Item 16 - The Stage and Auditorium

1 postcard, 3 copies

One copy annotated on reverse by R.S. Chalk, as follows:
'The sudden transformation of half of Dormitory into Stage & Auditorium mid-way thro’ Play Term was an amazing annual feat. (I have never fathomed where such a vast amount of gear was stored meanwhile). Under Elections migrated up Saignes, Upper Elections occupying their Houses. Combined with a ceaseless round of rehearsals, the dislocation caused to study and routine was immense, but also K.SS would never have it otherwise, regarding the Latin Play (with strictly Elizabethan pronunciation) as our bounden duty to our Royal Foundress. (What of KSS today??)
The fire-hazard in the Auditorium was immense. The whole structure was made out of wood and the only exit the narrow gangway (shown) beneath the ‘Gods’! There was one fireman on duty, he long superannuated.
Since almost the beginning of the century, the Play cycle had settled into a fixed Terentian tetralogy- Andria, Adelphi (1919, post War), Phormio and (euphemistic) ‘Famulus’ (olim Eunuchus)- produced on rigid lines by the meticulous Rev. GGS Raynor. Scenery certainly and costumes presumably (including those extraordinary ‘fleshings’ for limbs) dated from the previous Century. I acted Gera in ‘Adelphi’ of 1923, very capably produced by Rev. H.K Luce'