Prompter

Reading notes

• Kalkhas §11 суфлерская будка

  The prompter's box (suflyorskaya budka) was a small enclosure sunk at the front of the stage, from which the prompter fed actors their lines throughout a performance -- an unglamorous but essential fixture of the 19th-century Russian provincial and metropolitan stage alike, invisible to the audience but audible, in a low murmur, to the cast.

• Kalkhas §23 суфлер-с

  Nikitushka identifies himself by his backstage function before his name -- "the prompter, sir" -- the deferential '-с' particle (a clipped form of сударь, "sir") marking his habitual, almost reflexive subservience to the actors whose lines he has fed for who knows how many years.

• The Tragedian §27 prompter

  The backstage prompter who fed lines to actors from a hidden box, a fixture of provincial Russian theaters whose stage-whispered cues Fenogenov sarcastically tells Masha to heed.