The Theatre gods are laughing

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Okay. What did I say about not much to tell? The theatre gods are laughing.  I’ll start with the big news. Understudies went on tonight.

Yup. We had moved quite handily, if raggedly, through a stumble-through in the afternoon. It’s always quite entertaining to see how people throw themselves in to parts they are essentially copying. So it breezed along, and we even finished a half-hour early.

After a quick dinner break we headed back to the theatre for 5:50 pm warm-up, and found out that Sarah Malin would be missing the show because of a family emergency. This had quite a tumble down effect: Kelly would be playing Odysseus in addition to her suitor, and maid; Lisa would be playing Helen of Troy; Jade would be singing Kelly’s verse in Princess; I would cover Sarah’s lines in one of the choruses. Spacing would be adjusted in some of the numbers, people would pick up extra bits and pieces, etc. etc. Good thing we had done the stumble-through that day!

The Company in The Penelopiad, Photo Ellie Kurttz

What is truly remarkable… the show moved seamlessly. And although things were different, and there were some very bright eyes on the stage from time to time, all the girls did an amazing job. Penny surfed ably with all her new scene partners. And the audience took away the same play that they would have seen any other night (no disrespect to Sarah). It is the sad truth in this business: once the story is in place, the actors are all dispensable.

So. That was an event. And on top of that we had a talk-back after the show, which was fun; lots of great energy to share with the folks who stayed. And then Jondon took us all out for champagne at the Duck.

Kelly had pumped enough adrenaline through her system to jump start a train (Lisa and Jade had their fair share as well), so there was a good evening of regaling those who weren’t there with the experiences.

Kelly McIntosh

The Histories company had also had a big day: their first three show day of Richard II and the two Henry IVs, so there were plenty of actors in the pub. And I met some of the people who will be our hosts when we take the show to Newcastle. So much for nothing happening.

It’s so exciting to be part of all this.