Theatre manager

“ I wonder how many people there are who see the manager airing his white waistcoat in his especial stage-box, or envy him as he drives away from the theatre in his brougham, or joyfully takes his cheque on Ransom’s for that last “stunning” and “screaming” new farce that forty pounds were given for, and that ran four nights; I wonder how many of these outsiders of the theatrical arcana know what a persecuted, hunted dog, a genteel galley-slave, a well-dressed Russian serf, is the theatrical manager. ”

“ To do this, he must study out all the "business" of the play in advance of the rehearsals, so he will be able to direct intelligently. When a "star" is rehearsing, he generally directs the rehearsal, thus relieving the stage manager of a great responsibility; but he must be around, and see what is required for the play in the way of scenery and properties and make out complete and detailed plots for scene-men and property-men, and in this particular case where the theatre furnished the actors with all wardrobes (except modern clothes) , the stage manager had also to make out a costume plot. ”

“ The friendship of the director, manager, and favourite members of the theatre she regarded as indispensable, whilst those frequenters of the theatre who, through their criticism or taste, influenced the public, and thus also had weight with the management, she recognised as beings upon whom the attainment of her most fervent desires depended. Never to make enemies of them appeared so natural and so necessary that, in order to maintain her popularity, she was prepared to sacrifice even her self-respect. ”

“ They inhabit that mysterious, unexplored back-stage. And a clever manager will encourage this sort of curiosity by advising his people not to show themselves in the street, except unavoidably. The matter of seeing the actors close may be dismissed with a quip,—they might be found respectable upon acquaintance, or, more likely, dull. But the truth about the back of the theatre is the truth about the conjurer’s hat,—there’s nothing there to see, except the pitiful little bag of tricks, the snowstorm and the wind. ”

“ Professor Brander Matthews has given an interesting illustration of this principle in his essay on The Art of the Stage-Manager, which is included in his volume entitled Inquiries and Opinions. He says:
The stage-manager must ever be on his guard against the danger of sacrificing the major to the minor, and of letting some little effect of slight value in itself interfere with the true interest of the play as a whole. ”

“ As we wish our work to be full of the life of this country, our stage-manager has almost always to train our actors from the beginning, always so in the case of peasant plays, and this makes the building up of a theatre like ours the work of years. ”

“ Consequently theatre management has become a huge gamble, in which there are few prizes, and the amount of money lost annually is great. Naturally, under such circumstances the principal, almost the only, aim of the ordinary manager is to please the masses. Many concessions are made to the wishes of the crowd, and by way of excuse the phrase "the drama's laws the drama's patrons give" is quoted. ”

“ This theatre has taken the lead in getting up every thing novel, in either branch of the drama, and that in a style very much superior to any other establishment of the kind upon the continent. It must be evident that it is the wish, as it is 161 the interest of the manager, to conduct the trust committed to him upon the most liberal principles: that which pleases the public most, is most favourable to him. ”

“ Now while these women bestow their adulation and delicate flattery upon the manager, he is not likely to disturb the modest and retiring newcomer in his company by unwelcome attentions. And should the young stranger prove earnest and bright, she would be doubly safe; for then she would have for the manager a commercial value, and he would be the last man to hurt or anger her by a too warmly expressed admiration, and so drive her into another theatre, taking all her possible future popularity and drawing power with her. ”

“ A wise stage-manager, when he uses a set as magnificent, for example, as the memorable garden scene in Miss Viola Allen's production of Twelfth Night, will raise his curtain on an empty stage, to let the audience enjoy and even applaud the scenery before the actors enter. ”

“ The manager of a theatre is a man of business. He is not an expert in politics, religion, art, literature, philosophy, or law. He calls in a playwright just as he calls in a doctor, or consults a lawyer, or engages an architect, depending on the playwright’s reputation and past achievements for a satisfactory result. A play by an unknown man may attract him sufficiently to induce him to give that unknown man a trial ”

“ Phil Margetts was the acknowledged premier comedian of the company. Mr. John T. Caine, too, Clawson's associate manager, and also stage manager, yielded up his line of parts to John S. Lindsay and devoted himself exclusively to the duties of stage manager, which in the old "stock" days meant far more than that office means today. "Why, in the elder day to be a 'stage manager' was greater than to be a king," in any of the plays. Briefly enumerated, his duties were: First, to read carefully and then cast all the plays. The casting of a play is a most important affair. ”

“ But it would be easy to attach a college of acting to the municipal theatre, and to make the college pay its way.
Much depends on the choice of manager of the enterprise. The manager of a municipal theatre must combine with business aptitude a genuine devotion to dramatic art and dramatic literature. Without a fit manager, who can collect and control a competent company of actors, the scheme of the municipal theatre is doomed to failure. Managers of the requisite temper, knowledge, and ability are not lacking in France or Germany. ”

“ Yes, the manager is, generally speaking, a kindly, cheery, sharp business man, and no Moloch at all.
As for the "public," no self-respecting girl need be in danger from the "public." Admiring young rakes no longer have coaches waiting round the corner, into which they thrust their favourite actress as she leaves the theatre. If a man sends an actress extravagant letters or flowers, anonymously, she can of course do nothing, but equally of course she will not wear his flowers and so encourage him boldly to step up and speak to her some day. ”

“ A perfect theatrical performance must harmonise the work of many men. The dramatist, the actors main and minor, the stage-manager, the scene-painter, the costumer, the leader of the orchestra, must all contribute their separate talents to the production of a single work of art. ”

“ You never try to sell them. You told me so yourself. You feel so superior to managers and audiences that you never offer them.”
“I know. I occasionally go to the theatre, by mistake, and I see what they want.”
“That’s no criterion. We won’t condemn even a Broadway manager until he proves himself such a dummy as not to want your plays.”
“Broadway? Think of a play of mine on Broadway! Think of the fat swine who waddle into those theatres!”
“My dear, there are men of brains writing for the theatre to-day who do not scorn those swine.”
“Men of brains? ”

“ What do you say?"
"I think it's ingenious," said the [pg 323] manager, "and not to be dismissed lightly. But I don't see anything to prevent all the other managers copying it."
"There isn't," said the inventor. "Nothing ever has been done or will be done that can prevent theatrical managers from copying each other. It's chronic. But you'll be the first, remember that; and the pioneer often has some credit. You'll get the start, and that means a lot. For some months, at any rate, it will be your theatre to which the snobs will crowd." ”

“ Only don't blame me if the audience loses its last train and comes back to sleep in the theatre, chat's all. [He goes off with the air of a man who is prepared for the worst] .
[During the conversation with the Stage Manager, the Manager's Wife, unobserved by her husband, steals the manuscript; replaces the last two leaves of it on the desk; puts the rest on her chair, and sits down on it.] THE MANAGER. That man is hopelessly frivolous; I really must get a more cultured staff. [ To the audience]
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm extremely sorry for these unfortunate interruptions and delays ”

“ A friend of mine has started as manager of his first theatre these holidays. It may seem to you an unpropitious moment for such a beginning, but in many ways this special theatre is exceptionally well guaranteed against failure. The proprietor was kind enough to invite my presence at his opening performance. As a matter of fact I had myself put up the money for it.
Naturally I was anxious for the thing to be a success. The theatre stands on what you could truthfully call a commanding situation at one end of the schoolroom table. ”

“ Kemble:—“That the play would be acted faithfully from the copy sent to the theatre”; and it was accordingly acted, literally, from the manuscript delivered to the house. This conduct was, as the Editor believes, unprecedented in the management of a theatre; and must warrant him in concluding, that, in the judgment of the acting manager, the play wanted no aid or alteration.
Be these matters as they may, this Piece is laid before the public, with such interpolations by the Editor, as he presumes it was the duty of the acting manager to have made previous to its representation. ”

“ He did not dare to appear on the stage again; but the audience and the public had got so fond of the old actor, and took his side with so much zeal, that the manager (burdened, moreover, since that celebrated evening, with the curse of ludicrosity) , found himself compelled to close his theatre, and betake himself elsewhere. Several respectable townsmen, with the innkeeper at their head, met, and collected a considerable sum of money for the old actor, enough to enable him to have done for ever with the worries of the stage, and end his days in comfort in the place. ”

“ Sometimes an actor or actress attached to the theatre looks in, or a playwright who is in favor, or a provincial manager, or a fashionable "man about town" who in some occult way has obtained the entrée of the managerial sanctum. ”

“ THE KING.
Tell me, brother, does one find theatre managers too at the beggars' fair?
THE CIRCUS RIDER.
Theatre managers too, certainly. The theatre managers come there from all over the country. Where else would they get their dancers and their clowns! Frankly, brother, it seems very doubtful to me your getting an engagement. You don't look as if you could act a farce. ”

“ It finds at the theatre a resident house manager, a resident house treasurer, in charge of the local box office, and his assistant treasurer, who acts at times as relief for his chief, opens the box office in the morning, and sells the gallery tickets at show time. There is a house music director, a permanent chief usher and the other ushers, front ticket takers, an advertising agent, bill poster, a213 day and night stage door tender, who are usually watchmen, who are custodians of the building, besides the janitor and cleaners. ”

“ Shakspeare.
When are parsons bound in honour not to abuse theatres?
When they take orders.
What Vote the Manager of a Theatre always has.—The "casting" vote.
"Stand not on the Order of your Going."—An amiable manager says the orders which he issues for the pit and gallery are what in his opinion constitute "the lower orders."
Great Theatrical Effect.—During a performance of Macbeth at the Haymarket, the thunder was so natural that it turned sour a pint of beer in the prompter's-box. ”

“ But his abilities as manager and as actor could not bring success to the theatre. Foreign and civil wars made the State poor; wide-spread financial troubles made the people poor; that cruelly cold winter froze out the public. "Nul animal vivant n'entra dans notre salle," are the bitterly true words, put into the mouth of the young actor-manager, by an unknown writer of a scurrilous verse.
He and the troupe were liberated from their lease within the year, and, early in 1645, they migrated over the river to the Jeu de Paume de la Croix-Noire. On either end of the long, low building at No. ”

“ If your numbers are limited, you may have to choose the one who knows most about theatricals, and he or she may have to act a leading part as well. But by rights the stage-manager ought not to act; especially as in juvenile theatricals he will probably be prompter, property-man, and scene-shifter into the bargain.
If your "company" consists of very young performers, an elder sister is probably the best stage-manager you could have. But when once your stage-manager is chosen, all the actors must make up their minds to obey him implicitly. ”

“ It would be idle to assert that the average level of our acting is as good as it ought to be. Many theatres suffer severely from the lack of satisfactory stage-management; some from the determination of an actor-manager to be the central figure of every scene. Bitter complaints are uttered by young players about not receiving sufficient suggestions at rehearsal and finding that the stage-manager has so little authority that not only the leading players act as they chose, but even the smaller stars refuse successfully to obey him. ”

“ When Frohman was asked to define success in theatrical management he made this answer:
"The terms of success in the theater seem to me to be the co-operating abilities of playwright and actor with the principal burden on the actor. In other words, the play is not altogether 'the thing.' The right player in the right play is the thing."
The shaping of William Gillette's career is a good example of Frohman's definition of a successful theatrical manager, whose best skill and talents are employed largely in the matter of manipulating a hard-minded person to mutual advantage. ”