exercise it affords the imagination in overcoming obstacles.




SCENERY




[Illustration: Diagram showing the arrangement of screens for simplified
staging of "Why the Chimes Rang."]




SCENERY.


For the sake of facing the most difficult form of the problem of amateur
staging, let us suppose that this play is to be given in a parlor or
hall, without platform, without proscenium arch or curtains, with the
walls, floor and ceiling of such material and finish that no nails may
be driven into them, and that the depth of the stage is only nine feet.
It looks hopeless but it can be done.

Under such conditions the only possible form of scenery is the screen.
If the "scenery-man" is a bit of a carpenter, he can build the screens
himself, making them as strong and as light as possible, with four
leaves a few inches shorter than the height of the room in which they