I'm not sure if anyone is interested in the technical aspects of the play but I found a great book about lighting by
Louis Hartmann, who worked with
David Belasco for 28 years. The book is called
Theatre Lighting (A manual of the Stage Switchboard) and was originally published in 1930. There is a lot of detail about Belasco's production of Mima in the Appendix,which I found fascinating. Below are some of the details from the first act.
LIGHT PLOT OF "MIMA," ACT I In staging "Mima," David Belasco achieved results in production
methods that had not previously been attempted by any producer or
director.
Productions of this kind can be made only by those who are
willing to set aside all thoughts of monetary compensation, the
reward being in gratification for having accomplished the
seemingly impossible. The initial expenses for production and
rehearsals are so great, with high running expenses superadded,
that even if the attraction is a success and plays to capacity in
a theatre as small as the Belasco, the end of the run will show a
deficit of many thousand dollars.
Two years were spent in planning the production of "Mima." The
Belasco Theatre was closed nine and a half weeks, at the height
of the theatrical season. The major portion of the time was
consumed in getting scenery and lights in place and making the
various pieces of intricate mechanism function properly.
The setting was carried out into the auditorium as far as the
balconies, a gigantic machine, most of which was constructed of
iron and sheet steel. Tons of iron were used for supports and
decorations. Forty-five thousand nickel upholstery nails were
used to give the effect of rivet heads.
Motors and lights were so numerous that there was hardly a place
that the eye could travel without seeing them. Each light was
connected individually with a dimmer; and every are lens was
fitted with an iris diaphragm.
Thus every phase of illumination was under perfect control.
The last four weeks were taken up almost entirely with
rehearsals, each of which started at ten A.M. and usually lasted
until three A.M. the following morning. David Belasco spent at
least twenty hours out of every twenty four in the theatre. When
the rehearsal was over he would still remain, absorbed in
watching his staff make the changes he had ordered during it.
Five A.M. was the time the crew generally left the theatre, to
return at nine thirty to be ready for the next rehearsal at ten.
The first scene was the Magister's Laboratory, the setting being
draped in black hangings made of a special cloth with a sheen
like patent leather. The effectiveness of this depended entirely
on the lighting--the different changes and their smooth
manipulation. The scenes of the visions were especially
effective. They were done in a new and novel manner. The
"visions" were set on an elevated platform, in front of which
there was a round gauze ten feet in diameter, framed in a black
velvet drop. When the lights were gradually brought up on the
"vision," the elevated platform was twelve feet above stage
level. As the lights came on, the scene started slowly to
descend, the lights being raised at the same speed as the
movement of the sinking platform. The resultant illusion was that
the scene was suspended in the air; and as it slowly went down it
seemed to float. The elevator was operated by a motor that was
equipped with automatic stops; and push-buttons were used to
start the platform either up or down.
In an ordinary production the manipulation of switches and
dimmer controls is comparatively simple because in most cases
these changes are made on cues where exact timing is not of great
importance. In "Mima" the tempo was important as the
effectiveness of the lighting actually depended on exact timing.
In bringing the lights either up or down the dimmer handles had
to move at varying speeds, at times starting slowly up to a
certain point, then increasing, and slowing up at the end of the
dimming. At other times this order was reversed; and all its
intricacies had to be remembered by the men who worked the
controls. It would have been useless to write it into the
lighting plot as too much time would have been required to read
it. Besides, the work was more a matter of feeling which could
not be explained definitely in words. It was only by constant
rehearsing, which gave the men practice, that the desired results
were attained.
Further information from the book about theatre lighting and the light plot for Mima can be found below. There is a foreword by Belasco himself and some nice illustrations.
userpages.umbc.edu/~cobb/335/hartman/slight.htmuserpages.umbc.edu/~cobb/335/hartman/slight13.htm
