scenium curtain (page 73). Sometimes wooden slats may be hung with hooks between two wires. The slats will keep the wires parallel, and curtains may be fastened to both slats and wire. Another method, common on the professional stage and more suitable when the scenery may be hung from overhead, is to build a frame in the desired shape, to which the curtains may be fastened.

Making Draperies

Professionally made curtains are usually gathered on a piece of webbing two or three inches wide, in which there are grommets, through which the curtain may be tied to wires or frames. They are weighted at the bottom by a chain run through the hem. A narrow bag of shot or of sand may be used for the same purpose. And many times, the nonprofessional producer will find it to his advantage not to have his material made into curtains at all. It can merely be cut into strips long enough to reach from his supporting wire or frame to the floor. Each of these strips may be fastened to webbing, so that they may be tied to a support; or they may be cut long enough so that they may be folded over the support at the top and pinned with long pins or wire nails. They should overlap each other about six inches. Short strips, reaching to within six or seven feet of the floor, will make openings for doors. In fact, entrances may be made between the strips at any point. Curtains of this sort are much more flexible than an ordinary cyclorama enclosing the stage.

BURNING PESTLE."

Produced by the Dramatic Club of the Horace Mann School for Boys

Compare the top scene with the artist's sketch, Figure 16. The staging is a combination of Elizabethan technique and modern methods. The curtains of the small inner proscenium are opened and closed to show the eighteen changes of scene demanded by the play. The first illustration shows the Prologue speaking; and the second one shows the scene "Before a Barber Shop."

The Use of Plastic Pieces with Draperies

Whatever the system, it is helpful to vary the effects by the use of door frames and practical doors, windows, pictures, hangings, fireplaces, and whatever else

Wire

Short Curtain Hanging from Wire

Stage
Brace

Short Curtain

Attached to Window

Window Frame Rests on Wooden Supports Hidden by Curtain

FIG. 19.—METHOD OF SUPPORTing Window FRAMES IN DRAPERIES.

may be made to function with curtains. Methods of making all these things will be described later in this chapter. Notice in the illustration facing page 112, how the same cyclorama of curtains is transformed