Starring the Baby-sitters Club! Part 3!
Well, after a pretty good streak of normalcy, I went and fucked up my sleep schedule. I slept until 5:30 pm (and missed Animal Crossing events) and after touring Tumblr I came to snark. And so far this book is a breeze! It's pretty fun tearing into the BSC when they're acting stupid rather than bitchy. Stupidity is so much easier to handle than
( Read more... )
She answers to the choreographer, who has authority over her. Again, she's clueless as shit about the crew roles.
I make things. Elaborate things. I often work with the directors of shows I participate in. That doesn't make me the lead costumer. The lady in charge of keeping track of everything is the lead. Her job sucks. I don't want her job. My job's the fun job. I make more of the pretty things that makes audience members gasp. She might get to make a couple costumes, if there's time left, after keeping track of what's made, what needs to be made, making sure everything fits right, dealing with costume emergencies and cast members gaining or losing weight, last-minute cast-changes, dealing with costumes looking different colors under the floor lights, etc.
Choreography is the same. Yes, the lead choreographs, but they also have the grunt work while the assistants, even if given broad independence, have most of the fun.
One week till opening night, and Stacey is nervous because everyone is still making mistakes.
That'll happen, but mistakes should be few and far between. You've got to be able to improvise if something goes on on stage. I was nominated for an award when I was in school for improving when the lead I was on stage with completely forgot his lines and we were the only two on stage. I had to make up a scene on the spot and make sure it lead to a point where he got a book and a note he was supposed to read. Putting it on the table and walking off wasn't an option. That wouldn't increase the chance he'd remember what to say. I had to lead him to his lines, and make it look natural.
When we did Les Mis, during the scene where Cosette and Marius run from their wedding and find a dying Val Jean, Cosette, who was being played by the understudy, started her lines too soon, and abruptly stopped. The actor playing Val Jean and the conductor and the band had to work together on the spot to find a place to go back to to restart without interrupting the music, and if you know the beginning of that song, you'll know it sounds like a lot of repeating, but with subtle note-changes. It was several heart-stopping seconds for those of us in the wings who knew that something happened, and from where I was, I could see her face, and the horror, that she fought to turn into shock that her father was dying. The scene came together, and most in the audience had no idea anything had gone wrong. By the way, the audience was almost a thousand people. They paid good money to watch this show.
When shit happens, you cover for it. On the spot. The only time I've seen a show stopped, aside from Anything Goes, where the show had to be cancelled, was when the police had to make an announcement about a car parked in an illegal spot that HAD to be cleared, and a tow truck couldn't get in there. That was during The Producers. The guy who played Bially worked in an intentional jab at the lady who parked there, and make it funny. But even when I've seen people get injured on stage, as in bleeding, the show doesn't stop. Once, a "bar maid" nonchalantly wandered across the stage with a towel for the lead to wrap around his hand while he continued his lines. (We were ready backstage to bandage him up pretty quick.) We had a bloody nose once. The guy (it always seems to be fellas who bleed onstage) went with it, and another actor on the stage sauntered to the wings, grabbed a box of tissue, and walked back to the bleeding guy, gave it to him, and went back to his spot. Believe it or not, when you play things cool, the audience often doesn't realize it wasn't planned!
Reply
Leave a comment