The following two pieces are not enough for a blog entire, yet will hopefully bring laughter by my having shared them. Because if ANYTHING goes wrong during a theatre production one can be sure it will happen on an Opening Night. And one Opening Night did it ever...
This event happened at a theatre I designed for in a town with a huge amount of support from play attendance and its patrons. Especially when "Annie,"
the famous musical about Little Orphan Annie was scheduled one season.
Now keep in mind Annie had a beloved dog named Sandy. So in our production "Sandy" was being played by Ranger. And anytime an animal is involved in a stage production the unexpected often happens.
Also keep in mind the character of Daddy Warbucks, Annie's wealthy benefactor who eventually adopts her
is bald. Jackson, the actor playing the very bald Daddy Warbucks had a very thick head of lovely hair which necessitated a skull cap to hopefully give Jackson the appearance of being bald.
And finally, keep in mind a "iron" spiral staircase was needed as part of the set. I had been told the staircase would not be used by anyone and was needed only for
a visual effect of the time period. So my intern and I constructed an amazing spiral staircase made out of wood I painted to look just like real iron, yet not built to support anyone as required. Inaddition the "iron" spiral staircase further created the illusion the stairs were
real ones for the audience with the appearance they were as high as the proscenium arch.
Now then Theatre Lighting can contribute to making actors become sweaty especially if there is singing involved. And dancing. Lo and behold all of a sudden Jackson's skull cap went flying high in the air landing
far up on the spiral staircase.🤣
In very quick succession Ranger the Sandy suddenly broke character and charged up the staircase to get this amazing "toy" which suddenly had just appeared.
Following right behind Ranger without thinking was Jackson too as we watched in horror from the wings. With both the weight of Ranger and Jackson now on one side of the staircase it began tilting precariously to that side, coming to rest on a theatre light. Not good, not good.😬
Meanwhile Annie and all the kids began laughing like crazy which then caused the Opening Night audience
to lose it. Of course they had no clue to the horrors those of us backstage were experiencing at that moment as to how to stop this unfolding catastrophe happening before us.😱
It was also at this precise moment the Stage Manager standing behind me suddenly made a very interesting observation.
Ed said, "You know, it would be awesome if somebody had a camera to capture for posterity the wide eyed look we're seeing on Jackson's face just now."
Devon, the Lighting Designer who wasn't as concerned about the possibility of electrocution as the rest of us responded, "Oh yeah, trapped on the Leaning Tower Of Stairs with a dog, caught by a theatre light before a sold out house currently drowning in laughter is the perfect moment for a photoshoot!"😂
Devon had a point.
Suddenly Ranger made the decision to take a high flying leap onto Daddy Warbuck's desk scattering everything on the desk off the desk including a vintage looking round snow globe on a stand. The snow globe then began rolling across the stage and into the orchestra pit where it dropped onto the head of a percussionist who was knocked silly. Then Ranger with the prize skullcap dangling from his mouth ran straight to his handler in the wings.
Immediately without Ranger's weight no longer on the staircase it rapidly shifted which quick thinking Jackson used to his full advantage by throwing his weight in the opposite direction. This very daring, amazing feat not only miraculously freed the staircase from the theatre light but righted it back into its place without anyone getting electrocuted in the process!👏
By this time our costumer had located another skullcap which Jackson replaced upon his head, then continued his performance just as if none of this Leaning Tower
Of Stairs moment had ever occurred. Now THAT takes class!🤩
We all felt quite fortunate to learn after the performance the critic to review this Opening Night fiasco had been unable to make it but would come the next night. The Theatre Gods were looking down upon us!🙏🎭
Jackson, being the dedicated wise actor he was did a very noble thing right after the performance. He shaved off his wonderful head of hair so there would never be a repeat of Opening Night for the remainder of "Annie's" run.
All of us backstage just loved the song the cast of "Annie" sang each night titled, "It's A Hard Knock Life." And often it was, it really was. For you see, at times our hard knock lives working backstage creating that wonderous theatre magic could certainly encounter the unexpected now and then and make us just for a very brief moment try to recall why we chose this life. Yet none of us would have ever...EVER changed it for all the wealth beyond a rainbow.
Because there IS no business like show business.🎭
As my career as a Theatre Scene Designer began winding down a play called for a ornate coffin. No problem. My intern and I constructed a basic looking coffin which I painted to look like a fancy bronze one with ornate fixtures.
The audience would not be able to see in it as the coffin opening was hidden from their view. They would only see the back of the open lid. What could possibly go wrong?!!
Of course none of us could forsee what the new crazy young acting intern would do. He dressed like a clown and hid in the coffin. No one knew he was there.
The scene was of course a sad one as it was a sad play. As the "grieving" actors stood before the coffin that crazy intern suddenly made his presence known to the actors but remained unseen by the audience. Well, that is he would have been.
Unfortunately he so startled the grieving actors one of them said, "Oh I can't bear to see father like this!" And suddenly slammed the lid down in anger at the intern. Only the lid happened to slam down on the intern's hand which by the way not only caused him to very loudly yell an, "Oh F-Bomb," but to then leap right out of the coffin in a rush to get off stage.
Dressed as a friggin clown.
Obviously this not only ruined the big very sad moment in the play for the audience but made them confused as hell by suddenly seeing a clown mind you, make a flying leap out of the coffin which was supposed to have contained someone very dead in it!
Sadly the coffin lid broke into pieces as it was never designed to be slammed shut. Now THIS event in turn nearly caused the Scene Designer to put the crazy intern permanently in a real coffin but the Executive Director sent the intern packing before the Scene Designer could get her hands on him.😂🎭
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