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Curtain
Curtain, screen separating the stage from the auditorium. It was introduced into European theatres with the advent of enclosed theatre buildings in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the English theatre after 1660 it rose at the conclusion of the prologue, which was spoken on the forestage, and remained out of sight until the play was over. It was at first green and was occasionally, for special effects, dropped during a performance; it was not until the mid-18th century that it began to fall regularly to mark the end of an act and hide the stage during the interval. This function was shortly after transferred to the act-drop. When Irving revived Boucicault's The Corsican Brothers in 1880 a crimson velvet curtain was introduced to hide changes of scene during an act.
The front, or house, curtain, so long a feature of all post-Restoration playhouses, is now often discarded, and no provision is made for it in many modern theatre buildings. It can be worked in a variety of ways, including the straightforward ‘flying’ of the fly curtain, which has largely replaced the formerly popular french valance (known in America as a brail curtain), raised vertically in a series of festoons. A variant of this was the contour curtain. There are also the centrally parting draw or traverse curtain, or traveller, and the bunching to outer top corners of the tab (short for tableau) curtain. The term tabs is now applied to any front curtain, and is sometimes misapplied to the curtain set on the stage itself. Two other curtains in the proscenium are the advertisement curtain and the safety curtain, or iron. The former appeared in the latter half of the 19th century in smaller theatres and music-halls, bearing in various panels painted notices of local shops and manufacturers. Advertisements thrown on the safety curtain by a slide projector later served the same purpose. The safety curtain itself was first installed at Drury Lane in 1794 as a precaution against fire. It consisted of an iron or fireproof sheet which must by law be lowered once during every performance. This has now been made obsolete by modern water curtains and sprinklers. |
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Cite this article
PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Curtain." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Curtain." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-Curtain.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Curtain." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-Curtain.html |
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curtain
cur·tain / ˈkərtn/ • n. a piece of material suspended at the top to form a covering or screen, typically one of a pair at a window: fig. through the curtain of falling snow, she could just make out gravestones. ∎ (the curtain) a screen of heavy cloth or other material that can be raised or lowered at the front of a stage. ∎ a raising or lowering of such a screen at the beginning or end of an act or scene. ∎ (curtains) inf. a disastrous outcome: it looked like curtains for me. • v. [tr.] provide with a curtain or curtains. ∎ conceal or screen with a curtain. PHRASES: bring down the curtain on bring to an end. |
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Cite this article
"curtain." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "curtain." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-curtain.html "curtain." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-curtain.html |
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curtain
curtain curtain call the appearance of one or more performers on stage after a performance to acknowledge the audience's applause.
curtain lecture an instance of a wife reprimanding her husband in private (recorded from the mid 17th century, and originally a reprimand given behind bed curtains). curtain-raiser an entertainment or other event happening just before a longer or more important one (recorded from the mid 19th century, and originally used in the theatre to denote a short opening piece performed before a play). curtain wall a fortified wall around a medieval castle, typically one linking towers together. See also bamboo curtain, iron curtain. |
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Cite this article
ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "curtain." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "curtain." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-curtain.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "curtain." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-curtain.html |
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curtain
curtain sb. XIII. ME. cortine, curtine, later curtain(e), -ein(e) — OF. cortine (mod. courtine) :- late L. cortīna, used in the Vulgate (Exodus 26: 1) to render Gr. aulaía curtain (f. aulḗ court), as if it was regarded as a deriv. of L. co(ho)rt- COURT, whereas in classical L. it meant ‘cauldron’ and was hence applied to circular or arched objects.
Hence curtain vb. XIII. |
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "curtain." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "curtain." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-curtain.html T. F. HOAD. "curtain." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-curtain.html |
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