drop scene

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of drop scene¹

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

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

From Washington Times

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 Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg

Her eyes fell on the same view, which might have been painted on a drop scene so fixed was it, so identical in colour and light day after day.

From Project Gutenberg