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Down Memory Lane

(File Photo )

But without the backing of the stagehands no scene can come alive. In Curtain Club, when we were putting up plays, there were some backstage contributions but for which the performance would have gone flat.

Curtain Club had a stage manager, Prof . R.P.Nair of the Department of English in the American College. He was assisted by G.P.Reuben who later became the librarian of the American College library, N.Elango who later put up plays on his own under the banner of “Fourth Wall”, Rajkumar, Raja Jegadeesan and Mariappan. There were so many others helping backstage that it is difficult to recall all their names.

The stage set that was a permanent feature of Curtain Club was one made up of three arches. Characters could make their appearance through one of these arches for dramatic effect. This set had to be put up before the dress rehearsal, and dismantled after the last performance. It had to be painted also if necessary. Our stage helpers got this done with the help of carpenters and painters.

The moment the curtain came down at the end of an act or a scene, the stage assistants rushed on to the stage to make any changes in the props, and then quickly left the stage before the curtain was raised. One day the usual curtain operator had to go away for some reason. One of our actors, Glenn, offered to operate the curtain. At the end of the scene Glenn tugged at the curtain rope with too much force, and the whole curtain came crashing down. Meanwhile the stage assistants who had come rushing onstage found themselves exposed to the audience and made a hasty exit much to the amusement of the audience.

Offstage on the side sat the prompter. Prompting also had to be done carefully. The prompter should neither be too loud nor too soft. Some prompters were heard clearly by the audience, causing ripples of laughter. Some others were so soft-voiced that the actors had to strain themselves to hear them. But a good prompter is a great asset for the smooth delivery of the dialogue.

The costumes had to be designed and made in accordance with the kind of play that was being put up. Usually some local tailor made them after detailed instructions were given to him. The hairstyles had to be done in keeping with the type of character and the period. Subashish Ghosh who at that time was a drawing instructor in Vikaasa School helped us with this. We had a make-up man called Villi Babu who was very good at his job. The first day he did the make-up it looked too gaudy and garish. When I mentioned this to him, he said that on the stage it would look allright. And he was right. Under the bright stage lights the make-up looked very good. Villi Babu became an indispensable member of our group.

The sound system was very difficult to set up because the acoustics in the auditorium was very bad. We fixed David & Son, a local company to experiment and find a good sound arrangement. They did a very good job. Later every word was heard with great clarity.

Those days tickets had to be pushed and sold. A team of well-wishers took up a ticket campaign and sale of advertising space in our brochures. Soon our coffers were overflowing, and we could relax and concentrate on the performance.

Excellence was there as much offstage as it was onstage.

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