WHAT ACTORS AND ACTRESSES REALLY "EAT" ON THE STAGE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 716, 28 October 1914, Page 3

WHAT ACTORS AND ACTRESSES REALLY "EAT" ON THE STAGE.

Did you ever happen to notice a dinner scene at the theatre, where the servant -poured out a thick, creamy soup, or ladled it out for the guests? That was sawdust. A.ll sorts of things were tried to get the right . effect for soup. Actual colored liquid did not look right under the powerful stage lights, and it proved a difficult "prop" to handle. Finally, some clever stage manager or property man tried ordinary sawdust. The effect was perfect, and since then sawdust is used to represent soup at a dinner scene or gruel in a sick-room scene. Under tho lights'it has every appearance of a liquid. Tempting slices of 'Boiled -■ ham—at least they look tempting to the audienc& —are ,nothing more or less than pieces of ordinary linoleum, .with the red or under side uppermost. Salads are made from cabbage leaves, and tomatoes sliced up give every appearance of a delicious boiled lobster. Bananas are served for fish. "Chicken" generally consists of a I small, well-browned Vienna-shaped loaf lof bread with painted wooden legs stuck in ; a turkey is made in the same manner from a larger loaf of bread. I A roast of beef is generally made ■ from sponge cake, browned with gravy. I It carves easily, and .has every appearance of meat. Slices of toast cut in proper shape and frilled with paper on one end look just like chops and cutlets, and may be nibbled by the actors. A steaming hot pie is a pan with a brown paper covering, and inside of this is a dish of boiling hot water or h'oiled potatoes. ' The hot water or boiled potatoes furnish the "steam" that arises from the "pie" when the paper crust is cut, and looks quite as appetising, as the genuine article. Tea, it is generally ' known, serves for whisky on the stage, and when colored with grenadine or some such coloring- matter it is wine* Ginger ale supplies the sparkling "champagne," but when milk is called for no substitute is used, if it is to be drunk. Even water has its' substitute. This is not water for drinking, however, but for garments -where an effect of being wet is wanted. Ari actor might come upon the stage actually wet-to the skin in real water, and aside from his dripping hair he would not look wet. To make an actor look actually wet a great quantity o f f vaseline is rubbed over his clothes, when, with hair dripping wet, and the lights reflected upon tho vaseline on his clothes, he has every appearance of having just been fished out of the river or ocean, or whatever particular body of water he is supposed to have fallen or- been thrown into.