the apron, when it is curved, as is
usually the case, although many of the modern stages have no apron at
all, the footlights running in a straight line across, sometimes
within a foot of the fire curtain.

The stage itself extends from the curtain line to the back wall of the
theatre, and from left wall to right wall. Under the roof of the
stage, anywhere from sixty-five to ninety feet above the floor, there
is a horizontal lattice work of steel or iron covering the entire
spread of the stage, and known as the gridiron. The space on top of
the gridiron is called the rigging loft. The roof of the stage over
the rigging loft is a huge skylight, opened or closed from the stage.
The skylight is made light-proof for matinee performances. On the
gridiron are rigged the blocks and pulleys through which pass the
lines attached to all the scenery that goes up in the air, or "up in
the flies," which is the name given the space between the top of the
proscenium arch and the gridiron. To take scenery up, is "flying it,"
in stage language, leaving the sight of the audience; whatever goes up
"flies," and whatever is carried off to one side or back is
"struck." The stage manager, when he wants the scene taken away, gives
the order "strike" to the stage hands, or "grips," as they are called,
who are on the stage level, and he pushes a button for the head-flyman
in the "fly-gallery" to fly whatever scenery goes up.

[Illustration: GRAND BALL ROOM IN NED WAYBURN STUDIOS]

There is a "fly-gallery," as it is called, usually ten to fifteen feet
wide, some twenty-five to thirty-five feet above the stage level and
extending from the front to the back walls of the stage on one side,
against the side wall, usually of steel and concrete. Then there is
the "paint-bridge," perhaps five feet wide, extending across the stage
at the back wall from side to side, on a line with the "fly-gallery."
Sometimes there is a "paint-frame" attached to the back wall on which
scenery is painted. It is movable up and down. Sometimes twenty to
twenty-five feet above the stage level is a light-gallery, on each
side of the stage running parallel to the fly-gallery, but under it.
These galleries are for the purpose of holding calcium lights and
operators. Running from the back wall of the stage to the proscenium
wall all the way of the fly-gallery on the front edge nearest the
stage is the pin-rail, very strong and imbedded in the wall front and
back of the stage;