To Play To The Gas - Theatre Etymology - Part 27

n this day, if somebody says, "to play to the gas," it sounds like a car term. After all, there are things that happen with cars or trucks and they are said to add play to the gas pedal. However, the phrase to play to the gas is thought to have meant to make just enough money to get by, meaning that a theatrical production made just enough money so people were literally able to play their gas bills.

However, that exact definition does not seem to be found. In the fifth volume of Slang and its analogues past and present. A dictionary, historical and comparative of the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three hundred years. With synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, etc by John Stephen and William Earnest, "to play to the gas" is said to mean to play to small audiences. This was published some time between 1890 and 1904.

It is interesting that the phrase then appears in a 1906 Dutch publication known as Tall en Lettern. This means Language and Arts and seems to be by J.M.N. Kapteijn. The Dutch phrase is "Voor stoelen e n banken spelen" which translates to "Play chairs and sofas." However, it is not listed as that translation in English in the publication. Instead, it says that the phrase is the equivalent of "to play to the gas." It would seem that this is supporting that the phrase actually means to play to small audiences as it sounds like playing to chairs and sofas was something that was probably done in homes of people who held theatre there and thus had sitting rooms with a few chairs and one or a few sofas for friends.

It seems that the next time the phrase appears in recorded print is in 1933 in the book Earl Derr Biggers Tells Ten Stories by Earl Derr Biggers. It is said to have come from the October 7, 1922 edition of The Saturday Evening Post in a story called "Moonlight at the Crossroads." He wrote that one of his characters was talking to another called Maynard and said, "My dear sir, you can never appreciate the life I got into. For a short time all went well; then the houses fell off. We didn't play to the gas. Our salaries stopped, our pitiful luggage was seized for hotel bills, we ate but rarely. Somehow, we struggled on. I had never dreamed such misery could exist in the world. We managed to reach Dublin, and there my resistance gave out. I wired a friend for money to go home." This part of the story does have to do with people in the theatre and seems to support the phrase "to play to the gas" meaning to make enough money to get by.

The phrases can make sense when put together. Actors may have played to the gas, meaning a small audience that paid just enough for them to make enough money to pay the gas bill or make whatever they needed to get by. The phrase could have also changed meaning over the years as language does tend to change.

The word play has many definitions. When it is a noun, the word play seems to come from the Middle English noun pleye or the Old English nounn plega. When it is a verd, the word play seem to come from the Middle English verb pleyen or the Old English verb pleg(i)an. This can be comared to the Middle Dutch word pleien meaning to leap for joy, dance, rejoice, be glad.

The word gas was coined between 1650-1660 by the Flemish chemist J.B. van Helmont. It is thought that he coined the word based on the Greek word cháos meaning atmosphere.

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Gin and Fog - Theatre Etymology - Part 26

 Gin and fog sounds like it might refer to special effects used in the theatre as a term akin to smoke and mirrors. However, that isn't the case. The term gin and fog, or sometimes written gin-and-fog, refers to hoarseness caused due to heavy drinking the previous night. A dictionary of words and phrases from the past says that a voice would have a peculiar quality of "fruitiness" and says that the term comes from around 1880 via the theatre.

However, the earliest reference that seems to appear actually comes from 1841 in the second volume of a book called Merrie England In The Olden Time by George Daniel. He wrote, "'Now my little lads and lasses! Shut one eye, and don't breathe on the glasses! Here's Nero a-fiddling while Rome was a-burning—and Cin-cinnatus a-digging potatoes. Here's Sampson and the Phillis-tines—Cain and Abel, and the Tower of Babel.' This was sounded by a gaunt fellow (a stronger man than Sampson, for he lugged him in by the head and shoulders!) with a gin-and-fog voice and a bristly beard. His neighbour, a portly ogress with a Cyclopical physiognomy (her drum 'most tragically run through!'), advertised a grunting giant, (a Pygmalion to his relations!) and backed his stupendous flitches against Smith-field and the world."

It appeared again in 1852 in Household Words where it was written,

"One word about the customers, and we will rejoin our chariot, which must surely be extricated by this time. Thieves, beggars, costermongers, hoary-headed old men, stunted, ragged, shock-haired children, blowzy, slatternly women, hulking bricklayers, gaunt, sickly hobbededoys, with long greasy hair. A thrice-told tale. Is it not the same everywhere! The same pipes, dirt howling, maundering, fighting, staggering gin fever. Like plates multiplied by the electro-process;like the printer's 'stereo'; like the reporter's 'manifold' ;you will find duplicates, triplicates of these forlorn beings everywhere. The same woman giving her baby gin; the same haggard, dishevelled woman, trying to coax her drunken husband home; the same mild girl, too timid even to importune her ruffian partner to leave off drinking the week's earnings, who sits meekly in a corner, with two discoloured eyes, one freshly blacked; one of a week's standing. The same weary little man, who comes in early, crouches in a corner, and takes standing naps during the day, waking up periodically for 'fresh drops.' The same red-nosed, ragged object who disgusts you at one moment by the force and fluency of his Billingsgate, and surprises you the next by bursting out in Greek and Latin quotations. The same thin, spectral man who has no money, and, with his hands piteously laid one over the other, stands for hours gazing with fishy eyes at the beloved liquor; smelling, thinking of, hopelessly desiring it. And, lastly, the same miserable girl, sixteen in years, and a hundred in misery; with foul, matted hair, and death in her face ; with a tattered plaid shawl, and ragged boots, a gin-and-fog voice, and a hopeless eye."

It also appeared in 1856 in the text, "The street ballad-singers of the present day are no improvement upon their predecessors. The elaborate blackguardism ard gin-and-fog voices of these excruciating screech-owls speak little for the boasted march of intellect." This was printed in An Elizabethan Garland; Being a Descriptive of Seventy Black-Letter Ballads Printed Between the Years 1550 and 1597.

It appeared in print after 1880 in the third chapter of the 1889 work How the Poor Live, and Horrible London bu George R. Sims. He wrote, "The drink dulls every sense of shame, takes the sharp edge from sorrow, and leaves the drinker for awhile in a fools' paradise. Here is the home of the most notorious 'drunkardess'—if I may coin a work—in the neighbourhood. Mrs. O'Flannigan's room is easily entered, for it is on the street-level, and one step brings us into the presence of the lady herself. She is in bed, a dirty red flannel rag is wrapped about her shoulders, and her one arm is in a sling. She sits up in bed at the sight of visitors, and greets us in a gin and fog voice, slightly mellowed with the Irish brogue. Biddy has been charged at the police-courts seventy-five times with being drunk, and she is therefore a celebrated character. She is hardly sober now, though she has evidently had a shaking which would have sobered most people for a month. Her face is a mass of bruises and cuts, and every now and then a groan and a cry to certain Saints in her calendar tell of aches and pains in the limbs concealed under the dirty blanket that covers the bed."

The term continued appearing in print in the early 20th century. It appeared in the 37th chapter of the 1905 work, The Crimson Blind by Fred M White. He wrote, "Merritt rocked heavily on the other's breastbone, almost stifling him. 'Wot?' he said, scoffingly. The pleasing mixture of gin and fog in his throat rendered him more hideously hoarse than usual. 'Not make up a prayer! And you a regular dab at all that game! Why, I've seen the women snivellin' like babies when you've been ladlin' it out. Heavens, what a chap you would be on the patter! How you would kid the chaplain!'" White used the term again in his 1906 work, The Yellow Face when he wrote, "A figure slouched up to him and a hoarse voice whispered in his ear: 'Party of the name of Maggs,' he said in his gin-and-fog voice. 'Pal of 'Simple Charlie.' Old Charlie couldn't get away to-night, so he sent me instead. Don't you be disappointed, guv'nor; you will find me just as clever with them bits of steel as Charles himself. Bit of burglary, ain't it?'" It was then used by Ian Hay when he wrote, "'Tha's right, ole son! You give 'im socks,' remarked a hoarse and rather indistinct voice of the gin -and -fog variety, from among the spectators." in his 1910 work, The Right Stuff.

Gin is an alcohol that is made by distilling grain mash with juniper berrieds and sometimes other fruits, so it would make sense to describe a voice as having fruitiness to it. The word gin is a shorting of geneva, usually capitalized as Geneva, referring to the Hollands. The word geneva comes from the Dutch word genever which comes from the Old French word genevre which comes from the Latin jūniperus meaning juniper.

The word fog is thought to be a back formation of the word foggy. Both words are thought to come from the Middle English word fooge or fog which comes from the Scandinavian or Norwegian fogg meaning long grass on damp ground.

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Charles, His Friend - Theatre Etymology - Part 25

"Charles, his friend," sounds like it is just a part of speech in a play. It sounds like one character is telling another that Charles is somebody's friend. However, the phrase is actually used for an uninspiring part in a play where the role is only there so the main character has somebody with whom they talk. There is no other reason that the character exists in the world of the play.

Saying that it sounds like reading part of dialogue is not too far from the origin of the phrase. It could be said that this is a stock character, though there is even less substance to this character than there is to a stock character. However, some sources say that "Charles, his friend," is actually the secondary young man of a play.

The phrase seems to have originated from the personae dramatis of an old forgotten play. The character was simply listed as "Charles, hi friend."

The name Charles means man. It is thought to have come from the German name Karl or German word karlaz meaning a free man. It is also thought that it may have come from the German name prefix hari which means army or warrior. The name was made popular in 17th century Britain when the Stuart king was named Charles I.

The word friend comes from the Middle English word friend, or frend or the Old English word frēond meaning friend, lover, or relative. It is also possibly decended from the Old Saxon word friund, the Old High German word friunt, the German word Freund, or the Gothic word frijōnds.

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The Ghost Walks - Theatre Etymology - Part 24

"The Ghost Walks" sounds like it is an eerie phrase meant for Halloween. After all, there is a 1924 mystery movie called The Ghost Walks and there is the super hero, The Phantom, who is known as The Ghost Who Walks. However, neither of these have to do with the phrase, either. "The Ghost Walks" is a phrase meaning that salaries will be paid.

Being that a ghost has nothing to do with money, the phrase seems strange. The first time any type of instance of the phrase seems to be found in print is from the Sunday, May 29, 1831 edition of London's The Atlas. A General Newspaper and Journal of Literature in a section known as "Theatrical News." It stated,

On Saturday the actors at Drury Lane were struck with horror to find that no "ghost walked;" that is, that the treasury was shut. It appears that 800l. were wanted by the treasurer. Captain Polhill would pay down no more than 400l., according to the terms of his agreement with Mr. Lee. This led to a secession on the part of the latter gentleman from the concerns of the theatre. The deed of separation was regularly drawn up and signed, the partnership dissolved, and Captain Polhill remains sole manager of Drury Lane. There were various accounts of the supposed cause of this disagreemnt, and it was said that the rival queens of Drury had, as in days of yore, by their contentions, frightened Alexander from the throne. The cause we have stated first, however, a mere matter of business, is the real one.

It appeared again in 1833 in Nine Years of an Actor's Life when R. Dyer wrote, "If I played with applause, it was a matter of indifference whether the ghost walked on Saturday or not." It then appeared in the September 24, 1835 edition of Household Words when it was printed in the text, "When no salaries are forthcoming on Saturday the 'ghost doesn't walk.'"

The next time the phrase appeared in print was in the June 24, 1883 edition of Referee when it said, "An Actor's Benevolent Fund box placed on the treasurer's desk every day when the ghost walks would get many an odd shilling of six-pence put into it." It then appeared in the 1889 Edinburgh edition of A dictionary of slang, jargon and cant: embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian slang, pidgin English, tinkers' jargon and other irregular phraseology when Albert Barrere and Charles Godfrey defined it as follows:

Ghost walking (theatrical), a term originally applied by an impecunious stroller in a sharing company to the operation of "holding the treasury," or paying the salaries, which has become a stock facetiae amongst all kinds and descriptions of actors. Instead of inquiring whether the treasury is open, they usualy say -- "Has the ghost walked?" or "What! has this thing appeared again?" (Shakespeare).
[undated quotation]
(Commercial), in large firms, when the clerk whose duty it is goes round the various departments paying wages, it is common to say the ghost walks.

It seems that the phrase has also moved to being used in the military. However, there has only been a short part that has mentioned that it is a reference to Shakespeare. There is not any certainty to the story, but it is repeated in many places and is the likely origin even though it can only be considered folk etymology.

It is thought that a strolling (touring) group of actors was performing Hamlet and that they had not been paid for about a month. The actor who was playing the ghots of King Hamlet (who may have been the manager of the company or at least a person who handled the money for it), when the actor playing Hamlet said the line found in Act I, Scene 2 that goes, "I will watch tonight. Perchance 'Twill walk again." responded with "No, I'm damned if the Ghost walks any more until our salaries are paid." Some sources are more gentle and put" d---d" rather than "damned."

Other sources give a slighty different account of the actor's reply. These include:

• "No, I'll be damned if the Ghost walks again until our salaries are paid."
• No! The Ghost walks no more until our salaries are paid!"

Some sources say that the actors were paid that night. Others do leave the story without knowing if the actors were paid or not.

The word ghost comes from the Middle Engish word goost or the Old English word gāst. These can be comparted to the German word Geist meaning spirit. The word walk comes from the Middle Engish word walken or the Old Engish word wealcan meaning to roll or toss or possibly the Old English word gewealcan meaning to go. These can be compared to the Dutch and German world walken meaning to fully cloth, the Old Norse Word Old Norse word vālka meanng to toss.

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Wandelprobe - Theatre Etymology - Part 23

If you guessed that Wandelprobe was related to sitzprobe in a way, you'd be correct. It is technically pronounced as "von-dell-pro-buh," but some directors and other theatre professionals may say it "wan-del-pro-buh" or "wan-del-probe."

Different directors and conductors conduct wandelprobes differently. In fact, even the same person may hold them differently depending on the production and the needs of the production. However, in general, it means that the actors and singers are free to wander over the stage while the band or orchestra plays. They still have to sing the parts they are assigned while wandering over the stage.

This wandering isn't free range wandering, though. They have to wander to the approximate blocking for the production, if not the exact blocking. However, this is usually done out of costume, though it may be done in costume if that is the director's desire. There may still be stops in order to work with the orchestra or band and the actors or singers in order to figure out how movements go together with the music. Because of this, it may be necessary to use props.

If props are used is a decision that is left up to the director and others who are behind the scenes for the production. Sometimes actors and singers only wander over a bare stage during a wandelprobe. At other times, there are parts of the set or a complete set.

A wandelprobe is usually held before tech starts and there usually are not lighting cues. However, some directors and conductors like to have lighting cues set and running during a wandelprobe. Everything is basically up to the decisions of the director and conductor. However, a wandelprobe (or even more than one wandelprobe) takes place before the first full dress rehearsal.

Some people make the mistake of calling this rehearsal a wanderprobe, and that is understandable since the actors and singers wander. However, the word "wandelprobe" comes from German and technically means "convertable trial." While the German word wandel can mean change, flux, shift, or vicissitude, if the word is changed to wandeln, it can mean change, walk, or stroll. The German word probe means sample, text, trial assay, proof, rehearsal, specimen, practice, or pattern. So, the word wandelprobe comes from German words put together that mean "walk" or "stroll" and "rehearsal," so it is a "walking rehearsal."

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Tongue Twisters - Part 3

I am not certain what is going on with my Internet connection, but it is extremely slow. Hopefully that'll be fixed soon in some way. In the mean time, here are some more tongue twisters.

Image goes here

• Six sleek swans swam swiftly southwards.
• Pirates' Private Property
• How much ground would a groundhog hog, if a groundhog could hog ground?
• Three short sword sheaths.
• Rolling red wagons.
• Green glass globes glow greenly.
• He threw three balls.
• The great Greek grape growers grow great Greek grapes.
• Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks.
• He threw three free throws.

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Tongue Twisters - Part 2

Due to the fact that my internet is extremely slow tonight, and I've been waiting and hoping to be able to write a blog post, but it has not gotten any faster, here are some more tongue twister to use in warm ups for rehearsals. Don't forget to also have fun outside of rehearsal warm ups where you try to say them faster and faster and over and over to see how quickly you make a mistake! The mistakes that are made are what makes them fun when said in that context!

• Sheena leads, Sheila needs.
• Seth at Sainsbury's sells thick socks.
• Roberta ran rings around the Roman ruins.
• Stupid superstition!
• Picky people pick Peter Pan Peanut-Butter, 'tis the peanut-butter picky people pick.
• If Stu chews shoes, should Stu choose the shoes he chews?
• Wayne went to Wales to watch walruses.
• Rudder valve reversals.
• Four furious friends fought for the phone.
• Tie twine to three tree twigs.

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Sitzprobe - Theatre Etymology - Part 22

In the majority of theatres, when a cast rehearses music, either with the canned music or a band or orchestra, it is just called a music rehearsal. However, there is a term for a music rehearsal where only music is rehearsed and the cast sits and does not work with any blocking. That term is sitzprobe.

Sitzprobe is pronounced "sits-pro-bah." It is not common to have a cast rehearse with canned music and have it called a sitzprobe, but some theatre may call it that. It is more common for the cast (or only the singers in the cast) to rehearse with a band or orchestra. The rehearsals are for the conductor to get a feel for what is going to happen and the cast and musicians to start working together. It is hoped that the music can be rehearsed without stopping, but that is definitely not likely at the first sitzprobe. Being that there are going to be stops where singers and orchestra members mark music, a sitzprobe can last several hours. This is one of the reasons that people sit.

Different sites give three different translations of the word. They all claim to be a translation of German, but the different translations are "sitting trial," "sitting rehearsal," and "seated rehearsal." If "sitzprobe" is entered into Google translate as a German word, it translates into English as sitting trial. However, if sitting trial is put into Google translate as English, it translates into German as sitzender Versuch.

The English to German translation is sitting rehearsal to Sitzprobe and the English to German translation of seated rehearsal is Sitzprobe.

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Claptrap - Theatre Etymology - Part 21

Today, the word claptrap is used to mean nonsense. We tend to like the word claptrap because of the rhyming just like when we use words or phrases such as mumbo jumbo and hoodoo to mean nonsense. However, claptrap didn't always mean nonsense.

Originally, claptrap was literally a way to trap applause that was used by actors. The first time the term (albeit as two words) appeared in print was in 1721 in Nathan Bailey's dictionary. He wrote, "A Clap Trap, a name given to the rant and rhimes that dramatick poets, to please the actors, let them get off with: as much as to say, a trap to catch a clap, by way of applause from the spectators at a play." It is thought that the compound word was made sometime between 1727 and 1731. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology says that claptrap is a nouns and defines it as "in its earliest sense of an actor’s stage device to get applause."

By 1775, the word claptrap had started to be used to mean verbal hogwash. In Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents, Edmund Burke wrote, "The members [of a political party] seek by every just method to get their party into power so that their plans may be executed. Such rivalry is easily distinguishable from a mean, selfish struggle for place and emolument. The opponents of party frequently parade as a virtue that they support "not men but measures." This is the veriest claptrap—a device to get loose from honourable engagements ; as in the case of a man who deserts his party when it loses power, and avers that he is supporting measures." By 1819, the word was in common usage as meaning hogwash or nonsense.

Around 150 years after the origin of the term, somebody did make a device that simulated applause and called it a claptrap. The word clap might come from the Middle English word clappen, the Old English word clæppan, or the Middle Low German word kleppen. The word trap might come from the Middle English word trappe (noun), or trappen (v.), the Old English word træppe (noun), or the Middle Dutch word trappe. These are akin to the Old English word treppan meaning to tread and the German word Treppe meaning staircase.

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Ham - Theatre Etymology - Part 20

Most people in the theatre are familiar with the term ham meaning an actor who overacts. They may also be used to the phrase "ham it up" to mean to (usually purposely) exaggerate emotions and actions on the stage while acting. However, the origin of the word ham is not readily known. Does it come from the meat product or possibly Shakespeare's play Hamlet?

Ham, referring to an actor, used to only be applied to actors that were unskilled or inferior that would overact. It seems that such actors were called hamfats. There are many theories as to why this was the case, but there is one prevailing theory. During the 19th century, before cream makeups were invented, powdered makeup had to be combined with oils or grease. Professional actors had higher quality oils that they used. Amateur actors who could not afford these oils used some type of grease, often ham fat. Thus, amateur actors became known as hamfatters and the word was shorted to ham.

The word may also come from an 1863 minstrel song known as "The Ham Fat" man. The lyrics to the song are "Ham fat, ham fat, zigga zolla zan, / Ham fat, ham fat, Tickle olla tan; /oh! Walk into de kitchen, as fast as you can,/ Hoochee Koochee Koochee, says the Hamfat Man." It is also thought that both reasons may be combined and thus the term was created.

In the November 6, 1879 edition of the Nashville [Tennessee] Union and American in an article called "Spangles and Sawdust," the following conversation took place between a flying trapeze artist and the reporter:

”This is the first [circus] show I ever left in this way. I traveled with Forepaugh’s establishment four seasons, and never had any trouble. I’ve been with this show since the 12th of June last, having joined it at Clinton, Iowa. When DeHaven proposed this concert business, I told him I was no ham-fatter, and—“

“Ham-fatter?”

“Yes, ham-fatter. That’s the name we give a man in our profession who is a poor performer. I’ve been in the business since I was ten years old, and I’m a little over twenty-five now.”

By 1882, the term "ham" appeared alone and not as "ham-fatter" or "hamfatter." This was in Illustrated Sports and Drama News in a letter that was printed when the writer referred to himself as "no ham, but a classical banjo player." By April 1884, the term hamfatter was also being used by performers in the circus and on April 8, 1884, there was an ad in the San Antonio [Texas] Light for the Vaudeville Theatre which specifically referred to an actor as a hamfatter.

In the 1886 book America Revisited, From the Bay of New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Lake Michigan to the Pacific in a chapter titled, "All Fun of the Fair," George Augustus Sala used the term "ham-fatter" to refer to any person who did not want to appear as if they were not handsome or pretty by writing, "Every American who does not wish to be thought 'small potatoes' or a 'ham-fatter' or a 'corner loafer,' is carefully 'barbed' and fixed up in a hair-dressing saloon every day."

In the July 29, 1888 edition of the New York Herald, the following text appeared:

"HAMFATTER. —A recent name in some quarters of New York, for a second-rate dude or masher, and more especially applied to the habitués of the Rialto in that city."

[Example:] I’ll warrant that these ladies who complain have, if the truth were known, strolled up and down Broadway by the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Hoffman, and were they so fortunate as to receive an admiring glance from the well-dressed and more prosperous professional brother of the HAMFATTER, they were not offended, forsooth."

A less likely but plausible theory appears in a 1966 edition of a New Yorker article which claims jazz musicians used ham fat as part of their equipment. It stated, "Most of the musicians playing in these clubs are old men…. They’re hamfat musicians. In the old days, the rough musicians kept pieces of ham fat in their pockets to grease the slides of their trombones."

Less like theories are:

• A shortening of the name of act, "The Hamtown Students," a vaudeville act that was a black-face quartet known for exaggerated movements and overblown nature of the act owned by the manager Tony Pastor. This was done by Pastor himself, who would refer to any actor overacting as a ham.
• Tony Pastor had a poster that advertised "sixty hams distributed on Monday evening" at his Opera House in New York. The offering of free hams had a bad reflection on actors until they were known as ham actors.
• It comes from all actors claiming to have played Hamlet or wishing to play the role of Hamlet to great applause.
• That it comes from the name Hamish McCullough who toured "pig-sticking" town of Illinois since his nickname was Ham and his troupe was called "Ham's actors."

You can read more about ham acting (especially in television) at TV Trope's "Large Ham" article and more about theatrical actors and theatrical roles known for being hams at TV Trope's "Large Ham - Theatre" article.

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Person - Theatre Etymology - Part 19

Anybody reading this probably knows what a person is. A person is any human - a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, somebody that identifies as non-binary. A person can have any job, be anybody. However, it may not be common knowledge that the word person actually comes from the theatre.

In ancient Rome, there was a term for a mask an actor wore on the stage. It was known in Latin as the persona or prosopon. In Greek, it was πρόσωπον. The masks, as a group, were known as the peronae of the stage lay. This is why a cast is still sometimes listed as the dramatis personae or the personae dramatis. It is literally the list of characters of the play with the people who play them.

Theological debates in the 4th and 5th century furthered this use of the word person. They took the word prosopon from the Greek theatre in order to define God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as three different persons within the Godhead. Since then, many changes have been made concerning the word person. There have been many different trials to change the meaning of the word and most likely, there will always be people who try to change the meaning. After all, language is always evolving.

Even the dictionary etymology supports person coming from the theatre. The word person is thought to have come from the Middle English word persone which came from the Latin word persōna meaning a role in life, a role in a play. This latter usage came from the original usage meaning an actor's mask which came from the Etruscan word phersu which is thought to have come from the Greek word prósōpa meaning face or mask and having the -na suffix attached.

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Blue Fire - Theatre Etymology - Part 18

When something is amazing in the theatre, these days, people just tend to say it was amazing or give other similar adjectives. However, back in Victorian days, there was a term for anything amazing, astounding, or sensational. If an audience had never seen anything like what they had seen on stage before, they called it blue fire.

The current definition of blue fire is compositions of various combustible substances, as sulfur, niter, lampblack, etc., the flames of which are colored by various salts, as those of antimony, strontium, barium, etc. This is exactly where the theatre term originated. A mixture containing sulfur was ignited in order to create an eerie blue glow on the stage. The audience had never seen anything like it before, so then any special effect was dubbed blue fire.

The word blue might have come from the Middle English word blewe which comes from the Anglo-French word blew, bl(i)u, or bl(i)ef meaning livid or discolored. It may also have come from the Old French word blo or blau (French bleu) which came from Germanic word blǣwaz. This can also be compared to the Old English word blǣwen which is a contraction of blǣhǣwen meaning deep blue. It may also have come from the Old Frisian word blāw, the Middle Dutch word blā(u), the Old High German blāo (German blau), or the Old Norse word blār.

The word fire might have come from the Middle English or Old English word fȳr which probably came from the Old Norse word fūrr, the German word Feuer, or the Greek word pŷr.

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Greedy Scene - Theatre Etymology - Part 17

A greedy scene sounds like it means the scene is eating, or perhaps there is a lot of eating in the scene. However, a greedy scene actually means a scene in a play in which the lead actor or actress (or star) has the stage all to himself or herself.

There does not seem to be any recorded origin of the phrase. However, it is said to have come from 1909. It can be understood that when an actor has the stage to himself, he may seem greedy. Then, obviously, a scene takes place on stage. It seems like the phrase may have come from people say that an actor was greedy for a scene and it was shortened to greedy scene. Yet, this is only a theory.

The word greedy has many possible origins. One possibility is that it from the Old English word grǣdig, which is related to both the Old Norse word grāthugr and the Gothic word grēdags meaning hungry. It may also come from the Old High German word grātac. The word scene comes from the Latin word scēna meaning background (of the stage) which comes from the Greek word skēnḗ meaning booth (where actors dressed).

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Mumble-Mumper - Theatre Etymology - Part 16

These days, people don't tend to attribute certain names to actors that they can't hear on the stage. There isn't a movement in theatre like there is in films and television known as mumble acting (which surprisingly even has fans, so the genre and fans call it mumblecore). In theatre, people need to be heard.

However, there are times when an actor cannot be heard. Directors try to avoid having this happen. However, it can always be a problem. It seems to have been more of a problem from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. There was even a term, "mumble-mumper." However, this wasn't applied to any actors. It seems like these actors had to be old. The most common definition found is "An old, sulky, inarticulate, unintelligable actor." It is thought that the term comes from around the year 1860.

Other defitions of mumble-mumper are "an old, inarticulate performer whose lines cannot be easily heard or interpreted by the audience" and "an old, inarticulate actor that the audince struggles to understand." It is fairly obvious why mumble would be part of the term, but mumper is more of a mystery.

Mumble can mean "to speak in a low indistinct manner, almost to an unintellible extent." It comes from the Middle English word momelen or the Dutch world mommelen or the German word mummeln. However, mumper has nothing to do with acting or speaking. It also has nothing to do with the mumps. Mumper means "a beggar, a mandicant; a person who sponges on others." Sometimes the word mumper was only applied to genteel beggars, but it seems to have ended up being applied to all beggars. In some parts of England, the word mumper is only applied to troops of beggars who go from house to house. Sometimes this is on St. Thomas's day or St. Stephen's day.

While this is not theory found by others, I have a theory that an actor may have ended up being a beggar and with the confusion of a troop of beggars and a theatre troupe, that an actor also being a mumper ended up being called a mumble-mumper. Somebody heard the term and liked it, so then it was applied to all old actors who couldn't be understood.

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Not a Dry Eye in the House - Theatre Etymology - Part 15

If somebody says there's not a dry eye in the house, that tends to mean that everybody was crying. However, usually not every single person was crying. The phrase is mostly used exaggeratively when most people or at least most people that are seen, are crying at a performance. This is usually in response to something on stage that is extremely sad or extremely happy that it makes people cry.

There does not seem to be a record of when the phrase was first used or first printed. However, it is obvious that eyes are wet when people cry. So, if everybody is crying, that would make every eye be wet and there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house.

The word dry when used as an adjective seems to come from the Old English word dryge which comes from the Proto-Germanic word draugiz. These words can be compared to the Middle Low German word dröge, the Middle Dutch word druge, the Dutch word droog, the Old High German word trucchon, the German word trocken, and the Old Norse word, draugr. However, the Proto-German word draugiz seems to come from the Proto-Indo-European prefix dreug.

When the word eye is used as a noun, it comes from before 900. It seems that it is from the Middle English word eie or ie or the Old English word ēge which is a variant of ēage. This is a cognate of the German word Auge which is then akin to the Latin word oculus, the Greek word ṓps, and the Sanskrit word akṣi.

Then, the same origin for house is in the post for Bring the House Down.

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Get the Show on the Road - Theatre Etymology - Part 14

Get the show on the road means to get an activity started. This can be any activity. A parent may tell children to get the show on the road if they need to clean up the toys. That same parent may use the same phrase to the same children to get them to get going and get ready to leave for school. A teacher may say "Let's get this show on the road," meaning to get a class started. A director may say, "Let's get this show on the road" meaning to start a rehearsal or even at the very beginning of rehearsals. Another may not use the phrase until it is time for the show to open and only use the phrase for when the show opens, meaning for the show to get started and have a good run.

Get seems to come from the Middle English word geten which comes from the Old Norse word geta which means to obtain or to beget. It may also come from the Old English root -gietan (from the Middle English word yeten) or the German -gessen (as in vergessen which means to forget). The word show seems to come from the Middle English word showen, shewen, or schween meaning to look at or the Old English word scēawian meaning to look at. The word road seems to come from the Middle English word rode or rade or the Old English word rād meaning a riding or a journey on horseback.

The first recorded instance of the phrase seems to be from the 1951 novel From Here to Eternity by James Jones. It is loosely based on his experiences in the infantry from before Word War II. He wrote in it, "'Come on, come on,' Prew said, 'What's holding things up? Let's get this show on the road.'" However, it is thought that the phrase was in common use by the 1930s and came into use around 1910.

The reason for the phrase coming into use is though to be related to when a Broadway or West End theatre show started touring, so the show literally had to get on the road. There is also the possibility that the phrase came from the circus because it toured and literally had to get the show on the road. If I had actually written about this phrase first in my Theatre Etymology series, I could have said that I was getting the show on the road with the series.

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Chew the Scenery - Theatre Etymology - Part 13

If a person is known to chew the scenery, that doesn't mean that the person is like Cookie Monster, who will eat anything, and actually eats the scenery. Instead, it means to overact or to act melodramatically. Depending on the context of the phrase, it can have a positive or negative meaning.

An actor may perform so well that he was said to chew the scenery because while everything else and all the actors supported the actor, the actor managed to shine and not take away from any of the support. It is just that the actor was extremely impressive. However, an actor might also chew the scenery if he overacts and takes away from the other performers and the tehcnical effects.

Most sources seem to cite that the phrase comes from a 1930 article by Dorothy Parker in which she wrote, "more glutton than artist . . . he commences to chew up the scenery." However, there are earlier evidences of the phrase being used. The first printed occurance of the phrase seems to be from March 1, 1891 in Rocky Mountain News. It read, "The Antony of Mons. Dermont was quite devoid of dignity and real force. He was inclined to 'chew scenery.'" This was part of a review of Cleopatra by Vicorien Saroud that starred Sarah Bernhardt and took place in New York. The next occurance of the phrase seems to be from 1894 from the novel Coeur D'Alene by Mary Hallock Foote. She wrote, "Lads, did ye hear him chewin' the scenery, giving' himself away like a play-actor? 'I'm not what ye think I am', says he. 'I'm in a cruel, equizzical position.'...You can't make evidence out of such rot as he was talkin', ...a young fella turning his chin loose about his mash! He chins wid us, an' listens to our talk, but he's too fancy for a miner. He's a bird, he's a swell, and makes out he's a workin'man like the rest av us."

The word chew seems to come from the Old English world ceown when comes from the West Germnic word keuwwan which comes from the Dutch word kauwen. However, it may lso comes from the Old High Germn wsord kiuwan (or German word kauen) which comes from the proto-Indo-European root gyeu, meaning to chew, the Salvonic word živomeaning to chew, the Lithuanian word žiaunos meaning jaws, or the Persian word javidan meaning to chew. The word scenery seems to come directly from the Italian word scenario, being adapted into English as scenery for the set of a theatrical play. There is no exact record of why an actor may "chew the scenery," but it is thought that the phrase may have originated by people saying that an actor did everything but chew the scenery in order to get attention.

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Bring the House Down - Theatre Etymology - Part 12

Bring the house down sounds like it means to literally find a house on top of a hill or a mountain and bring it down to the base. It also sounds like it could mean that a house collapses in on itself. However, when people in the theatre use the phrase bring the house down or any of its variations (bring down the house, brought the house down, brought down the house, etc.), it means that a performer or the performers (and crew) did so well that the a loud response (usually applause or laughter) came from the audience.

The reason that this phrase is used is that the word house described the part of a room or theatre where an audience sat. Back in the 18th century, the response from an audience could be so loud that it seemed like the audience was in an earthquake and that the structure in which the performance was held was literally about to fall in on itself.

The origin of the word bring seems to be from sometime before 950 and could possibly come from Middle English (bringen), Old English (bringan), Dutch (brengen), German (bringen), or Gothic (briggan). The origin of house comes from before 900 and could be from Middle English (h[o]us), Old English (hūs), Low German (huus), Old Norse (hūs), German (Haus), or Gothic (-hūs or in gudhūs temple). The origin of the word down comes from before 1100 and seems to have come from either the Middle English word doune or th Old English word dūne which seems to have come from adūne. Basically, it lost the first syllable which makes the word dūne aphetic (meaning a word that has lost a syllable from the original). Adūne originally meant something like "off the hill" or "down from the hill."

While loud applause or laughter (or even stomping) in appreciation of a performance sounds like it is a plausible reason for a theatre collapse, there do not seem to be any instances of a theatre collapsing for this reason. All cases of theatres collapsing or parts of theatres collapsing, whether while an audience was present or not, seem to be due to incorrect, weak, or weakened structure. A few examples are the 1910 collapse of an open-air (airdome) theatre in New Jersey, the 2008 collapse of Nicosia municipal theatre in Cyprus, and the 2013 collapse of the Apollo theatre in London, United Kingdom.

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Behind the Scenes - Theatre Etymology - Part 11

When something is done behind the scenes, that means that it is done in secret from the public. Only a few people who are involved with the action know what is happening. This can be anywhere. It may be done in government, in a school, in a club, or even within a family among different members. A person might even refer to intimate times as "behind the scenes" from others.

The term "behind the scenes" comes from theatre. It can also be used in television and in film. It literally means the action that goes on behind the scenery of a play (or television show or movie). A lot has to happen for a show to be made. The actors are not the only people who make a show. There are people who run lights and sound. There are people who make sure the set is made and in place. There are people who work on costumes. There are often people who move props (although sometimes the actors do this). There's the writer or writers. There's the director. There are usually even more people.

As for the etymology of each word, behind comes from the Middle English word "behinde" or "behinden" or the Old English word "behindan." Then, scene comes from the Latin word "scēna" which comes from the Greek word "skēnḗ" meaning a booth where actors dressed.

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Curtain Call - Theatre Etymology - Part 10

A curtain call is the time the cast of a show comes out after the curtain closes (if it does) and then reopens at the end of the show. It seems that curtain calls became popular in the 1800s. There is no exact date recorded for the first curtain call or how they were introduced into theatre. By 1839, Charles Dickens had written a scene in Nicholas Nickleby that described an audience as "calling" for the actress Miss Snevillicci to come out after a successful show. Even though it is not certain when curtain calls became popular, it is thought that theatre always had rituals for the end of the show.

The reason for the term "curtain call" seems fairly obvious. One might ask why it is not a "curtain cue" if thinking it comes from "calling the cues" and calling a cue for the last curtain. However, cues aren't always called for a curtain as they often operated by backstage crew who follow a script and are among the actors. Also, the call seem to be, as suggested above, a calling from the audience to the actors. As for the words themselves, c curtain comes from the Old French word "cortine" which comes from the Late Latin "corina" meaning a round vessel or curtain comes from the Latin word "cortem" meaning an enclosure or a courtyard. Call comes from the last Middle English word "callen" which probably came from the Old Norse word "kalla" meaning to call out. It is thought hat this may have been confused with or mixed with the Old English (West Saxon) word "ceallian" meaning to shout. It is also possible that the word call came from the Middle Dutch word "kallen" meaning to talk or the Old High German word "kallôn" meaning to shout.

Today, curtain calls often consist of actors coming out and giving a bow or a curtsy as the audience claps and cheers. The reason for a curtain call seems to be two fold. Some actors love getting praise and affirmation that they did a good job and a curtain call allows for that. It also seems that, in general, audiences love to go crazy. A curtain call allows an audience to go crazy with congratulatory sounds and actions for actors. However, some actors hate curtain calls and will try to leave as soon as possible.

There was a time when curtain calls were more elaborate. The curtain call for a musical may have been a musical number at the end of the show and then the actors would turn to the audience and bow. At times, this type of thing still happens in the theatre, but it is not as common. For a straight play, each actor may have come out and given a bow or a curtsy separately if the cast was not too large.

It is also important for actors to rehearse the curtain call. It might be odd performing a curtain call in front of an empty house, but it is necessary to know how a curtain call is going to go rather than tripping over other actors in an impromptu one. Rehearsing a curtain call can also allow a director to let a cast known when he or she is pleased. The curtain call can be rehearsed and the director may want to go directly into giving notes afterwards. However, when a play is rehearsed with a curtain call and the director claps, that probably means that he or she is pleased with the performance. However, this does not mean there will not still be notes taken. This simply means that the director was pleased and there still may be more to fix in the play.

Another thing that a curtain call does is allow the audience to see the actors for themselves. The actors may come out as their characters, but they do not have to stay in character for the curtain call. The audience can watch how the actors interact with each other at this time. Actors can also decide on if they are going to bow or curtsy and their arm movements. If actors are coming out in sets or pairs, do they hold hands? It is also customary to acknowledge the technical operators and/or the orchestra after the initial bows. At times, if these positions are paid, they may not be acknowledged if the actors are not paid as the paycheck is seen as their reward. However, they are often acknowledge for the work, even if they are paid. This way the entire cast and crew feels like they did a great job.

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