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

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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

The arrangement is somewhat like that followed in many modern melodramas, where a scene not requiring properties is acted in front of a drop scene while scenery is being set behind.

From An Introduction to Shakespeare by H. N. MacCracken

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 William Aldis Wright

Behind them were the clumps of cypress trees which framed a vista of endless wooden garden and formed their drop scene.

From Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches by Maurice Baring

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