drop scene

American  

noun

Theater.

1. a drop curtain, often of painted or dyed canvas, located downstage and used as the backdrop for a scene played while the set upstage is being changed.

2. a scene or act played with less intensity than the preceding one.

3. the last scene of an act or play.

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Etymology

Origin of drop scene

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

drop scene

The drop scene was used in the city’s only theater in the early 1800s to entertain audiences between shows in the early days of stage performances in New England.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2019

The drop scene was used in the city’s only theater in the early 1800s to entertain audiences between shows.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 13, 2019

Mrs. Brickley here drew her cloak more closely about her, as though to enshroud herself in her own refinement, and presented to the Bench a silence as elaborate as a drop scene.

From Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Ross, Martin

The overture ends, the drop scene rises, and there is the sea-shore, a long curling bay: the sea heaving under the moon, and breaking upon the beach, and rolling the surf down—the p. 103stage! 

From Letters of Edward FitzGerald in two volumes, Vol. 1 by Wright, William Aldis

Suddenly this enchanting landscape seemed to rise swiftly upward like the drop scene at a theatre, and vanished in a blank.

From The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce — Volume 2: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians by Bierce, Ambrose