The worst thing to happen in any of the shows I've done...

[dramaparoxysm23]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 3:36pm

Tonight was the last night of my school's production of Oliver!, and it did not end as planned. The 12-year-old girl playing Oliver and the 15-year-old playing Mr. Brownlow took a dive off the 10-foot 'bridge' at the end of Act II. We have four very large boxes stacked into a square to form a bridge, and as Brownlow went to hug Oliver and take him home, he overbalanced with Oliver in his arms, fell headfirst through the flimsy wooden railing with a loud CRACK! and landed on a smaller wooden box serving as makeshift stairs before finally ending up on the stage. Everyone was in shock for what felt like forever (a couple seconds, really) before even Bill Sikes got up and the house lights came on and someone called an ambulance. Those two were taken to a hospital in neck braces, and Brownlow had a Morphine IV because he was in pain and couldn't make a fist with one hand. (The girl playing Bet had tripped down the OTHER side of the stage a few scenes earlier, so they put her in the ambulance as well.) The guy playing Brownlow actually protected the little girl playing Oliver, and she ended up landing on him with only a bruise to the shin. She's out of the hospital now, and Bet has only a sprained ankle. Brownlow has four broken vertebrae and a broken wrist, as well as other various bruises. (His mom and mine are close friends, which is how I know this.) I just can't get the image out of my mind...I was RIGHT IN FRONT of them as they fell, and I'm still shaken up. This is by far the worst thing that has happened in any show I've done.

[MotorTink]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 3:43pm

holy crap

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 3:44pm

That's too bad, dramaparoxysm23. Give my regards to "Brownlow." I hope it's nothing too serious.

[shiksa_goddess]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 3:45pm

Oh wow! I hope that he is ok! That's terrible.

[StephenSondheimWHOO]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 3:54pm

ouch! I hope he's ok

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 5:08pm

That's horrible. I hope everything is fine with him.

[*brina-doll*]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 5:51pm

That's terrible! I hope he's alright.

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 6:01pm

I fell down the stairs during a school preview of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF JR. in 7th grade. I was Mordcha The Innkeeper and we were doing the final scene in which the townspeople circle and exit the town after being forced out. I was carrying a crate. I was to go down the stairs and out the cafeteria doors. I walked over this large lighting rig wire but tripped over another wire, fell head first into the box and tumbled down the stairs landing on my ankle. I sprained my ankle, but nothing too serious. I got up, and the little kids in the audience thought it was hysterical: they laughed so much, which if you've seen FIDDLER, the last scene is anything but funny.

[kyguy78]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 11:40pm

When I was in high school, we did a production of Barefoot in the Park. The two leads had a hard time remembering the lines and the night of the first performance they proceeded to have the same fight damn near word-for-word three times before the girl playing Corie's mom just walked out and moved them about 15 pages ahead in the script.

[roquat]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 1:07am

During a dress rehearsal of a summer stock production of SWEET CHARITY in which I was an ensemble member, the actress playing Charity did her stunt fall into the "pond" at the end (she actually tumbled into an air mattress in the orchestra pit). She landed too lightly and too near the edge and bounced, hitting her head squarely on a cinderblock which had been used to anchor the mattress. She insisted she was fine, just a little woozy, and the director began giving notes. Midway, the actress went pure white, spun around and crashed to the floor. Everyone was bustling around her, putting pillows under her head, etc. She went to the ER and spent several days in the hospital with a slight concussion.

I hope that's the worst that ever happens in a show I'm in.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 1:26am

When I was doing The Crucible, I had a very scary experience. We were doing the courtroom scene, a very serious, line-heavy, important scene. All of a sudden the girl playing Abigail passes out and starts having a seizure on stage. Shaking and unconscious. One of the scariest experiences I have ever had. The entire audience thought it was part of the play. One of the other actors brought her off stage during the scene and into the dressing room, where she recovered. The rest of the cast had to pick up this very heavy scene, which was pulled off by a couple of cast members. I hope I never experience that again.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 1:26am

Just before the last show of Peter Pan my freshman year, a few techies decided to be cute and run around the auditorium yelling the dreaded M word, claiming that the curse was made up. Well, they were wrong.
Not long after their little jaunt, our backup Tinkerbell blew out. The first one blew earlier in the week, so we were grasping for straws. Tink ended up being a follow spot, and was enormous. We all joked that Tink was a little bloated.
During the first scene change, from the Darling nursery to Never Never Land, someone didn't close the nursery window all the way so when they flew it out, one pane hit something and broke off. Completely off. During the same scene change, a girl got hit on the head by a batten.
For the scene on the island, we had a pirate come out from stage left in a rowboat with Tiger Lily. Whoever was in charge of pushing the boat out WAY overshot it and it almost fell into the pit. Then the pirate got out and fell halfway into the pit, scraping his leg up.
And to top it all off, at the very end of the show, Wendy and Peter were standing on a small section of stage that had served as the island and--guess what?--Peter slipped and also fell partway into the pit. Luckily, he managed to catch himself before he went all the way down, but still...
I have never been in a show where so many mistakes were made. And people say the curse is nonsense...

[roquat]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 1:38am

Oh, you do not mess with the "M" curse. My experience was less spectacular, but too creepy to have been a coincidence. I was performing in a college production of CHESS and one of the techies backstage was talking about his homework assignments, which included an essay on "the Scottish play" (I can't even type it.) An actor overheard him and demanded he perform the usual ritual (go outside, turn around three times, ask to be let in) and he got snooty and refused. In the NEXT SCENE CHANGE (into the "One Night in Bangkok" scene) several nightclub-style signboards were being lowered from the flies. They came down too far, knocking a chorus member to the ground and giving him an inch-and-a-half gash in his shoulder which required stitches.

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 9:52am

My friend is very superstitious and you can't even say that other certain phrase around him.

I hope all involved in the fall will be okay, dramaparoxysm23. I remember when my school did Oliver! we had an issue with one of the trees [it wouldn't stand up and kept falling over]. Luckily no one was injured because there was a crew member on hand to catch it and put it back in its proper place.

[dramaparoxysm23]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 11:03am

The two girls are fine, but I haven't heard any updates on Andrew (Brownlow) yet.

After reading comments on the Scottish play (which my Senior English class/several of the stars are reading) I looked up theater superstitions, and I found several I had no idea about! The pickpockets had been opening umbrellas onstage for "I'd Do Anything", the market scene had real flowers, and we also had a genuine Bible and antiques...not to mention there were several instances of real food being eaten. I'm not generally a superstitious person, but this is a bit creepy (Even if the "superstitions" came from practical things).

Updated On: 12/18/06 at 11:03 AM

[MimiLovesRoger]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 11:21am

Wow. And I thought that when I was Charlotte in Oliver and I dropped a glass cup during the scene change was bad...

Posted: 12/18/06 at 11:36am

oooh the Scottish play.
When we were doing "The Importance of Being Earnest"
our techies thought it would be funny to run around saying it, too.
During act II (the garden/diary scene), there is this big completely functional fountain that we plugged in and had running during the act.
Right as the curtains began to close for the intermission between II and III, the fountain just completely crashed over and spilled ALL over the stage and into the audience.
The stage crew shut the curtain and ran on with more towels than I had never seen in my life and we had to dry the stage (in addition to costume and set changes)before opening the curtain for III.

Also, when we did WSS (another "M" curse incident)...the guys were all required to buy converse sneakers for the show.
One kid forgot his and so he borrowed a friends converse who wasn't in the show. Turns out that friend had much bigger feet...because when they were performing "Cool", he went to kick as a part of the choreography and the shoe flew off and hit the drummer square in the head.

We also had an incident during "Twelfth Night" rehearsals where the curtain actually fell and almost severely injured one of Orsino's attendants. Our director dove in and knocked her out of the way in time though.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 11:43am

What . . . "Macbeth?"

[MotorTink]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 11:57am

Summer before freshman year of HS, we did a summer production of "Harvey" at my church. I was Nurse Kelly. Someone was trying to reach something up really high back stage, so I decided to help, since I was the tall freak. I jumped up a few times and then finally grabbed hold of it (I think it was a hat). I then heard my name because I had to rush out on stage for my lines. Luckily this was a tech dress rehersal with only a semi full audience, so we were still in regular street clothes. I ran out and started to deliver my lines. Everyone was looking at me with these shocked faces. Someone goes, holy sh*t look down. There was blood pouring down my leg. Seems that when I did that last jump, I must of caught something metal on the way down, and ripped a 3 1/2" long, 1/2" deep gash in my thigh. Of course as soon as I saw it, it began throbbing in pain. I still have the battle wound/scar to this day. But I was a trooper, I went back stage got some water, gauze and tape. I was back on stage in abour 10 - 15 minutes.

That's the only physical harm that has happened in any of the plays I was associate with. I could go on for days with techinical mishaps.

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 12:10pm

I was in a cursed production of Hamlet.

Claudius was legally blind, and did not wear his glasses onstage. He ran head-first into a metal pipe supporting a platform and sustained a concussion.

Polonius developed kindney stones during the run and had to be hospitalized.

Hamlet severely twisted is ankle during the huge duelling scene.

Laertes has to be hospitalized when a wood practice dagger broke, sending splinters into one of his eyes.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 12:15pm

Drama--

Your story brought back memories of a production of "Oliver" I was in many years ago. Our Bill Sykes was stabbed up on top of a 10 foot platform, and everytime he would "die" he'd collapse and roll a little. I was sure that one day he'd roll right off the platform. Please keep us updated as to how your "Brownlow" is doing. That's a mighty scary thing.

I did a production of "Anything Goes" where one of the Angels tripped over another cast member, and had to go to the hospital. (Which was lucky for me, because I was her understudy, but I swear I had nothing to do with it!)

Also, I was just in a production of "Nine", where one of our 3 Italians had to be escorted off stage before she either threw up or passed out. The scary part about that was trying to figure out who was going to cover her lines when none of us left the stage for all of act I. We called that night the "improvisatory version" of "Nine".

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 12:16pm

This doesn't really fit in but, here goes anyway...

A couple weeks ago I went to see a show at my college. The steps inside the theatre are not lit well and people trip very often.

Anyway, I was talking to my friend and she was telling me that a few weeks prior, a person (around age 25) walked in (after the show started) and tripped and fell down the steps. And it wasn't just a little trip.
After they realized that it was bad and she wasn't getting up, they stopped the show and called an ambulance.

She broke her neck and her leg. Eek

Thank G/d she isn't paralyzed!
______________________________________

And another one...a bit closer to the topic

Our college was performing Bat Boy. Ruthie had to run on stage with a lantern and then throw it back into someone standing in the wings. This had been done several times before but the person in the wings (Jodi) didn't quite catch the huge heavy lantern quick enough. It gashed her forehead.
She should have gotten stitches but, as Jodi being Jodi, she refused.

I had a picture somewhere I'll try to find....

Edit: Here is the picture. It was taken hours after it happened.

Updated On: 12/18/06 at 12:16 PM

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 1:57pm

That's awful, dramaparoxy - hope he recovers soon!

I did two shows this past year and both times, one of the leads had to be hospitalized about a week before the show. For One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, our McMurphy was taken to the hospital and found to have an enlarged heart, and for Cabaret, the Emcee had to have an emergency appendectomy.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 2:00pm

About 5 years ago, I was playing Linus in YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN. At a certain afternoon performance, for no apparant reason, all of the stage left flats we were using in that particular scene completely fell over and nearly crushed our Sally.

I was laughing hysterically.

[oxdreaminxo]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 8:51pm

The thing with "That Scottish Play"... in my HS before our show we have several things that we do and one is the girls and the guys separate and give chants to the other side. So the guys, thinking they'd be cute, said "Goodluck MacBeth". Personally, I thought it was hysterical but several people freaked out.

However... NOTHING happened and twas one of our better shows. It just goes to show you that theatre superstitions aren't always true.

The worst thing that ever happened to me in a show was when we did "Pirates of Penzance" and while testing out a backdrop, myself and our other ASM had to run up moving steps of the ships and cut down tieline so that the drop would go down. As they started to bring it down, my friend didn't get up fast enough and the metal bar hit her head. Luckily it wasn't serious, but she was definately in pain.

Hope your friend gets better, dramaparoxy!