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One might think that work at the Canadian Conservation
Institute can be routine. On the contrary, CCI staff
are occasionally asked to fulfill somewhat unusual (even
glamorous!) requests. One such opportunity came from
the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead,
Quebec, early in 1999. The Arts and Entertainment Network
was producing a new TV miniseries ("The Fabulous
Showman P.T. Barnum: Inventing the American Age")
and wanted to film a scene in the Opera House. The director
of the Opera House, knowing that I had examined its
historic interior in 1998, requested that I supervise
the film crew to ensure that any negative impact on
the fragile interior elements would be minimized.
I arrived several days in advance of the shoot and
spent the time padding an elaborate wooden entrance
staircase and laying corrugated cardboard sheets on
the floors in preparation for the arrival of the film
crew. [In retrospect, it would have been preferable
to use rigid, wood fibre sheets on the floors; the cardboard
sheets provided adequate protection against the heavy
equipment, heavy tripods, and dollies used for tracking
shots, but the "low-tack" adhesive tape required
to fasten the cardboard sheets to the floor became "high
tack" after four days, and a clothes iron was required
to remove it.] I also supervised the installations of
the production company's art department to ensure that
no damage was done to the building fabric: when modern
elements such as light fixtures were replaced with mock
gas fixtures that mimicked the style of the 1850s, I
asked that foam padding be used where the mock fixtures
were attached to the stamped tin ceilings; offending
exit signs and fire alarms were covered with paper masks
and period curtains were installed with friction-fit
rods; and I specified that wherever possible pins should
be used instead of nails, and that nails and pins had
to be inserted into wood joints rather than flat surfaces.
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As filming progressed, the call, "rolling...action,"
was often followed by "cut," then "RETOUCHE,"
and a makeup assistant would hurry over to the actors
to repair sagging eye lifts or a flattened coiffure.
Unfortunately, sometimes they were just a little too
enthusiastic, and several times I had to lunge quickly
to prevent a wayward make-up backpack from inadvertently
brushing against the stage sets.
Film director Simon Wincer made use of several of the
original historic backdrops, including the stage curtain
and the forest and street scenes, but I did not allow
him to use the drawing room scene as it was too fragile.
And I conducted my own retouche on the street scene
by repairing two tears at the edges of the fabric, top
and bottom, that were in danger of propagating across
the width of the drop.
Filming wrapped up on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I worked
with the crew from the art department and the Haskell
Opera House to remove the modifications. I was also
able to do a post-mortem on the event with the Board
of Trustees of the Haskell Opera House that afternoon.
The impact on the interior was minor and I noted all
damages in a report in which I also recommended repair
options and some preventive care measures to be taken
before the Opera House was closed for the rest of the
winter.
The use of historic sites for filming is a novel way
to fund preservation, not only directly by payment from
production companies, but indirectly through the increased
publicity it generates. Given adequate preparation and
supervision, it can be rewarding for everyone.
*Grip: A very large member of the film crew who carries
heavy and expensive camera equipment, and who NEVER
EVER drops anything.
References
- Mignier, A.M. Coming Soon to a Museum Near You:
Collections Care During Film Production. Graduate
thesis report. Orinda, CA: John F. Kennedy University,
1996.
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About the Opera House
The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was opened
in June 1904 by Martha Stewart Haskell and her son Horace,
as a gift to enrich the communities of Stanstead, Quebec,
and Derby Line, Vermont. The site is unique in that
the international boundary actually passes through the
Opera House, with the stage in Canada and the seats
in the United States. The interior design, by James
Ball of Stanstead and Gilbert Smith of Boston, is purported
to be a scale version of the old Boston Opera House
which was destroyed by fire at the beginning of the
century.¹ In addition to its unusual location,
the Haskell Opera House is note-worthy because its interior
elements (including the original stage sets and machinery)
are intact. Many historic theatres from the 19th century
have been restored in recent years but stage sets from
this period are notoriously ephemeral and few have survived.
The stage sets of the Haskell Opera House include painted
wings or legs, backdrops, teasers, and other traditional
theatrical stage elements that are direct descendants
of the perspective stage settings of Bolognese architect
Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554).² All these
sets are painted in a traditional water-soluble distemper
on cotton or linen canvas, and they are the only known
surviving work of Erwin LaMoss,³ an important scene
painter active in Boston in the late-19th century. The
sets include a forest scene, a street scene, a drawing
room, and an ambitious stage curtain depicting the Grand
Canal in Venice; they are of very high quality and are
an irreplaceable heritage treasure.
Other elements worth noting in the Opera House are
the moulded plaster decorative elements in the balcony
front and the proscenium arch, the mural paintings flanking
the stage, and the original wooden folding chairs for
the audience. There are two classes of chairs in the
orchestra section and the hat racks under them reflect
this: top hats (typically worn by affluent men) would
fit snugly in the U-shaped wire racks under the expensive
seats in the front and soft caps (typically worn by
men of more modest means) would fit in the simple racks
of the cheap seats at the back; ladies, of course, would
never remove their hats in public.
References
- Étude du décor de scène
de l'opéra Haskell de Rock Island, rapport
présenté au Ministère des affaires
culturelles du Québec, Des Rosiers et Associés
Inc., Montréal, avril, 1992, pp. 4–6.
- Serlio, Sebastiano. Regole generali di architettura
(1545).
- Haskell Opera House Renovation Project: Project
Summary. Haskell Free Library and Opera House,
November, 1996.
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