User:KDS4444/Oleo drop

An Austrian curtain.

The front curtain, also known as the house curtain, act curtain, grand drape, main drape or main rag is a stage curtain at the very front of a stage.

Typically, the front curtain is opened at the beginning of a performance to reveal the stage set and closed during intermissions and at the end of a performance. The most common material for the front curtain to be made from is a heavy velour material, often with pleated fullness sewn into the fabric to create a more opulent appearance.

Curtain accents

In some instances of both historical and modern theatres and opera houses, pictures or murals have been printed onto the front curtain, typically to accentuate or complement the architecture or stylistic theme of the theatre. Graphics projected with gobos may be used to create a similar effect, or allow images relevant to the production to be seen. Stage lighting instruments may project coloured washes onto the front curtain. These washes help accentuate the front curtain, and the instruments which project the wash are known as "curtain warmers."

Types of curtains

House curtains, can be divided several ways– there are those that are flat and those that are pleated; those that are common and those that are rare; those that drape, those which hang, and those that do both; those which require a large amount of fly space overhead and those which do not; those which are simple and inexpensive to construct and operate versus those that are costly, complex, and difficult; those which require mechanical power to manipulate and those which can be operated by a single person. The list below is meant to be comprehensive of the fundamental types according to these characteristics.

Austrian

The raising and lowering of an Austrian drape

The Austrian curtain or Austrian drape, also called a puff curtain, has multiple vertical and usually nylon lines distributed evenly across the length of the fabric (often a thin satin, charmeuse, or chiffon material which will bunch up well). Each of these lines runs through a pulley at the top of the curtain and then over to a head block. From there, they each lead and down to a mechanical winch necessary to raise the curtain (which is much too heavy to be raised by a one person). As the winch turns and curtain rises, it is collected in a series of swags which is accentuated by horizontal pleats called festoons sown into the curtain from top to bottom. In this sense, it has both vertical and horizontal fullness. Austrian curtains reached their height of popularity in the mid twentieth century. They are visually very aesthetic, require little fly space overhead, and are relatively simple to operate as long as the winch can bear the load. However, they are very complex to rig and are the most expensive kind of curtain to construct.

Waterfall

A variation on the Austrian is the waterfall curtain: in this version, instead of horizontal festoons, the curtain has vertical pleats like a traditional theater curtain, but it still gathers from the bottom in a number of swags. The waterfall has a pipe batten along the bottom to ensure the lines rise evenly.

Brail

A brail curtain or drape appears as a pleated panel much like a traveler curtain when in the lowered position. It is rigged, however, as an Austrian curtain: the multiple lines leading through rings sewn to along the seams on the back side of the curtain will cause the fabric to gather along the bottom in swags as the curtain is raised. It has a faster action than a traveler curtain, and like an Austrian it requires little fly space.

Olio drop

An olio curtain being raised and lowered

An olio/ oleo drop, also called an "olio curtain", "roll drop", or simply an "olio" (though never an "olio drape"), is another kind of stage curtain. Like the Austrian, it requires a minimum of overhead space. It consists of a single large canvas called a drop, often decorated with a mural, and attached at the bottom to a long rigid tube. Each end of the tube has a single coil of rope called an "operating line" wrapped around it. One end of this line is secured to the fly space from which it runs down, loops around the tube once, then back up to the fly space and through a pulley. It then attaches to a counterbalance in the form of sandbags before running back down to the stage floor. When both lines are pulled, the sandbags come down in unison, the tube rotates, and the canvas rolls on to it as it rises, thereby revealing the stage. This technique was a vaudeville favorite. An olio requires a sturdy roll tube– the larger the diameter of this tube, the less easily it will sag and the more readily it will drop when the ropes are loosed. However, larger tubes are heavier, and large olios are difficult and expensive to construct generally.

Traveller

Travellers opening and closing

The most common technique for opening a front curtain is with what is called a draw curtain, traveller curtain, or just traveller. Traveller curtains remain at a fixed height and open and close horizontally, breaking in the middle (but never draping and therefore never referred to as a "drape"). Like the Austrian and the olio, they require a minimum of fly space. The curtains are suspended on a series of short chains that hang from rollers or "carriers," each with two wheels secured inside of a metal channel. Hanging directly below each carrier and above the chains is an eyelet through which the operating line of the curtain passes. The operating line runs through pulleys above and at each end of the stage (one called the "dead end pulley" and the other the "live end pulley" before running down to the stage floor where it runs through another pulley (called a "tension pulley") before returning to the other pulleys in the fly space. Pulling down on one of the ropes that wraps around the tension pulley causes the carrier of each curtain's leading edge, a device called a "master carrier" and having four wheels instead of two, to drag through its channel and push the other carriers one by one back to the edges of the stage; pulling on the other side of the pulley causes the master carrier to run the opposite direction in the channel and pull the remaining carriers behind it. A device called an "end stop" prevents the master carrier from being pulled out of its channel. Alternatively, the curtain may be rigged so that the carriers collect off-stage rather than onstage causing the curtain to appear to move as a whole– this is accomplished with devices called backpack guides. The curtains themselves are decorated with a series of vertical box pleats along the top edge. They are the least costly kind of theater curtain to construct and extremely simple to operate, whether manually or mechanically. Traveller style curtains can be rigged from a fly system as well, in which case they are referred to as or guillotine curtains because they will rise and fall much like a guillotine. In this form, they can be made as a single panel rather than two (though guillotine curtains can be made with two panels as well and therefore operate as a traveller curtain when not flown) and require at least as much fly space above them as the height of the curtain itself, a factor which can make their construction very expensive. Nevertheless, they allow the stage to be revealed extremely quickly and to be covered with equal speed and pleasant appearance.

Tableau

An illustration of a tableau curtain. A.) Curtains in closed position B.) Curtains in open position C.) Pulleys D.) Position of rings and lines when curtains are open E.) Position of rings and lines when curtain is closed F.) Pull cord G.) Curtain overlap

The tableau or tab curtain, also called opera drapes, though iconic of the theater setting, is the rarest of curtains to actually be employed on the stage. It consists of two overlapping panels (sometimes pleated, sometimes flat) secured along the top to a batten, with the lower onstage corners or center points of the panel edges attached to lines. These lines run through series of rings behind each curtain diagonally, and then through pulleys in the batten and down to the floor. When the cord is pulled, the fabric is lifted diagonally up and out, away from the center. In this position, it does not fully clear the stage, instead creating a frilled tent-like opening for the performance– it is for this reason that it is rarely used.

Venetian

The Venetian curtain, also known as a profile or contour curtain, has multiple vertical lines distributed across the length of the single panel of fabric which is usually made with as much as 200% fullness and must be thin and soft so it will gather well. The curtain is opened by pulling on the lines. Each line is independently operated, making it possible to control the shape and height of curtain openings. This type of curtain is typically the most difficult type to operate because of the many independent lines.

Wipe

A wipe curtain, named after the film editing technique called a wipe, is rigged in a manner similar to a traveller, however, a wipe curtain opens from either the extreme left or right side of the proscenium opening and travels horizontally across the entire stage.

See also

• Fire curtain
• Theater drapes and stage curtains

References

Category:Fly system

Category:Parts of a theatre