Notice the changes in the adaptation at right that produced a lower stage height.The new proscenium is more suited in scale to the creche figures, and one of the nice effects of lowering the stage height were the shorter, fuller columns. Adapting the proscenium A word about color correction—Color correction is an art in itself, and can work wonders as you can see with the before and after scans above. Lucky for me, I live uner the same room with the author of Photoshop 5 in Depth. But don't worry if you don't have an author at your side: you'll find that by using Photoshop's basic color correction techniques (Levels, Saturation, and Balance) you'll get results as remarkable as the difference you see above. Reducing the height—While marvelously proportioned for a toy theater, the Guggenberger proscenium would soar too high above the creche figures. (Certainly, the creche figures could have been made proportionately larger and therefore taller, but that would not have left as much room on the stage for many characters.) By reducing the proscenium height some design elements were pleasantly changed and others eliminated. The columns, for example, became shorter and fuller, and, in my opinion, much more pleasant to the eye. New Proscenium ornamentation—I wanted to feature the beautiful mythological creatures that appear on the top of the Guggenberger original for the new Portico that I created (you'll see it shortly). So on the proscenium above the curtain I used the round motifs that were eliminated by the height reduction juxtaposed by the existing square motifs. They may look a tad repetetive here since they're the same as the motifs of the new base (only larger). The top of the Proscenium, however, will be mostly obscured by the new Portico, so this won't be a problem. Expanding the statue niches—I felt that with the added Portico the right and left proscenium wings needed to be expanded. Otherwise, in my preliminary constructions, the side wings almost disappeared behind the new Portico. Moving the adjacent outer columns outward agave some needed breathing space to the statue niches.   A wider base provided needed support for the figures. Adding a base—Toy theater proscenia could be glued on very heavy stock or, often, on wood. But here we're talking about card stock that can easily be folded and put away. So a wider base was essential. A wider base also meant a wider support for the creche figures, another necessity.