faces the audience. About six feet back of this is located
the second entrance, and about each six feet interval is a
successively numbered entrance, as "third entrance," etc. In a
"full-stage" setting the last entrance to the rear is called "upper
entrance." A scene in the space covering the entire first entrance is
spoken of as being "in one"; in the second entrance, "in two." When
one passes out of sight of the audience he is "off stage." The various
entrances and exits are designated in writing and print by characters
that carry their meaning plainly, as RUE (right upper entrance), L2E
(left second entrance). So, too, with spoken directions on the stage.
When you are told to "exit LUE," for instance, you are supposed to
know that you are to go off stage at the left upper entrance. No one
in the theatre ever speaks of standing "in the wings"; always it is
"in the entrance."

The prompt side in a theatre is usually the left first entrance,
though sometimes it is on the other side, where are located the
electric switchboard controlling every light in the building, under
the personal direction of the chief electrician, and a series of
buttons above a shelf or prompt desk attached to the wall about the
height of a bookkeeper's desk, where the stage manager makes his
headquarters during each performance, the stage manager being like the
captain or skipper of the ship. All signals are given by the stage
manager, the buttons usually placed immediately above or at one side
of the prompt desk, within easy reach controlling buzzers, lights or
bells that tell as plainly as shouted words could do what is to be
done and who is to do it. Sometimes lights flash to give directions
and warnings, instead of the buzzer sounding. Every action of the
stage hands below and aloft is directed in this manner from one
central point of control by one master mind, the stage manager of the
show.

The orchestra usually has a music room of its own somewhere under the
stage or in the cellar of the theatre, where the musicians congregate
before the performance and during their "waits." A buzzer or bell
warning to them is said to "ring the orchestra in," and they are
usually allowed about three minutes to get into their places in the
orchestra pit after it sounds. There is also a "drop" signal buzzer or
light to give the head flyman in the fly-gallery the signals that
indicate when to raise and lower certain "drops," or hanging pieces. A
bell woul