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72-503: When he first founded the theatre, Robert-Houdin was known primarily for his guest appearances as a magician and his clever mechanical inventions. Eager to solidify his work as a stage performer, he leased assembly rooms in the Palais-Royal and had them converted into a small but elegant proscenium theatre auditorium. In setting his stage, Robert-Houdin deliberately set himself apart from conventional stage-magic traditions; he eschewed

144-416: A social construct which divides the actors and their stage-world from the audience which has come to witness it. But since the curtain usually comes down just behind the proscenium arch, it has a physical reality when the curtain is down, hiding the stage from view. The same plane also includes the drop, in traditional theatres of modern times, from the stage level to the "stalls" level of the audience, which

216-541: A "boulevard culture" that lasted throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Boulevard theatres were smaller than established venues like the Comédie-Française , and produced more varied and experimental shows. The Boulevard des Italiens was a locus of entertainment technology during this period; numerous photographic studios operated near the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, and from 1899 onward

288-503: A director of Méliès-like trick films for Pathé Frères . Under Méliès, the theatre's offerings included an annual revue, Passez Muscade . The 1899 edition mixed stage performances with filmed attractions, and included two topical parodies of the rival magician Buatier de Kolta , caricaturing him as a pompous magician with the similar-sounding name "Moitié de Polka", and spoofing his illusion "Le Miracle". (A 1908 Méliès film, also titled Moitié de polka , may have adapted this parody, but

360-412: A good view because the performers need only focus on one direction rather than continually moving around the stage to give a good view from all sides. A proscenium theatre layout also simplifies the hiding and obscuring of objects from the audience's view (sets, performers not currently performing, and theatre technology). Anything that is not meant to be seen is simply placed outside the "window" created by

432-430: A green room above one's station. As often in etymological questions, the precise origins of a term are difficult to establish. This has led to many folk-etymological hypotheses and claims for high-profile terms such as green room . One of the oldest stories is that London's Blackfriars Theatre (1599) included a room behind the scenes, where the actors waited to go on stage, which happened to be painted green, and

504-476: A performance, and one of the symptoms of nervousness is nausea. As a person who feels nauseous is often said to look "green", suggesting that the 'green room' is the place where the nervous actors wait. Comedian and dancer Max Wall attributes the phrase to Cockney rhyming slang , where 'greengage' is 'stage', therefore 'greengage room' is 'stage room'; like most rhyming slang, the term was shortened, hence '"green" room'. Rhyming slang can be traced only as early as

576-474: A picture frame than an arch but serving the same purpose: to deineate the stage and separate the audience from its action. While the proscenium arch became an important feature of the traditional European theatre, often becoming very large and elaborate, the original proscaenium front below the stage became plainer. The introduction of an orchestra pit for musicians during the Baroque era further devalued

648-520: A proscenium arch, but the term thrust stage is more specific and more widely used). In dance history , the use of the proscenium arch has affected dance in different ways. Prior to the use of proscenium stages, early court ballets took place in large chambers where the audience members sat around and above the dance space. The performers, often led by the queen or king, focused in symmetrical figures and patterns of symbolic meaning. Ballet's choreographic patterns were being born. In addition, since dancing

720-539: A seating capacity of about two hundred. The decorations were in the Style Louis XV , with white walls and gold trim, and Robert-Houdin's proscenium stage was set up as an elegant drawing-room, complete with candelabras and drapery. Robert-Houdin set himself apart from previous magic acts in his stage setting; while some other magicians had tried to dazzle with elaborate, purely ornamental props and lighting effects, and abundant use of tables covered with cloth to

792-439: A show and allow it to set up or cure before performing. Until the makeup was cured, it was 'green', and people were advised to sit quietly in the 'green room' until such time as the makeup was stable enough for performing. It is possible that 'green room' might be a corruption of 'scene room', the room where scenery was stored which doubled as the actors' waiting and warm-up room. Many actors also experience nervous anxiety before

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864-464: A traditional actors' term for the stage ever since. Even in proscenium arch theatres, there was a tradition that a green stage cloth should be used for a tragedy . The green room could thus be considered the transition room on the way to the green/stage. Technical staff at some West End theatres (such as the London Coliseum) still refer to the stage as 'the green'. It is sometimes said that

936-590: Is The Miracles of the Brahmin (1900) and Coppelia, the Animated Doll (also 1900). Tom Old Boot (1896) captures a performance by a small entertainer of the same name, who was playing at the Robert-Houdin at the time as a "nain americain" ("American dwarf"). The Living Playing Cards (1905) was inspired by an act performed at the Robert-Houdin by Gaston Velle , who would himself later become

1008-466: Is no English equivalent ... It would also be possible to retain the classical frons scaenae . The Italian "arco scenico" has been translated as "proscenium arch." In practice, however, the stage in the Teatro Olimpico runs from one edge of the seating area to the other, and only a very limited framing effect is created by the coffered ceiling over the stage and by the partition walls at

1080-399: Is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the first example of a proscenium theatre. The Teatro Olimpico was an academic reconstruction of a Roman theatre. It has a plain proscaenium at the front of the stage, dropping to the orchestra level, now usually containing "stalls" seating, but no proscenium arch. However, the Teatro Olimpico's exact replication of the open and accessible Roman stage

1152-589: The Galerie Vivienne , and at the Musée Grévin ; his father was a shoe manufacturer who had retired earlier in 1888, splitting up his fortune between his three sons. While his brothers Henri and Gaston took over the shoe business, Georges Méliès used his share of the money to rent the Théâtre Robert-Houdin from the site's owner, the Count de Rohan-Chabot. Méliès also bought up the theatre's properties from

1224-712: The Greek chorus and musicians remained in the "orchestra" in front and below it, and there were often further areas for performing from above and behind the proskenion, on and behind the skene . Skene is the Greek word (meaning "tent") for the tent, and later building, at the back of the stage from which actors entered, and which often supported painted scenery. In the Hellenistic period it became an increasingly large and elaborate stone structure, often with three storeys. In Greek theatre, which unlike Roman included painted scenery,

1296-535: The Pathé brothers ran a phonograph salon on the boulevard. After a performing career of eleven years, Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin moved on to writing and retirement; he died in June 1871. The Théatre Robert-Houdin continued, with Hamilton being replaced first by François Lahire, who performed as Cleverman, and then by Pierre Edouard Brunnet, whose innovations included the locked-trunk escape artist act "Malle des Indes". In

1368-466: The proscaenium , bringing the lowest level of the audience's view forward to the front of the pit, where a barrier, typically in wood, screened the pit. What the Romans would have called the proscaenium is, in modern theatres with orchestra pits, normally painted black in order that it does not draw attention. In this early modern recreation of a Roman theatre, confusion seems to have been introduced to

1440-418: The "glare" might well be apocryphal, a modern reference to bright stage lighting. Richard Southern , in his studies of medieval theatre in the round , states that in this period the acting area was referred to as 'the green'. This central space, often grass-covered, was used by the actors, while the surrounding space and circular banks were occupied by the spectators; Southern states that 'the green' has been

1512-561: The 1840s, whereas the phrase "green room" predates this by several centuries, making such an etymology unlikely. In Shakespeare's day, the actors waited in a "tiring house" probably because actors were attired (put on or changed costumes) in this space. Here it is mentioned by Peter Quince as he plans for his acting troupe to rehearse in the woods: QUINCE: Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action as we will do it before

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1584-581: The 1897 series Comedian Paulus Singing , the first known use of artificial light in film. However, the experiment with artificial light was not repeated. In early 1897, Méliès constructed a purpose-built glass studio on his family's property in Montreuil-sous-Bois , exactly reproducing the dimensions of the Robert-Houdin. With the building of the studio, he became more and more occupied with filmmaking, drastically reducing his output of new stage illusions; he premiered only four new illusions at

1656-530: The Count de L'Escalopier, invested fifteen thousand francs into the project. In 1845, the theatre was launched inside the Palais-Royal . This building, once home to Cardinal Richelieu , had been converted into a lavish shopping arcade, with shops and cafés on the ground floor and assembly rooms above them. Robert-Houdin and de L'Escalopier leased assembly rooms at No. 164 Galerie Valois, and had carpenters knock down interior walls to create an auditorium, with

1728-631: The Palais-Royal". Reviews in Le Charivari and L'Illustration were favourable, comparing the theatre's offerings to those of famous magicians like Bartolomeo Bosco and Philippe Talon. On 12 February 1846, Robert-Houdin added a fresh act to the repertoire: "Second Sight", adapted and expanded from earlier magicians' routines. In this act, Robert-Houdin's son Émile, though blindfolded, contrived to answer questions about objects volunteered by audience members. "Second Sight" rocketed Robert-Houdin and his theatre to immense success and packed houses. Once

1800-525: The Passage de l'Opéra at No. 10, were demolished to make room for an extension of the Boulevard Haussmann. 48°52′19″N 2°20′19″E  /  48.8719°N 2.3386°E  / 48.8719; 2.3386 Proscenium theatre A proscenium ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : προσκήνιον , proskḗnion ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre , usually surrounded on

1872-408: The Robert-Houdin became immersed in grave financial difficulties. By 1878, complaints were being raised that the theatre was not adequately advertising its guest artists, a problem that appears to have diminished its reputation among Parisian theatres. By the mid-1880s the theatre had fallen into a state of disrepair, and its acts were seen as falling off in quality. The theatre eventually landed under

1944-409: The Robert-Houdin") or L'Omnibus des toqués into L'Omnibus des toqués chez Robert-Houdin ("The Omnibus of Loonies at the Robert-Houdin"). Méliès himself declared: "My cinematographic career was connected so closely to the career of the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, that one can hardly separate them." Méliès's second film, Conjuring (1896), is derived from one of his magic acts at the Robert-Houdin, as

2016-513: The Teatro Olimpico clearly show that the action took place in front of the scaenae frons and that the actors were rarely framed by the central archway). The Italian word for a scaenae frons is " proscenio ," a major change from Latin. One modern translator explains the wording problem that arises here: "[In this translation from Italian,] we retain the Italian proscenio in the text; it cannot be rendered proscenium for obvious reasons; and there

2088-642: The Théâtre Robert-Houdin was a "historic temple of magic". He reported that some Parisians assumed that Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin himself "was still alive and giving performances at the theatre which bears his name." At the beginning of the First World War in August 1914, Méliès closed and sublet the theatre. It reopened nine months later as a full-time cinema house, the Ciné-Salon Robert-Houdin, no longer under Méliès's directorship. In

2160-435: The beginning of dance-performance as a form of entertainment like we know it today. Since the use of the proscenium stages, dances have developed and evolved into more complex figures, patterns, and movements. At this point, it was not only significantly important how the performers arrived to a certain shape on the stage during a performance, but also how graciously they executed their task. Additionally, these stages allowed for

2232-416: The characters performing on stage are doing so in a four-walled environment, with the "wall" facing the audience being invisible. Many modern theatres attempt to do away with the fourth wall concept and so are instead designed with a thrust stage that projects out of the proscenium arch and "reaches" into the audience (technically, this can still be referred to as a proscenium theatre because it still contains

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2304-402: The corners of the stage where the seating area abuts the floorboards. The result is that in this theatre "the architectural spaces for the audience and the action ... are distinct in treatment yet united by their juxtaposition; no proscenium arch separates them." A proscenium arch creates a "window" around the scenery and performers. The advantages are that it gives everyone in the audience

2376-450: The directorship of Émile Voisin, otherwise a manufacturer of props for magic acts. In 1887, Voisin hired Stéphanie Faës, an actor who performed under the name Jehanne d'Alcy . In part because she was small and agile, d'Alcy proved a valuable performer for magic illusions, and appeared in them regularly. In July 1888, the theatre came under the directorship of Georges Méliès . Méliès was a rising young magician who had performed at salons, at

2448-532: The draperies replaced, and worked with another magician, Duperrey, to plan a performance repertoire with original material. Though Méliès continued the theatre's tradition of straightforward magic acts and trick automaton exhibits, his plan also included a major innovation: every evening's entertainment would conclude with one of his "grand tricks" ("grands trucs"), large-scale illusions that were staged lavishly and advertised to match, with detailed press announcements and separate posters. In December 1888, Méliès reopened

2520-462: The end of that year, when the lease on the Palais-Royal location ran out, Hamilton moved his operation to a boulevard theatre venue on the Boulevard des Italiens. In its new permanent location, the theatre continued to run for the next few decades, under directors including Cleverman (born François Lahire), Pierre Edouard Brunnet, and Émile Voisin. A drastic refreshing of the theatre's repertoire in

2592-496: The ensuing years, Méliès's debts grew worse, including those to Pathé regarding funds for making his last films. He sold his land, including his film studios, and shut down the Théatre Robert-Houdin completely in 1923. Méliès destroyed his entire collection of his films, more than 500 in all, the same year. In 1924, Numbers 2 through 18 on the Boulevard des Italiens, including the Théâtre Robert-Houdin at No. 8 and

2664-440: The evening, and as a workshop during the day. Robert-Houdin initially advertised the venue as the "Théâtre des Soirées Fantastiques de Robert-Houdin", but this name was soon abridged to "Théâtre Robert-Houdin". Ticket prices were set relatively high to make up for the auditorium's small capacity, with prices between two and five francs depending on the position of the seat. The theatre opened on 3 July 1845, competing directly with

2736-529: The film is currently presumed lost .) Méliès kept the Théâtre running continuously for most of the year, with an annual brief closing for summer vacation (for example, 14 July to 31 July in 1896, during which Méliès took his family to the coast of Normandy and made numerous actuality films ). The Théâtre Robert-Houdin was partly destroyed by a fire on 30 January 1901. The Count de Rohan-Chabot applied for municipal approval to have it rebuilt, and authorization

2808-432: The film projector, Méliès replaced these still images with moving film. Méliès noted later that his first choice would have been to film inside the Robert-Houdin, but he was foiled by his camera's need for much stronger light sources, preferably natural light . According to one recollection, Méliès did attempt on one occasion to film inside the theatre, setting up fifteen arc lamps and fifteen mercury-vapor lamps to make

2880-567: The film's final scenes as the leader of a parade. In addition, Méliès's films were often conceived as filmed equivalents of the illusions staged at the Robert-Houdin. One of his first important films, The Vanishing Lady , has as its full French title Escomotage d'une dame chez Robert-Houdin ("Disappearance of a Lady at the Robert-Houdin"); film historian André Gaudreault argues that the same ending could be added to Méliès's other titles, turning, for example, Le Bourreau turc into Le Bourreau turc chez Robert-Houdin ("The Turkish Executioner at

2952-411: The floor, Robert-Houdin hoped to impress by sticking to the relatively simple Style Louis XV and limiting the furniture to the minimum needed for his act. Folding doors on both sides of the stage allowed Robert-Houdin to bring his elaborate mechanical devices on and offstage; the door at the right led to a room looking out over the Palais-Royal's garden. He used this room as a green room when preparing in

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3024-528: The gala opening of a major Paris amphitheatre , the Hippodrome de l'Étoile. No critics covered Robert-Houdin's first performance, and his memoirs describe it as an artistic failure wrecked by stage fright . However, Robert-Houdin persevered, and slowly began to regain his cool and win critical attention for the theatre. His performances were varied, including mechanically assisted acts like "The Fantastic Orange Tree" and trick automatons like "The Pastrycook of

3096-400: The mid-1870s gave it a major financial boost, with the added box-office takings allowing it to start hosting guest artists. However, the boom did not last long, and the theatre was physically run-down and in a serious financial slump by the mid-1880s. In 1888, Georges Méliès took over the lease on the venue. He retained its existing staff but began a thorough revamping, aiming to restore both

3168-408: The mid-1870s, the theatre's repertoire received a thorough refreshing and revamping, to considerable popular success; box-office takings were reported to have jumped up 42% between 1876 and 1878. The additional funds allowed the theatre to begin hosting a wide variety of guest artists, including mimics , marionette puppeteers, and mental calculator acts. After the popularity boom of the mid-1870s,

3240-518: The modern sense, and the acting space was always fully in the view of the audience. However, Roman theatres were similar to modern proscenium theatres in the sense that the entire audience had a restricted range of views on the stage—all of which were from the front, rather than the sides or back. The oldest surviving indoor theatre of the modern era, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza (1585),

3312-522: The new theatre in January 1853, Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin gave the first performance, along with good wishes to his successor Hamilton. The new location turned the Théâtre Robert-Houdin into a boulevard theatre , one of the entertainment venues that flourished in Paris during and after the city's 1853–1870 urban renewal . The rebuilding of Paris during this period, led by Georges-Eugène Haussmann , created

3384-583: The original white-and-gold colour scheme, with drapery and upholstery in pale green. Méliès was present for the grand re-opening, but later recalled that he was on crutches, from an accident he sustained while filming Blue Beard . On 6 December 1905, the theatre hosted the French Society of Magicians celebrating Robert-Houdin's hundredth birthday. Several prominent Paris magicians presented illusions, and Méliès performed with one of Robert-Houdin's original automatons, "Antonio Diavolo". In 1910, Méliès had

3456-437: The performers, such as upholstered chairs and sofas. The origin of the term is often ascribed to such rooms historically being painted green. Modern green rooms need not necessarily adhere to a specifically green colour scheme, though the theatrical tradition of the name remains. Some English theatres contained several green rooms, each ranked according to the status, fame, and salary of the actor: one could be fined for using

3528-414: The proscenium arch, either in the wings or in the flyspace above the stage. The phrase "breaking the proscenium" or "breaking the fourth wall" refers to when a performer addresses the audience directly as part of the dramatic production. Proscenium theatres have fallen out of favor in some theatre circles because they perpetuate the fourth wall concept. The staging in proscenium theatres often implies that

3600-401: The proskenion might also carry scenery. In ancient Rome, the stage area in front of the scaenae frons (equivalent to the Greek skene) was known as the pulpitum , and the vertical front dropping from the stage to the orchestra floor, often in stone and decorated, as the proscaenium , again meaning "in front of the skene ". In the Greek and Roman theatre, no proscenium arch existed, in

3672-422: The term 'green room' was a response to limelight , though the name is merely a coincidence – "limelight" refers to calcium oxide , not to the fruit or colour . Furthermore, limelight was invented in 1820 and the term "green room" was used many years prior to that. The term 'green room' is also attributed to the makeup worn by actors; long before modern makeup was invented, the actors had to apply makeup before

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3744-459: The theatre between 1888 and 1910. Although he played roles in the illusions he created, Méliès rarely appeared "as himself" in a straightforward conjuring role, unless one of the featured magicians became suddenly unavailable and Méliès needed to fill in. Illusions were accompanied by piano improvisation; he mentions nine Robert-Houdin pianists in his written recollections, including the composer Caroline Chelu. In April 1896, films were projected at

3816-488: The theatre between 1897 and 1910. Although Méliès's stage output was reduced, his films were regularly projected as part of the entertainment at the Robert-Houdin. From September through December 1902, a hand-colored print of A Trip to the Moon was screened at the theatre after Saturday and Thursday matinee performances. It was presented there by Méliès's colleague and fellow magician, Jules-Eugène Legris, who also appeared in

3888-451: The theatre for the first time, using a Theatrograph projector that Méliès had obtained from the film pioneer Robert W. Paul . Méliès would convert the projector into a makeshift camera and begin making his own films in May of that same year. Previously, performances at the theatre had often concluded with a magic lantern show, with hand-coloured slides of photographic views; with the coming of

3960-409: The theatre had won good business, Robert-Houdin closed it for the summer of 1846 to go on tour, bringing in new tricks for the fall season, including a levitation act, "Ethereal Suspension". Over the next few years, Robert-Houdin continued the pattern of performing at his own theatre in between extended bouts of touring and tinkering. In 1851, Robert-Houdin announced publicly that he was entrusting to

4032-623: The theatre present a benefit performance for victims of the 1910 Great Flood of Paris . A 1903 guidebook reported: The successor of the famous Robert-Houdin, the prestidigitateur, in his small but well-appointed theatre, caters chiefly for children and young people of both sexes, but so skilful is he at his performances, that children of larger growth are delighted to be numbered amongst his audiences. The tricks performed are really marvellous and amusing—often of real dramatic interest, and ever and anon finished comedy. Harry Houdini , in his 1908 book The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin , acknowledged that

4104-558: The theatre to a successor and former pupil, Pierre Etienne Chocat, who performed under the name Hamilton. The transferral, effected in January 1852, went smoothly, with the Theatre Robert-Houdin still doing good business under its new management. The lease on the Palais-Royal rooms ran out in December 1852. Rather than renewing it, Hamilton moved his operation to a building at No. 8, Boulevard des Italiens . To inaugurate

4176-519: The theatre was closed; Méliès, now severely in debt from a series of filmmaking-related troubles, was unable to keep it going, and sublet it as a full-time cinema. He shut down the venue in 1923, when he sold all his property in an attempt to pay his debts. Paris city planners demolished the theatre the following year to allow for an extension of the Boulevard Haussmann . In the early 1840s, the innovative magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin

4248-428: The theatre's architecture and its repertoire to their former quality. His first major innovation was to conclude each evening's entertainment with a spectacularly staged, lavishly advertised illusion, telling a miniature story complete with original scenery and costumed characters. Méliès's restorations and innovations were a marked success. In 1896, when moving pictures were an emerging novelty, he added film projection to

4320-402: The theatre's repertoire, and even began making his own films to show there and sell elsewhere. Over the next fifteen years, filmmaking became a major part of his career, on top of and overlapping with his work at the theatre. A 1901 fire destroyed most of the venue, but the theatre was rebuilt the same year and continued to present performances with success. At the onset of the First World War ,

4392-545: The theatre, complete with his first grand trick, "The Persian Stroubaika" ("La Stroubaïka persane"). Under Méliès's directorship, the struggling theatre returned to public prominence, and its box office flourished. In 1889 he premiered three new illusions: "The Mysterious Page" ("Le Page mystérieux"), with d'Alcy in the title role; "The Flower Fairy, or Cagliostro's Mirror" ("La Fée des fleurs ou le Miroir de Cagliostro"); and "The Enchanter Alcofrisbas" ("L'Enchanteur Alcofrisbas"). In all, Méliès would create some thirty illusions for

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4464-429: The top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same. It can be considered as

4536-492: The use of stage effects generated by ingenious machinery. It was the beginning of scenography design, and perhaps also it was also the origin of the use of backstage personnel or "stage hands". Green room In show business , the green room is the space in a theatre , or a similar venue, that functions as a waiting room and lounge for performers before, during, and after a performance or show when they are not engaged on stage . Green rooms typically have seating for

4608-543: The use of the revived term in Italian. This emulation of the Roman model extended to refer to the stage area as the "proscenium", and some writers have incorrectly referred to the theatre's scaenae frons as a proscenium, and have even suggested that the central archway in the middle of the scaenae frons was the inspiration for the later development of the full-size proscenium arch. There is no evidence at all for this assumption (indeed, contemporary illustrations of performances at

4680-462: The usual emphasis on dazzling visual confusion, replacing it with a simple drawing-room look with light furniture in the Style Louis XV . After a rocky start, his theatre gained critical respect, and boomed in popularity with the introduction of Robert-Houdin's mind-reading illusion "Second Sight". In early 1852, Robert-Houdin transferred the theatre's directorship to his former pupil Hamilton (born Pierre Etienne Chocat), who continued its success. At

4752-406: The widow of Émile Robert-Houdin, the magician's son, and retained the whole staff, including performers like d'Alcy, from Voisin's directorship. Méliès, who had been a frequent and enthusiastic audience member at the Robert-Houdin, was keen to refurbish the aging venue and bring its acts back to the standard of quality set by Robert-Houdin himself. He designed new scenery, had the walls repainted and

4824-411: Was called "the green room". A later renovation of London's Cockpit-in-Court theatre in 1662 included a green baize dressing room, which has also been suggested as the origin of the term. It has also been theorised that such waiting rooms were originally painted green to "relieve the eyes from the glare of the stage." On the other hand, early stage lighting was by candlelight and later by gaslight, so

4896-399: Was considered a way of socializing, most of the court ballets finished with a ‘grand ballet’ followed by a ball in which the members of the audience joined the performance. Later on, the use of the proscenium stage for performances established a separation of the audience from the performers. Therefore, more devotion was placed on the performers, and in what was occurring in the ‘show.’ It was

4968-537: Was granted in May–June 1901, though the authorities noted that the building would be affected should plans for extending the Boulevard Haussmann go through. The rebuilt theatre opened on 22 September. Charles Claudel, an artist who had painted scenery for many of Méliès's films, contributed three large paintings of a sorcerer, a conjurer, and a Louis XV -era magician, as well as a ceiling mural depicting some of Robert-Houdin's famous automatons. The rebuilt interior maintained

5040-598: Was the exception rather than the rule in sixteenth-century theatre design. Engravings suggest that the proscenium arch was already in use as early as 1560 at a production in Siena . The earliest true proscenium arch to survive in a permanent theatre is the Teatro Farnese in Parma (1618), many earlier such theatres having been lost. Parma has a clearly defined " boccascena ", or scene mouth, as Italians call it, more like

5112-464: Was the original meaning of the proscaenium in Roman theatres , where this mini-facade was given more architectural emphasis than is the case in modern theatres. A proscenium stage is structurally different from a thrust stage or an arena stage , as explained below. In later Hellenistic Greek theatres the proskenion (προσκήνιον) was a rather narrow raised stage where solo actors performed, while

5184-513: Was well-regarded, particularly for the mechanical curiosities he exhibited to audiences and sold to rich patrons. He performed with a trick automaton at the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 , drawing guests including King Louis Philippe I , and winning a silver medal from the exposition judges. He was keen to expand his magical performances by opening his own venue, and a nobleman who had hired him for private parties,

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