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

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 178 drop scene.

From Humours of Irish Life by Various

It comes at the beginning of a first series of pictures, or as a kind of drop scene between one series of pictures and another.

From Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death by Myers, F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry)

The rear was flooded with light, streaming in where the wall had been, and through open doors they saw the houses opposite filling in the background like the drop scene at a theater.

From Treasure and Trouble Therewith A Tale of California by Bonner, Geraldine