fun cast traditions...

[YankeesFan175]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 5:39pm

anybody have any fun cast traditions from past shows youve been in? ive got 2:

the first show i was involved in i did sound. i was only there for about a week. but backstage before a show, the cast would gather in the guys dressing room and sing "down by the bay, where the watermelons grow...." (i was never back there, but we could eavesdrop on their mics, hehehe)

and then aother show i was in we had a really fun tradition. there was a really long overture. it started out playing upbeat 40s swing music, so wed all kinda dance around a little. then there was a few minutes of slow stuff. then the same swing bit played again. when it came on again, wed all be in the wings (there really wasnt a backstage unless we went into the hallway) and wed be dancing like crazy, literally 30 seconds before lights came up. hopefully we were all in blind spots, or some lucky audience members saw a side show

well, those are my 2 stories. anyone else have any good ones?

[XOsweet_dancerOX]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 5:42pm

1. after the show we all have an after party and play Bohemian Rhapsody and a bunch of other Queens songs.
2. Someone must pull someones' pants down while they are dancing. Must happen by the end of the party.

[Mythus]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 5:46pm

We all sing Bohemian Rhapsody and rock out for an energy warm-up before a show. That's one of...many.

[rose&lark]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:15pm

Yay for dancing parties backstage! (I was in that same show with YankeesFan175) I suppose another backstage tradition that I participated in was another dancing one...It was a production of The Scarlet Pimpernel, and the opening for Act II was a ball scene, and all of the girls would (behind the curtain) kind of dance around the stage before the show started again! Very fun, especially while wearing fun Eighteenth Century gowns with pillows underneath :)

[Over_the_Moon]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:41pm

Our school's rubber chicken tradition started about 15 years ago, the first time they did Once Upon a Mattress. And now it's part of every show.

Backstage before every performance (it's esspecially important opening night), everyone in the cast has to kiss Astro the rubber chicken. He's covered in lipstick stains and quite a few people (myself included) have given him some tongue.

Also, in the dressing rooms, there are highly confidential traditions. The girls do something and the guys do something, and we're sworn to secrecy. But we forever try to get it out of the other gender...

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:44pm

Taking in doughnuts for the company the night after you had sex.

It's got expensive.

[Kimmygonbefamous]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:46pm

Before every performance, the cast gets together in a circle and sings "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. It was something that one of the first members of our drama group started, and we keep it to honor his memory, because he passed away a few days after he graduated.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:46pm

We had sooooooooooooo many
I guess these are my two favourite:
1.)Before the show: Whether the weather is cold, whether the weather is hot, we'll be together no matter the weather whether we like it or not
2.)We'd always sing Hey Jude at cast parties

[LiTtLeDaNcEr729]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:57pm

I just finished a run of Grease. Every night when they called "5 minutes"- we would put on "Barbie Girl" in the girls dressing room and dance around like idiots. Two of the guys would come in (Our Danny and our Doody) and our Danny would dance on top of the makeup table.

It was pretty raunchy.

We also put on our makeup listening to old music (not old old- but like...Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC old)

Fun stuff.

[Sporti2005]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:58pm

at one theatre where i've done a bunch of shows, there's a plaque in honor of a woman who dedicated herself to the hall. the quote on it says "the place to be happy is here..."

but that's not the whole quote. the whole quote is: "the place to be happy is here. the time to be happy is now. and the way to be happy is to make others happy."

so, before our shows there, the director would come backstage and give his little director pep talk, then this would follow:

charlie (thedirector): the place to be happy is...
Cast: HERE!
charlie: the time to be happy is...
Cast: NOW!
charlie: and the way to be happy is...
Cast: TO MAKE OTHERS HAPPY!

then we would go do our show :)

[andyf]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 7:10pm

We had some great traditions at my school during show times.

There was "Talk sh*t about everyone in the cast," "Make the director cry," which was sometimes substituted for "Give the director a nervous breakdown" or "Drive the director to drink."

We also had "Treat the techies like the weirdos they are," "Sabotage someone else's performance," "Miss an important cue" and my personal favorite "Have everyone hate you."

God how I miss high school...

EDIT: A real game we would play during shows, whether you had a small, sh*tty part or you had a big part but enough time offstage was "Leave during the show." We would go out and get coffee or get something to eat and then haul ass back to the theater before our next cue or before the director noticed it was surprisingly quiet backstage.

Updated On: 10/11/05 at 07:10 PM

[YankeesFan175]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:13pm

this serves as a bump and actual post, hehe.

i forgot, our school also has a rubber chicken. the tradition is that the seniors sort of pass it on to a new freshman or something like that (i dont know, i was there for a week so im not sure). but its more of a duct tape chicken now, since its so old and worn out, i dont even think the rubber is visible anymore....ah good times.

[Pinguin]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:18pm

My high school had an insane amount of traditions...I don't even think I could list them all, but let's just say that there were several things that would be yelled out or chanted throughout the course during notes before the show.

And after we did our energy circle the girls would run to the side of the theatre where years before a bird had died before a show, and we sang "BYE BYE BIRDIE...WE'RE GONNA MISS YOU SO...BYE BYE BIRDIE...WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO!"

[fluerette]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:23pm

I have a bunch. One of my favorites was the whole cast singing "Hey Micky You're So Fine." Another was the cast circling up and yelling "Kill, kill, kill, kill" and than screaming as lound as we could (this was in a production of a spoof on the Scottish Play, by the bye).

[C is for Company]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:28pm

At ours we just go down the block to the chinese food place and buy a box of 500 fortune cookies and try to finish them all off asap

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:32pm

We, too, have a rubber chicken, and it must appear somewhere onstage during the last performance in the run.

Let's see, what else...

Nope, pretty much nothing. Unless you count about half our cast always going to the same restaurant after opening night. But that's nothing new.

[WickedScoundrel]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:54pm

In high school we always went to the nearby Denny's after a show. I dunno when it started, and I dunno why we went. The service was always super slow, though there was usually 25+ people so that's probably why.

[ally_kay_on_broadway]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 12:09am

the 'I'M GAY' song from kids in the hall (i THINK it was kids in the hall)

everyone would run outside behind our theatre in our costumes and dance to it

[DefyingEDCT]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 12:17am

EDCT = Singing of Total Ecplipse of the Heart, Dancing of the Cha Cha Slide, and a round of the Seizure game.

HS = A GP in the bathroom with the girls.

[DrSarcasmoMD]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 3:23am

I was in a production of All's Well that Ends Well at my high school, and before every show, us guys would have a techno dance party in our dressing room to the music of the vengaboys.

Wow, this is a cool thread, brought back some good memories.

[Lizziemonster]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 7:17am

We always sing More than Words after the last show, no one knows who started it or why but it just has to be done

[AngelofAvenueB]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 8:45am

after the second to last show, most of the cast treks to denny's (which is about a half hour away). it's a good time.
and usually during shows, the people backstage will start dancing crazy to whatever song is currently being played.
and we always do, "knees of mother brown, knees of mother brown, brown knees brown knees/knees knees knees knees knees of mother brown!"
we used to sign our names on the wall in our pit (under the stage) too. there were all kinds of shows on the walls, but then they repainted them. damn school.

[lildogs]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 10:59am

Before the very first shouw I ever got paid for (a children's show tour of course) The three of us who were playing the kids would do our own choreo to "So Fresh, So Clean"

And when I was in Grease, we'd all do a circle and say something about the city we were in or someone in the cast or audience--birthdays, whatever...and it always ended with Motherfu*kers! eg "Let's get lucky in Kentucky, motherfu*kers!"

[neocomposer]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 11:08am

dancing like mad fools during any sort of overture and singing with it.

When I was in high school we had a really deep circle time that could be emotional, before shows. it really helped get into character and ensemble!

[Pippin]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 11:11am

In high school, after the show, we would blast jungle boogie in the guys dressing room every night. it's a great song to end the night with. (or begin it)