d be heard by the audience and detract from the performance.
A curtain buzzer or light gives the "warning" and "go" signals to the
stage hands in the fly-gallery who are called "flymen," for raising
and lowering the curtains or other scenery, like "drops," "borders,"
and any other pieces of scenery that have been "hung" to fly. In some
modern theatres the switchboard and its operator are raised some ten
feet above the stage. In such a case a buzzer signal from the stage
manager's prompt desk directs the manipulation of the lights for the
guidance of the chief electrician in his elevated perch, these signals
being given at a certain "cue" in the performance, and he knows from
his cue sheet, always before him, just what lights are required on
each succeeding cue.

Stage dressing rooms are by law required to be separated from the
stage proper by a permanent wall. Access to them is usually found near
the front wall of the stage, seldom along the back wall. In modern
city theatres dressing rooms are in tiers, as in the New Amsterdam
Theatre, New York, where there are seven floors of dressing rooms
reached by a private elevator used for no other purpose. The modern
stage dressing rooms in city theatres have every known arrangement for
comfort, sanitation and convenience.

Stage artists have no business in the front of the house, nor,
conversely, have those whose employment is in the front of the house
any business on the stage. Both keep their separate places at all
times. Artists are always required to enter and leave the theatre
through the stage door. All first-class managers forbid the artists to
be seen in "the front of the house." Members of the company usually
are required to report for matinee performances about 1:30 P.M. and
for evening shows about 7:30 P.M., but always before the "half hour"
is called, which is thirty minutes before the overture is played. The
stage watchman, known as the stage door tender, is always at the stage
door before and during a performance and permits none to pass in who
are not directly connected with the stage end of the theatre, the day
stage door tender being on duty usually from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M., and the
night stage door tender from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M. The night watchman goes
his rounds regularly throughout the night at required intervals,
registering on a time-clock from different stations throughout the
theatre building; all outer doors and windows are locked about
one-half hour afte