Perusing the  1961 opening brochure of my secondary school, I was struck by the old photo of the hall (click for a bigger image). As Stages go it was unremarkable but I spent rather a lot of time on it. This shot from (presumably) 1961 shows it with a rather shocking pair of front drapes, or “Tabs” as we theatrical types call them. When I first caught sight of the stage in late 1969, it had some very dark blue velvet tabs, much more theatrical than these. Shows were not encouraged by the Head, Mr. Jary, however, so it wasn’t until the arrival of Mrs. Innes a couple of years later that the stage started to get used for productions again.Looking at this photo, much is familiar, but there were some differences. The Grand Piano, canvas chairs, lectern & table remained, but as well as the dark blue front curtains, the drapes on the proscenium walls were no longer in-situ, revealing two hidden doors into rooms either side of the stage. There were Rediffusion speakers in the proscenium walls and you can see the grilles of smaller ones in the ceiling towards the back between some of the smaller lampshades.

Those twelve large pendant lamps were controlled in pairs by a set of six switches on a wall panel just out of shot to the right of the doors. I later discovered that they had 500 Watt lamps in them and they could be dimmed via a large rotary handle backstage on the school switchboard. Something else of note was that two of the shades were missing, presumably broken by sporting or caretaker activity. The shades were made of opal glass and very heavy; you lifted them up at and angle and manoeuvred them off the two flanges, taking care not to strain the shade or the lamp. (It got so much easier once the caretakers got themselves a scaffold tower).

Backstage, the wings were cluttered up by raised platforms known as perches- they were the roofs of the two rooms either side. A vertical wooden ladder with three steps and two convenient grab handles got you up into position. The stage right perch was full of junk (old desks & tables, mainly) whilst the stage left one was tecchy mission control. Here was a large cupboard with the emergency batteries for the east wing (it lit strategically placed 25W lamps around the building, some of which you can see on the hall ceiling) and also lit up those EXIT signs on the right hand doors. (They could be lit separately as well). A large wall mounted control panel next to the cupboard charged the batteries and lit the lamps if the mains failed. On the back of the proscenium wall, a hand winch operated the Tabs.

The Pièce de résistance, however, was the school switchboard. This stood about 4′ high, 2′ deep and maybe 7′ long. It was placed so that you could look over the top of it when operating the lighting and see the results, if you could see the stage, that is.

In the photo, the stage doesn’t appear to have any drapes yet, the back wall (and two radiators) being in view. However, it was eventually to have three sets of borders, two pairs of side legs, a closable pair of rear drapes (traverse tabs) and a white cyclorama cloth with small crossover passage beyond. The drapes were reversible with black on one side and silver grey on the other, although the borders were silver grey only. During my stay at Kenton, a new set of Stage Drapes were purchased, the front Tabs being a rich red colour, although the first time we saw them they looked vivid deep pink and a bit of a visual shock after the regal blue.

Back to that switchboard. It had 21 circuits with projecting control arms, each capped with a golf-ball sized white knob. A cowled linear shade with a long thin lamp was known as the “board light” used during performances. Beneath each dimmer handle was a three way switch mounted on a coloured disc, working as up- on (independent)/ middle-off/down - on (master). A large switch on the upper right was labelled D.B.O. (Dead Blackout) and this witched on or off all circuits that were down. (The ones that were up were independent of this, hence the name). Below the switches, were the fuses, useing a device known as a Slydlock™. You slid the fuse gently upwards to disengage it then pulled it free in order to remove the holder and rewire it with replacement fuse wire.

This switchboard was made by Falks, who were an also-ran of the stage lighting sector. I only ever saw two other Falks switchboards, the first at Heaton School (identical to Kenton and believed to have originated from the Kenton School West Hall which was converted into a lecture theatre and VI form centre in the 60s) and the other one (a much better one, with mastering) at a technical college in Gateshead.

One day, I blew up the switchboard. It wasn’t my fault- all of the Slydlocks were bushed othrough the metal panel and connected to the busbars behind- this bushing was just fibre (or perhaps asbestos) washers and had perished over the previous fifteen years. A lamp blew in a Patt. 123 fresnel, taking the fuse with it and causing the slydlock to spark. As I reached down to switch off the circuit, my hand was engulfed in a ball of flame. I was OK with only minor burns, but the switchboard was immediately condemned and the show that night was lit by three 150W pendant lamps!

I can still tell you what the 21 circuits are, sad that I am.

1. FOH Spot 1kW
2. FOH Spot 1kW
3. No. 1 Floods Red
4. No. 1 Floods Green
5. No. 1 Floods Blue
6. No. 1. Bar Spot 500W
7. No. 1 Bar Spot 500W
8. No. 1 Bar Spot 500W
9. No. 2 Bar Floods Red
10. No. 2 Bar Floods Green
11. No. 2 Bar Floods Blue
12. Batten Red
13. Batten Green
14. Batten Blue
15. Foots Red
16. Foots Green
17. Foots Blue
18. Dips 1
19. Dips 2
20. Dips 3
21. Dips 4

The Spots were large Focus Lanterns, i.e. a lamp with a reflector and a large lens in a steel ventilated enclosure. The front of house ones were enclosed in closable alcoves above the windows half way down the hall, you can see the open doors in the photo. The batten was a number of floodlight compartments joined together to form a magazine with every third lamp wired to the same circuit. The Foots were the footlights and we didn’t have any, but we did have a spare batten which I used as a Groundrow to light the backcloth for some shows. The Dips were metal traps either side of the stage with 5 Amp sockets in, paired across, two circuits in each trap.
(Image credits: Slydlock shot from www.thefusecompany.com, School hall shot from Kenton School opening brochure)