"Queer Contracts Made With Actors"

Lucy McKenzie No Smoking

1. Any person employed in this company acting improperly, talking loudly, or using language calculated to produce a quarrel, shall forfeit $5 and be liable to discharge, at the option of the manager.
2. After the proper notice on call boards, all rehearsals must be attended. For absence from each scene or piece of music, 50 cents forfeit; whole rehearsals, $5 forfeit.
3. Any person appearing intoxicated on the street, in the hotels, barrooms, or on the stage at rehearsal or performance, or who may be unable to appear for the same reason, shall forfeit a week's salary and be liable to an immediate discharge, at the option of the manager.
4. A person introducing profane language or improper jest, not in the author, shall forfeit $1. A person restoring what is cut out by the manager will forfeit $1.
5. Any member absenting himself or herself from the theatre of an evening when concerned in the business of the theatre will forfeit a week's salary and be liable to discharge by the manager.
6. Members prevented from attending to their duties by indisposition are requested to send notice to the manager a sufficient time before performance to make the necessary arrangements. Pleas of indisposition must in all cases be accompanied by a certificate of a respectable physician. In case of illness the manager reserves the right to withhold or pay salaries.
7. For making the stage wait, or talking behind the scenes or in the entrances, $2 forfeit.
8. No person permitted, on any account, to address the audience without the consent of the manager. Any one violating this rule will forfeit a week's salary, and be liable to discharge, at the option of the manager.
9. No one in any capacity allowed to introduce or have friends, relatives, or strangers behind the scenes, or in any of the dressing rooms, either before, during or after a performance or rehearsal, without the consent of the manager, in writing.
10. Any person engaged in this company who shall render services in any other theatre, or any concert or public exhibition, without the consent of the management, will forfeit a week's salary and be liable to immediate discharge, at the option of the manager.
11. Artists will not be allowed to go into the audience part of the theatre on the same evening on which they are to appear or have appeared on the stage, without the consent of the manager. for a violation of this rule they shall forfeit $5.
12. Any person who shall be guilty of conduct unbecoming ladies and gentlemen, and calculated to bring disrepute upon this organization–either in or out of the theatre, at the hotels, or upon the railway trains; or who shall conspire against the interest of the manager, defame any member of the company, make public the private affairs of the concern, or by other conduct manifest a disposition to throw obstacles in the way of the management, will forfeit his engagement immediately.
13. No intoxication beverages allowed in the dressing rooms, the stage doorkeeper having strct and imperative orders regarding this rule. Any one breaking this rule will forfeit five dollars.
14. Loud talking or boisterous laughter in the dressing rooms can be distinctly heard in the auditorium and is therefore forbidden. Any one violating this rule will forfeit two dollars.
15. Employees must be on trains stated on callboard notice. Any one failing to do so will forfeit five dollars and also pay his own railroad fare.
16. Any one disobeying the stage manage, or showing any disrespect toward him, will forfeit five dollars and be liable to discharge, at the option of the manager.
17. All sums forfeited as herein stated shall be deducted from the salary of the week during which the forfeiture occurred.
18. Employees must not leave the theatre without permission; they must remember that their services belong to their manager from the rise to the fall of the curtain.
19. Employees will not be allowed to carry more baggage or articles of wardrobe than is positively necessary for their business, neither shall they increase the quantity during the tour, unless for use upon the stage. Employees who shall be found to carry any superfluous articles of wardrobe or properties, &c, will be charged extra.
20. Artists shall be ready to appear fully one act before their own, and must immediately respond to encores at the stage manager's request or signal.
21. No artist will be allowed to dictate to the manager what his or her place on the programme or house bill shall be; the manager may alter the same at his discretion, and any artist creating unpleasantness by expressing dissatisfaction respecting the same, either to the manager or his representative, or to the other members of the company, will forfeit five dollars.
22. Employees are expected to take tickets at theatre if required by management.
23. Salary day will be every Wednesday evening after the performance. Positively no money advanced, as it puts the management to considerable trouble keeping books, and creates arguments on salary day.
24. Any new rule which may be found necessary shall be considered as part of these Rules and Regulations.

– From The New York Times; published February 22, 1903.