Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2013 - 49

his figures. According to Alexandra Steiner-Strauss:
The early drawings by Will Barnes date from the years between 1905 and
1910 and show very clear, simple forms and a striking choice of color. Hence,
Barnes's work can be clearly differentiated from the later designers in the
Vienna collection with their often more elaborate techniques. The yelloworange that is clearly a product of the fin de siècle underlines the "hourglass"
figure which was then still considered as modern and which can be clearly
distinguished from the more androgynous female form favored by the designs
of the 1920s. As with many other designers, Barnes created numerous national
costumes, such as the drawing of "Miss Australia" in the Theatre Museum's
collection. Barnes's preference for striking patterns can be seen in many of
his designs, as in the later drawing of the "cubist girl," which was probably
produced for a short revue."

Barnes's first Broadway credit was the 1898 production of A Day and a
Night in New York, a rather undistinguished piece that lasted fifty-four performances. He would go on to design fifty Broadway shows from 1898 to 1924,
twenty-nine of which were solo creations. A long-time association with the
producers Weber and Fields and with R.H. Burnside would mark his career.
Barnes designed twelve productions for Weber and Fields between
1900 and 1903. One of them, a one-act called Quo Vas Iss?, was a spoof
of Quo Vadis, the Hugh Stanislaus Stange play based on the novel by Henry Sienkiewicz that was playing on Broadway at the same time. It played
thirty-two performances on Broadway in 1900. The spoof presented a
totally nonsensical situation in which Fields and a cast of thirty, playing
characters named Bogus Extrus, Infamous Touchus, Popcornea, Stabus,
and Killa, cavorted in a setting describe as "The public gardens in Rome
adjoining the palace of Zero, the residence of Pretolius and the Arena"
(Bordman 1978, 170). And, of course, the city of Rome is destroyed in a
comical fire set by the Emperor Zero.
In 1902 Barnes designed costumes for a production of The Mocking
Bird, directed by R.H. Burnside. This would result in a creative partnership
that would last through eleven productions until the 1923 production of
Stepping Stones. Described in its publicity as "a musical comedy version of
Little Red Riding Hood," this would be the last production Barnes would design on Broadway. However, in the process of collaborating with Burnside,
Barnes would work on a total of six of what Burnside called "musical extravaganzas" at the Hippodrome Theatre. This theatre had a seating capacity
of 5,300, with a stage that was 100 feet deep and 200 feet wide, and state of
the art theatrical technology, including a fourteen-foot high, sixty-foot diameter, 8,000-gallon clear glass water tank that could be raised from below the
stage by hydraulic pistons for swimming and diving shows.
The Hippodrome shows were elaborate affairs that never made any
dramatic sense, although they were extremely popular. The production
details from a 1919 production called Happy Days give us some insight
into these extravaganzas. Working with Marie Cook and Frances M. Ziebarth, Barnes designed more than 165 costumes for a cast playing such
roles as Napoleon, Oliver Twist, Little Eva, Cleopatra, Puck, Lord Nelson,
Shakespeare, Red Riding Hood, Benjamin Franklin, and Cigarette, just to
name a few. Bordman describes this Hippodrome extravaganza: ". . .it has
no artistic distinction. One set was done almost entirely in gold; another
took audiences to Fairyland, while a third, like a set in the Greenwich Village Follies, filled the stage with roses. Acrobats, jugglers, ballerinas, and
trained animals cavorted on the gigantic stage" (Bordman 1978, 342).

It appears that Barnes had a Broadway career much like his
contemporaries Cora MacGeachy and William Henry Mathews. Like them
he worked with memorable theatre people among whom were Jerome
Kern, John Phillip Sousa, Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein, and Victor
Herbert and the designers Gates and Morange, Ernest Albert, and Homer
Emens. His obituary noted that he was a watercolor landscape painter in
addition to his theatre design. Unfortunately, to date nothing written has
been found in his own hand about his design or theory.

Costume design by Kiviette (a.k.a. Kiviat).
Courtesy the Theatre Museum, Vienna, Austria.

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