64 DISCIPLINE BEHIND THE SCENES. But between prompter and call-boy this often goes wrong, and the player not unfrequently has the mortification of being late on the stage; a fact which is perfectly clear, and always annoying, to an audience. There is little use of quarreling about this; the call-boy (generally an impertinent little imp) will always be ready to beat you down that he did call you, and while you are calmly replying that "if you had been called you should certainly have come on," the stage-manager quietly marks you down for a fine for having kept the stage waiting. So the safest plan is to stand around the wings, waiting through everybody's scenes, until your own cue comes. The rules governing the conduct of actors and actresses vary greatly, according to the theatre, and according to circumstances. The best-conducted theatres, I need hardly say, are the most strict in enforcing their rules, and preserving the discipline of the green-room and coulisses. The following may be considered a specimen set of rules, and every well-conducted theatre in the land may be expected to have a set of a very similar character, though not perhaps precisely on this pattern. Events are continually occurring to cause changes to be made in every theatre, and as the power of changing the rules is an arbitrary one with the manager (or the stage-manager, as the case may be,) the change can be effected without holding a council of war on the subject. GREEN-ROOM RULES. 1. Gentlemen, at the time of rehearsal or performance, are not to wear their hats in the Green Room, or talk vociferously. The Green Room is a place appropriated for the quiet and regular meeting of the company, who are to be called thence, and thence only, by the call boy, to attend on the Stage. The Manager is not to be applied to in that place, on any matter of business, or with any personal complaint. For a breach of any part of this article, fifty cents will be forfeited. GREEN-ROOM RULES. 65 2. The calls for all rehearsals will be put up by the Prompter between the play and the farce, or earlier, on evenings of performance. No plea will be received that the call was not seen, in order to avoid the penalties of Article Fifth. 3. Any member of the company unable, from the effects of stimulants, to perform, or to appear at rehearsal, shall forfeit a week's salary, and be liable to be discharged. 4. For making the Stage wait, Three Dollars. 5. After due notice, all rehearsals must be attended. The Green Room clock or the Prompter's watch is to regulate time; ten minutes will be allowed, (the first call only) for difference of clocks; forfeit, twenty-five cents for each scene-every entrance to constitute a scene; the whole rehearsal at the same rate, or four dollars, at the option of the Manager. 6. A Performer rehearsing from a book or part, after proper time has been allowed for study, shall forfeit Five Dollars. 7. A Performer introducing his own language, or improper jests not in the author, or swearing in his part, shall forfeit Five Dollars. 8. Any person talking loud behind the scenes, to the interruption of the performance, to forfeit Five Dollars. 9. Every Performer, concerned in the first act of a play, to be in the Green Room, dressed for performance, ten minutes before the time of beginning, as expressed in the bills, or to forfeit Five Dollars. The Performers in the second act to be ready when the first finishes. In like manner with every other act. Those Performers who are not in the last two acts of the play, to be ready to begin the farce, or to forfeit Five Dollars. When a change of dress is necessary, ten minutes will be allowed. 10. Every Performer's costume to be decided on by the Manager, and a Performer who makes any alteration in dress without the consent of the Manager, or refuses to wear the costume selected, shall forfeit Three Dollars. 11. If the Prompter shall be guilty of any neglect in his office, or omit to forfeit where penalties are incurred, by non-observance of the Rules and Regulations of the Theatre, he shall forfeit, for each offense or omission, One Dollar. 12. For refusing, on a sudden change of a play or farce, to represent a character performed by the same person during the season, a week's salary shall be forfeited. 13. A Performer refusing a part allotted by the Manager, forfeits a week's salary, or may be discharged. 14. No Prompter, Performer, or Musician will be permitted to copy any manuscript belonging to the Theatre without permission of the Manager, under the penalty of Fifty Dollars. 15. Any Performer singing songs not advertised in the bill of the play, omitting any, or introducing them, not in the part allotted, without first having consent of the Manager, forfeits a week's salary. 16. A performer restoring what is cut out by the Monager, will forfeit Five Dollars. 17. A Performer absenting himself from the Theatre in the evenings when concerned in the business of the stage, will forfeit a week's salary, or be held liable to be discharged, at the option of the Manager. 18. Any Performer unable, from illness, to fulfil his or her duties, either at rehearsals or in the evening performances, must in every case give a written notice, certified by a Physician, within a reasonable time, to enable the Management to provide a substitute; and where a Performer's duties are unattended to from repeated illness, it will be at the option of the Management to cancel the engagement. Any neglect to furnish the written notice and certificate, as above named, will be deemed tantamount to a resignation. The Manager reserves the right of payment or stoppage of salary during the absence of the sick person. 19. No person permitted, on any account, to address the audience, but with the consent of the Manager. Any violation of this article will subject the party to a forfeiture of a week's salary, or a discharge, at the option of the Manager. 20. Any member of the company causing a disturbance in any part of the establishment, will be liable to a forfeiture of a week's salary, or to be discharged, at the option of the Management. The rules in vogue in English theatres are very nearly the same, as may be seen from the following resume of them: "1. Every member of the company required to assist in the national anthem; also to give their services for the music of Macbeth,' masquerade and dirge of 'Romeo and Juliet,' music of 'Pizarro,' &c. 2. Ten minutes allowed for change of dress. 3. Ten minutes grace allowed for difference of clocks, for the first rehearsal only. 4. No performer allowed in front of the house before or after performing the same evening. 5. Any member of the company going on the stage, either at rehearsal or at night, in a state of intoxication, to forfeit one week's RULES FOR GRUMBLERS. 67 salary, or to receive immediate dismissal, at the option of the manager. 6. For addressing the audience without the sanction of the management, to forfeit five shillings. [In some theatres this is a guinea forfeit.] 7. For using bad language, or being guilty of violent conduct, one guinea. 8. For neglecting stage-business, as arranged by the stage-manager at rehearsal, five shillings. 9. For being absent at rehearsal-for the first scene, one shilling; for every succeeding scene, sixpence. 10. For crossing the stage during performance, five shillings. 11. For loud speaking at the wings and entrances during business, two shillings. 12. For being imperfect at night, sufficient time having been allowed for study, five shillings. 13. For refusing to play any part, such character being in accordance with the terms of engagagement, one guinea. 14. For keeping the stage waiting, two and sixpence. 15. For detaining prompt-book beyond the time arranged by the stage-manager, two shillings. 16. On benefit occasions, pieces selected to be submitted for the approval of the management, before issuing bills or announcements." In addition to these reasonable rules there are others of a more stringent and arbitrary character. One is given which must have been invented by a wag: "Rule twelve: Actors are requested not to grumble and stay, but to grumble and go." This must be regarded as a downright suspension of the constitutional privileges of petition and complaint of griveances, but was doubtless only aimed at the chronic grumblers who infest every profession. And now no doubt the question will present itself to many minds, "Why do people leave other pursuits to rush to the stage, if there are so many hardships there?" The answer is that most people are ignorant of these hardships. They see the glitter of an actor's life, and idly ancy that an actor's only care is to strut up and down a 68 ACTORS WHO GO ASTRAY. stage, dressed in fine clothes, decked with false jewels, and bellowing high heroics for an admiring crowd. The consequence is that idle apprentices, dissatisfied grocers' clerks, and many other people who have not the smallest conception of the real duties of a conscientious actor, rush into the theatrical profession and swell the already large army of good-for-nothings, who bring down upon the heads of decent members such shame and obloquy. These people, once they have been initiated in the very first steps of an actor's life, usually see very clearly that fifty times more talent, tact, perseverance, and self-denial are required to make the smallest headway as an actor than to be the most successful grocer or tape-seller that ever lived. Thereupon they become discouraged at the prospect; fancy themselves neglected geniuses; grumble at the world; hang around drinking saloons all day; go upon the stage drunk at night, ill-dressed, imperfect in their parts the very meanest specimens of the human family extant. Then people cry, "Ah, yes-see what actors do!" But candid and just persons will acknowledge that it is not usually those who confer credit upon their profession who do this. No one ever saw Mr. Joseph Jefferson hanging around the bar of a drinking saloon; nor Lester Wallack; nor Edwin Booth. One of the most striking illustrations of the weariness occasioned by the severe toil of a player, is furnished by Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt. She relates that often after a protracted rehearsal in the morning, and an arduous performance at night, she returned home from the theatre wearied out in mind and body; yet she dared not rest. The character to be represented on the succeeding night still required several hours of reflection and application. Sometimes she kept herself awake by bathing her heavy |