ed, as well as the exact place for each
performance, and the producer determines the location of the same, and
the different heads of the mechanical staff mark the stage
ground-cloth in colored crayons or water-colors for the guidance of
the stage carpenter, property man, and electricians, upon whom
devolves the duty of setting the stage, props and electrical
equipment. The producer is absolute monarch behind the curtain line,
his dominion extending not only over the actors, singers and
dancers--the entire company--but also over all members of the
mechanical staff and the orchestra. He alone is responsible to the
owner for the successful presentation of the performance. His is a
man's size job.

How many American producers of the supreme type, capable of the bigger
things, are there in the United States?

I know five. And I know them all. Five out of 110,000,000 people. How
many do you know of?

[Illustration: W.C. FIELDS]

The Stage Manager takes the show from the Producer after the opening
performance and is thereafter responsible for everything connected
with the show back of the curtain line. He it is who presses the
buttons that run the curtain up and down, and gets the performance
under way and keeps it moving, changing the scenery and lights exactly
as arranged by the Producer. He is accountable to the Company Manager
for the way every performance is given, and maintains a close
supervision over the principal artists and the chorus, sees to it that
they stick to their script and do not interpolate matter of their own
or "guy" each other or the audience. Actors or actresses who are
insincere in the parts assigned to them should be barred from the
professional stage. There is evidence of "guying" an audience at times
in some of the best companies on the part of some players of
established reputations who should be ashamed of themselves, and who
certainly should be punished for such offenses. I have known some star
comedians to go on the stage intoxicated, which is an unpardonable
offense, and for which such persons should be driven out of the show
business. If an actor would dare do such a thing in a company directed
by me, I would go before the curtain and denounce him to the audience
and refund the price of admission. An actor who would do a thing like
that is called a "ham," which means a common person with no mentality
or breeding,--a type that is practically extinct now in the theatre.

The Stage Manage