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(Last updated September 26th 2006- now 380 items!)

GOULD’S GLOSSARY of TECHNICAL TERMS selected and interpreted by Mervyn Gould

AC Electrical - Alternating Current, where the power follows a sine-wave (normally) format, thus reversing in polarity. Developed for long-distance power transmission by Nicholas Tesla.
ACADEMY RATIO Height 3 times the width (of a cinema screen). From the Greek ‘golden mean’. The standard set by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences until wide-screen in the 1950s.
ACETATE the basis of film stock.
ACETONE part of the mixture in film cement for splicing.
ACT DROP Permanent painted canvas front-cloth used between scenes. Side rings ran on wire rope guides as stretchers.
ACTING AREA That section of the stage as wide as the pros and as deep as stage depth allows intended to be seen by the audience in a FULL SET.
ADAGIO ACT Usually a male and female, moving slowly and gracefully to music.
ADVANCE Tickets booked early, and not on the day of performance
ADVERT CLOTH/SHEET Canvas painted cloth hung downstage. Side rings ran on wire rope guides as stretchers. Used as well as an Act Drop. Superseded by advertisements on the iron.
AGIT Musical – agitato – the trembling music beloved of melodrama and silent cinema pianists.
ALTERNATOR A device to generate AC current
AMPLIFIER An electronic or mechanical device to increase sound level.
ANAMORPH Optical system used to ‘unsqueeze’ the frame image of CinemaScope and other processes – i.e. as well as enlarging the picture through the throw, it enlarged in one, horizontal, dimension only.
ANTE-PROSCENIUM Where the splay walls are given an architectural treatment and outer framing, often involving concealed colour-change lighting.
ARC / CARBON ARC A brilliant light, highly efficient at the blue end of the spectrum, obtained from the arc discharge between two electrically-charged carbon rods. In fact the light source is a ball of incandescent gases. Also see Carbons.
ASM – Assistant Stage Manager. The role in which many of us started and learned our profession. an invaluable training, but still lower than an experienced stage-hand.
ASPECT RATIO Relation between the width and height of an image. Expressed as 1:1.35 or 3:4 where the first figure is the width and the second the height.
AUTO-CHANGE Three colour-circuit dimmers run by cams on a motorised shaft to operate a continuous COLOUR CYCLE. Also several semaphore-style gel holders in front of a spotlight operated by tracker-wire or, circle-front lighting, by motor.
AUTOMATIC STOKER A motorised Archimedean screw delivering coal or coke to the heating boiler.
AUTOMATION Essoldo engineers developed the commercially successful system for automatic running of projection boxes. Tests were carried out at Newcastle and Loughborough Victory, apparently. It was sold to the Rank Organisation and became Projectamatic, and developed further into Cinemation.
BACK CLOTH Strips of scenic canvas sewn together horizontally and painted to represent a distant view. Hung up-stage.
BAND CALL Music rehearsal. In variety, on Mondays, where the rehearsal went in order of turning up, and not running order. Get there early and be finished – ‘I got my music on the band rail first.’ Francis Reid adds: Advice I received in my youth: Don't rush to get your band parts on the rail for an early call. Hold back until you've heard the band play so that if anyone (often the trombone) is not musically inclined, you can substitute a part with extended tacits or even withdraw it altogether.
BAND ROOM Supposedly the dressing and tuning room for ‘the gentlemen of the orchestra’. More often an illicit drinking and gambling den, and on at least one panto, blue films between houses shown herein.
BAND WAGON A nearly-pros width truck winched up and down stage for the orchestra. Rare in this country, though Manchester Opera House had a hand-winched example dating from the 1930s. In elaborate installations the motorised floor of the orchestra pit lifted to stage level and then disappeared upstage (over disappearing footlights).
BANJO TRACK Two full width parallel railways linked by circular track each end. Lined drapes can be reversed to show another colour, or a cloth turned to show another scene painted on the rear.
BASS BINS – see Horns
BASTARD PROMPT Where the working corner is down stage right, not left. Usually found in variety and lyric houses.
BATTENS Long lengths of wood at the top and bottom of cloths. Then lamp-holders were attached to similar lengths as lighting battens, culminating in compartment battens wired in three or four circuits for colour changes. Commonly 3, numbered up-stage from the pros. Now usually replaced by spot bars.
BATTERY ROOM Where the banks of lead acid accumulators were housed to provide a constant secondary lighting source in case of a main power cut so that the audience did not panic in the dark. The cells were 2.2volts, on trickle charge. Often an end cell was the pilot, with a miniature hydrometer in it to check charge state. The battery should provide 3 hours of light.
BICYCLING prints. Where one copy of, say, a newsreel, was shared by two cinemas and transferred during performance by the re-wind boy. Still called this even if he used a tram!
BILL The poster for a show. Originally printers’ size Crown – approx. 30” deep by 15” wide – termed a Day-bill. Twice this – 30” by 30” – made Double Crown, and cinema publicity later settled on Quad Crown as their standard poster size. Prior to distribution the material (poster, hanging cards, handbills) was stored in the BILL / POSTER ROOM. This latter was often used for the interchangeable canopy lettering as well.
BILL MATTER Phrase under each name on a bill or poster: ‘Can You Hear Me, Mother?’ ‘Fiddling and Fooling’, ‘Unknown to Millions’ and so on.
BI-UNIAL Effects machine. Two light sources stacked vertically, with slide carriers, colour slots, mirrors, and other tricks for effects and colour flooding.
BLACKS Black drapes (hessian or velour) forming an entire set. Black tabs hung behind a gauze before the lights changed to revel. Dark clothes worn by stage-hands in set changes.
BOARD In lighting, the stage control board with switches, fuses, and dimmers. Radial dimmers, where the motion swept an arc (a section of a circle, not an electric arc) were in colour rows with the handles on shafts. They could be ‘locked on’ to these, so that all the reds went up or down together. At the end was a master wheel. Where the shafts were interlinked by chain or gears, one grand master wheel could be operated to move all the shafts together. Selectable bevelled gears meant that shafts could move in different directions, or stay still. This was Grand Master Cross Control. Board operators were dextrous (though sometimes sinister) persons who, standing one leg, using the other foot on a lower shaft master, both hands, and forehead, nose, or mouth all at once and simultaneously, achieved the impossible routinely. Now replaced by micro-processor-controlled Desks – ‘Hit the Tit on Go’.
BOILER HOUSE/ROOM The centre of the heating system, with the fuel store adjacent. Usually coke-fired, but sometimes oil, rarely gas. Varied from a stoke-hole to an area like a ship’s engine room. Often the vacuum plant was nearby so that the dust, waxed cartons, and lolly-sticks could be put into the hopped and incinerated.
BOOK, The Modern name for what used to be called the Prompt Copy. Also the script of a musical comedy.
BORDERS Widths of painted canvas or coloured material across the top of the scene to hide the flys or stage roof and the stage lighting from view.
BOX A private section for an audience group, but here, principally, the projection room.
BOX OFFICE Counter or shop used for selling tickets in advance of the night’s performance.
BOX SET The scenic flats representing three walls of a room, where the pros. arch is the imaginary fourth wall.
BOX the PIT Instruction to the limes to cross and spread out to cover the orchestra during the overture.
BOX-OFFICE CARDS The hanging cards advertising the show distributed to shops and businesses.
BRACE and WEIGHT A screw-eye in the lower rail of a flat has the curved end of a hook at the end of an adjustable timber stay. The angled metal foot of this is held stable by gravity by a stage-weight, and keeps the flat standing and less liable to shake. Door flats in particular must be securely weighted on both sides of the doorway – vide the original TV Crossroads.
BRAIL A line tied to another to drag it out of the normal vertical fall.
BREAST A line stretched between fly floors to nudge a set of line up or down stage from the normal gravity position.
BRIDGE / BRIDGES Cat-walks between fly-floors used for clearing snagged scenery, and for cloud – as opposed to crowd – appearances. Also pros-wide sections of the stage floor which can sink to cellar level or rise to 6 or 8 ft above stage level.
BULBS - there aren’t any in a theatre or cinema, though there may be in flower-beds outside. Electricians use lamps. The slang for the glass envelope of a mercury rectifier was ‘bottle’.
BUSINESS The level of custom at the box office or pay-box. Also a variety act’s term for their occupation – ‘He hasn’t been in the business long’. Also clowning or other mimed or ‘practical’ operation – pretending to stoke a fire or dust the room, for example.
C. BREEZE The Walter Plinge of summer season (say it aloud).
CAKESTAND Slang for Platter – one of the modern methods of film-handling in a projection box.
CALL BOY Sent by the SM to warn a performer to make his way on stage.
CALLS An appointment for rehearsal or for travelling (train call). The warning to a performer the appearance on stage is imminent. Tabs opening and closing so that the cast can acknowledge the plaudits of the audience. ‘The house rose to me’. Also an instruction to staff to report for work, for example a Sunday call for a get-in. Daymen were paid for a minimum of three hours, showmen for four. The cost of these goes on the CONTRA for a touring show..
CAPACITY Before all-seated auditoria, the pit and gallery had benches, where patrons could be bunched up for a well-patronised performance. Also, standing room was sold. A 2,700 capacity house might have only 2,000 chairs and normal bum-paces.
CARBONS Sticks or rods connected to the poles of an electricity supply touched together and then drawn apart a little. The resulting arc between them was the most intense light source then obtainable. Usually DC. For limes and early projectors. Later thinner carbon rods were cored and covered with copper to make High Intensity arcs.
CASUALS An extra hand engaged by the performance or week for a large touring production. Often used on matinées or heavy get-in/outs.
CAT-WALK Another name for the above-stage bridges, and also planked walkways in the auditorium void used for re-lamping ceiling cove lighting, or winch down electroliers.
CELLAR Space under stage used for trap machinery.
CENTRAL VACUUM PLANT Suction pump exhausting to outside, with pneumatic tubes buried in the walls all through the building terminating in flap-lid sockets, where cleaners plugged in the hoses. Ergonomically efficient, and removed the dust from the interior, but went out of favour as staff levels dropped after WWII, and there were no longer maintenance men/junior projectionists to clear the tube blockages caused by ice-lolly sticks and crumpled ice-cream cartons carelessly sucked up by the cleaners.
CHAIN BOARD The exit door panic bolts were chained together for overnight security. To make sure these were all unchained during performance there was a numbered board on which they all hung during the show in the stagedoor-keeper’s office (theatre) or general office (cinema).
CHANGE-OVER As the feature is in sections, a change-over between projectors and sound tracks has to be made. This is signalled by cue-dots in the top right-hand corner of the screen. The incoming machine is brought up to seed running the leader, one the first dot picture is witched, and on the second, sound.
CHIEF ELECTRICIAN In charge of, and responsible for, all production lighting, f-o-h electrics, motors and fans. His staff man the board, plug up the wing lighting and effects, and operate the limes. They rig and pull-down the lanterns from show to show.
CHIEF PROJECTIONIST Led and ruled the projection staff. Was responsible for house engineering too – organ blower and lift, fans and motors, and re-lamping lighting fittings.
CHINAMAN The wooden wheel and shaft in the stage well driving a bridge. Motive power was by hemps to a hand-winch on the MEZZANINE.
CINEMATOGRAPH ACT The first was passed in 1909 and came into force on 1st January 1910. Laid down safety measures for projecting film, set the minimum number of exits per level, the length and spacing, of seat rows, and even urinal and water closet provision. The building had to be given planning permission, and inspected before an annual licence was granted. Used, dubiously, by councils to set up Watch Committees and censor local film exhibition. Succeeded by further Acts and emendations.
CINÉ-VARIETY Originally music hall acts performing while the operator changed reels. Also represented continuity of entertainment in case the public did not take to animated pictures. In the 20s developed into full stage mini-spectaculars between films, with organ and orchestra. Rising costs in the 30s saw the end of it in most cases.
CLEANERS’ LIGHTING Often high-powered (500w or 1k) bare bulbs hanging to save the full house lighting load during the day. (Or, more cheaply, windows were un-curtained, especially where power was self-generated.)
CLEAT and LINE Scenery flats have a length of sash line dangling from the right rear, on the left is a throw-cleat, In use, the line is thrown over the cleats of the adjoining flat on the right, brought criss-cross down to tie-off cleats on each flat a yard from the bottom. Here the line was tied-off with a knot that is a single-handed pull-off, for each of striking the set.
CLOTH STORE Cloths were stored rolled on their battens on vertical rows of pegs, as in the days of scenic paint it would crack and flake off if the cloth was creased by folding. The racks were commonly on the up-stage wall of in the cellar. In this case they would be lowered through a CLOTH TRAP – a long hinged up-stage slot.
COLOUR CYCLE Used for decorative changes from three-colour cove lighting or on drapes. Slowly fade up Red, fade up Green, fade down Red, fade up Blue, fade down Green, fade up Red, fade down Blue . . . . and continue
COLOUR WHEEL Hand or motor rotating disc with 5 or 6 holes for assorted gels. Different sizes for use in front of follow or other spots.
COMPANY MANAGER The representative of the production company in charge on tour. Often now combined with the role of touring stage manager, thus Company & Stage Manager.
COMPS Free tickets, usually in pairs, distributed for supplying goods or showing advertising.
CONCERT PARTY (C.P.) Originally an al fresco entertainment in the summer, going around the fit-ups in winter. Songs-at-the-piano and cross-talk sketches. Perhaps an Anglicised and gentrified form of the C.19th minstrel show. Mixed with variety acts became the staple seaside Summer Show.
CONSOLE Wooden case holding the organ keyboards, pedal-board, and stop-keys. Often with a ‘jelly-mould’ - an ILUMINATED SURROUND with internal colour-change lighting. When Fred Bentham of Strand Electric used a Compton 2-manual console connected to motor driven dimmers the result was the Strand Light Console.
CONTRA For touring shows, the amount the theatre management charged the touring producer for facilities, staff, and services over the agreed split.
COUNTERWEIGHT LINES Flying scenery apparatus whereby 4 steel lines from a barrel are connected to a weight cradle which can be balanced for the load. Cuts down on fly staff and makes a smoother lift or drop.
COVE LIGHTING Electric indirect lighting where the lamps are hidden in troughs about a foot below the ceiling to bounce the light downwards. Often colour lamps wired in three circuits for colour changes.
CREW ROOM A sulphurous hell-hole. A modern innovation as a rest-room for stage staff.
CROSS-OVER PASSAGE A route from wing to wing at stage level or under not involving the acting area.
CRUSH HALL An extra f-o-h space for queuing, often for the cheaper seats.
CUE BOARD / PANEL In the prompt corner for SM. Has two rows of lights – red for Standby and green for Go, with switches below. Outstations in orchestra pit, flys, board etc. Also holds bar bell and foyer pushes.
CUE On stage an indication for another actor. Off-stage an instruction for action. In the corner, a red light means Stand-by, and the green is Go. Now given as verbal cues – Stand-by LXQ 43......LXQ 43.....GO. n.b. NOT ... Go LXQ 43.
CUE SCRIPT – see SIDE
CUT CLOTH In essence a backcloth with the middle cut out to leave a deep border and legs. Often with inner ragged ‘profiled’ edges painted as, say, a forest scene.
CYCLORAMA Properly an upstage wall curved at top and sides and painted white or pale blue to represent infinity. Later a stretched cloth lit top and bottom was used, as a development of the painted SKY CLOTH.
DAMPER – see Dowser. Also the air cylinder ‘dash-pot’ to slow the descent of the IRON as it nears stage level.
DARK-HOLE Moving an item of equipment to a place of concealment and waiting to see if it is missed. If not, after a month or so, it may be surreptitiously removed from the building. The term may be obsolete, but I suspect the activity isn’t.
DAYMAN A full-time member of staff. Also see SHOWMAN.
DEAD RAIL The lower run of cleats on a fly floor. When taken off the pin cleat, the set was lowered hand-over-hand. When the spare lines were paid out, the strain held from this second cleat held the cloth at the right height and level – so was ‘at its dead.’
DEAD When a piece of flown scenery is at the correct position it is on or at its Dead. Said of items (scenery/props) when they have fulfilled their role at that performance, or will not be required again. An electrical circuit either switched off or faulty.
DEAF AIDS A group of seats in both stalls and circle were wired with jack-sockets connected to a separate amplifier stage for film sound or show relay. Headphones available from the pay-box.
DIMMERS Devices to vary the electrical current and therefore make lamps alter brightness and motors change speed. The first were shunt resistances, later drainpipes filled with a saline solution and having a fixed and a movable plate where the distance apart regulated the current. Later wire-round rheostats, and then electronic wave-chopping devices.
DIPS / DIP TRAPS Lidded boxes flush with the stage floor containing one or more sockets for portable apparatus such as wing floods. The name came from the gas days, when a gas hose would be plugged into a water joint.
DC Electrical – Direct Current, where there is a constant flow of electrons from the negative pole to the positive. Early use from dynamos in fairgrounds and early cinemas. Still good for motors where the torque changes.
DISPLAY LIGHTING The exterior lighting comprising neon name and title signs, still-board illumination, and general façade floodlighting. Also called Elevation Lighting.
DISTRIBUTION BOARD A set of electrical fuses for an area or level of the building.
DISTRIBUTOR The middleman between studio and exhibitor
DOCK DOORS A pair of high doors through which the scenery is carried. Often at lorry tail-board height. Generally leading to a scene dock.
DOORS Tickets bought at the performance rather than in advance.
DOTS Variety artists’ slang for the music they carried for their act. The was handed to the M.D. at Monday band-call.
DOWN-STAGE towards the floats.
DOWN TO COLOURS To fade out the white circuits for a song. Also Down to Reds/Blues etc. Restored by FUF.
DOWSER In a projector lamp-house, a shutter to stop the light escaping linked to a mirror protector.
DRAPES All that soft material used to dress a stage – tabs, legs, wings and borders.
DRENCHER see Safety Curtain
DRESSING ROOM Surely I don’t have to explain this. Except, perhaps, to say that the mirror lamps were ES, to stop pros nicking them to substitute for the often meagre illumination provided in the digs.
DRUM and SHAFT A large wheel and tree-trunk sized shaft in the flys or grid. Mechanical purchase to move a set of wings or borders together for a ‘transformation in view’.
DSM – Deputy Stage Manager. Runs the show from ‘the corner’ (formerly the prompt desk). Used to be the SM when there was a Stage Director.
DYNAMO The reverse of a motor – when rotated it produces dc electricity.
EDISON SCREW (ES) The lamp cap developed by Thomas Edison’s team. Used in theatre as it is more stable and conducts higher loads than the British domestic bayonet cap. The larger version is the Goliath Edison Screw (GES).
EFFECTS PROJECTION Mainly SLIDES or GOBOS – clouds, rainbow, window tracery, but also a motorised disc – clouds, flames, etc.
ELECTROLIERS Since it is a long time since candles were used for house lighting, this is the correct - though now never-used – term for electric ‘chandeliers’.
ELEVATION LIGHTING The façade illumination, as that, in architects’ terms is the front elevation of the building.
ENTR’ACTE Literally ‘between the acts’ en Français. Interval music composed for the show.
EQUITY British Actors’ Equity Association works on behalf of actors and stage management (and, nowadays, some scenic and lighting designers).
EXTRACT The fan(s) and ducting to take smoky and stale – or ‘vitiated’ - air from the auditorium.
FADER Volume control on a modern sound desk, or for film sound, or between decks of a Panatrope. Fader setting for sound track varies – lower for an empty auditorium, and vice versa. Drop a point for a noisy audience to get them to quieten down and listen. Nowadays there are complaints from older audiences about too high a fader setting for many shows.
FALSE / INNER PROSC Flattage set behind the house tabs forming a semi-permanent inner picture frame backed by the no 1 tabs. At the sides are entrance arches with slots for Perch lighting above. Used mainly in variety theatres, but also to be seen in rep houses.
FAUTEUILS A French term for the early orchestra stalls. Properly tub-armchairs as opposed to tip-up seats.
FEATURE FILM Tells a story over several reel-lengths of film stock. Possibly a ‘Big film’ would be 8 or 9, a ‘B’ feature 5 reels long.
FESTOON LIGHTING Strings of small electric lamps strung between pillars at seaside resorts or as street decoration. Used on fairground shows and early cinema façades. Most famous survival is Harrod’s display.
FESTOONS A swagged drape bunched (or ‘ruched’) in horizontal and vertical pattern. Much used in colour-change lighting. Rollo Gillespie Williams termed the effect ‘The Tapestry of Dreams’.
FIRE BUCKET Ordinary galvanised metal bucket painted read with the word Fire in large white letters. Filled with water for emergencies. Three or four were hung in a row on long-necked brackets. (Seen by the general public on railway platforms.) There were also sand-filled buckets.
FIRE CODE-WORD / RECORD The word ‘fire’ must not be used, as it will panic an audience. To alert staff the manager will use a code-word – ‘Mr Sand’ or ‘Mr Jet is in the house’ – or Odeons played Three Blind Mice through the non-synch.
FIRE CURTAIN see Safety Curtain
FIRE SHUTTERS Fitted over the projection ports. In emergency a master release at the end could be pulled to drop them all. This master was repeated outside the box at the rear of the auditorium.
FITTINGS Mainly lighting brackets and electroliers in this context, though used in plumbing and mechanics as well.
FIT-UP COMPANY Strolling players who take not only scenery, but staging and a proscenium to performs in barns, corn exchanges, assembly halls, and nowadays sports centres.
FIT-UP Having got the scenery and lighting into the theatre, it is then fitted-up – i.e. hung and positioned ready for performance.
FLATS / FLATTAGE Sections of scenery – timber covered with canvas (NOT round the edges) built up to form a set. Standard touring height 18’, and 4-8ft’ wide. There are ‘plain’, door, fireplace, and window flats. These are lashed together by cleat and line. Narrow flats for chimney-breasts etc. are ‘jogs’.
FLICKER WHEEL Circular disc with four slots in front of a lime rotated quickly by hand to create a stroboscopic effect.
FLOATS Theatre name for footlights – derived from wicks floating in oil.
FLOODS An open box with lamp and reflector, but no optical equipment or focusing device.
FLUE The exhaust duct(s) from the carbon arc lamp-houses exhausting through the box ceiling. Usually capped with cowls or ‘H’ pots. Sight of these on the roofline identifies a former cinema even though the frontage has been rebuilt. Also the heating boiler chimney. In gas-lighting, the exhaust from the sun-burner or gasolier.
FLY FLOOR / FLY GALLERY Fenced, loading platform about 20’ above stage – usually one each side – the working side for hemp sets and opposite for the electric batten winches and safety curtain machinery. Possibly also winch for sliding roof.
FLYS / FLYTOWER The area or space above the stage where scenery could be raised. at the top was the grid with pulleys and headblocks. As pros height was masked down to 18’ or 20’, the grid needed to be at least 44’ high, with working space above for checking lines or installing spot blocks.
FOLLOW SPOTS A travelling high-intensity spot to highlight a star, controlled by hand. Now there are MOVING LIGHTS powered by pre-set computer-controlled motors, but these cannot replace the human element for, say, one-night stands, or a performer moving to a different place according to audience reaction.
FOOTLIGHTS A row of lights – now in colour compartments where used – along the front of the stage.
FOOTS Cinema short-hand for footlights.
FOURTH WALL – see Box Set
FOYER The hopefully impressive gathering space before the audience split to stalls and circle. Small in old theatres, as they had only to hold the ‘dress patrons’ – orchestra stalls and dress circle, where the customers wore evening dress (tiaras only obligatory in boxes). In 30s super-cinemas often imposingly double-height.
FREE LIST The names of people and businesses granted the courtesy of complimentary tickets for supplying goods or services, or displaying publicity for the show.
FRENCHMAN Flattage battened together and flown as a wall.
FRESNEL LENS A stepped lens invented by Mons. Fresnel (therefore pronounced Fre-NEL), originally used in light-houses. W. J. Furse of Nottingham first used the lens for a soft-edged stage spotlight, but they did not become popular until Strand Electric brought out the Pattern 123 in c.1953.
’FRIDGE ROOM Housed the ice-cream refrigerators, sales trays, and very often shelved for the sweet and chocolate stock. Also formed a useful rendezvous for staff assignations.
FRONT CLOTH Strips of scenic canvas sewn together horizontally and painted to represent a street scene, for example. Hung down-stage in Number 1. Further down-stage behind the house tabs and iron it becomes an Act, Advert., or Show cloth.
FRONT of HOUSE (F-o-H) All those passages, bars, lounges, foyer, lavatories, water-closets and urinals for the public use, not back-stage or auditorium (house).
FTS The wonderfully efficient nationwide film transport service, collecting the finished week programme, and leaving the next. This operated late on Saturday night. The drivers had keys, and the operators left the film transit boxes in a corner of the foyer ready for this change-over.
FUF – Full-Up Finish. A gradual (but not too slow) rise to full lighting at the end of a spot or act.
FULL SET Scenery or drapes using the full available stage depth
FUSIBLE LINK A low-melting piece of metal in a chain under tension. The deliberate weak link failed in a fire and some mechanism was activated – usually vents opened, but also used for a drencher system.
FX Shorthand for EFFECTS – usually sound
GALLERY The uppermost audience level
GAS BARREL Used in theatre long after gas was dropped (except for secondary lighting) as suspension bars for scenery. Called barrel as the original gas mains were supposedly joined together Napoleonic War musket barrels.
GAS ENGINE Prime mover fuelled by town gas to drive a dynamo for independent electricity supply. Also Oil and Petrol engines.
GAS PLATE The control centre for the stage and house lighting. The pipes were led to this spot backstage for lighting effects. The fore-runner of the electrical control board.
GATE In a cinema projector, the framed area in the light path where the film strip is held stationary for a brief moment.
GAUZE Netting hung and stretched. By bringing up lighting behind and lowering in front a scene could dissolve into another. The gauze was then flown. Could be used for ghost effects or give the impression of misty distance. ‘Shark’s-tooth’ pattern is recommended.
GELS The pieces of flexible coloured medium in lighting. Comes from Gelatine, the basis of the original sheets. Flammable, so long superseded as a material, but the slang is still used.
GET-IN Transferring the elements of a production (scenery, wardrobe, baggage, electrics) in to the theatre through the dock doors. And therefore -
GET-OUT The reverse of get-in after the run – in weekly touring after curtain-down on Saturday night. When it rains. Or snows. Ameliorated for resident staff (formerly) by a trifling cash-in-hand payment.
GOBO A metal slide between the lamp and the lens in profile spots to project a pattern or image – pronounced go-bo and not gobbo. Etymology entirely uncertain.
GODS The upper-most audience level.
GREEN ROOM A gathering place and lounge for actors waiting for cues rather than hanging about in the wings. Derives from either the first example being painted a restful green colour, or because it was the room nearest the Green (stage). Take your pick or reject both.
GREEN, The Stage - supposedly from cockney rhyming slang: greengage - the stage. Or from the green stage cloth laid for play tragic scenes.
GRID the framework (first timber, now steel) over the stage for suspending lighting, scenery, and drapes.
GROUND-ROW A piece of scenery on the stage representing, say, a range of distant hills. Also another run of foot-lights up-stage (behind) it.
HALL Obsolete variety and cinema term for the auditorium.
HALL-KEEPER Variety theatre term for the Stage Door-Keeper.
HAYSTACK LANTERN This is a skylight. In case of fire, the glass was smashed by the heat (there was a fusible link below to let the sides - tilting outwards - thus haystack shape - fall open). This made a chimney effect through the flytower, so conducting heat and flames upward, and relieving the iron-backed safety curtain. There would also be a drencher pipe spraying water on the iron, to minimise buckling in the guides and so let smoke into the auditorium. There was a similar one over the projection box. More people are killed by smoke inhalation in fires than by flames.
HEMPS Rope lines on stage used to hang the scenery. Usually arranged in sets of three (long, centre, and short) hauled from the fly floor. Could be jute or sisal as well as hemp.
HORNS In many cinema buildings there is/was a bulge in the back wall to accommodate the speaker array, called the horn chamber. In early cinema this had to be added, as a sort of 'lean-to' shed. Horns refer to the (mainly exponential) horns used for high frequencies behind the perforated screen. These were needed as the low notes from the ‘woofers’ or ‘bass bins’ would roll around the auditorium, but the higher frequencies needed to be focused, so a cellular horn was used.
HOUSE The auditorium or the people therein.
HOUSE ’PHONE The internal telephone system, not connected to the outside world.
HOUSE BORDER The permanent border in front of or just behind the house tabs, and in the same material, as opposed to the set borders. Also see Pelmet.
HOUSE LIGHTS The lighting fittings in the auditorium, except those connected to the secondary lighting system.
HOUSE MANAGER responsible to the General Manager for the staffing and smooth running of the box-office and f-o-h during performances.
HYDRANTS A large-bore high pressure water main entered the building at the stage door and fed valves and coiled hoses with nozzles at each level of the house.
HYDRAULIC POWER Water or oil under pressure. Pressure in a cylinder operated a ram, the movement of which could power a rotary motor or act as a lift. Theatrically used for stage bridges, safety curtain, and tableau curtains. In cinema, some organ console lifts.
INSET SCENE Flattage set up inside a larger set. Tabs only open enough to reveal the smaller set, masking the larger.
INTAKE ROOM / SWITCH ROOM Where the main source of electrical supply entered the building, with meters (except for self-generated power), bus-bars, and distribution boards.
INTERMITTENT A claw or maltese cross sprocket to draw down the film one frame at a time for projection. The frame is then shown twice in rapid succession before the film is moved on to the next frame.
IRIS A device in a spotlight to make the light beam vary in size by adjusting over-lapping metal leaves. Also used in cameras.
IRON – slang for the SAFETY CURTAIN
ISORA A translucent cyclorama, thus enabling back-lighting and shadow/projection effects.
JACOB’S LADDER Vertical iron or wood cat-ladder from stage to grid, sometimes with immediate stops such as perch and fly-floor.
KIOSK Originally a Turkish pavilion, later a Parisian street sales point, and supposedly introduced by George W. Smith of Rotherham at the Dewsbury Whitehall cinema, where he claimed to be the first to install a kiosk inside the foyer for the sale of sweets.
LAMP A device for obtaining light – whether from oil, gas, or electrical. From the latter fuel, originally carbon arc, then incandescent from 1880. An incandescent lamp has three constituents – the envelope (bulb to civilians), the wire filament with support, and the cap.
LAMPHOUSE Normally the metal casing of an arc-light. Other lamp casings are given specific names – spots, floods, battens.
LAMPING UP The daily check of all f-o-h fittings and the replacing of blown ‘dead’ or ‘dud’ lamps. When the auditorium electrolier(s) needed re-lamping they were winched down and ALL lamps replaced, the good ones being re-used in more accessible fittings.
LANTERN LIGHT - see Haystack lantern
LANTERNS In stage lighting a generic term for spots and floods, but not battens or floats.
LEGITIMATE THEATRE A play in a Stage Play Licensed building. Originally issued as a Royal Patent, or as a licence from the Lord Chamberlain. The 1843 Theatres Act altered this, and provincial magistrates could issue theatre licences. Apart from acting, they allowed alcoholic bars without the need for a Brewster Sessions licence. Until it closed in 1925, the Bury S. Edmunds Theatre Royal bar could remain open as long as there was an actor on the premises. Bliss.
LEGS The side edges of a cut-cloth, or c.6’-8’wide strips of material hung to mask the wings.
LENGTHS In simplest form, a length of wooden batten with batten lamp-holders. Hung behind flats on the off-stage side of a door to give the impression of a lit hallway.
LIGHT LOBBY In better-planned cinemas, an ante-chamber between the foyer or lounge doors and those into the auditorium to prevent daylight spillage on the screen. The lighting level was lower, to allow patrons’ eyes to adjust.
LIMELIGHT consisted of a mixed jet of hydrogen and oxygen, lit, playing on a cotton-reel sized cylinder of lime. This gave an intense light, the strongest available until the electric arc became available.
LIMES Traditional term for the follow-spots. Still continued when limelight gave way to electric arcs and then incandescent sources.
LINES The sets of lines (normally hemps but can be counterweights) used to hand and fly scenery.
LOUNGE Usually at circle level, and sometimes used as tea-rooms. Often a cloakroom was provided, and sometimes a public telephone.
LX Theatre jargon for Electrics.
M.D. musical director
MACHINES An operators’ term for the film projectors.
MAINTAINED LIGHTING Those auditorium fittings (exit books, aisle lights) which remain on during performance – half of them on mains and half on secondary supply.
MASKING If an actor moves in front of another, he masks the character. In scenery the word used for any flattage or drape used to hide unseen areas. In cinema, the black surround to the projected image on screen to give a clean edge to the picture. When wide-screen formats came to be used, this was motorised to change between standard and other aspect ratios.
MASTER CARPENTER The original name for the Resident Stage Manager. Still used in the West End. He is in charge of the resident staff of the Stage Department – stage hands, propmen, flymen, and cellar staff.
MATURED BOOKINGS The advance-booked tickets which have been paid-for.
MERCURY BOTTLE The device used to rectify AC current to DC for the arcs, and to charge the secondary lighting battery. Post-WW!! replaced by the Selenium (metal) and other electronic rectifiers.
MEZZANINE An intermediate level or floor. In the CELLAR is where the trap and bridge machinery was operated and performers stepped on the various platforms waiting to ascend to stage level. In very large auditoria, a shallow extra tier between circles (very rare in this country).
MONITOR SPEAKER A small ceiling-hung speaker in the projection box for the film sound. Projectionists could not use it to gauge the sound level in the auditorium
MOTOR-GENERATOR A dc motor connected by drive shaft to an alternator to produce ac. Or motor-dynamo – ac motor driving a dc dynamo.
MOVING PICTURES There are NO moving pictures in a cinema. A series of still pictures is projected very rapidly, and by the phenomenon known as ‘persistence of vision’ the brain converts them to continuous action.
NATTKE The National Association for Theatre, Television, and Kinematograph Employees. Trade union for theatre and cinema f-o-h and technical staffs. Originally founded in 1896 as the National Assoc. of Theatre Employees – the other elements were added later. In the 1980s it amalgamated with other bodies to become BECTU.
NEON The gas used in glass envelopes. When a high-pressure current is passed through it glows a deep red.
NITRATE FILM The original dangerous highly-flammable film stock. Heated, it dissolved into an explosive fire-ball. as it tends to deliquesce in untreated storage, it becomes a jelly and is even more dangerous, apart from being useless for projection.
NON-SYNCH The recorded sound (disc or tape) which does not form part of the film sound-track – synchronised to picture. Used for interval music and the National Anthem at the end of the show.
NUMBER BOARDS After the transformation of music halls into Variety theatres, electric lamp panels on the pros arch used to show act, as programmes were numbered for each item, not necessarily in running order.
NUMBER ONE / TWO / THREE THEATRE The ranking of provincial theatres for touring purposes. Examples: No. 1 Leeds Grand, No. 2 York Royal, No 3 Huddersfield Royal. There was no official list of No 4s, but some of us played them. Under this ranking came FIT-UPS. Cinemas had a similar classification – AA to C.
NUMBER ONES The first stage bay behind the house tabs. In front of the No 1 RUNNERS.
OFF and ON On the acting area, towards the wings and towards centre stage.
OFF-STAGE waiting in the wings. Missed one’s entrance – ‘He was off in the middle of Act II’.
ON STAGE Appearing before the audience.
OP Opposite Prompt – the side of stage not used by the stage manager – usually stage right (as the actor stands).
OPENING THE HOUSE The auditorium check before the first performance of the day. Staff in position, the manager walks to the centre of the pit rail and asks for reports from each tier. ‘Lamp out in upper circle ladies’ or ‘All correct’. The Sergeant of Commissionaires beside the manager blows his whistle and the public are admitted.
OPERATING / OPERATOR’S BOX The projection room. Operator was a fairground showman’s name for the projectionists – resented later by trained projectionists as being equivalent to a fitter rather than an engineer.
ORCHESTRA An elastic term covering anything from a full 14-piece Pit Orchestra to a trio of 3 elderly ladies on piano, violin, and ’cello. Even so, part of the performance and better than recordings.
ORCHESTRA STALLS Armchairs placed in front of the pit to give ‘dress’ patrons an alternative view.
ORGAN The BLOWER has a room with an air inlet, where the motor drives the bellows as air supply and smoothing storage. The RELAY ROOM is where the electrical commands from the player at the CONSOLE manuals (keyboards) are switched to the ranks in the PIPE CHAMBER(S) which can be under stage, one or both sides of the pros., or above the pros. In all cases there is a louvred swell shutter to control volume, speaking through a grille into the house.
P.A. SYSTEM Public address microphone(s) and amplifier, used for compèring and managerial announcements. Separate from film and non-synch sound systems. Speakers usually in splay wall grilles.
PAGEANTS A type of flood (almost a lens-less spot) designed by Strand Electric. Became popular in WWII revue lighting. Often wrongly used in cinemas to describe circle-front lighting of the tabs, instead of foots.
PAINT FRAME A large wooden frame divided into squares. Hung from the grid upstage between guide wires and hand-winched up and down past the PAINT BRIDGE running between the fly floors. On this stood the scenic artist to paint the cloth, with his table palette of colours. Usually nearby in the flys was the artist’s room with aint store and gas-ring for the size-pot.
PANATROPE A two-turntable reproducer, with a fader between them, used for music and sound effects. In cinema they were used to replace the orchestra, and in theatre for off-stage effects until tape decks became common. Actually the trade-name of the American Brunswick company, introduced here in 1927, but became, like ‘Hoover’, a generic term.
PANIC BOLT The ‘Push Bar to open’ arrangement on external exit doors. Brought in to regulations after the Sunderland Victoria Hall panic.
PALARI/E The patois spoken by C.P. and variety artists. ‘Latty’ – digs, ‘lallies’ legs. Brought to public notice by wireless Round The Horne. Probably from fairground Romany influences.
PASS DOOR The access between the front-of-house area and the stage fire-risk area. Where there was scenery in a flytower the door was iron-backed.
PASSARELLA A runway around an orchestra pit to take performers into the audience. Sometimes glass-topped and illuminated. Mainly cabaret-theatre effect.
PAY-BOX / PAY-DESK A cashier’s point as opposed to a booking counter. they were in the foyer and at various side entrances – front stalls in cinema, gallery and pit in theatre.
PELMET The grand drape that filled the tympanum of the prosc. arch. Usually heavily swagged and decorated.
PEPPER’S GHOST Invented by Professor Pepper of the London Institution. A ghost effect using a large sheet of plane glass half-reflecting a lit actor in the pit or wing counter-plating with a performer in full view.
PERCH A small on-stage platform about 10 feet high beside and behind the pros. Used for spotlights. Often, one side was used for the lighting board as well.
PHOTO CALL A non-rehearsal call wherein the company act out dramatic points for f-o-h or newspaper photographs.
PICTURE CALL At the end of an act after the tabs close, the performers hold their position, or re-arrange themselves in more dramatic posture, and the tabs re-open half the way (‘to picture’ or ‘to cameo’) to boost the resultant applause. The cast hold their position.
PILOTS Lights left on on-stage during a performance – around the walls, at the prompt desk, and over the lighting controls. There were also Batten Pilots – an extra lamp in three or four compartments of a lighting batten to provide working lighting for scene changes or during the day.
PIN RAIL The upper row of cleats on a fly floor on which the flown cloth sets of lines were tied. So-called because the cleats were originally belaying pins. The spare hemp must be coiled and not left on the floor. Also see Dead Rail.
PIN SPOT The lime is irised down to light the face only.
PIT A well in front of the pros arch for the band. Also originally the ground floor area filled with backless benches. Then armchairs were placed at the front, then rows of tip-up seats as stalls, so the pit ended at the rear under the circle. Then they had seats – Pit Stalls, and the pittites ended up under the ‘gods’ as the upper circle pastrons.
PLATING OFF To wind the lengths of film from a spool, ready to pack into the cans at the end of the run.
PLATTER A set of three circular tables stacked vertically (hence the nickname ‘cakestand’.). The film is spliced to full length of feature, and winds off the outside of the roll on one table, is guided through the projector, and returned to the centre of the roll in a continuous flow, so that at the end no rewind is necessary, and there is no need for change-over every 30 minutes.
PLENUM The opposite of vacuum. The inlet and extract fan capacities were set so that a slight pressure would build up in the auditorium. The incoming air was washed to remove dust, then cooled or warmed, and scented before being pumped in. Then, when doors were opened, air would tend to flow out, instead of a draught entering. This machinery is in a PLENUM CHAMBER with louvres to the outside high up above street dust.
PLOT Not just the story of the play or film, but a list of cues – often written on the back of last week’s box-office card – hence board plot, lime plot, fly plot etc.
PORTS The apertures in the projection box through which the light beams travelled. The were filled with removable panels of plate glass to keep the mechanism sound in, and fire shutters could be dropped to seal them in emergency.
PRIMARY In electrics, the main source of power from dynamo or public mains. In lighting (additive colour), red, green or blue. In scene-painting (subtractive colour), magenta yellow, and cyan (blue-green).
PRO A member of one or the other of the world’s oldest professions. Here, ‘a real trouper’ (American). A member of ‘the Profession’ (legit.) and someone ‘in the Business’ (variety).
PRODUCER From the late C.19th to the 1950s, the rehearsal decision-maker, now called the director.
PRODUCING HOUSE A theatre which creates its own shows, rather than accepting touring productions.
PROJECTION SUITE A separate floor devoted to the projection staff. With the box at the centre, at one end would be the dimmer room behind the lighting control, and the rewind room at the other. At least one door from the box must open directly to the open air. There would be the rectifier room and a workshop. The secondary lighting battery room would be nearby. Very often a staff rest room and lavatory and water closet was included.
PROJECTIONIST Experienced, qualified, member of staff. Sometimes an electrical engineer. Under the Chief was the Second, the Third, and so on down to the Seventh or Eighth – really the rewind boy. Women (often usherettes and/or wives/girlfriends of male projectionists) went into the box in the two world wars and ran very well.
PROJECTORS A high-intensity light source for the mechanism for moving film, or in stage lighting a static effect slide.
PROMPT CORNER Now referred to as the working corner or simply corner. The company stage manager send signals or gives messages to control the run of the performance. Now it is by mike and headsets, but formerly by red and green cue lights.
PROPS Short for Properties. Items for ‘dressing’ the set such as ornaments, pictures, and books. HAND PROPS – items like a fan or cigarette lighter. In variety used for costume.
PROSCENIUM ARCH The opening between the performers and the audience. The function is to frame ‘the picture’ and hide the mechanics of performance. Since 1880 it has had to be a solid wall with fire curtain sealing the opening in case of emergency. Only a limited number of other openings are allowed in this divide – normally the pass door and orchestra pit entrance. The doors must be counterweighted to close and be metal backed or otherwise fire-retardant.
PROSCENIUM LENGTHS The equivalents of short battens, fixed vertically each side of the pros arch.
PS Prompt side – stage left, where the SM has the prompt desk or working corner (also see Bastard Prompt).
PULL-DOWN To take down the scenery and lighting rig at the end of a run and re-arrange for the next, or put in store in the building.
RACK When a line appears across screen showing the top of the picture at the bottom the film is ‘out of rack.’ The RACKING HANDLE/KNOB is turned to adjust the film gate relative to the optical centre of the beam and lens.
RAKE A sloping floor – both the stage sloping down to the floats (hence downstage) and the ground floor seating.
RAM – see Hydraulic Power
RAT TRAP Plumbing. Boxes with non-returnable flap valves to prevent sewer rats gaining access to the theatre loos.
REAR PROJECTION The projector is placed up-stage, perhaps in a converted dressing room. Last surviving example, the Kinema in the Woods, Woodhall Spa Lincolnshire. ‘No Light Rays In The Auditorium’. Also a film studio technique for a projected background.
RECTIFIER An electrical device to change AC into a form of DC current. Used to feed the arcs and charge the secondary lighting battery. An inverted pear-shaped glass mercury holding envelope with anode arms did the job. Usually housed in a separate RECTIFIER ROOM. Now small solid state devices when necessary.
REELS Both the metal spools used to hold the lengths of film, or the number of such lengths – ‘A five-reeler’.
REPERTORY The company each week performs a different play, rehearses the following attraction, and learns the lines for the week after that. This is altogether too much for modern graduate Actors who take 3 or 4 weeks over the whole process. These poor dears would quiver languidly if faced by the pre-WWII Venner Repertory Company, who not only played TWICE-WEEKLY Rep, but also proclaimed ‘Every Play A Production’.
RETURN Form giving the takings for the night’s show, giving admissions and cash total to all parts, and ancillary monies such as bar and programmes. Also a flat running on-and-off rather than up-and-down stage.
REVOLVE A circular section of stage turned by hand or electric motor. Originally designed for scene changes, also used as a spectacle. The London Coliseum had the only triple revolve, and the tables could run at different speeds and revolve in different directions simultaneously. Possibly most famous use was the Palladium’s double revolve on TV.
RE-WIND After the film reel had been shown it needed to be returned from ‘tail-out’ to ‘head-out’ in the REWIND ROOM. The other film reels were stored here, as only the two reels necessary at any one time were allowed in the box, in case of fire. This important but boring job included checking for worn or torn sprocket holes and inspecting film splices. Usually done by the most junior member of staff – the rewind boy. He kept the box equipment and floor scrupulously clean under the chief’s eagle eye, made the tea, fetched the fish-&-chips and bottles of ale (where used). Where the newsreel was shared with another cinema, he transferred the reel (see Bicycling).
RISE-and-SINK Where the cellar is deep enough, and the grid high enough, for a back-cloth either to rise out of view or sink fully out of view.
ROLLING CLOTHS Where there was no flytower at all, as at Leek Grand, a stagehand lowered the set with a cloth on, and as it descended the bottom batten was picked up by other staff – and performers – and the cloth rolled around the lower batten. Lengths of sash or string then tied the roll around the top batten and the rolled cloth was raised to pulley level hidden by the borders.
RUN A FLAT To move a scenery flat from place to place. The leading edge is lifted slightly, making sure the flat is vertical, and walked, not dragged, into position. If it is being set, one hand is the used to throw the line over the cleat of the next flat and tie-off. Sinle-man operation up to 6’-footers, wider than that advisable to have man steady trailing edge.
RUNNERS Pairs of mid-stage side-opening TABS counted up-stage from the house tabs – number ones, number twos, and so on. The tabs were matched with a BORDER (hiding a lighting BATTEN, later SPOT BAR) and LEGS.
RUNNING ORDER The SM’s list of acts in order of appearance and time allotted to each. Times had to be adhered to strictly, otherwise an adverse report went to the head office of a theatre circuit.
SAFETY CURTAIN An angle-iron cross-braced frame backed with iron (later) steel sheets and fronted with asbestos. This is almost balanced with a counterweight, and the frame runs in greased grooved either side of the pros arch to form guides and a smoke-trap. It is wound up by hand-winch or motor and braked. As it is heavier than the counterweight, it descends automatically when the brake is released, coming gently to a stop on stage as a pneumatic ‘dash-pot’ cuts in. At the rear a
SPARGE PIPE (a water-carrying pipe with nozzles every foot) runs parallel to it along the top. In case of fire a fusible links fails, allowing a weighted valve lever to open and this sprays water from the fire hydrant system to keep the iron rear cool, so that it does not buckle and tear out of the smoke-seal grooves. This is called the DRENCHER system, kept dry until need. (W. J. Furse of Nottingham usage via Ian Grey.) There are releases for both the Iron and the Drencher in the prompt corner and at the stage door.
SAFETY STOCK Non-flammable film used in commercial cinema from the 1950s. Took over from NITRATE.
SCENA An item in a summer season programme or revue with scenery, songs and dancing, on a theme – ‘A Winter Wonderland’ or ‘The Wild West Saloon’. Pronounced Shay-na.
SCENE DOCK A tall walled or racked space usually inside the dock doors used to store ‘dead’ scenery as opposed to the ‘live’ packs of flattage in the wings.
SECONDARY / EMERGENCY LIGHTING Another source of power, so that in the case of primary failure, the audience is not trapped in darkness. Can be from another public company, a stand-by generator with auto-start, or gas, but most commonly by stand-by trickle-charged battery power.
SEQUE Musical sequence - songs or music blending from one to another with no pause. Pronounced seg-way.
SET The entire stage picture, either of flattage or drapes. To place a piece of scenery, prop., wing lantern, or any item in place for performance (or rehearsal) – opposite STRIKE.
SHEAVE The pulley- and head-blocks in the grid.
SHEET / PICTURE SHEET Slang name for screen.
SHORT A one-reel film as opposed to a multi-reel feature.
SHOW Obsolete cinema term for the whole building or auditorium only, revealing the Bioscope Show origins of cinema exhibition.
SHOWMAN A member of the stage or electrics staff who works on performances, but not full-time. As these normally have day jobs, MATINÉE SHOWMEN are engaged – often daymen from another theatre with no matinée that day in their own house.
SHOW CLOTH / GAUZE modern usage of former Act Drop.
SHUTTERS In projection, rotating blades originally in front of the lens, now blades or a drum between the light source and the gate. In stage lighting, sliding metal shapes in a spot to angle the beam edge.
SIDE – Play script containing all the lines of a part, interlinked by the cue lines only from other characters. Impossible to grasp the plot if a small part, but cheaper than paying for typist full copies.
SILL IRON A plano-convex iron bar screwed to the bottom of the legs of a door flat, across the opening, to prevent creepage and splitting.
SIZE Glue made from boiled animal bones. A coat was painted on bare scenic canvas as a primer, and then used as a varnish layer to help stop the finished paintwork cracking and flaking. Why cloths were rolled for storage and not folded.
SKETCH A very short humorous one-act playlet, in essence. Seen in revue and summer season.
SKIP The wicker hampers in which costumes and props. were travelled.
SLAP Stage make-up, so-called from the days of lower lighting levels and grease sticks. Derived from the slap-like gestures that actors used to pat and rub the grease paint in.
SLAP-and-TICKLE Why some cinema owners furnished their back rows with double seats. Hopefully climaxed, so the author is informed, with Heavy Petting (and Heavy Breathing?).
SLIDE LANTERN Perhaps so-called because two images were placed in a holding frame which slid across from one picture to another. The slides used were 3¼’’ square, and made of two pieces of glass, one bearing the illustration and the other the cover glass, bound together around the edges with passe-partout tape with the image protected from scratches in the middle of the sandwich. The image area equated with the photographic 2¼’’ square negative. Slides with standard wording could be bought, or commissioned from the poster firm supplying the cinema publicity. Blank slides could be bought, with a light-proof emulsion coating on the outside, whereby a projectionist could scratch a message with a stylus to project onto the screen during the feature, say. If the manager received a ’phone call to ask that Dr. So-and-so be alerted that his professional presence was required, this is how it was done. (Easier if the good Doctor had left knowledge of his seat position at the Box Office before the show!)
SLIPS Where the circle or gallery turns at the ends and runs parallel to the side to the boxes and/or pros.
SLOAT (or SLOTE) TRAP Narrow pros-width trap down-stage of bridge-trap. Used to raise GROUND-ROWS to hide the operation of the bridge.
SM Stage Manager.
SOUBRETTE A pert young female. Usually singing and dancing in a beguiling manner, or playing ze French maid.
SOUND HEAD A case below the projector head or mechanism contain an exciter lamp focused on the sound track with resulting variations picked up by a photo-electric cell and passed to a pre-amp.
SOUND SYSTEM All the electrics, electronics, and wiring, needed to get the film sound from sound head reproducer to screen (and, later, ambient) loudspeakers.
SOUND-on-DISC 16”-diameter shellac discs played from the centre outwards so that, at the slow surface speed, the needle was sharp, and as it got blunt the surface speed increased to compensate, running at 331/3 r.p.m. with ‘hill and dale’ recording so making the sound-head move up and down instead of from side to side. There was a mark on the film and a white splash on the disc for the operator as start cues. The reel number was clearly stamped in very large figures on the disc label, but 6 and 9 were always marked Six and Nine to prevent any errors. A new needle was used for each disc. The turntable ran in synchronisation with the projector.
SOUND-on-FILM Photographed images of the electronic pulses of sound waves run beside the picture frames, 56 frames in advance. Photographed as variable area or variable density. Still used today, though magnetic stripes are more common.
SPARGE PIPE see Safety Curtain. Also used over a brewery vat to flush the remains of the wort from the hops.
SPESH ACT A variety turn with a ‘speciality’ – rope-spinning, trained animals, adagio, etc.
SPLAY WALLS At the front of the auditorium where the side walls sloped in to the pros wall – or splayed out from the pros. Usually held organ or plenum grilles, and sometime developed inn an ante-proscenium.
SPLICE A join. For ropes in the flys using a marlinspike. For two ends of film. For this, a SPLICER was used to hold the ends, slightly over-lapped, and FILM CEMENT applied sparingly. This melted the acetate film stock and so created a weld.
SPLIT Division of the box office or ticket sales between touring production manager or film renter and the resident management. The standard tour theatre show took 60% and provided the show, cast, and stage management, and publicity material. The theatre took 40% and provided the house and day stage staff, building and facilities. Extra show staff went on the contra.
SPOOLS The metal film reels for projection.
SPOT BAR A length of barrel flown by steel cables on a winch carrying spots and sometimes floods, and more rarely now, sections of compartment batten. Commonly 3 or 4 of them. They are hidden by borders and count up-stage from the pros.
SPOT BLOCKS / LINES A single pulley and line installed on the grid for special items such as a trick effect or a chandelier.
SPOTS / SPOTLIGHTS Lantern with a lens system to focus the beam. Profile lanterns with a plano-convex lens for hard edges, and Fresnels (which see) for soft-edged beams. Also zoom-lensed lanterns for further adjustment.
SPROCKET Any toothed wheel. Used in projected to drive and guide the film along a set path. These engaged the SPROCKET HOLES in the film – 4 alongside each frame – and enabled the intermittent motion to stop the frames accurately.
STADIUM SEATING Where the rear seating was not on a balcony, but ‘sat’ on top of the foyer, so that entering the house at the rear the upper seating parapet was above. The house ceiling could be lower, and the expense of a circle girder was avoided, but meant the rear seats were further from the screen than being stacked above the rear stalls.
STAFF / REST ROOMS Provided in picture palaces and super-cinemas in the 20s and 30s. Private spaces, with lavatory and water closet facilities. Staff could change into and out of uniform, do running repairs, and have their tea/meal break. Segregated by sex, naturally.
STAFF PARADE F-o-h staff lined up in the circle foyer to be inspected by the House Manager before the first show of the day. Make-up and stocking seams were inspected, uniforms checked for cleanliness and missing buttons, torch batteries and cigarette lighters checked, and any announcements made.
STAGE Impossible of accurate technical definition apart from a performing area (though for many old and new Thespians only open the ’fridge door and they’ll perform). Anything from ‘4 bare boards and a passion’ to the 80ft cube (approx. – excluding cellar) that is the Drury Lane stage & fly tower.
STAGE BAY The on-stage sections between RUNNERS. See also NUMBER ONES.
STAGE CLOTH A heavier canvas version of a backcloth, painted to fit the set.
STAGE DIRECTOR Formerly the senior member of the stage management. A term abandoned professionally in the 1950s to save confusion as the former play producer was re-named director in the American fashion.
STAGE DOOR Entrance and exit for all artists and staff. They are not allowed to use f-o-h. Guarded by a STAGE DOOR KEEPER who takes messages and ‘phone calls, and hands out any post. He keeps the staff signing-in book where required.
STAGE FIRE-RISK AREA The stage, wings, scene dock(s), prop room, fly floors, and grid bounded by the fire-resisting pass door, iron, and dressing room area entry.
STAGE LEFT / RIGHT Always taken from the actors’ point of view.
STAGE MANAGEMENT The wonderfully efficient and dedicated team members who cajole the resident staff to get the show in and up, and who wet-nurse the talent to get onto the green at the right time and in the right place. And grant the calls at the end. And sort out all manner of professional and personal problems. And work hours after their contractual time. Are made to sit below the salt at company meals with wardrobe.
STAGE MANAGER Either resident, running the stage staff, or company, travelling with the show and (formerly) giving cues, but now more a company manager with the DSM running the show.
STAGE WAIT Results from (perish the thought) an actor not being on set on cue. There is an unhealthy pause, the thunder of feet down stairs, and muttered imprecations, before the set door bursts open.
STAGE WEIGHT a square or circular handled lump of cast iron used to wedge open doors, as an impromptu anvil, and to sit on the bottom end of brace to hold up a box set.
STAR TRAP The top for a corner trap used for acrobatic leaps. So-called for the six or 8 wedge-shaped flaps hinged with greased leather to fall back into position quickly, and not for the leading lady.
STOCK COMPANY A troupe with a prepared repertoire of plays, from which they could mount a performance at a day’s notice – their stock in trade, as it were.
STRIKE To remove an object from position. To take down a set. To start a carbon arc.
STROLLING PLAYERS Not at all the romantic doddle it might sound. Touring was hard enough with train calls. Here the poor buggers had to walk between dates, carrying their props. Only the scenery, costumes, and manager, travelled by cart.
SUDDEN DEATH A single cue-light system. On for Warn and off for GO. Very unsatisfactory, but resorted to even on a two-light system if one lamp circuit failed.
SUMP PUMP As the stalls, orchestra pit, and stage cellar are below street level, a well was dug and provided with a sump pump with a float switch to pump up water before it built up and flooded the areas.
SWAGS A drape bunched in an attractive pattern. Tabs knotted together at the inside bottom corners and then drawn apart make a butterfly swag. Festoons are smaller bunchings.
SWITCHBOARD Either the stage lighting control or groups of switches on each f-o-h level for passages, loo, and general lighting, out of public reach.
TAB DRESSING The lighting state to enliven the house tabs whilst the audience for them to rise.
TAB STORE A room or space with slatted wooden shelving (for air circulation) to store the spare tabs and drapes in colour sets.
TAB TRACK A railway with bobbins from which the side-opening tabs are hung. Hand or motor hauled. It is rigged in two overlapping sections, with a return pulley at the opposite to hauling end.
TABS Abbreviation for Tableau Curtains – the ‘opera house’ type which part lower centre and rise up and out. Used for other pairs of stage curtains or as a cue to open and close them. House tabs fill the pros arch, screen tabs further up-stage cover the screen, and any in between are No 1, No 2, etc. runners – counting upstage from the pros.
THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3-D) Projection relying on stereoscopic technique. Two films, supposedly an eyes-width apart, shown simultaneously through filters (either polarised at 90% or magenta & cyan) through two synchronised projectors. Creates an illusion of solidity and, therefore, depth.
THROW The length of the projection beam from the lens to the screen. The distance and the focal length (in essence, the magnifying power) of the lens determined the picture size.
TIME SHEET The daily programme running times in the projection box, noting start and end of times time, interval, organ interlude, and so on through the day to the time of the National Anthem. Made-out weekly by the manager.
TORMENTORS flats running on-and-off behind the pros. at each side. They are adjustable, so the effective pros width can be varied, and the down-stage flats of a box-set are cleated to them as PROS RETURNS.
TOUR DATE A theatre which takes in travelling productions, rather than generate its own shows.
TOURING MANAGEMENT The company which owns a travelling production. It is responsible for the scenery and cast, their payment, and getting the show from one date to the next.
TOWER (PROJECTION) A modern alternative to the Platter. A tall metal revolving metal case with motors inside, and a pair of giant film spools on two opposing faces. An entire programme is spliced together on the upper spool, fed through the projector, and returns to the lower spool. Then it has to be rewound. While this happens, the tower can be swivelled, and another programme threaded through from the second pair of spools.
TRAILER / TEASER A short film extolling the virtues of next week’s Big Picture – ‘Coming Soon’ and ‘For Your Further Entertainment’. Often containing scenes not to be found in it when it arrives.
TRAIN CALL When scenery was carried between touring theatres and music halls by rail, a number of free seats was granted. Thus the artists gathered at the station on Sundays to journey to the next date, with the scenery wagon. The main interchanges were Crewe in the west and Doncaster in the east. Only actors and fish travelled on Sundays, it was said. The railway scenery concession was abolished in April/May 1964. Until then scenery was transferred between the theatre and railway station dock by local carter – commonly a local coal-merchant as the carts/wagons were not otherwise used at weekends.
TRANSFORMATION Where the scene changes in view as if my magic – from summer to winter, for example, or from the ship-wreck to the under-sea ballet in Davy Jones’ Locker!
TRANSIT BOXES / CASES Plywood covered with metal, with a hinged lid and hasp/stage fitting for one or more film cans. Still used occasionally. Padded ones used for sound-on-disc film records.
TRAPS Various openings in the stage, usually with machinery under, such as a grave or centre trap (oblong), or corner traps (square, and sometimes called demon traps in panto as the devil-figure appears stage left and the good fairy stage right). In use, the trap opening slid back in grooves to uncover the platform below, on which a performer was raised to stage level. The platform was counterbalanced and hand-hauled. The play The Corsican Brothers introduced a new device, where the actor appears slowly through the floor whilst travelling from one side to the other. He appeared through a circular bristle-covered opening travelling in ‘Scruto’, the material for roll-top desks. Also see BRIDGES and MEZZANINE.
TRAVELLERS Theatre term for mid-stage tabs. Variety – Runners.
TUMBLE Where the flytower was not high enough to hide a cloth above the pros., another set of lines was attached to the bottom, and both sets gridded – raised as high as possible. The tumbler was the circular length of wood put in the fold to keep the cloth curve smooth and avoid the scene paint flaking. Also for clowns and acrobat business.
UP-STAGE To the rear, away from the floats. Also a naughty performer distracting the audience by business or other movement during another’s lines.
VAMP Musical – to improvise. So ‘Vamp till ready’ during a scene change, fading as the tabs open. Also the likes of Miss Theda Bara in 1920s silent films.
VARIETY A mélange of ‘acts’, ‘turns’, or ‘talent’ on a bill. Usually played twice-nightly. The acts were independently booked each week, so did not travel as a show. The genre was overtaken and replaced by TV ‘Light Entertainment’.
VAMPIRE TRAP A vertical hidden opening in scenery, for appearances through a solid-seeming wall.
VAUDEVILLE A French term for variety, common in the US but not much used here.
VENT ACT Ventriloquist turn.
VESTIBULE An ante-room or space used for queuing and purchasing tickets before the foyer.
VOID An architectural gap or space otherwise unused. Vertically often used as an air shaft. The circle void was used for staff and ’fridge rooms. At the old Covent Garden the auditorium void was the carpenters’ shop. Now the roof void has air-extract ducts and walkways for re-lamping.
VOMITORY From Roman amphitheatres, where the audience ‘spewed’ into the seating. Now mostly used for the centre circle access steps, or for the terrace entrances in sports stadia.
WALTER PLINGE The name placed in the programme against a character whose performer did not wish to be identified, possibly because he (there seems to be no female equivalent) was playing two or three other parts as well.
WARDROBE A large room used by the WARDROBE MISTRESS / MASTER. Should have ample electric sockets and a pair of deep sinks, together with a clothes dryer/airer. Most wardrobe heads have an electric kettle on petty cash, ‘For steaming hats, dear’. Usually on the top floor along with the chorus dressing rooms so that most of the skips have to be hauled up there. There could be a MAKING WARDROBE and a RUNNING/PRODUCTION WARDROBE.
WELL A rectangular space in the stage cellar for the machinery wheels of bridges and traps. These were operated from a mezzanine floor above.
WET / WIND LOBBY the small vestibule between street doors and inner doors to the main vestibule or foyer. So-called as wind was prevented from directly blowing in, and there were mat-wells for bad weather foot-wiping.
WING FLOODS or TOWERS - a flood mounted on a telescopic stand, or three floods in a tiltable wheeled framework for cross-lighting of performers or colour-lighting of drapes.
WINGS Lengths of painted canvas or coloured material across the top of the scene to hide off-stage from view, thus these waiting/scene store places also became ‘the wings’.
WIPE TRACK A full-width single length of tab track. Drape, gauze, or cloth can be pulled from one side, and disappear the other, or returned to the same side.
XENON An arc source of light in a glass envelope filled with the gas Xenon. Since the 1970s has taken over from open carbon arcs in cinema projection.
ZEEBRITE Trade name for metal polish used on cast iron.