As soon as the curtains open, begin your lines. Remember that a play is like a piece of music, it moves onward in perfect time. An awkward pause, or hesitation, breaks the time and destroys the spell you are weaving about your audience. Entrances and exits should be so arranged that the marionette makes his entrance and begins to speak his lines as soon as the speaker before him finishes his lines. We have spoken of the spell that you are trying to weave. Let us see what has been done, so far, toward this end. The puppets are beautifully made. The scenery is lovely in design and color. Hands, through patient practice, have acquired that deftness and sureness that we call skill. The voices are well pitched and appropriate for each character. The greatest thing, however, is yet to be done. It is to touch the imagination of your audience. The key to this world of the imagination is suggestion. The lights and setting give the mood. The voices and the movements of the puppets convey the thoughts and emotions of the characters of the play. The harmony of lights, setting, voices, and the movements of the puppets work the spell. In the battle scene in _Sigurd, the Volsung_, the curtains open on a stage where a low mound and one tree is silhouetted against a twilight sky. A bit of afterglow still lingers. On the ground are several shields and spears and two prostrate figures. Against one of the figures lies Sigmund, the great Norse hero. Beside him kneels his faithful wife, Hiordis. The audience feels that, shrouded in the mysterious blue light, are a great host of noble slain. Sigmund bids Hiordis gather up the pieces of his broken sword to keep for his son that is to be born. Out of the shadows, dimly seen in his “gleaming gray mantle and cloud-blue hood,” comes Odin, to welcome Sigmund to the hall of the heroes in Walhalla. Hiordis bows her head in silence and the audience experiences her grief, and shares her hope for the future. The afterglow in the sky seems to be a promise of a new day. [Illustration: [Stage]] [Illustration] MASKS [Illustration: [Mask]] CHAPTER I The Map of the Mask From the map it is evident that masks have been worn in every part of the world. They are older than the idols which primitive man made for himself. Why he invented masks we do not exactly know. They may have originated when man first attempted to impersonate the gods as he sought to control nature. If you can imagine how vast and mysterious the world of nature looked to primitive man and how he felt about all moving things, animals, clouds, winds, flowing water, swaying trees, and creeping vines, you can understand how he came to believe that there were spirits dwelling in such things and that these indwelling spirits had power to work him good or evil. Through offerings and prayers he sought to control these mysterious spirits and make them do his will.