Problems with actees!

- Last year, during a high school production of "How to Succeed...", we had a minor difficulty with the fly system. During a scene change, a baton with a setpiece on it caught against the rail of a leg. The rail catapulted up and smacked into our fourth electric. This in itself wasn't so bad, but what made it amusing was that one of our actresses promptly started screaming that the striplights were going to fall and kill somebody, starting a panic in the cast.-Louisa Smith

-I was in the chorus for a Windham, CT high school production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. It was at the very beginning of the wedding scene the curtains were to open, revealing all of Anatevka assembled for Tevye's eldest daughter's wedding. As the curtains opened, the band struck up "Sunrise, Sunset." One night, as the curtains were opening and the band started up, suddenly Tevye left his spot at upstage Center by Golde and walked off into the wings. We all watched him, puzzled. Golde started singing the first verse, as she was supposed to, sneaking sideways glances offstage and trying not to panic. Tevye was only gone for a second, and strolled back, nodding cordially to those of us he passed as he went back to his place by Golde. He made it back in time to sing his verse. The only one who'd seen ALL of what had happened was the orchestra conductor, who told the rest of us after the show apparently, just as the curtain was opening, Tevye noticed that his fly was opened, and had stepped offstage to remedy the situation. -Kimberly Wadsworth

-Well, I'm producing Stop the World! I want to Get Off at the college of New Rochelle. During a rehearsal, Father Bernard McMahon, our theater advisor was observing. Well, there is this one line where Littlechap has to sing "Give me half a chance to lead a dance with some rich bitch..." David, who's playing Littlechap, could bring himself to say it, so he said "give me half a chance to lead a dance...and make my pitch!" The expression on Father McMahon's face was priceless. -Cora

-It was my junior year 96'/97' at Hewitt Trussville High School and we did a production of the musical "Anything Goes". I played the part of Mrs. Harcourt and we had this really goofy guy playing the part of the drunk. He only comes on stage one or two times but he does have a line. There is a scene with my character and Billy in disquise. We are talking and the drunk is supposed to come out swaying back, and forth, acting drunk and then fall over drunk. He then gets up, asks where the bathroom is or something like that and drunkedly exits stage left. Like I said the guy was really goofy and had never been on stage before. He wanted to make a big impression the last night so when he comes on he is almost running, he jumps and does this bellyflop on stage. Of course this brought the house down and I almost had a heart attack trying to keep my cool. Needless to say we finished the scene ok but our director nearly killed the guy afterward. -Angela Baker

I was playing Roy Bensinger in the 1987 production of "The Front Page" at Lakewood Center in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The lead part of Hildy was played by a psueodo profesional actor. There is a scene in the second act where my character, a hypochondriac, is coughed on and chased all over the stage to get my character out of the room. This actor was known for being unpredictable, and one night in particular, he flopped on the stage and stared to break dance. This is supposed to be 1928. As I started to walk away, he grabbed my leg and sank his teeth into my shin. After we got backstage I asked him why he did that. His reply was, "It could have been worse, I could have bit your a**." Needless to say things got worse. The next week, in the same scene, he acciddentally hit my eye and peeled the skin from the lower lid. I told the director I wanted a years worth of health insurance for doing this show. Instead I received a Best Supporting Actor Award. -Dennis Clancy

-This is a story from a friend of mine while doing a production of South Pacific he had a scene with a young lady. She was backstage and he was onstage waiting for her entrance - she forgot where she was in the play and then changed her costume. Suddenly realizing she did it to early she changed back leaving him high and dry for a minute waiting for her and trying to come up with business until she appeared. She then went running thru a series of sets that led to the stage entrance and got her blouse caught on the final one ripping it open and exposing her top half in all it's glory. He turned to see her enter, and being a gentleman, averted his eyes. She kept making him try to look at her not realizing she was giving the audience a topless show. Finally she realized and covered herself. She did it with easy and great aplumb I think this actress had a lot of courage to be seen half naked and still continue with the scene, BUT what a story... -Suzan

-Britannia Theatre Great Yarmouth 1997 - "JOE PASQUALE SHOW"
Joe Pasquale,an english squeaky voiced comic, often dreams up new material during the season. This time the theatre had a new electrician. Bernard, bless him, had never worked in theatre before and found the whole 'show thing' a bit mind boggling. Joe stuck in fifteen new lx cues and forgot to mention it to Bernard. When nothing happened he just carried on. Afterwards he said " Bernard, what happened to the new stuff?" Bernard said "I have to concentrate and people started calling out numbers on the headset and I couldn't concentrate, so I took the thing off!" -Paul Johnson,

-While Stage Managing "Mouse Trap" at Alpena Civic Theatre in 1992, I realized that the lead character, that was about to be revealed as the murder, had forgotten to take the gun which he was now going to treaten the other characters with. The only thing I could think of, since no one entered or exited the scene, was to slip the gun to someone on stage. So, here I was behind a window poking threw the curtains at the cast member sitting at the table. I managed to slip the gun threw the curtain, under the table cloth and into the lap of that actress. She then dropped her briefcase so that every one came to help her pick the papers off the floor and slip the gun to the lead. He then was so dumb founded that she had the gun that he thought was in his pocket that he stumbled a line but went on with the scene. Great team work and the audience never new what happened. (did I mention that I did that show with 10 broken toes?) -Christine P. Carriveau

-While I was working as the Prop/Stage Crew Head/Assistant Stage Manager for a production of "Little Shop of Horrors" at Atlanta's Avondale High School, we had a little mishap. Opening night of the second weekend of the run was going splendid. The first act was a great success. The audience was happily chatting while enjoying refreshments at intermission. I was back stage, in a very small, very crowded prop room, preparing for the second act. Wihtout my knowledge, the audience had gone back to their seats ad the lights had dimmed for the second act. I remember thinking that the music the band was playing was very familiar. Then I realized why. It was the music for the openning number of act two. I thought, no problem, the director just forgot to give me a act two places call. Then I looked out on stage, and to my GREAT dismay, there wasn't a soul out there. The orchestra was simply vamping, waiting for the actors to appear on stage to sing the song. Without a word to my crew, I took off for the dressing rooms, a stream of provanity flowing from my mouth and I rushed the actor on stage (some of them half in costume). The director was furious, untill I calmly explained to him that I nor any of the other crew members or the actors were given a places call. He laughed, I laughed and we shook our heads. One of the cast members told me later, as we relived the event, that he will never forget how I looked. Me a fairly chubby, well mannered guy, running at full spead down the hall, yelling odsenities at the actors and busting into the dressing rooms, one full of several half dressed girls. That is a night I will never forget.- Kirk Seaman

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