absorbing pile. Duvetyn is a less-expensive substitute. Duvetyn has a nappy, textural surface but no actual pile. This nappy surface helps to trap light, making the drapes nonreflective and less obtrusive. Black is the most popular color for all stage drapes, because that color absorbs the most light. Drapes that belong to a certain theatre are often called the house rags. M ASKING Masking is a term used to identify curtains that block the audience view of the backstage area. Curtains that mask the overhead space of a stage are called borders. Borders are really wide but not very tall. Ideally, they should be the same width as the battens that they are hung on, so that they run all the way from one side of the stage to the other. Legs mask the offstage space or wings. Legs are tall, but usually not very wide. They should be at least several feet taller than the proscenium opening, but not so tall that the bottoms do not clear sightlines when they are flown all the way out. In a theatre with a very short fly tower, that ideal situation might not be met and some sort of happy medium should be reached. A standard method exists for using legs and borders to mask the stage. It is customary to hang one border The spaces between the border and leg sets are often referred to as in one, in two, in three, etc. This terminol- ogy refers to the spaces between the legs and is often used to indicate the place where an actor or a piece of scenery should enter. Example: "Enter through the stage left in one with the chair and place it on the red spike marks downstage." Leg and border sets are a direct descendent of the wing and drop scenery used in early proscenium theatres. Setting up the stage that way was so efficient that it is still done today.