backstage at wicked
I'm gonna try to use as many cuts as possible, but this is still gonna end up being a long entry even hiding bits and pieces. Fair warning.
Even though I know I had plenty of time to get to Cleveland, I left at 5:30pm and arrived around 6:30pm. For the first time ever, the connected parking garage was full and I couldn't park there. I ended up at a garage across the street so instead of hanging out in my car, I walked to the theatre and hung out in the lobby area of the theatre to kill time.
I got to the stage door at little after 7pm and was escorted downstairs to meet up with Peter Van Dyke. I'll admit to being completely confused by all the twists and turns we took throughout the evening so I couldn't tell you where I was in relation to anything, except that the dressing rooms are below the stage.
Peter gave me a complete tour of the stage area, something I didn't expect at all. (Honestly, I can't imagine the auctioned tour with Katie would have been much different except that it would have been with her instead of the stage manager.)
After the tour we headed downstairs. Let me preface this by say I didn't get autographs from or pictures with any of the other cast people we ran into. It was a shell-shock style moment. Peter did introduce me to them as the auction winner so I got to shake hands and be thanked for going to the benefit and donating to the charities.
In the lobby area prior to the dressing room hallway, we ran into Cliffton, DeeDee and Kaeden, along with DeeDee's sister (whom I'm assuming is probably the babysitter) and a little girl named Bella (whom I'm assuming is probably her daughter). revyrie - Cliffton is quite handsome in person and has a very nice smile. The dressing rooms were around the corner, where I met Tom and Katie. Katie was holding a very tiny dog with very curly hair tight to her chest. I'm not a fan of little dogs but it was cute.
The first time I saw Carmen she was half-dressed and sitting on a yoga ball with her face over a steamer. Peter introduced us and just kinda dropped me off. Carmen's like "Sit down, make yourself comfortable." First thing she did was make sure I was fine with her attire, which was basically black tights, brown Elphaba boots, green body suit around her waist and bra. Didn't bother me. "Good, 'cause I'm fine with it if you're fine with it."
Since she was doing the steaming thing, I asked if she had pre-show ritual type stuff she followed. She steams, drinks Throat Coat tea, stuff like that. In fact, she's like "Would you like to drink what I drink before the show?" So I got a cup of tea and a pastille and on went the conversation.
She asked what I did and when I said zookeeper, you could see the light kinda start to turn on so I mentioned that I'd written her and gotten the Playbill back in the mail. She wanted to make sure she'd sent it because she had a stack she needed to finish. Had I not gotten it back I think she totally would have dug through her pile and signed it right then and there.
Carmen also wanted me to be "completely honest" with her about the cabaret since I was there. I told her I really enjoyed it and liked seeing the cast do other stuff. She agreed that was the goal but everyone thought the audience was rather cold and not necessarily into it.
A little before 7:30pm, Joe Dulude showed up for the greening. Carmen introduced me as the auction winner and a zookeeper. Joe jumped at that, saying it was a profession that always interested him. We talked about that for a few minutes.
I was sitting in a chair on the right side of Carmen and Joe told me to switch to the other side because I was where he'd be standing. I had the option of a straight-back chair, the couch, or Carmen's yoga ball. I totally picked the yoga ball because it was closest to the action. There was a slight fear of rolling off or perhaps popping the ball, but neither happened.
I snapped a few pictures and the three of us carried on a casual conversation, both Wicked-related and zoo-related. Joe's the original makeup designer and worked on Broadway until the tour started, then he switched to that to save money. Carmen did nine months as standby in Chicago and started on the tour in late October/early November with a year-long contract.
Before Joe started the green, reached up above the mirror and pulled down a basket, saying he could give me something not many people had - a used makeup container. He has one from every Elphaba he's worked with and is eventually gonna turn them into some sort of art piece. Carmen signed the lid and handed it over to me. Super, super cool.
Apparently Joe had to take his dog to the emergency vet the night before and was planning to leave early to get some extra sleep. Because of that, Carmen was going to be in charge of adjusting her makeup at intermission. Prior to Joe's arrival she was telling me that she'd had nightmares about having to do all of the green by herself and that had it not been for me, she might have had to. As it was, she was freaked out enough about altering her eye makeup and all of that. She asked him about it several times. It was adorable.
I took a few minutes to check out her costumes and she said to make sure I lifted the Act II dress. I did and it was unbelievably heavy. Also, the detail is absolutely amazing! There are so many colors and textures throughout it. Should have taken a picture, but I didn't.
Once Joe finished with the makeup, he shook my hand again, thanked me for coming and told me to enjoy the show. Next in was Lisa Thomas, the hair supervisor to put on Carmen's wig.
My favorite picture is after the wig cap was on and microphones in place when Carmen turned to me and said, "I think this is when I'm looking my most sexy. Wanna take a picture?" Of course, I did.
She got her braid and beanie put on, then it was time for me to head up to the theatre. Peter had come back in when Lisa was working so I had him take a picture of Carmen and I before leaving.
And, as seems to be the topic of conversation with any actress I meet (i.e. Coleen Sexton and Linda Eder), Carmen mentioned my height. I told her she's lucky I didn't wear heels. On the way out, I told her to have a good show and not to screw up her makeup too bad at intermission. She laughed.
When all was said and done, the whole thing last just under an hour. Well worth the money I spent on it. I'm also completely proud of myself for not being nervous at all. I was casual, comfortable, witty. Everything was all-around fantastic.
This afternoon I'm gonna write thank you notes to Carmen, Joe and Peter to get in the mail ASAP. With Carmen's, I'm going to include the picture of us for her to sign, as well as one of Joe putting on her makeup for both of them to sign. I'll frame them together.
Even though I know I had plenty of time to get to Cleveland, I left at 5:30pm and arrived around 6:30pm. For the first time ever, the connected parking garage was full and I couldn't park there. I ended up at a garage across the street so instead of hanging out in my car, I walked to the theatre and hung out in the lobby area of the theatre to kill time.
I got to the stage door at little after 7pm and was escorted downstairs to meet up with Peter Van Dyke. I'll admit to being completely confused by all the twists and turns we took throughout the evening so I couldn't tell you where I was in relation to anything, except that the dressing rooms are below the stage.
Peter gave me a complete tour of the stage area, something I didn't expect at all. (Honestly, I can't imagine the auctioned tour with Katie would have been much different except that it would have been with her instead of the stage manager.)
- The show travels in 18 semi trucks. The logo truck stays at the theatre but the others are either parked in a truck lot somewhere or on campus, if they're at a college's performing arts center.
- The floor travels with the show and stores in 14 wheeled containers.
- Apparently Katie is around the maximum height for Glinda and sometimes hits her head on a curved piece of the bubble that hangs a little lower.
- Elphaba is locked into the "Defying Gravity" lift with two metal bars that have the same material as her dress so you can't tell she has something around her waist.
- The costumers are local people in each city and the show doesn't rehearse before opening night. Each costume is labeled with a number, which is also on the hanger. The dressers get a list saying put jacket A, pants B, shoes C, hat D in a basket.
- Each wardrobe holds costumes for two people. They close up and roll onto the trucks as is so there's no transfering of costumes and nothing gets lost.
- Each costume is a unique design. The swings don't duplicate the ensemble because they don't know whose track they'd be covering. Costume designs are constantly added.
- A lot of the set pieces are stored in the fly space until they're needed.
After the tour we headed downstairs. Let me preface this by say I didn't get autographs from or pictures with any of the other cast people we ran into. It was a shell-shock style moment. Peter did introduce me to them as the auction winner so I got to shake hands and be thanked for going to the benefit and donating to the charities.
In the lobby area prior to the dressing room hallway, we ran into Cliffton, DeeDee and Kaeden, along with DeeDee's sister (whom I'm assuming is probably the babysitter) and a little girl named Bella (whom I'm assuming is probably her daughter). revyrie - Cliffton is quite handsome in person and has a very nice smile. The dressing rooms were around the corner, where I met Tom and Katie. Katie was holding a very tiny dog with very curly hair tight to her chest. I'm not a fan of little dogs but it was cute.
The first time I saw Carmen she was half-dressed and sitting on a yoga ball with her face over a steamer. Peter introduced us and just kinda dropped me off. Carmen's like "Sit down, make yourself comfortable." First thing she did was make sure I was fine with her attire, which was basically black tights, brown Elphaba boots, green body suit around her waist and bra. Didn't bother me. "Good, 'cause I'm fine with it if you're fine with it."
Since she was doing the steaming thing, I asked if she had pre-show ritual type stuff she followed. She steams, drinks Throat Coat tea, stuff like that. In fact, she's like "Would you like to drink what I drink before the show?" So I got a cup of tea and a pastille and on went the conversation.
She asked what I did and when I said zookeeper, you could see the light kinda start to turn on so I mentioned that I'd written her and gotten the Playbill back in the mail. She wanted to make sure she'd sent it because she had a stack she needed to finish. Had I not gotten it back I think she totally would have dug through her pile and signed it right then and there.
Carmen also wanted me to be "completely honest" with her about the cabaret since I was there. I told her I really enjoyed it and liked seeing the cast do other stuff. She agreed that was the goal but everyone thought the audience was rather cold and not necessarily into it.
A little before 7:30pm, Joe Dulude showed up for the greening. Carmen introduced me as the auction winner and a zookeeper. Joe jumped at that, saying it was a profession that always interested him. We talked about that for a few minutes.
I was sitting in a chair on the right side of Carmen and Joe told me to switch to the other side because I was where he'd be standing. I had the option of a straight-back chair, the couch, or Carmen's yoga ball. I totally picked the yoga ball because it was closest to the action. There was a slight fear of rolling off or perhaps popping the ball, but neither happened.
I snapped a few pictures and the three of us carried on a casual conversation, both Wicked-related and zoo-related. Joe's the original makeup designer and worked on Broadway until the tour started, then he switched to that to save money. Carmen did nine months as standby in Chicago and started on the tour in late October/early November with a year-long contract.
Before Joe started the green, reached up above the mirror and pulled down a basket, saying he could give me something not many people had - a used makeup container. He has one from every Elphaba he's worked with and is eventually gonna turn them into some sort of art piece. Carmen signed the lid and handed it over to me. Super, super cool.
Apparently Joe had to take his dog to the emergency vet the night before and was planning to leave early to get some extra sleep. Because of that, Carmen was going to be in charge of adjusting her makeup at intermission. Prior to Joe's arrival she was telling me that she'd had nightmares about having to do all of the green by herself and that had it not been for me, she might have had to. As it was, she was freaked out enough about altering her eye makeup and all of that. She asked him about it several times. It was adorable.
I took a few minutes to check out her costumes and she said to make sure I lifted the Act II dress. I did and it was unbelievably heavy. Also, the detail is absolutely amazing! There are so many colors and textures throughout it. Should have taken a picture, but I didn't.
Once Joe finished with the makeup, he shook my hand again, thanked me for coming and told me to enjoy the show. Next in was Lisa Thomas, the hair supervisor to put on Carmen's wig.
My favorite picture is after the wig cap was on and microphones in place when Carmen turned to me and said, "I think this is when I'm looking my most sexy. Wanna take a picture?" Of course, I did.
She got her braid and beanie put on, then it was time for me to head up to the theatre. Peter had come back in when Lisa was working so I had him take a picture of Carmen and I before leaving.
And, as seems to be the topic of conversation with any actress I meet (i.e. Coleen Sexton and Linda Eder), Carmen mentioned my height. I told her she's lucky I didn't wear heels. On the way out, I told her to have a good show and not to screw up her makeup too bad at intermission. She laughed.
When all was said and done, the whole thing last just under an hour. Well worth the money I spent on it. I'm also completely proud of myself for not being nervous at all. I was casual, comfortable, witty. Everything was all-around fantastic.
This afternoon I'm gonna write thank you notes to Carmen, Joe and Peter to get in the mail ASAP. With Carmen's, I'm going to include the picture of us for her to sign, as well as one of Joe putting on her makeup for both of them to sign. I'll frame them together.