Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1984 - 17

table. Angelic visitants appeared in
this window. In front of the study
was a second lower plane on which
appeared Helen of Troy, the scholars,
and the Seven Deadly Sins. The evil
spirits came up through a trap just
back of the footlights. This simple
use of planes helped immeasurably in
following the scheme of the play.'

Careful observation shows that the
floor plan was not too different from
The Tents of the Arabs, but the light
emanating from the stained glass window shaped the pylons in a different
manner. The window was the focal
point to which Tomkins referred. Dr.
Faustus' setting created an entirely di fferent atmosphere, using the permanent adaptable setting which had been
in use for over a year at the Detroic Theatre. It had been paid for long ago.
Samuel Hume was employed as
artist-director for the Detroit Arts and
Crafts Theatre until 1918. Later he
took a position at the University of California as Professor of Drama and Director of the Greek Theatre of the University. But in his two years at Detroit,
Hume introduced America to permanent adaptable scenery. Given the
number of little theatres today and the
tight budgets they face, the permanent
adaptable setting, as first introduced in
one version at the Detroit Arts and
Crafts Theatre, could be a method of
staging whose time has come once
again.

The Romance of the Rose

NOTES
According to Kennelh 1\lacGowan in Theatre
of Tall/arrow, an adaplable screen selting was
used in Boston by Joseph rban for The Love of
the Three Kings in 1913-14. This sening was only
used for lhi produclion,lhu il cannOI be con idered a permanem addilion to a lheatre inventory.
1

Dr. FausfUs

Since the play took place in an old
chateau, there were two entrances to
the room-an arch at stage left, and a
door piece upstage right, both with stairs
leading upward. The element which almost singly created the mood of the
scene was the large Gothic window upstage through which the sky-dome radiated light. It was lit quite differently
than the other settings, thus giving it a
unique atmosphere. Arranged in an
asymmetrical order, the pieces created a
new composition. Here again, with the
exception of the added doorway, all of
the scenic elements were the same as in
the other three plays.

Sheldon Cheney, Stage Decoration. (New
York: Benjamin Blom, Inc.), 1928, p. 62.

The Romance of the Rose (1917)
used a very symmetrical arrangement,
as did The Wonder Hat, but this balance was broken by the different heights
of the doors facing the audience and the
curtain hanging upstage right. The
lighting was rather dark and romantic.
For Dr. Faustus (1917) H ume isolated the action in Faustus' study.
Frank G. Tomkins described the setting
in Theatre Arts magazine:
Several technical devices made the
play easy to follow. The stage was
built on several planes. Faustus'study
was a raised stage at the back with a
great stained glass window over the

3 Sheldon Cheney, "Sam Hume's Adaplable
Selling ," Theatre Arts I, 3 (1\lay 1917), p. 120.
~

Ibid., p. 127.
Ibid., p. 125.

Ibid.

7 Frank G. Tompkins, "Faustlls al Delroit."
Theatre Arts 1/:2 (/918), p. 109.

Tom Mikotowicz is a technical illustrator for Kliegl Bros. He is writing his
dissertation on Oliver Smith in the Department of Performance Studies at
NYU.

USITT /Summer 198-l/Theatre Design & Technology

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