JUN
17

Mirror, Mirror, on the Stage

By Christina Hamlett 

Former actress and director Christina Hamlett is an award-winning author whose credits to date include 52 books, 278 stage plays and squillions of articles on the performing arts.  www.authorhamlett.com. 

One of my long-ago theatre directors once said that playwriting is like holding a mirror up to the audience and allowing them to see both good and bad aspects of themselves.  Incorporating an actual mirror onstage, however, can be a distraction at best and a literally glaring mistake at worst.  While handheld mirrors aren’t a problem — and can even be a helpmate if it becomes necessary to tape one’s lines to the surface as a memory jogger — it’s when the set calls for a large reflective piece that creativity and artful angles gets called into play.

I can think of three situations when a mirror might seem necessary onstage.

• The large mirror is a necessary prop to the storyline
  Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom of the Opera provides the perfect example of needing to use a mirror or mirrors to effectively tell the story.  Early on, the large mirror in Christine’s dressing room represents the thin line between sanity and madness and utilizes a half-silvered scrim which, when lit from the back, reveals the ghostly presence and, when slid to one side, invites the heroine herself to step through it.  Toward the climax of the musical, the torture room mirrors are a proxy for the lead character’s own shame/horror of disfigurement.


• The mirror’s purpose is to befuddle and confuse, like in a circus funhouse
  The combination of strategically placed mirrors and strobe lights can create a dizzying effect that will keep audiences off-balance.  Think of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole or Dorothy being swept away to Oz by the tornado.  Just don’t use the effect for more than one or two minutes!  Consider also posting a warning in the lobby for those audience members who might be sensitive to these types of optic effects.


• The actors need the mirror to see what they’re doing, such as applying makeup
  Seriously?  Acting is all about playing pretend.  If they practice enough at putting on makeup and modeling clothes, they don’t need a real mirror come performance time.  In one of my own productions, we spray-painted a hula hoop gold, mounted it on a block, and set it on a dressing table with me sitting at the table facing the audience.  In plain sight of them for the entire scene, I proceeded to do my hair and preen over my appearance.

Creating a fake mirror

In a situation like this where you just need the semblance of a large mirror onstage, keep it simple.  Like the painted hula hoop, audiences don’t need to see a real mirror to recognize what it’s supposed to be.  Even if the mirror faces the audience, a sturdy piece of cardboard shaped like a freestanding cheval mirror needs only a coating of silver fluorescent paint or aluminum foil.

Beyond this, the construction of a plywood frame and base introduces two possibilities for emulating a mirror.  The first is to stretch a Mylar sheet over it and staple it as if it were a canvas.  The shine reflects nicely but won’t blind your audience.  The second is to use two actors of the same height and build in identical costumes and have them play the mirror game in which they accurately mimic each other’s moves as they face each other on opposite sides of the empty frame.  Conversely, if it’s a Jekyll and Hyde production, the “good” character can be horrified to see what his “bad” alter ego really looks like. 

Finally, if the simulated mirror is meant to be wall-mounted, a piece of painted cheesecloth lit from the front can show what the downstage side of the room supposedly looks like; when lit from behind, it becomes a mirror into the mysterious.

Using a real mirror

At times, though, a real mirror is necessary onstage, in which case you must remain constantly vigilant to avoid uncomfortable glare and unintended reflections.  Theatre audiences have come to the show to see the actors, not to see themselves staring at the stage.  Nor do they want to be blinded by lights hitting the glass in all the wrong places.

There are several ways to counteract the glare an actual mirror will produce under bright lights.  The first is to liberally spritz the surface with hairspray.  In the absence of hairspray, you can substitute soda pop and water.  The sticky bubbles will give a somewhat distorted effect but not so much as your audience will notice.  Another alternative is to cover the mirror’s surface with a fine piece of mesh such as window screen.  Thirdly is to cover the mirror with a thin sheet of clear plastic.  Depending on the size required, however, this could get pricey.

Avoiding inadvertent reflections is all about the angle of the mirror.  A mirror onstage should never be set up perpendicular to the floor, nor should it be angled upward where it will catch all of the lighting.  Instead, angle it slightly downward to the floor to minimize the glare.  As long as there aren’t any low-angle front lights or footlights, you’ll be good.  Yet another thing to be mindful of in dressing your set is that if mirrors are set at right angles in front of the wing space to avoid reflecting the audience altogether, make sure you’re not giving them an unintended view of backstage!

All of that said, the use of real mirrors in theatre is not without its share of superstition.  The most significant of these — along with the risk of breaking one by accident — is that if an actor looks into a mirror over the shoulder of a castmate and both reflections are seen, can bad luck be far behind?  This clearly derives from the same sources who dissuade the use of real flowers in a production or mentioning that witchy cursed Scottish play aloud.  Just take it with a grain of salt.  Thrown over your shoulder, of course.