I need YOUR story

[ariel0098]

Posted: 4/26/08 at 3:33pm

Hey, my friend and I are doing a story on backstage life and what goes into showcasing a production. I would love to hear your stories. Tell me anything from costume malfunctions, rehearsal schedules, planning a production, your opinion on certain types of shows, what you love or hate about performing, etc. It doesn't matter if your an actor, lighting tech, director, writer, stage manager, etc. Feel free to email stories or questions(or you can post them here, it really doesn't matter) at [e-mail]

Thanks!!

Updated On: 4/26/08 at 03:33 PM

[springstagemanager]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 5:40pm

Hmm.. SOOOO MANY.

The thing that first comes to mind is a great production of West Side Story I worked on. The costumes were amazing, as was the dancing.

During our 4th performance or so, my friend Lauren was in the group dance to 'Cool,' and her skirt fell straight down, but she managed to keep it around her knees or something, I suppose, and kept dancing without picking up her skirt!!! DEDICATION

[StarStruckGB]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 8:42pm

In the same vein,
I was the vase in Beauty & the Beast last year. During a performance the hoop skirt I had on started to fall and as I went to walk in a circle backwards, I stepped on the rim of it and came very close totripping over and flashing myself. Somehow I kept it together.

And this year we did Li'l Abner, and most of the crew were new kids. During a blackout, closed front curtain, the backdrop fell down and they took a good few minutes to find a way to fix it despite all of us and an assistant director whisper-shouting suggestions. They ended up closing a black curtain, but too far up so we had to scramble to moving the few set pieces up. Everything worked out though. Not as bad as when the pit had to extend a trill for 10s of measures because of a lighting malfunction.

A few years ago, they did Guys and Dolls and the dice on the street in one scene fell offstage into what was suppossed to be a sewer. Someone in the pit threw them back up, and one of the kids playing dice just jumped down to the edge of the stage on his stomach looking terrifed, looks up quick and goes "RATS! Big Ones!"

But yeah, there are just too many.

[skb2010]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 11:02pm

I was Rosemary in H2$ this year (wow i say that alot on here =/) and we were on the "Rosemary" scene where Finch and Rosemary are confessing their love for each other. Usually we just sang through it, and avoided the kiss, but that night, our Director decided we had to get it over with. So she started the music, and he sang, and then we kissed. It was THE most awkward thing ever, because it was my first kiss (stage/real life) and I don't even know where his mouth had been or has been (he's kind of a man whore.) Then they made everyone else leave, and we had to do the scene like 11 more times. It got less and less awkward, until opening night.

We were doing the scene, and we had always broken apart at the same time. Well, on opening night, I went to pull away, and he held on. I let out this huge snort, and since we were both wearing body mics, it was incredibly loud. REALLY embarrassing.

[Mekroth]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 12:31am

Right now, I'm in "the Scarlet Pimpernel" (opening Thursday) and yesterday, we were practicing the first prison scene. In it, Marguerite tries to slap Chauvelin (me) and he grabs her arm and throws her to the floor. Well, it wasn't a full dress rehearsal, and I kept my glasses on. We had practiced this scene many times, and never once slipped up, but I always prepared myself, thinking "If she actually makes contact, well, it just happens." Yesterday, she made contact. My glasses flew off the stage, and the left lens popped out. needless to say, there was a bit of akwardness that ensued.

[elphabelle07]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 1:13am

I had laryngitis during "Annie" and I played Miss. Hannigan. Thaaaat was interesting. I sucked on a ricola every time i was backstage.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 11:00am

Someone swiped the box of safety pins in the girls' dressing room during Guys and Dolls. I was General Cartwright, and had a cloak type-thing to wear. It would not stay on for anything. Every time I walked around I held it on. By the time curtain call came I forgot that I didn't have a pin, and when I took my bow it went flopping right over my head and onto the stage.

[SarcasticStagehand842]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 11:20am

My favourite production would have to be when we did "Chicago" last school year in the fall. I had transferred in and asked the TD about working on crew right away to see how things were done compared to my previous university and I had the time of my life. It was a mixture of some older students and a bunch of us younger ones. I was working the flies for this one, and I only had about 3 cues the entire show, so most of my time was spent in the Green Room chit chatting with people and getting to know each other. Our props master would be getting the wheelchair ready for the beginning and do a wheelchair dance while Lip synching "I am my own best friend" while wheeling himself on the prop out to the stage. And being the goofy bunch we are, we'd dance around to the more bouncy tunes and overact the emotional ones for our own amusement. And by the end of each show, the Techs were all dancing and singing along softly for the big finale on whatever side of stage they were on. And after production its a thing to preset before leaving to cut down on work for the next day and make sure things are still working, so we'd ride the platforms to their spots like a skateboard and play with the air castors and have contests to see who could sweep the stage fastest without missing a spot. And its a custom here for all the techs after the final performance to have a couple shots of whiskey and the nicest cigar we can afford behind the scene shop if weather permits as a treat for a job well done.

[Look_Out_Broadway]

Posted: 5/7/08 at 7:39pm

One that comes to mind for me is during my high school's production of Inherit the Wind. It was so funny because during this show 2 people fell asleep, RIGHT in the middle of it! There's a set change when everyone enters back into the courtroom during a blackout, but right before this our lighting guy had fallen asleep and didn't know where the heck we were in the script. He just "assumed" that the lights needed to come up........but the problem was we were all still coming on stage when he turned them on. We all looked like deers in headlights, I'm sure, but that was just funny (can you blame the guy for falling asleep!? :)). And also during one of our shows, the guy that sat next to me in the jury box (I was George Sillers), fell asleep during Drumond's monologue and eventually woke up after someone next to him woke him up (I was being professional and focusing on the scene, NOT the person sleeping next to me.... HA Just kidding!!!! ha!). But ya that was

[dramatothemax]

Posted: 5/7/08 at 9:22pm

When I was Jo in Little Women le musicale, we had trap doors that I used for entering the attic. Well after Fire Within Me I was supposed to go down the trap and shut the door on this big drum beat, but my head wasn't in enough and I hit myself with the trap door which then caused me to slip on the ladder, I managed to wrap my foot around a rung of the ladder and I fell backwards then causing my many giant skirts to flip over my head. And no one was there to witness it. hahaha
(I hit myself in the head a 2nd time with the trap door giving myself a minor concussion...needless to say, we cut that particular trap door.)

[lola_actor22]

Posted: 5/15/08 at 11:19pm

I have something:
I don't know if it counts but it's something.
I'm a stage manager and performer and when I stage manager a performance I don't want to be stage managing I just want to be on the stage. And when I'm on the stage, I feel like the rest of the world doesn't exist. Like time stands still and people are watching me. And I LOVE the feeling.

Example: When I was ASM on Seussical I cried numerous times backstage because it's been one of the many shows I've always wanted to be in... and people think I'm emotional and such, but really I'm not an emotional person...
And when I SM or ASM shows where the audience go wild cheering for the performers, I always cry, because it's so amazing that there is such an amazing support system friends have for one another. Even strangers who clap and admire people they've never met. Standing ovations are beautiful. The respect people give to performers is such a beautiful thing, I just have always wanted that. But lots of people want things they can't get... but that's what keeps us going.

SOOOOOOOOO CHEESE ... but I figured you might want something like that.. who knows? Hope this helps...

[SarahBeth]

Posted: 5/17/08 at 3:35am

Choreographing 3 intense dance numbers in one night with numerous dance breaks and then not going back to it until 3 days later and expected to still know it. Yay. But I love it all. I love that the choreographer also understands that we have to be able to sing at the same time and choreographs accordingly. Now if only my partner wasn't incredibly awkward..hm.