nisiprius wrote:"Our American Cousin" (play) by Tom Taylor, and if anyone knows what stage directions like "Exit Binny, L. 3 E." please let me know. I assume L means stage left; I think 1, 2, and 3 might mean downstage, in between, and upstage???? But what does "E" mean?
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Hi nisi,
Ask and you shall receive.
I'll say it simply, then I'll give a fuller explanation in case anybody is still interested, or even awake.
Before everybody falls asleep:
Yes, L and R mean stage left and stage right. You'll notice in the script you've quoted it's really L. and R. - the periods mean they're abbreviations, and are from a more pedantic era (
Our American Cousin was first produced in New York, at Laura Keene's Theatre, in 1858).
1, 2, and 3 do roughly correspond to down-, center-, and up-stage
in this and many cases, but that
will not be true for every play in all of time and space. In the details I'll explain.
E also has a period because it's an abbreviation: E. means "entrance," through which one may enter or exit.
After many have already fallen asleep:
1, 2, and 3 refer to "ins," that is, the plural of the word "in." In theatre jargon, an in is a horizontal slice of the stage running the entire width. The term is most frequently used with respect to technically-capable
proscenium theatres. They are the areas where scenery can be "flown in," that is, moved down into audience view on ropes or cables, usually with some sort of counterweights, suspended from a space high above the stage; and which later can be "flown out." In old black-and-white farces the weights are immortalized as sandbags which invariably hit characters in the head leading to much slapstickistic hilarity.
For everybody's convenience, and also to hide all the stage machinery thereby preserving the illusion, the ins are delineated by curtains above and to the sides of the stage, respectively called the border and legs. The border serves to hide any hardware above the flown-in piece; and the legs hide the sandbags and help create more backstage space outside the audience's sight line.
In the 1800s, and even the 1900s and the 2000s, most theatres so equipped have hardware to support three ins. A few have more and can therefore run still more effects. If for example there are 5 ins, which is not unknown, in 3 is the center horizontal slice, 1 would be down, 2 down center, 4 up center, and 5 up.
Tom Taylor, the playwright, was writing for the most common theatre layout in his day. How can I say that for certain?
Because the very first words in the very first stage direction for the very first scene are:
"Drawing room in 3."
Taylor is saying that all the rest of his stage directions refer to a theatre with three ins. {Yes, one can also use that terminology differently, but in 3 would only be different if the theatre had > 3 ins, and I've never known a playwright (or director) to use less capability than was available.}
The L. 3 E. notation is not in use any longer. Today we would say something like "Exit Binny UL."
In case anybody is still with me at all:
Skimming through the play I see the stage directions for Act 1 scene 2 refer to the 0 in. That's the space between the back of the proscenium and the first border / legs defining the front of the first in. Often, not absolutely always, right behind the arch are located the teaser and tormentors. Those are solid scene pieces, not curtains, which both hide stage machinery and change the size of the opening in the so-called picture frame. In 0 is behind where the main and fire curtains can be flown in, but in front of where the closest-to-the-audience other scenery can be flown.
And now for a perfectly safe personal revelation because nobody could possibly quote it because that would mean admitting they'd read all the way through the teaser and tormentors part:
I knew what L. and R., and 1, 2, and 3 meant, but I didn't recognize the suffix E. People just don't talk that way anymore. It took me quite some time this afternoon to work it out. I had a number of conjectures, including entrance, but it wasn't until I found
this link from a 1915 publication that I knew for sure and was ready to post.
Any other questions?
PJW