Onstage and Off

The theatre is characterised by a polarity between visibility and invisibility. While actors and artefacts on stage (and often also in the auditorium) are the focus of attention for the audience (and the staff), offstage workers and their labour go largely without being either seen, valued, paid fairly or even named. While certain elements on stage draw the explicit attention of the audience, others are present but hidden from view, while yet others remain offstage altogether. The theatre is not just divided into onstage and offstage areas, but also into onstage and offstage artefacts and staff.

While onstage actors (singers, dancers and sometimes musicians) enter the stage to make themselves visible (and/or audible) to their fellow workers and the audience, offstage workers have one thing in common: they or their work remain invisible and often unrecognised. Some of them might be visible themselves but display the fruits of their labour on stage (scenographers, stagehands, costume designers and so forth). They are also sometimes named in the sources. Others contribute to the objects displayed on stage without being seen as their authors (such as dressers, laundresses or barbers), and their names have often fallen into oblivion.^[3] Some offstage workers are physically present without actually being regarded as a vital part of the performance (e. g. ticket vendors or attendants in the auditorium), while invisibility to the audience is a prerequisite of the work of others (such as prompters). The labour necessary for a theatre production can be separated into visible and invisible tasks carried out by visible and invisible staff. Theatre workers can thus also be doubly visible or doubly invisible (with their bodies and their work). They are separated into different groups with different degrees of visibility, attributed value and remuneration.

Visible and Invisible Labour

Invisible labour has been studied in many areas and across different disciplines (e. g. sociology, industrial relations, critical race and feminist theory, science and technology studies, and global and international relations).^[4] In these contexts, visible labour is defined as work that is readily identifiable, recognised and directly generates profits,^[5] while invisible labour is understood as crucial work that is overlooked, ignored or devalued.^[6] The invisibility of a person and their work is very often analogous to their lack of rights, fair remuneration and the possibility of making themselves heard.^[7] It is thus not surprising that invisible work is very often carried out by marginalised groups, mirroring social hierarchies. Invisible workers are not only unseen and unrecognised by society, but also very often by each other. Their isolation makes it difficult to engage in collective efforts to improve their working conditions or make themselves heard.^[8]

While they rarely include examples from the arts, many publications about invisible labour are dominated by theatrical terms such as backstage, offstage, front stage or scene,^[9] pointing to the importance of the theatrical space as a symbolic representation of a division of labour in categories of the visible and invisible, the meaningful and the mechanical, the valued and the unrecognised. The theatre stands out as a workplace where visible and invisible staff work shoulder to shoulder and where their (in-)visibility defines the kind of work they are doing, thus making the theatre a case study par excellence.

Skilled and Unskilled Work

Theatre historians often see the clear demarcation line between onstage and offstage labour as a result of the professionalisation of the theatre business. As actors tried to raise their status and legitimise their occupation as being socially respectable, they established a hierarchy that included a „superiority over the ‚rude mechanicals‘ of their world“^[10] and over women who performed necessary tasks such as supplying costumes, properties and comestibles.^[11] In the process of professionalisation, some occupations tended to be defined more and more as skilled, others as unskilled. As economists have argued, skill is a classification influenced by gender, ethnic and class biases. Skills connected to work performed by some groups thus receive greater recognition, respect and remuneration than others.^[12] These biases and the concomitant access granted to training possibilities and to contact with a cultural/intellectual elite mean that actors (singers, dancers and sometimes musicians) still tend to occupy a different social sphere from offstage workers.^[13]

Korda has identified certain groups of (female) offstage workers who were integral to Early Modern theatre, but are seldom spoken of. These include ‚tirewomen‘ who were responsible for dressing actors,^[14] ‚gatherers‘ who collected entrance fees,^[15] food and drink vendors^[16] and workers who were responsible for washing, bleaching and starching costumes – a very necessary and time-consuming business.^[17] In an early 20th-century article about employees in the Elizabethan theatre, Thaler also mentions sweepers,^[18] doorkeepers and stage-keepers. De Rougemont, in her benchmark social history of the 18th-century French theatre, describes similar workers such as „concierge[s], portiers, ouvreurs, moucheurs de chandelles“ or „Distributrice[s] des douces liqueurs“.^[19] French 18th-century theatre companies were largely organised as cooperatives in which actors (often men and women) had an equal right to vote on important issues, and split their earnings.^[20] However, this cooperative system was mostly restricted to actors. Other workers were not members of the theatre companies, had no voting rights and tended to be underpaid (or even not paid at all).^[21] All these offstage occupations had two things in common: they were often performed by socially disadvantaged people (like women), and mostly brought in miserable wages.^[22]

The Feltre Sources: Theatre Inventories

Inventories are documents common in 19th-century theatre archives. Compiling information about the chairman of the theatre board, noting changes of ownership and keeping receipts and accounts in order was of central importance to the smooth running of a theatre. Moreover, such documents meant that the theatre society could prove the economic health of the enterprise and uphold its good name.

The inventories of the Teatro Sociale in Feltre are stored in the Archivio Storico Comunale in Feltre and are dated 1831, 1853, 1879, 1883–1888, 1889, 1899 and 1900. All the documents are well preserved, readable and intact throughout. The first two inventories comprise 7 and 6 A4-sized sheets respectively, while the others are bound booklets of A5 size.^[30]

The inventories are valuable sources for multidisciplinary research into the Feltre Theatre, as they contain useful information on various aspects including the administration of the theatre society, the management of its finances (with accounts of ordinary and extraordinary expenditure), the structure and renovation of the building, its furniture, other objects and scenic materials inside the theatre, the activities of the theatre companies, their receipts and fees, and information on the repertoire performed. Last but not least, they include information about offstage labour such as the names, skills, salaries and tasks of the staff. These inventories also reveal information about the objects stored inside the theatre, such as hardware, machinery, scenery, furniture, paintings, porcelain, curtains, fabrics, crystal, glassware, paint, strings, musical instruments and lights. It is this information on the items stored that makes inventories particularly useful for our purposes here.

It is mainly thanks to these sources that we can imagine what offstage work in the Feltre theatre constituted, and reconstruct the tasks related to a theatrical event in a reliable way. We will thus try to find answers to the following questions: Who worked behind the scenes? What kind of tasks did these workers perform? How were these tasks embedded in the theatre performance? What skills were required for these tasks? What kind of objects did the workers use? To begin with, we shall provide the necessary background to Feltre’s Teatro Sociale in the 19th century.

A Provincial Theatre

Feltre’s Teatro Sociale was one of hundreds of middle-sized, 19th-century provincial theatres that could be found in most towns of what is today Northern Italy. Throughout the peninsula, there was at least one such building in every urban centre, especially in the centre-north areas.^[31]

The Feltre Teatro Sociale was a theatre with a so-called Italian-style hall: stalls with removable seats and four rows of boxes. Each box was a private space that could be used, for example, as a private sitting room for dinner or to engage in business. Although this structure was a model that had been established in previous centuries, it became very popular throughout the Italian peninsula during the 19th century. One of the reasons for its success was the correspondence between the internal structure of the building and society outside: the boxes, owned by prominent locals, ensured social separation from the lower social strata. One could attend a show in a private space that allowed one to see but also to be seen. In other words, the interior of the theatre – the so called „teatro all’italiana“ – reproduced the hierarchical structure of the society without, which continued to follow traditional patterns despite the great socio-political changes that took place in the 19th century.^[32]

Theatres operating in towns or smaller cities such as Feltre, Adria, Castelfranco or Belluno were called minor theatres. The major theatres in big cities had an undisputed tradition and were on a higher level of the theatrical hierarchy. This classification took into account the importance of the city (not just the number of its inhabitants, but also its historical tradition, geographical location, etc.), the size of the theatre (the number of seats), and the quality of its performances. The activity of these theatres, minor or major, is reflected in the periodical press.

The municipalist spirit in the Italy „of the hundred cities“ is well known.^[33] The municipal competition typical of 19th-century Italian history also applied to theatres, which were representative of provincial culture.^[34] Feltre is a typical example of these many 19th-century provincial theatres and their practices.^[35] Each provincial theatre had a symbolic function in its city and gave it lustre, especially in relation to neighbouring cities. To have an important, beautiful theatre with an impressive programme reflected the competition between different towns. Driven by a love of their artistic and cultural heritage and a desire to enhance and promote it, local administrators devoted energy and space to building or renovating theatres: they had to be decorated, expanded or restored regularly.

Theatres in 19th-century Italy were often the only cultural and social centre in the town and its surrounding area. They were the place where urban leisure practices were expressed.^[36] In the course of the 19th century, a city’s elites would meet regularly at their theatre, not only to attend performances, but also to stage social hierarchies and to reaffirm or build networks. Additionally, under the Napoleonic and Hapsburg governments, theatres were one of the rare places where groups of people were allowed to meet, where public opinion could be formed, and where that opinion could be monitored and manipulated.^[37]

The Teatro Sociale: Role and Administration

Feltre’s Teatro Sociale already existed at the end of the 17th century under the name of Teatro della Senna, in the hall of the Palazzo Pubblico (or Palazzo della Ragione), in the Piazza della Biada in Feltre. It was an Italian-style theatre with two rows of 20 boxes, dedicated initially to staging spoken plays, later also to performances with music.^[38] It was closed in 1797, but was reopened in 1813 under the name of Teatro del Consorzio as an autonomous theatrical association that was now called the Teatro Sociale, with four rows of 24 boxes. Later, the fourth row was replaced by the gallery. By 1840 it is believed to have had a capacity of 1000 spectators.^[39] The first performances recorded in any periodical date back to February 1820,^[40] though there is a police source dating from 1816 that mentions granting permission for staging an opera buffa.^[41] The inventories confirm that during the 19th century, the theatre was owned by a society consisting of the owners of the boxes, who paid an annual fee and attended regular meetings. The management board consisted of three members who were elected by majority vote: one box, one vote. They were in office for three years, and elected a cashier and a custodian.

The Teatro Sociale had to please a varied audience with different tastes and expectations: the owners of boxes, the audience in the stalls, foreigners who were in Feltre for business, aristocrats on holiday, soldiers, families with children, etc. The architecture of the theatre itself, with its boxes, visually represented the different social strata. The theatre seasons coincided with town fairs or holidays so that the performances could attract foreigners and owners of country estates who were temporarily in town. This was also the case with other theatres.^[42] This mixed audience explains the variety of performances that were staged throughout the century, including operas, dramas, comic performances, concerts, vaudevilles, pantomimes, acrobatics, magicians’ shows and other events.

The theatre society chose the companies, hired the impresarios, established the fees and fixed a programme in accordance with „the decorum of the theatre and the interests of the company“, as is stated in its regulations.^[43] As with other provincial theatres, the Teatro Sociale offered a stage for itinerant professional troupes, but also for the theatrical and musical activities of local amateurs.^[44]

In addition to the artists performing on stage, there were multiple offstage workers at the theatre before, during and after a performance: a custodian, a stagehand and his assistant, an orchestra assistant, several ushers in different areas of the theatre (the stalls, gallery), lighting technicians, a curtain assistant who moved the wings and the curtains, a box office employee in the foyer, exit guards at every door, plus a clock regulator, a stage barber, a food and drink vendor, two employees for the coffee shops (one for the main coffee shop and another in the gallery), a theatre surgeon, security officers, and a chief fireman. From the records of expenses, we know that ropemakers, tailors, makeup artists, tuners and printers also worked for the theatre.^[45]

Infrastructure and Workers not Mentioned in the Sources

Naturally, countless workers were involved in the theatre infrastructure (in the running of the actual theatre building, the boxes, stage, substage, grid, machinery etc.) well before any performance could be planned. We shall limit ourselves here to describing the offstage work linked to preparations for a particular performance at the theatre, and shall rely mostly on the aforementioned inventories. We thus consider the basic infrastructure as given, and instead describe the tasks to be performed from the moment a programme was chosen for a performance (or a series of performances), when the performing troupe arrived in Feltre and the whole theatre building had to get ready to receive them. The resultant list of tasks is not exhaustive, but reflects the information given in the sources related specifically to the Feltre Theatre in the 19th century.

Preparing a Theatre Performance

When a particular piece or spectacle was chosen for performance in the Feltre Theatre, several tasks had to be performed prior to the evening in question. The scenic materials for the performance had to be chosen out of an ensemble of stock scenery that was kept in the Theatre. Accessories had to be brought out of storage or newly acquired. Scenic elements brought to Feltre by itinerant theatre troupes also had to be adjusted to fit the machinery of the Theatre, and all scenic changes had to be rehearsed. The lighting had to be prepared: fuel had to be poured into a multitude of lamps for the stage, the orchestra space, the dressing rooms, the auditorium and the recreation rooms, and safety equipment had to be installed (in case of fire or illness). For some performances, special scenic light effects had to be planned. For the rehearsals, lighting and other equipment had to be provided for the theatre troupes. Music stands, scores and musical instruments had to be set up and the clock, which was a typical feature of a civic theatre, had to be wound up. In order to attract the public, playbills had to be printed and hung out in public spaces, and invitations had to be delivered to interested residents and box owners. Last but not least, all spaces in the theatre had to be cleaned and tidied.

Entering the Theatre

Once the theatre was ready to admit its public, important tasks still had to be performed before the performance could commence. Multiple lamps had to be lit before the audience could be permitted into the theatre, which then had to be opened, the keys of all the boxes delivered, and tickets sold and checked at the entrance. The audience had to be welcomed and ushered to their seats, and the doors had to be guarded at all times.

Managing the Theatrical Event Itself

During the performance, a multitude of offstage workers had to be in attendance: scenic elements had to be moved around, set changes managed, the proscenium curtain let up and down, and special effects (if any) had to be executed. Once the lamps were filled with fuel, it still took a lot of extra work for the theatre to be illuminated. The stage, public areas, orchestra space and backstage rooms had to be kept illuminated, and one had always to be on the lookout for any outbreak of fire so as to keep the theatre safe. The actors had to be dressed, their hair and make-up done. The café and fruit-shop attendants had to get ready to welcome the public and sell their products during the evening.

Clearing up After a Theatre Performance

Once the performance was over, the public had to be ushered out of the theatre, but even then, the work of the offstage staff was not yet done. All the lights had to be safely extinguished, the scenic elements had to be tidied up, stored away, and often repaired. The stage, the dressing rooms, the atrium, the stalls, the boxes and the stairways had to be cleaned, lost objects had to be collected, and any missing or broken objects repaired or replaced. Then the theatre could be closed, and the last of the offstage workers could go home. Washing textiles such as the curtains was a task still to be performed after the theatre closed.

a Il Custode – the Custodian

The custodian was the main figure of the offstage area. He had to be a professional carpenter – clearly indicated by the regulations of the Teatro Accademico in Castelfranco and the Teatro Nuovo in Bassano^[46] – or another ,artist‘ useful to the theatre, such as a good craftsman, as the consortium of Feltre’s Teatro Sociale wrote in its specifications in the year 1813.^[47] In 19th-century Italy, artist meant both onstage artists and artisans including craftsmen. In this article we use the word artist in this historical sense.

The duties of the custodian are described in detail in the Feltre archive. First, he had to be able to solve urgent problems and carry out daily maintenance work. He usually repaired doors, windows, shutters, steps, chairs, tables, benches, stools, frames, cloak holders, shelves, ladders used to climb on stage, but also furniture and the accessories of dressing rooms and coffee shops such as locks, lamps, candle holders, sofas, armchairs, stools, footstools, book tables, shelves, clocks, cloak racks, carpets, pillows, mirrors and curtains. He was responsible for maintaining the stage machinery and the sets of the theatre, though he himself did not necessarily undertake any direct painterly interventions on stage materials (see section 5c). There was always something to fix, arrange, repaint, replace or clean in the theatre: the box curtains had to be washed (which seems to have been the responsibility of the custodian’s wife or sister), handles adjusted, hinges well oiled, the lamps checked, the boxes repainted, steps and floors replaced where necessary, and backstage cabinets and benches for the stagehands repaired. As can be seen from the accurate notes in the inventories, the custodian had to store all manner of objects, usually in his room, including lanterns, oil machines, pulleys, wheels, iron and brass items, wooden rods, iron rods, glass arms (additional light stands reserved for special occasions), pipes and tanks of sand in case of fire.

The custodian had to clean and check all spaces in the theatre, from the stage to the dressing rooms, the atrium, the stalls, the loggias and the stairways. If there were any problems or damage, he had to notify the management board. A few days before the theatre society held its meetings, he had to deliver an invitation by hand to its members (palchettisti) or their family or servants.^[48] On rehearsal days he had to satisfy any of the impresario’s needs. We can imagine that his close relations with the companies and impresarios would enable the custodian to obtain favours such as letting people without tickets enter the theatre. However, if the theatre regulations were strictly upheld, such behaviour could actually be punished by dismissal.^[49]

At the beginning of a performance, the custodian had to raise the proscenium curtain. In his autobiography from the early 19th century, the well-known Feltre architect Giuseppe Segusini – who later designed the theatre in Belluno and many other buildings – recalled attending the workshop of the carpenter Pietro Lucca when he was a young boy. Lucca also worked in the theatre in those years, and ran the fruit shop inside the building. The young Segusini used to help Lucca raise the curtain – which was probably an ordinary activity for children. One evening, pulling up the heavy curtain, Segusini tripped over a rope and found himself upside down, off the ground.^[50]

The custodian was responsible for any missing objects and equipment. Once the performance was finished, it was also his task to sweep the floor, collect any lost objects and store them, ensure that no one was locked in the theatre, and that no lights were left on.^[51] His room was full of objects and tools that could be useful either onstage or off. Sometimes he also stored artists’ personal effects and items belonging to the box owners.

The custodian was chosen because he was a „practical and gentlemanly“ worker.^[52] He held his position for many years and had to maintain good relations with the theatre society’s members and their families. He was also kept informed about internal affairs with regard to the management of the theatre. However, he could be replaced at any time. One valid reason for dismissal was allocating empty boxes or tickets to friends or relatives free of charge, as already intimated above. In order to keep a check on his work, the management board of the theatre society obliged him to report any disorder and to notify them when strangers entered the building (this last matter was specified in the Castelfranco theatre regulations).^[53]

One Worker, Different Tasks

In provincial theatres such as the Teatro Sociale, the custodian carried out a series of tasks that were entrusted to different people in larger theatres. At La Scala in Milan, for example, the „best care and protection of the buildings“ and the task of „ensuring cleanliness and preventing fire, as well as indicating and reporting on any necessary repairs“ fell to the custodian and his assistant,^[54] whereas the lighting was entrusted to a stage technician „of known skill and honesty“.^[55] The same was the case at the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa,^[56] and also at the Castelfranco Theatre, which was not much bigger than the one in Feltre, and where the lighting operator (illuminatore or custode dell’illuminazione) was employed by the custodian and responsible for any missing lighting objects.^[57] All these tasks were carried out by the custodian in Feltre, who received two separate salaries. However, there was at least one thing that the custodian of a larger theatre had in common with the custodian of a provincial theatre: they both had duplicate keys to the building and the boxes.^[58]

b L’Illuminatore – the Light Operator

Lighting operators played an essential role in the running of a theatre. The Feltre Theatre stands out for the peculiarity of employing the same person as custodian and lighting operator (illuminatore).^[59] Despite this peculiarity, the distinction between the two roles is maintained in the archival sources, which clearly differentiate between the two functions, each of which had its own duties and its own salary.

What were these duties? Lighting operators were responsible for managing the various light sources in the theatre, both onstage and off – on the stage, in the backstage rooms (such as dressing rooms or the understage area) and in the audience areas (such as the auditorium and the recreation areas). The extent of their work is reflected in the aforementioned inventories, where a large section is dedicated to the lighting. They list the different types of light sources, the different places where they were located, and their quantity. Lighting was as essential to the theatre as it was dangerous, so great attention was paid to it. The preparation work involved in the lighting and its management during an evening at the theatre was considerable. The financial records show that the lighting manager was unequivocally one of the highest-paid positions among the theatre’s offstage employees, as we will explain in more detail in section 6 below.^[60] However, when comparing the different inventories, one realises that these sources contain many inconsistencies and that the terms used are sometimes imprecise. This makes it difficult to understand the different systems precisely. Nevertheless, we shall try to provide as accurate as possible an overview of the lighting situation in the Feltre Theatre.

Illuminating the Stage

For the stage, the inventories list oil lamps with a single or double flame. They mention both the crystal tube protecting the flame and the reflectors that allowed the light to be intensified without dazzling the audience. The „glasses provided“ and „glass tubes“ mentioned in the inventories^[61] are reminiscent of the glass cylinders characteristic of Quinquet’s or Argand’s technical improvements for oil lamps.^[62] These inventions, which had been used in theatres since the end of the 18th century, offered significant advantages during performance: protection from the movement of the flame (in particular, avoiding flame flares) and the elimination of smoke. Despite other technical innovations such as gas lighting, this type of light nevertheless remained the standard in most provincial theatres during the second half of the 19th century. Whereas larger theatres in the Veneto region were gradually equipped with gas lighting from 1840 onwards,^[63] such an investment was too great for smaller theatres such as that in Feltre. At the end of the century, the Feltre Theatre went directly from oil lamps to electric lighting.^[64]

An inventory from the years 1883–1885 lists the precise number of „flames“ present in the theatre. Despite some inconsistencies, cross-referencing this document with other inventories allows us to gain a fairly accurate idea of the layout of the lights on stage. The stage was thus probably illuminated by 18 light sources distributed on 6 poles placed between the wings (with three light sources hung on each pole). These made it possible to illuminate the scenic elements on the sides of the stage and in the background.

Footlights were installed to light the proscenium. Traces of these specific lighting elements can be found in a contract drawn up in 1811 between Giovanni Domenico Curtolo, a master builder responsible for the restructuring of the theatre in the early 19th century,^[65] and the management board of the Feltre Theatre: two machines of 16 lights each were provided for the front stage,^[66] which are still preserved today in relatively good condition. The footlights could be lowered or raised in order to change the light intensity during a performance and to create special effects. Appearing later under the term macchine all’inglese, they were equipped with glass tubes and reflectors.^[67] From the mid-19th century onwards, the writers of these inventories included the footlights in the batterie di scena. In addition to the 16 footlights, this included 6 more lights suspended just behind the proscenium arch. This makes 22 lights in all.^[68] Such a concentration of light behind the proscenium arch was a common practice on Italian stages and was already mentioned by Nicolò Sabbatini in 1638 in his treatise „Pratica di fabricar scene e machine ne’ teatri“.^[69]

The inventories also mention certain kinds of lantern designed specifically for the stage, allowing particular places to be lit according to the needs of the production. Three of these were coloured, thus tinting the stage with a specific colour in order to create particular moods.^[70]

Illuminating the Public Areas

As was customary in the 19th century, the auditorium remained illuminated during the performance. Its lighting was provided solely by a crystal chandelier suspended from the ceiling, consisting of 19 lights.^[71]

The interior of the boxes was also lit, but as the 1804 restructuring project states, the lighting in the boxes was the responsibility of the box owners. Only the boxes reserved for the management board of the theatre society were equipped with lights belonging to the theatre.^[72] At the end of the 19th century, lights were also provided to illuminate the gallery or loggione, which suggests that the last row of boxes must have been transformed into a gallery in the mid-19th century.

On special occasions, the brightness of the theatre could be increased greatly by means of „eighty-five iron arms“ that could be hung from the boxes.^[73] The sources speak of „illuminazione a giorno“, a particularly intense form of lighting in the auditorium. According to the account books, this type of lighting significantly increased costs.^[74] This extraordinary illumination was used to mark special events or to solemnise days of political celebration, as for example 4 October 1825, when the theatre was „lit up as if in broad daylight“ in honour of the Austrian Emperor Francis I. Similarly, the first illumination of the season increased the amount of oil required, suggesting that the theatre stayed lit for longer.^[75]

Apart from the auditorium, the inventories refer to the various meeting and walking areas that also needed to be illuminated. These were essentially the stairways, the corridors (with oil lamps), the vestibule (lit by a crystal floor lamp with 6 lights), the café (requiring another floor lamp and 2 wall lamps), plus the outdoor areas of the theatre (lit by torches). From a diachronic perspective, comparing these sources also allows us to understand the evolution and use of certain spaces, such as the creation of a space to house a café in the middle of the 19th century, or the creation of another space called the salone in 1880.^[76]

Illuminating the Backstage Area

The sources also mention lights in the spaces provided for the theatre staff. There were lanterns and oil lamps in the actors’ dressing rooms under the stage and in the box office area. For the orchestra, each music stand was equipped with an oil lamp with a crystal tube.^[77]

Preparing and Handling the Lighting

Various objects evoke the handling of the lighting. The 1831 inventory mentions a room with a stove for liquefying oil for the lights. From 1879 onwards, the account books tell us exactly what kind of fuel was used: it was mainly petroleum, while a few stearic candles were used in the actors’ dressing rooms.^[78] Since it was no longer necessary to melt fat to prepare the fuel for the lights, petroleum seems to have made the oil stove obsolete. There were also various containers for pouring or collecting fuel in the various lamps, not to mention the presence of a four-and-a-half-metre long ammorza for lighting distant lamps.

Safety was also a constant preoccupation, with large sand trays above the stage and in the corridors to allow for quick action in the event of a fire. In addition, the custodian was obliged to keep a store of water and a blanket ready for use as part of his duties.^[79]

The inventory from the years 1883–1885 suggests that the Feltre Theatre was equipped with a total of 127 „flames“ (42 of which were intended for the stage).^[80] Preparing these light sources and managing them during performances in the theatre thus involved a considerable amount of work. The person in charge of the lighting had to prepare the countless lamps, supply them with fuel, light them and extinguish them every evening, and keep a constant eye on them to avoid fires breaking out. Then there was the maintenance work needed, such as repairing light mechanisms or replacing broken glass (the account books regularly record costs related to the preparation of lighting systems). These technicians also had to manage the lighting during performances, collaborating with the stagehands and sometimes creating special effects.

c I Macchinisti – the Stagehands

The 1880 inventories detail the personnel of the Feltre Theatre employed to handle the stage sets. They mention an assistant on stage, an assistant at the curtain, a stagehand and an assistant stagehand. Various objects evoke the presence of stagehands both on and under the stage (benches, lanterns, flasks, glasses and chamber pots) and allow us to differentiate clearly between three levels of the stage that required the intervention of stagehands:

• the under-stage area, where stagehands would operate the carriages that allowed the wings to slide onto the stage, or operate trapdoors on stage to allow actors to emerge;

• the stage, where they had to ensure the movement of the frames and sometimes change them in plays that required a lot of set changes;

• the grid, where stagehands had to manage the movement of backdrops, sky depictions or even flying machines (as suggested by the aforementioned 1831 inventory).

The under-stage and above-stage mechanisms allowed the stagehands to arrange the backdrops and wings precisely to create a scenic image. The wings could be slid on the rails under the stage, the borders and backdrops suspended from the grid above the stage, and their vertical and horizontal positioning adjusted. This system was of Italian origin, had been used on stages across Europe since the 17th century, and was perfected and reached a technical peak in the 19th century.^[81] Various contracts and archival documents show that such a system was still considered modern in the first half of the 19th century: „The scenery should be produced in a way that is as manageable as possible, as is usual in the most modern theatres“, stipulates the contract with Curtolo mentioned above.^[82]

The inventories also mention the presence of borders and wings representing red draperies.^[83] Placed just behind the proscenium, these painted drapery elements allowed the stagehands to adjust the frame of the stage without the audience being able to see any offstage areas.^[84]

Stagehands played a fundamental role in the success of a performance. A clumsy stagehand could destroy the effect of a whole show. The playwright August von Kotzebue reminds us of this fact when he complains about the bad behaviour of stagehands in the Italian provinces during a performance at the Nuovo Teatro Filarmonico in Verona in the early 19th century: „men show up to change the scenery before the end of the scene and go about their business as they please during the performance“.^[85]

Their skill, combined with the ‚modern‘ stage machinery available at the Feltre Theatre, made it possible to make a vista changes. These constituted one of the charms of the theatre, which even audiences in great capitals were not yet ready to renounce in the first half of the 19th century.^[86] However, it was very difficult to operate such changes successfully. They required a lot of skill, strength and coordination. The difficulty of these effects, and the increasingly complex staging techniques of the second half of the 19th century, probably led stagehands to use the proscenium curtain for set changes.

Before outlining the role of the stagehand as described in archival documents, it is necessary to specify just what we mean by this term, namely any person who handled the sets before, during and after the performance, but also who maintained, repaired and sometimes created elements of the machinery.^[87] As mentioned earlier, these tasks were part of the custodian’s job. However, the custodian thus had various people under his command who would assist him with the scenic elements. The 1883 inventory lists the members of this team in Feltre. It was composed of a lighting manager (illuminatore), a stage assistant (assistente scena), a stage operator (praticante scena), a stagehand for the stage (machinista) and an assistant stagehand (assistente macchinista).^[88] The precise division of tasks remains difficult to establish, however, especially since in Feltre the custodian was also the illuminator. We propose therefore to regard this term not as a specific profession as practised by a single person, but rather as a term used for a group of workers who performed a plethora of activities fundamental to the proper running of a provincial theatre.

Managing the Scenery

Long before the show, the stock scenery was the basic material with which the stagehand had to deal. Like many provincial theatres in the Veneto region in the 19th century, Feltre’s Theatre had a limited amount of stock scenery that was reused for various performances. A multitude of contracts and inventories document the Feltre’s stock of scenery throughout the 19th century. However, it is important to be cautious when drawing information from these documents. They tell us nothing about the restoration and transformations that this décor might have undergone over the course of the century. Such lists also depend on the knowledge and precision of the person who made them: different terms are sometimes used to define the same pieces of scenery. This variability reminds us of the flexibility with which the scenic location represented on these sets was perceived. Nevertheless, these documents show the persistence of certain scenic locations throughout the 19th century, forming the core of Feltre’s scenic repertoire. They can be listed as follows: palace, cabinet, noble room, simple room, square, forest, vestibule, underground, rustic room, maritime horizon.^[89]

Managing Accessories

The inventories also mention the existence of various painted props: four statues, vases with flowers, and various backdrops to cover doors, fireplaces, tombs, doors and windows. They suggest that these different painted props could be added to the set elements (wings or backdrops) to modify them.^[90] These elements were given to the stagehands. Sometimes they had to be restored or replaced. In Feltre, for example, during the renovation of the theatre by Tranquillo Orsi in 1842, the society asked the painter to replace the nine stock scenes.^[91] With permission of the theatre’s presidency, they could be modified or adapted as required.

Managing the Scenic Elements Brought by the Troupes

The Feltre archives contain playbills that provide us with valuable information on the practices of theatre troupes visiting Feltre. For example, a playbill for a pantomime presented in Feltre in 1825, „Il ritorno di Pietro il Grande Czar di tutte le russe in Mosca ossia La gran congiura de Strelitzi“, specifies that the large square scenery was created by the celebrated scenographer Francesco Bagnara.^[92] The troupes thus brought elements of scenery with them, complementing or replacing a theatre’s stock scenery, allowing them to respond to the specificities of the plays. This is confirmed by the presence of an apparatore in a list of troupe members sent to the presidency of Feltre; he was responsible for setting up the scenery for the plays. According to this document, the troupe was also provided with a trovarobe, a sort of prop-maker whose task was to find furniture and props that the actors might need, for example by borrowing or renting objects at antique dealers or private individuals, thus avoiding having to carry cumbersome items.^[93]

Adjusting and Moving the Scenery

The skill or clumsiness of the stagehands (whether local or with a touring troupe) was most noticeable during performance, when they had to set up the various sets and move them during any a vista changes. The inventories mention the various elements that supported the wings (poles) or operated the backdrops (pulleys and hinges). Surprisingly, they do not mention the machinery under the stage; only the contracts from the beginning of the century testify to these elements. However, they still exist in the Feltre Theatre, and are very well preserved.

It is difficult to know exactly how many people worked as stagehands in a theatre like Feltre during the 19th century. The account books mention two stagehands, which does not seem to be enough for operating the sets of an entire theatre.^[94] It is therefore possible that people helped out without being paid. To better understand the question of the workers’ remuneration, it is necessary to relate it to the whole of the personnel employed in the theatre and to other workers in 19th-century Italy.