Collateral Learning: The Wing and Drop System in the United States

Transcription

1 Collateral Learning: The Wing and Drop System in the United States by RW (Rick) Boychuk Collateral learning! It is learning that happens when one is researching something else. When researching Nobody Looks Up: The History of the Counterweight Rigging System: I experienced many instances of collateral learning. This one just came to fruition while in St. Louis at the USITT conference. We may have lost a chapter in our history of theatre technology. The wing and shutter system was ubiquitous in the United States and Canada in the 19 th century. While in St. Louis, over breakfast, Wendy Waszut-Barrett of BellaSCENA in Minneapolis, showed a video to a couple of us. The 1989 video was of some restoration work done at the Steyer Opera House in Decorah, Iowa. It came to Waszut-Barrett via Paul Sannerud. Paul and Peggy Sannerud were participations in that restoration. The video was written directed and produced by George D. Glen; at the time Professor of Theatre at the University of Northern Iowa. The Steyer Opera House was built in 1870; five years before the Palais Garnier in Paris was built. Steyer Opera House. A view of the grooves from the stage to the loft looking upstage left. To the left and to the lower right one can see the tops of the flats. At the top of the flats one can see the grooves. The grooves prevent the flats from falling and guide them as the flats are pushed onstage and pulled offstage. Screen shot from the video of George D. Glen, The mode of scene change in 1870 Europe and England was the chariot and pole system, which had been used since its inception in the mid 1600 s. This was a very capital intensive technology, but the court theatres and opera houses were show places of power and influence, so the large cost was endurable. However, in lower end commercial theatres, the investment in a chariot and pole could not be justified, so the technology was modified into the simpler wing and shutter system. The wings were flats that were guided in grooves at the floor and at the top. The wings formed the side scenic pieces and masked the

2 sides of the stage, much as drapery legs do today. The shutters were identical in all ways except one; they were wide enough that they could meet at center stage to form a back-ground. The wing and shutter system made its way to the United States in the colonial period. John H. Green, in his 1954 doctoral dissertation The Development of Stage Rigging in the United States (1766 to 1893) for the University of Denver, tells that it was not long before the wing and shutter system fell out of use; implication being before In fairness to Green, he went on to define his study as involving more prominent theatres. A screen shot of the half mortice flat sheave from the J. R. Clancy catalogue of Available from the USITT website at While researching counterweight rigging in the catalogues of JR Clancy, I noticed a particular product; it was the half mortise flat sheave. I did not understand the use of this product. I studied it some, but determined that it was not relevant to my research into counterweight rigging. Today we fit a grooved sheave into a housing and we run a rope or cable in the groove. But despite being represented by a drawing, (rather than in a photograph) one could see that this sheave had a flat edge; no groove. Not used for rope. Not used for rigging. Not of interest. But it stuck in the back of my mind. Viewing the Glen video was interesting. It was the kind that only we theatre people - would watch. The people in the video were from the University of Northern Iowa; professors and students. They had rediscovered an old opera house the Steyer - and received permission to restore aspects of it. What resulted was a working wing and shutter system with a number of sets of flats 1. At the end of the video, they were seen changing the sets as would have been done in the 19 th century. Now what is the possibility, thought we, that this was the only wing and shutter system in the United States? Not likely. There was a 3 second shot in the video that caught my eye. There, fixed to the bottom of a couple of flats, were some half mortise flat sheaves ; right out of the Clancy catalogue. They weren t sheaves with flat edges, as I had thought. They were sheaves for flats. 1 Another piece of collateral learning. I am becoming convinced that our use of the word set comes from this time. There are many references in Jack Miner s directory to the number of sets owned by opera houses in the various listings.

3 The flat sheaves were fixed to the bottom of the flats and and allowed the flats to be rolled on and off stage. I also happen to have a digital copy of the Sosman & Landis catalogue of They offer the half mortise sheave for flats. Now, with certaintly, the half mortise flat sheaves is a component used to roll flats on and off stage. I do admit that it took a day for all of this to actually sink in. So I thought, I ve seen these in the Clancy catalogue. I wonder when they were selling these? They are to be seen in the first catalogue of 1886 and the next year, and the next. So I jumped decades. They were available in In In fact, this product appears in every JR Clancy catalogue from 1886 until 1961; 75 years. This must have been an important product to Clancy. And, one might deduce, for the theatre world in the United States. Half Mortice Flat Sheaves on the bottom of flats in the Steyer Opera House as seen in the Glen video. Video by George D. Glen, That was when another shoe dropped. The Crump Theatre 2, Columbus, Indiana was built in David Sechrest quotes a newspaper review of the opening night in which the reviewer comments on how the machinery worked so quietly. This confused me when I first read it. For those of us that have operated hemp rigging which was installed in the Crump of course it operated quietly. Hemp systems do. Well, the Crump system was installed by Mr. C.S. King, stage carpenter of Sosman & Landis. Is it possible that King used half mortise sheaves for flats? Whereas the Clancy catalogue offered flat sheaves, the Sosman & Landis catalogue of 1889 offered sheaves for flats. Chicago History Museum. One part of the wing and shutter system is the flat sheave at the bottom. But the top must be guided preventing the flats from falling over. Guiding was done by grooves, which were located at the top of the flats. This is where Jack Miner comes into the picture. 2 See Sources below.

4 Jack Miner published Jack Miner s American Dramatic Directory. I have a digital copy of the edition. In it, amongst other listings and advertisements, is a listing of thousands of theatres and opera houses in every state of the US and in Canada. The Miner director was the source book for planning theatrical tours in the 19 th century in the US. Listing of the Steyer Opera House, Decorah, Iowa. Notice the lack of mention of grooves. Yet, the Glen video definitely show grooves.. Jack Miner s American Dramatic Directory The listing for the Steyer Opera House was pretty cursory. Name of the opera house, rental rate, size of the stage, and full set scenery, etc. But looking down the same page was the listing for the Dubuque and Foster s Opera Houses, which had more comprehensive information including height from stage to grooves. Then paging through the directory, height from stage to grooves was often provided. Theatre after theatre had grooves for a wing and shutter system. And, the Steyer had grooves, but they weren t mentioned in the listing. Might they have been installed after? Maybe. But the scenery is listed. With no fly loft as evidenced by the video any scenery would have been flats. And as indicated in the listing full set scenery. So how many more theatres not mentioning grooves, in fact, had them? Above; listing of the Dubuque Opera House, Dubuque, Iowa. Below: listing of Foster s Opera House, Dubuque, Iowa. Notice the prominent mention of grooves in both. Jack Miner s American Dramatic Directory

5 So, the information at hand tells us that: i) the wing and shutter system made its way to Decorah, Iowa and many, many other places, and ii) JR Clancy and Sosman & Landis sold at least one product that was used for the system, and iii) iv) JR Clancy had it in their catalogue for 76 years, and Harry Miner thought it important enough to note height of grooves in his directory. We might surmise that the wing and shutter system was ubiquitous in North America. That it had its day. That it fell out of fashion, became unused then discarded, and, it seems, we had forgotten about it. Until now. Collateral learning. Columbus, Indiana s Historic Crump Theatre, Sechrest, David, 2013, The History Press, Charleston, SC. The Glen video was written, produced and directed by George D. Glen with assistance from Iowa Humanities Board and the Media Educational Center, University of Northern Iowa. It is available to be viewed on YouTube. See: The Steyer Opera House still exists. It has been completely renovated and updated and now serves as an event center as part of the Winneshiek Hotel and Restaurant. See: Rick Boychuk is a theatre technician and designer. He is also an inventor and owns the patent for the front-loading arbor, and has a patent pending for an arbor trap, which is designed to prevent runaway line sets. He has discovered that new innovations their find foundation in the history of the technology. Rick continues to explore the spread of the counterweight rigging system in the United States in anticipation of releasing a second volume of Nobody Looks Up: The History of the Counterweight Rigging System: 1500 to Nobody Looks Up: is the only book ever written to document the history of the counterweight rigging system. See: and