One cannot work in Theatre for decades without witnessing or being part of some hilarious situations which usually unfolded NOT in rehearsal but before an audience. The following two pieces for now are too brief for a blog entire, yet I hope are enjoyed...😃
There was in this play a character with the name of Mrs. DeMunderdum and Mike the actor tasked with nailing down this pronunciation most was having difficulties doing it. For you see the consistency of pronouncing this correctly throughout the play was becoming far too elusive for our dear Mike to attain.
Now in Theatre there is always a person known as a Prompter who is situated in what is often referred to
as "The Hole," not seen by audience but located stage center front. From the stage side one sees only the head of the Prompter. The Prompters' duties are to cue the actors on lines if needed, where to be when, lighting, curtain, and more.
Doreen our Prompter had her hands full on this one yet came up with a way to help Mike. On two huge pieces of poster board in big block letters had "DeMunderdum" written so Mike could get help from both stage left and right as needed.
This worked quite well Dress Rehearsal as Mike started to say when asking Mrs. DeMunderdum to dance, "Mrs. DeDanceder...uh, DEMUNDERDUM, would you please have this dance with me?"
But the next night, Opening Night, Doreen's assistant could not find the poster boards and quickly made one. Only instead of writing "DeMunderdum" on it she wrote "DeMonderdom."
Not good, not good.
All throughout Act I, poor Mike became so darn confused he literally was blurting out everything from "DeMancetron to DeMonderdom to DeCrapetdom
to DeMuncerdeedum to DeMunderdrummer!"
Those of us who happened to be in the wings felt terribly for our dear Mike...we really did, but I must say this fact still did not keep us all from dying in hysterics backstage. So was the audience too.
Of course Doreen had no idea WHAT had gone so wrong and was livid when Intermission came. The Director was absolutely raving with fury too because the critic was there that night to review the play! A critic can make or break a play with just their ink alone!😱
Doreen herself hastily made new poster boards for
Act II yet it turned out SHE wrote BOTH wrong too! Our Mike was doomed!
All kinds of hilarious mispronounciations came out during Act II! One I still remember was"DeShitzerdom!"
So what was SUPPOSED to be a light hearted romance had disintegrated into a hysterical farce with the audience laughing themselves silly!
Around 3 a.m. we all were gloomily gathered at the newsstand dreading to see what the critic had to say. None of us could believe it. The critic said he thought the term, "Light Hearted Romance," didn't do the play justice as HE found the play so charmingly hilarious, especially...ESPECIALLY the very BRILLIANT way the female characters' difficult name was mispronounced throughout the play.🎭🤩
So for the remainder of that plays' long run no more cue cards were needed for Mike...😂
In Theatre the Prop Manager picks up where the Scene Designer's job ends. It is up to the Prop Manager to decorate the set in whatever time period it takes place in, as well as to furnish props the actors will use.
For this play my assistant and I built a partial staircase which included a landing. Of course to the audience this appeared as being a full set of stairs situated by a living room. On the outside of the beam which supported the landing I installed a heavy-duty hook to hang a large fern as required.
In one scene on the landing the young man home from college does what is often seen in such homes as he sideways leaps over the railing to avoid using the more traditional way of entering a living room where family is gathered. This was also a time period when it wasn't odd for a young person to be wearing suspenders.
Remember suspenders.
The word we were hearing backstage was that Stephen, the young actor who played the college student had a cocky attitude. Because he had been in one successful play prior to this Stephen apparently thought he was better than the rest of the cast. He wasn't even a lead in this play. Nevertheless the older cast still tried to be patient with Stephen.
Rehearsals went well. Then came Opening Night.
Because the hanging fern was real and belonging
to the Director he removed it to a sunlit area following each rehearsal. It was then up to the Director to put it back. In the rush of Opening Night this did not get done and was not discovered until it was too late.
Somehow no one thought it important to mention this fact to Stephen because after all, he never leapt over the railing near the fern anyway so what could possibly go wrong?
As Roddy and Sheila, the actors who played Stephen's parents were at their places it was time for Stephen to make his grand entrance. Since Stephen was oblivious to the fact the fern was gone and Adelaide's excellent work of placing the plant hook into the beam that could stay there until the end of time was jutting out, he leapt high over the railing in the wrong place.
As Stephen came down his suspenders caught onto Adelaide's hook. Oh did they ever!
In rapid succession Stephen suddenly found himself in the rather humiliating position of helplessly hanging upside down before a packed House! The reaction of everyone except for maybe Stephen's parents who were seated in the audience was to lose it.
However, being the excellent actors Roddy and Sheila were they began adlibbing as they laughed.
"Well son," said Roddy, "didn't you see we moved the plant? Come mother, let's help our son down."
So with Roddy lifting Stephen up a bit, Sheila standing on the landing lifted free the suspenders as a very rattled Stephen landed on his feet.
From there Roddy and Sheila successfully steered the play back to where it was with a more humble Stephen doing so too. Because of this the audience assumed what happened was part of the play.
From then on Stephen was far more pleasant to work with.🙂
And many years later I heard my hook was still very tightly embedded in that beam and holding.😂🎭
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