Well, dear readers, my first performance has now occurred and I am here to tell the tale and tell the tale I shall because someone’s got to tell it and it might as well be me. Or, it might as well be Spring. In any case, I arrived at the theater at six-thirty, and Matt and I had our line-through, which went quickly and fine. It was very odd to sit backstage, and then get in wardrobe, and be with Tammy and Matt. It was very odd when Dale, our stage manager, called places for act one. I mostly sat and ran my lines quietly, then listened to a bit of act one, including the first video segment, which actually got a few chuckles – a first. I then made my entrance at the end of act one and that was that (no lines for that entrance). It was odd to sit backstage at intermission. It was odd when Dale called places for act two. We came on in the dark, the lights came up, and on we went. It took a while to get the audience chuckling – part of that is because of what precedes act two – which is revisited at the top of act two prior to us speaking lines. I was a bit tense, but I loosened up as we went along. I did get mushy-mouthed a couple of times – part of the problem was that I forgot to put Chapstick on before the act. I know it sounds silly, but I must have my Chapstick on, because I get really weird when my lips are dry. But, basically, I got through it okay and I feel that I was at least playing the character the way I wrote him. Then disaster struck. The DVD for the end of the play froze. Dale tried to rewind it, but it kept freezing. He tried five or six times, while poor Tammy and Matt just had to sit there, while the play went into DVD hell. By about the fourth time, they started ad-libbing because they had no other choice. For those who know the play, you know why I could do nothing. It became clear that the DVD wasn’t going to work, and unfortunately there is no way out if it doesn’t. The end of the play is entirely dependent on the video segment. They finally just ad-libbed something silly and then we just faded the lights. The audience was wonderful about it – and it was actually quite funny, and, you know, that’s live theater. During the curtain call I stopped the applause and told the audience that the ending of the play was very clever and that they should come back to see it. That got a huge laugh, so I kept going for another five minutes. Someone asked me why I didn’t speak the lines of the video, and I told them I had no idea what the lines were, which got another big laugh. All in all, a strange first performance for me, but I’m looking forward to the next three performances. I will say that it’s a bit traumatic to walk onstage for the first time in twenty-one years, where it’s only you and another actor, without even the safety net of even a week of proper rehearsals.
After the show, Dale tried playing the DVD again and again it froze. He then tried the backup DVD, which wouldn’t play at all. He then tried playing all the DVDs (there are three total), including the other actor’s DVDs – none would play, so it became clear that the player had simply gone kaput. So, tomorrow we’re buying a new, more expensive player, and doing extensive testing in the theater in the morning. Also, as a precaution, I’m having new copies of the final DVD made. Hopefully, the new player will take care of the problem and we’ll get through the rest of the run unscathed. I have one other idea how to handle it if we have this problem again, and I am going to implement it at tomorrow night’s performance.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because there is a lot more to tell.
I had pals Jason Graae and Susanne Blakeslee in our audience, so that was fun. We had a splendidly splendid visit after the show. Over on the main stage, they had the opening night of Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna’s It Had To Be You, with a huge celebrity-laden audience. I saw Charles Durning, Carl Reiner, Dom de Luise, Anne Jeffries, Kim Darby, Earl Holliman, and tons of others. Miss Taylor and Mr. Bologna’s manager, Scott Stander, grabbed me and told me he had a surprise for me. He took me by the hand and led me to a table where my darling Cindy Williams was sitting. We had the best time – we were very raunchy, and it was pretty hilarious. I then came home and that was that.
I’m looking forward to this evening’s performance, and I’ll feel better after we get this DVD player business fixed in the morning. I’m sure I’ll run lines by myself, but I also think that when I overdo that it hurts my performance.
Oh, well, I must wrap up these here notes because as much as I’d love to sleep in this morning, she of the Evil Eye will be here and I shall have to hie myself out of here for a while.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, make sure the DVD business is fixed, I must run lines, I must do my second performance, and I must continue doing rewrites on the musical. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite theater mishap stories for shows you’ve attended? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we?