensive
people. Although they are con
fident that something ia going
to go wrong, they are hoping it
won’t! And even if it does, they
are sure the quick thinking
backstage crew can cover it up
ao that the audience will never
suspect a thing. These two nerv
ous individuals are the Director
and the Designer. They feel 16ft
out. useless and unable to do a
thing. The play they worked jjp
so hard to bring to Tulane Audi
ences is now out of their hands.
They can only watch and mut
ter and hope that the audiences
would like and appreciate what
i8 happening on stage.
The lucky individual who now
bears all the responsibility is the
stage manager. It was her job to
see that the show starts prompt
ly. the actors are in place, the
crews have their individual sup
plies. Quickly checking the script
. she has to be able to make an
instant' change in case some--
but are quite thing goes wrong or someone
misplaces an important prop.
Everything that the audience
will be seeing and everything
that they will be unaware of did
not happen overnight. There was
a lot of sweat and mental fati
gue that went into the produc
ing of the show. Little and big
things that thb audience could
never single out. but are the
ingredients that blend to make
a good show.
When broken down into statis
tics. it comes to a total of 2400
man hours of work to put on a
show that runs for Six nights,
and plays for only 12 hours. By
way of comparison, this is the
time generally spent by an aver
age student in classes, during his
four years of college. That is a
lot of time.
The preparations for tonight’s
opening began six months ago,
When Michael Parver. the Direc
tor. and the technical director
and set designer, sat down for
the first time and began to pro
duce their play, the “Glass
Menagerie.” They had a script
and a few ideas, that was all.
They asked themselves ques
tions. opinions — expressed and
ideas disregarded. “What type
of set.” “Where will the door
be.” “Is the stage big enough."
“Will the couch be in the way
there.” “Will the picture on the
wall be seen.” on and on. and
on.
Differences of opinion cropped
up. they had to. No two people
could ever totally agree on any
one thing. Finally from the
Chaos of arguement and discus
sion a set design, began to
emerge. After that things began
to move and move quickly. The
summer was not a vacation time,
but a period to work. Costumes
had to be designed, music had
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Site of Frank Diary
Opened as Memorial
AMSTERDAM. (JTA) — The
house here, where Anne Frank
wrote her famous diary while
hidden from the Nazis, was
opened to the public recently
and will serve as a memorial.
The building will be open to
the public for two hours each
day. Students will guide visitors
through the bare rooms where
the Frank family and some
other Jews lived hidden from
the Nazis.
Story on Orthodox
Balagole Coming Up
On TV Series
LOS ANGELES. (WUPj —
During the Fall season, 1960, the
famous TV series “Have Gun,
Will Travel,” will present a
script by author Shimon Wincel-
berg dealing with an Orthodox
Balagole (old European horse-
and-buggy character) from Kish
inev. to whom Western badmen
are like children compared to
the bloodthirsty cossacks he had
to deal with back home.
The Jewish “Have Gun. Will
Travel” show will also give
Richard Boone a chance to quote
some Mishnayos—in Hebrew.
BROOKHAl
4%
to be found and edited, lights
had to be plotted, lists had to be
made, lots and lots of lists,
Props. Costumes.
September was here. The fve
week rehearsal period was un
derway. The cast of four chosen
from 35 tryouts. The Fun has
really begun.
. “Glass Menagerie" takes place
in 1935. so costumes had to be
authentic. Copies of many maga
zines were scanned and much
research went on for the proper
styles. A wholesale invasion be
gan of used clothing outlets in
New Orleans. Finally the cos
tumes were found.
The Music and sound called
for a small dance band in a
cheap St. Louis Dive. Music of
that period had to be found.
Two hundred record albums
later, plus musically sore ears,
the right sound was found.
For the Props needed, digging
through old second hand stores
to find a hand-crank phono
graph. an old couch, and old
fashioned phone, finally all was
found to furnish the St. Louis
apartment for "Twenty two”
dollars.
The ball started rolling at top
speed, all day the theatre shop
exploded with hammers bang
ing. saws grinding, gradually
and steadily the stage was
undergo ing a metamorphisis.
First one wall, then another and
another and with painting the
apartment was finished.
At night the Theatre was alive
too. With actors, learning their
lines, how and where to cross
the stage, how to sit. when to
stand. Hours passed each night
before they went home, tired,
but staisfied that something was
happening. In four weeks, the
actors had to shed their own in
dividual personalities and be
come four new people, to play
their parts.
Then a week before the open
ing of the show, the hardest job
of all began. The careful blend
ing of all the elements into one
well co-ordinated p r o d u c tion.
Music cues to be changed. Rights
had to be re-focused, and finally
they had it. All was working
smoothly. Over thirty people,
worked for months getting the
show into shape. Then opening
night There was very little to
do except wait Now it would
be up to the audience to deter
mine how well they had done
their job.
At 7:30 the actors and crews
will arrive at the theatre. The
crews making last minute
changes, checking on everything.
Actors getting in each others
wav. getting into costumes, and
putting on their Stage Makeup. •
At 8:25. the stage manager
will call places. The actors will
move to their entrances, think
ing about what they are going
to do and say. and yet trying
not to think at all. On cue the
Stage Manager calls the light
booth, lights go out in the Thea
tre. the overture starts. The
show begins.
WILL GO SIR—
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