After reading Sinnamon's entries about her play experience and how much fun she's having, I thought I'd relate a fun time I had in a college production.

My first year at Community College, I decided to try out for the play and got a part. Consequently, I was there for 3 semesters before I got my AA and I was cast in a play each semester. Anyway, the first production I was cast in was a play called Rumors. I wanna say it was a Neil Simon play, but I can't recall. I know that Out of Order was by him. Anyway, the play takes place at a mansion and it's a gathering of high-society, hoity-toity people, and it's a farce. My character was a Senator with a rocky marriage (like that's a stretch from reality, eh?). The girl who played my wife was a girl I had a crush on so, it wasn't hard to act interested in her. Ok, I'm digressing.

The play starts with only 2 of the 4 couples on stage and we each arrive, couple by couple, by car. When my character and his wife "arrive" we don't enter the set immediately, we're supposed to be outside fighting in the car. Later, if I recall, we somehow end up back outside, fighting again and she clocks me with a cell phone. I had some stage blood and would dab a little under one nostril and drip it down my tux shirt (it was supposed to be a formal party) a little and then I'd re-enter with a bloody nose. The blood on the shirt was crucial in a later scene when the cops come to investigate.

Well, we did this play like 9 times. Yes, that's quite a bit. Most plays run 3, 4 maybe 5 nights. We did it 9 times over the course of a week and twice on Sunday. Due to the fact that I bloodied a shirt each night, I had 2 or 3 shirts. Well, the last night of the play, I decided to have a little fun. We get to the scene where the wife storms out, I follow only to get whacked. Well, this time, when I put the blood on...I put the blood on. I took the little bottle with the semi-viscous stage blood, put it under each nostril and tipped it up until it was running down my face and all over my shirt. Then, about 3 mintues later when I make my entrance, I storm onto the set, slam the door and lean against it saying "The police are here!" Everyone on that stage (who had been through this the previous 8 times) just stood there, mouths agape, staring at me. It was funny to see their faces, but I almost made a couple break character...big no no. And you should have heard the crowd gasp. I even heard an "Oh my god!" Heh...that was all worth it.

Later that night, at the cast party, everyone was telling me how they were so shocked to look over and see me, the bottom half of my face basically covered in blood. Needless to say, when the police characters arrived, they didn't have a very hard time noticing the blood. Heh.

That just goes to show you that, no matter how hard you rehearse and how long you work at it, you can't control everything that happens in a play. There were some other minor things as well.

Since it was supposed to be a party, there was a small bar on the set. Some of the women were supposed to be drinking champagne so the prop people had purchased some cheap champagne flutes. One thing that no one took into account was the fact that we were substituting soda. We also didn't take into account that, due the bar being hit and bumped and such, that soda was spilling all over it. No one also noticed that it wasn't being cleaned up. So, about 3 times during the run of the production, one of the girls would go to pick up a glass of "champagne" only to have the glass snap off at the stem because it was stuck to the table. It sounds funny, but after you've gone through about 5 glasses, it gets rather frustrating. There are also problems with the set sometimes.

The set was basically this. Starting from the far left (sitting in front of the stage) were two big "windows", then moving to the right was a door that led to a "bathroom", then further on was the double door "entrance". Just to the right of the entrance was where the "bar" was and then right of the bar was where the stairs leading up to the "second floor" were. To the right, under the stairs was a door to the "downstairs closet" and then as you reach the right side of the set, is the curtained entrance to the "kitchen". Up the stairs on the second level were just 3-4 doors that led to various "bedrooms" and there was also a small "balcony/landing" at the top.

After one rather fun scene, a dance scene, my characater and 2 others are supposed to meet at the bottom of the stairs to formulate a plan (the cops are knocking on the door and we're supposed to decide how to handle it). Well, as it comes to my turn, I go running over to the steps, hunched down like a soldier, and then turn and slam my back agains the wall as if I'm trying to escape a sniper's bullet. It looked rather dramatic, if I must say so myself, and was rather fun. I was the last to join the group so after I "hit the wall" and said my lines, we'd split back up again, everyone hiding behind various bits of furniture. Only, there was one problem. I couldn't move.

I'm a pretty big guy see, so when I run over to the steps and slam against the wall, I just happened to hit a seam in the plywood. I hit with such a force that I pushed one piece of plywood back a bit...just far enough for my tux coat to get in between it and the other piece of wood, and then it snapped back when my weight came off it. I was pinned. Everyone was supposed to go diving for cover and here I am, pinned by the wall. I was afraid to pull too hard because I didn't want to break the set, but I couldn't stay there, I had some lines coming and I needed to be in a different spot, and fast. So, wincing slightly, I leaned, yanked and "pop" fell flat on my face. My coat came out of the seam, I wasn't ready for it and I fell face first right to the floor. Luckily, it was behind the couch, so I quickly scurried over to the chair where I was supposed to be. Only the actors and the director ever knew anything was wrong.

Now that I look back on it, I realize how much I really, really miss being in the plays. I liked the first two plays because my bestest bud, 'Topher, was in them. Those were fun. The third one was a bit less fun, but it also wasn't a comedy either so that kind of took some of the wind out of it for me. When you work with people who are really serious about what they're doing, then it's easy to have fun. We had a few bad apples though. There was Chris, who couldn't remember his lines, ad-libbed too much, was a scene hound, and always delivered his lines to the audience (no breaking the 4th wall!!!), but I'll get into him in more detail later. He deserves his own entry. Then there was Karl. I don't think he ever knew all of his lines and he delivered them just south of a yell and stiff as cement. But there were also some really great people I worked with. Rina, 'Topher (of course), Scott (my other bestest bud), Greg, April, Christina, Ron (the director) and many others (whose names, sadly, I can't recall at the moment). Those were some great times.

Well, best finish up here so I can finish my work and get home. You all take care and be safe and I'll catch you next entry. Remember the 'Bear loves ya.