ALICE: THE REBELLION OF WONDERLAND

Date of Run: August 7-24, 2014
ROLE: Humpty Dumpty

My summer show of 2014 was a new play. It was a play called Alice: The Rebellion of Wonderland, written by Tony Ginesi and Merlyn Q. Sell. It was staged by Narrow Way Stage Company in Sonoma and directed by Nicolas Christenson. Narrow Way had staged this show four years earlier in the smaller of the two theatres at Spreckels in Rohnert Park. I saw that production and found it very amusing. This time the show would be different because Tony had done some tweaking over the years and cut some scenes and characters out, which shortened the show and also changed moments and even the ending. When I asked Nick why they were doing this show again he answered because they didn't want to pay for the rights to another show after the cost of doing Little Shop of Horrors and he was hoping to do a show that would be popular with kids, maybe even get them involved and bring in a profit. Made sense to me.

Months before this show and even before Little Shop I asked Nick if there were any parts I could've played and he answered the March Hare or, with some pushing in the right direction, maybe the Caterpillar. Then during rehearsals of Little Shop he said to me that I would be perfect in the role of Humpty Dumpty because he was taking the character in a different direction. Rather than have someone in a giant egg costume, he envisioned Humpty as someone with my kind of body, limber and thin, with a giant egg-shaped head that he's always trying to protect. Believe it or not, Humpty Dumpty is actually in the second of the Alice stories, Through the Looking Glass. 

I think I may have been Nick's first and only choice for that part. I was not sure if I could have played the part at that time because I was having problems at work and at the end of Little Shop my work situation was in the air and my future theatre endeavors were uncertain. But by the time auditions came around the problems were resolved, more or less. I could not attend the actual auditions because I had work that night, so I came to callbacks in Sonoma. On the auditions sheets the last question to fill in was "Whoooooo are yoooooooou?" I put down "Let me check my underwear," and Nick just about died laughing. After reading one scene Nick offered me the part on the spot and I accepted, but with the agreement that I would be released if I was cast in one other show that was auditioning at the same time.

The other show I auditioned for was a play called The Boys in the Band, a landmark gay rights play with great acting roles. I was about the right age for a couple roles and it would have really given me a chance to enhance and improve my acting skills. Nick was prepared to let me do that show if I got cast because he knew it would be good for me. It was to be presented at Pegasus Theater in Rio Nido (a short distance from Guerneville) and directed by Harry Duke. Unfortunately, at auditions only myself and two other men showed up for a play that had nine male roles ranging from early 20s-mid 30s. As much as Harry tried he could not fill the roles, despite searching for a couple weeks. So in the end the show was cancelled. It was a big disappointment really because I truly believed that had it gone up under Harry's direction, it would have been brilliant.

The cast of this show included my friends Alexis Long, Samantha Lane, Sam Starr, Ted Smith, and Cat Bish. The rest of the cast included Bill Garcia, Tessa Hope, Mark Stanley and Matt Witthaus, who reprised his role of the main villain The Crow, a role he played in the first production. Before we started rehearsals, we lost the person who was originally cast as Alice. And that girl looked like an Alice. At callbacks I took one look at her and I thought to myself "Oh yeah, she's gonna get that part." But she left because she was cast in another show and thought she could do both, but in the end, she realized she couldn't. Tessa was cast as the replacement.

Unfortunately, I missed the first read-through and rehearsals because I had work on those nights. I finally managed to get to rehearsal a couple weeks later and I knew it was gonna be a fun, crazy show. Everyone made great character choices and did such funny things that it was impossible not to have fun while rehearsing a scene. I was not called too often after my evenings cleared because I was only in the second act. Strangely though, I have no memory of Humpty Dumpty in the first production of the show.

To prepare for this show I first reread Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, which I happened to own already. I did that as it had been many years since I read it and I decided to reacquaint myself with the original source. I found the characters in both stories to be very annoying and I think if anyone stayed in Wonderland for a long time, they would go insane. Anyway, Nick wanted me to be on guard where my head was concerned. He envisioned Humpty as a hypochondriac, always afraid of his head breaking and also shaky if he got off balance, nearly falling over. For my part, I did that in spots and when I stood and ran, I tried to be as straight and balanced as possible because I played Humpty as a stuffy gentleman type with excellent posture and I also felt that he would always try to be like that to keep from falling over. If I felt my body starting to slant, I repositioned myself to balance myself.

I'm sure Nick liked what I was doing in my portrayal. At rehearsals he told me things like "keep doing what you're doing" and "you make me laugh." Indeed, I got lots of laughs on some lines the first time I said them, usually because of how I delivered them. Later on, when I got an umbrella as a prop I added even more funny things like dropping it at a shocking moment or opening it when I'm scared. The umbrella helped with my portrayal and balance because it made it all look better.

Two weeks before opening we started tech rehearsals in Sonoma. The reason for that was because there were a lot of cues to do, both in lights and sounds and also because of our make-up. The make-up for this show, for anyone playing an animal or non-human character, was very extensive and Nick wanted us to start learning it and running the show with it. However, I proved to be the exception because they could not do anything with me until my egg-shaped head arrived. In the week before opening, they kept saying "It'll be here tomorrow," but it never showed up. It was worrying because I really would've liked more time to use it onstage and make sure there were no problems with it. I did, however, use a temporary head two nights before opening just for one moment. On our preview night they got it made and I finally had it, though it was not exactly as they envisioned it. However, for show photos in the lobby they used one of me without the head and a caption saying, "Costume revealed in show." Nick wanted it that way as a surprise, and, apparently, everyone I talked to afterward said they liked it that way.

Before every performance without fail, Ted, Sam Starr, Samantha Lane and Tessa would run their lines for the tea party scene, which was the final scene of the first act, and then they and I would run our lines for the first scene in act two to get the lines down perfectly. Other people did this as well. It was a ritual because some people had trouble on occasion remembering lines. However, that did not stop the immense improvising that erupted during the show.

One review of the show said "As for the performers, director Christenson has let his actors’ imaginations run wild." That was the truth. There was so much improving lines that were not in the script, especially for the dormouse. For example, when Ted and Sam entered for the tea party scene they'd sing a song and it was different every night. Some songs included "99 Bottles of (Tea) on the Wall," and "London Bridge is Falling Down." I always listened backstage for what they'd do that night, but nothing prepared me for the closing performance when I heard them start singing "Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal," etc. I'm glad I wasn't onstage at that time or I just might have broken character. Luckily for us, the playwright (Tony) allowed us to get away with that. And since he was the one up in the booth running the cues, he of course knew what was going on.

This show was the most intense I had done in some time because it was very hot under the lights with the make-up and costumes. All of us were sweaty at the end of every night, though since I didn't go on until the second act I didn't suffer quite as much. However, I will give the designers credit because these were very good costumes and make-up. This was the first show where I didn't have to use any of my own make-up since the designer used her things and was there every night to apply everyone's make-up. I always had mine done at intermission because there was no way I was going to wear a lot of make up when I didn't have to.

The preview performance had about thirty people in the audience (not surprising since it was free), but then the audiences of the first four performances didn't go past fifteen people. And they were not exactly responsive audiences. Then on the first Sunday we had a good size audience that just loved the performance. During the second weekend the audiences on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday were a fairly good size with over thirty people, but Friday had a small, but responsive audience of ten.

After the Sunday show we went to Mark's house for a cast party and what a place it was! It was up in the hills west of Santa Rosa and  it was a mansion. When I pulled up I was amazed as was everyone else (we were completely in awe and bursting with excitement for literally forty minutes). It had an amazing view out back with a long pool hanging over the side, a big backyard and a pond with a dock. In other words it was paradise and none of us wanted to leave, but I left after about two hours because I had promised another friend to attend her birthday party. But I almost, almost changed my mind.


On the closing weekend we had audiences of about 30-50 people each night.

On the final Friday show, Nick and Tony presented everyone with a special gift. They gave everyone a chrome pocket watch with the title of the show and the year on it. We were all floored by it. It was the best gift I ever received from anyone in the cast of a show. I've received mix-CDs and cards, but this was the best. I didn't even want to touch it or use it because it was so shiny.

It was very hot in that egg shaped head, not to mention the way it fit on my head made my neck straight all the time and feel like it was in a brace, but I had it easy compared to anyone who had heavy costumes and was in the first act. Everyone was just so into their character that they were all drenched by the time intermission came around.

In the early hours of the day of our final show there was an earthquake that did some major damage to Napa and also affected Sonoma. Our set survived, since the theatre had been made more structurally sound a little more than a year earlier, and none of our glass bottles we used in the show broke, but the building itself suffered some damage between the first and second floor. At the center of the building is a staircase leading to the second floor and on both sides up the wall there was a large crack from where the building shifted. Nevertheless, we had a decent sized audience.

I can't remember now which performance it was, but during one show, a cell phone went blaring off during a scene. And it wasn't a quiet tone either, but a very loud ring and it was very annoying.

The cast party was held at the warehouse where Tony worked and kept the set and prop pieces for Narrow Way. We had food, we played games, and we watched the film Hook. The reason for that was that Nick and Tony claimed that a good deal of the show was inspired by that film. During our run, the great comic actor Robin Williams passed away and at one performance at the end of the pre-show talk, Nick ended it with a moment of silence then he said "He can fly, he can fight and he can crow," to which all of us who waited in the wings yelled "BANGARANG!" and crowed at the top of our lungs.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

"Michael Hunter rounds out the cast, skillfully filling in for a number of supporting roles."
Inga Aksamit, examiner.com

Date of Run: April 17-May 4, 2014
ROLE: The ensemble roles

Production Photos by Al Christenson

My spring show of 2014 was the popular and often-produced musical classic Little Shop of Horrors done by Narrow Way Stage Company. The director was Chris Ginesi, the music director was Justin Pyne and the choreographer was Alise Girard. This was Narrow Way's second musical. This was the first fully staged production that I did in the city of Sonoma, and it marked my return to Narrow Way Stage after nearly two years.

The cast consisted of Matlock Zumsteg, Nora Summers, Harry Duke, Dallas Munger, Butch Engle, Laura Levin, Alexis Long and Regielyn Padua.


Auditions for this show were in February, after I finished Victor/Victoria. Before that I had accepted a place in another show as an ensemble member, without auditioning; It was handed to me. When I found out that Narrow Way was doing this show I wanted to do it partly because it had been nearly three years since I last did a show with that company and also the chance to work with Chris Ginesi. The auditions were by invite only. Chris invited people who he knew who would be good in this show and he welcomed anyone else those invited could come up with. When auditions came, Regie, Laura and Nora were the only women there and the men were me Dallas, Harry and three others. Matlock sent his audition by emailing a video. Alexis later told me she got in because there weren't any other women who auditioned.

This was one of my better auditions. They were overseen by Chris and Nick Christenson, the artistic director for Narrow Way. I sang the song "Grow for Me" and did scenes with Dallas and Nora. Of the scene I did with Nora, Chris and Nick said I did it perfectly the first time. My last thing before leaving was "Feed Me" and it was with that song that I really shone. Chris was impressed, even amazed with my take on it and commended me. For a little more than a week I waited for the cast list to be announced, certain that I was going to get the role of Seymour or the voice of the plant. Then one night when I was in line at Target, I got a call. Chris offered me the ensemble parts, but I had come from a tap class and my legs were tired and my mind was scrambled from all I learned, so I didn't really care about the call at that moment, so I asked him to email me. After thinking about it for a couple days I took the ensemble parts and dropped out of the other show, much to the chagrin of the other director. I sometimes look back and wonder whether I did the right thing.

When we began rehearsals, we were sorely lacking in essential components for the show including a stage manager, music director, puppeteer, and stagehand. Over time we slowly filled each spot. The music director, Justin Pyne, was found first. He had done this show a few times before, so he knew the music and the show very well. Nick Christenson and Trevor Sakai-Jolivette became our stage manager and assistant stage manager, respectively, a couple weeks into rehearsals. Our hardest thing to find was the puppeteer. According to Chris we had one at the beginning who was excited to do it and then he dropped out, though we never found out why. We went on with rehearsals for a while and just over a week before we opened Clint Campbell agreed to do it. Never being onstage when the plant is alive, I never saw Clint work the puppet, but when I saw the show on film (more on that later) I saw how good he was, at least toward the end. Then during tech week, we found another stagehand and dresser in Samantha Lane.

Rehearsals began in March. Before that I had a month off between shows, which was kind of boring. For this show I was not called to rehearsal all that often. Maybe twice a week at most in the beginning and mostly for vocal work. In the show I was all the ensemble parts except one. In a professional production of this show, in the scene for "The Meek Shall Inherit" the person playing the dentist (Dallas) would play three agents through a series of quick changes. But as we were only an amateur production without the costume skills to accomplish that, they divided the roles. To make things easier on me I was given the first and third agents, Bernstein and Skip Snip, and Dallas played the second, Mrs. Luce. In that scene I got two solo verses in the song, which were the same music, but different lyrics.

Though the show would perform in Sonoma, we usually rehearsed in a space in Santa Rosa, much to my relief so I could save on gas. The only time when rehearsals were in Sonoma was on weekends, which I was usually not called to, not that I could anyway due to my job. As we approached tech, I was called more often. When tech week came, which was actually two weeks rather than the usual one, the rehearsals were all at the Sonoma Community Center. The stage there was very small for a theatre, so that made it a bit tricky at times to move around.

I opted to carpool with Nick and Alexis to Sonoma, most of the time, when we got to that point. It was always looked forward to it because I would go to their house and see their puppy. Then we'd talk about theatre in the area and what shows were coming up and so on. Often when we'd get to Sonoma, I would walk a couple blocks down to the Basque Bakery on the square for some of the delicious bread sold there.

Most of my things were staged in Santa Rosa, but when we got to Sonoma, Chris finally staged my hardest part: "The Meek Shall Inherit" where I played two agents. They were supposed to be played like they were confident, in charge and like they owned the world. That was hard for me because I admit I'm anything but that and I'm not all that much of a physical actor. I've always had a hard time knowing what to do while on stage because I never really learned how to be physical on stage in an acting class while at school. I think it's something you have to be born with. Chris wanted all my characters to be different in some way. I did my part by playing with my voice whether making it nasally or deepening it or whatever. I did my best with these, but it was hard at first during "The Meek Shall Inherit" because the band played so quietly that I couldn't hear my cue to come in and that screwed me up. Eventually, I decided "The hell with it. I'm gonna go and they can just catch up with me." At the end of the run, Dallas and Matlock told me they were impressed with my progress in those roles and that they felt I seemed more comfortable in them by the final weekend. Chris would later say to me at the cast party that his favorite part of the show and the whole experience was watching me and my growth during all of it.

As Skip Snip in "The Meek Shall Inherit"

In this show I had seven costume changes. Every time I got offstage, I had to make a change, whether it was just changing my pants to a full change. I had plenty of time for each one, except the first. I had to go from a bum to a customer in less than two minutes. Originally the hair and makeup designer wanted me to have my hair messy as the bum and then comb it down for the customer, but I barely made it out for my cue. I opted to always have my hair parted down and when I was a bum, I wore a hat. As soon as I got offstage after "Skid Row" I would go to behind the set, rip everything off while Regie held my pants for me. My customer shirt was on underneath and my shoes had to change also. I also preset my wallet with fake money in the pants.

As a wino, with Dallas 

I definitely had moments in the show. For example, in the beginning when Seymour first brings in Audrey II and shows it to Mushnik, I played the customer who enters and is fascinated by the plant. This scene was comic because of the timing. As Mushnik is shooting down Seymour's idea that the plant would attract business my character enters. Every single time I entered, I got laughs. Then toward the end of the first act in the dentist office I played a patient who walks out in pain. Sometimes people laughed at the noises I made. I also got some laughs during "Meek Shall Inherit" for even small things, like the raising of one eyebrow. I could see Nick laughing up in the booth whenever I did my thing in that scene. One night though during the run I had a dream where it was that scene and I came out one second too slow causing a brief pause in between the lines.

One of the most interesting things about the show was what happened one night after. Some of us in the cast went to a couple bars for drinks. At the second bar, this very drunk older woman started talking to Nora and then she asked about the men. When Nora told her I was single she said I was cute, but too young when she found out I was 25. But I think she was definitely into me.

The show was not without problems. It seemed every other show something went wrong from lighting cues to be too early to the curtain closing when it shouldn't have to props not being on set when they were needed. I myself was hurt twice during the first run through, first after my quick change when I hit the steel structure of the set, hard, (I was sore there for weeks after) and then again when Dallas grabbed during his song and accidentally got my throat. I was always very careful to make sure that everything I needed for "The Meek Shall Inherit" was in its place and I set my props and costumes before every show as soon as I arrived at the theatre. One time I forgot one of my contracts when I was Patrick Martin. I was supposed to slam it on the table in front of Seymour, but I didn't have it, so I slammed the table just to slam the table. After that Alexis, who entered with me, always asked me if I had it.


On average we had between 30-70 people per show, not as many as we were expecting, sadly. The last audience, I think, was the best. They just seemed to be the most into it. This was the first time in over a year where I had to help strike the set. In all it took just under two hours. I helped load the van and unload the van at the warehouse where the set and props came from.

Thanks to Matlock, we managed to get a DVD of the final performance. Matlock had people come in with cameras and they filmed a wide shot and a close up shot. With editing, Matlock managed to use both. The video was of great quality and sound. Honestly, I wish more of my shows would be preserved on film, especially like this one. It allowed me to have a look at things I never got to see. I could not help but laugh at some of my moments on stage.

VICTOR/VICTORIA

Date of Run: January 10-February 2, 2014

ROLE: Ensemble

Photos by Eric Chazankin

My first show of 2014 was the musical Victor/Victoria at 6th Street Playhouse. The director was Michael Ross, the music director was Cynthia Cook Heath, and the choreographer was Staci Arriaga. This was the first musical show I ever did at 6th Street after seeing multiple brilliantly done musicals produced there. This was a show I almost didn't do and also the musical where I was more of a dancer than anything else, though just barely.

I first learned about the open auditions for this show on Facebook and decided to go for it. However, I ran into problems preparing for it. I couldn't get a headshot printed because of a copyright mark on the photo I wanted to use, and I also couldn't get a resume printed because my printer stopped working and I couldn't find a place to get one printed (I know, I know). Figuring without them I couldn't audition I decided not to go for it and so I didn't really prepare. On the night of auditions, I went to the playhouse because that night there were some staged readings of new plays being done that night. I ran into my director from Cuckoo's Nest, Lennie Dean, and she encouraged me to go for it, saying it didn't matter if I didn't have those things. It turned out she was right.

I happened to have sheet music for a song in my car, but I was not warmed up enough for the audition and as a result I felt I didn't do as well as I would've liked. The dance part of the audition was extremely tough and a lot of it was very quick, but in the end, I felt I did reasonably well after doing the routine many times. About two weeks later I got the call offering me a part in ensemble.

The majority of the cast consisted of several people I already knew: Tim Setzer, Dwayne Stincelli, Anthony Guzman, Greg Maddox, Sam Starr, Abbey Lee, Jared Newman, Janine LaForge, Chelsea Smith, Peter Warden, Eyan Dean and LC Arisman. The rest of the cast consisted of Taylor Bartolucci, Natalie Herman, Sarah Passemar, Amy Webber, Christine Graham, Connor Figurate, Kelsey Miller and Shawna Eiermann.



At the first read through I found that the musical was not going to be as I expected. Michael said that he was going to replace the second act opening song "Louis Says" with one from the movie "Shady Dame from Seville" and he would also replace the ending song "Victor/Victoria" with the movie ending. I was not that pleased because those two songs were the only ones where the ensemble really got to sing and after three months of Cuckoo's Nest my voice had gotten out of shape, and I was looking to get back into singing in a musical. All I got to sing in this show was a few lines in the song "Le Jazz Hott."



We started our rehearsals by learning the dances. Our first one was "Le Jazz Hott." It was a very tough dance to learn in some areas mostly because there was literally no break in between many moves. It's like they came in on top of each other. As time passed, I noticed that in this number, and even the others, it seemed like everyone would be seen by the audience because we all got turns in the front of the group. I had two lifts to do in this show, both of which involved Taylor (Victoria/Victor). The first was in "Le Jazz Hott" where Eyan and I would lift her off a piano bench and to the stage, link arms and walk across the stage with her. The second was in "Shady Dame of Seville" and in that one Jonathan, Sam, Eyan and I lifted her above our heads, rotated in a circle and put her back down. It was very difficult having to do that lift because it Taylor's arms were straight up and it was a bit difficult to grasp her. For the final Saturday performance, we figured out a different and easier way to lift her by having her have her arms straight out like a T. Too bad we didn't think of that earlier.

"Shady Dame from Seville" involved more staging than dancing. It had a couple moments, but it really was more posing and walking than dancing. In that one, they had to cut some of the end out because it was a series of "Ahs" from Taylor, and during the last verse and this we just stood there doing nothing. As we moved closer to opening we found that the music would be slightly different than what we were using. We had been using the movie soundtrack for that part, but as there was no sheet music for an orchestra available, it was different. I heard from someone involved that they hired someone to listen to the music and transpose all the parts onto paper. It took some time for us to get used to it.



In addition to the dancing I was given about six lines, all of which were in the first act. The scenes that involved ensemble members were staged first, mainly because several of the principle actors were involved other productions that began performances about a couple weeks after our first reading. When they finally returned to rehearsals we staged their moments, but as a result, I was usually only a rehearsal for about 1.5-2 hours, sometimes a little longer. After a few weeks of this we had a designer run through and then I had to stay late.



When it came time for our costume fittings, I missed my appointment. I had to get up at 5 in the morning that day to be at work at 5:30. Then when I came home from work, I took a nap that lasted two hours and I forgot all about it until I went to rehearsal the next night and I suddenly remembered it. Oops! I eventually got fitted, but I was so embarrassed that happened.

My costumes, L to R: Reporter, "Le Jazz Hott" dancer, party guest, "Shady Dame" dancer, and Chicago patron. I know it's blurry, but it was the only way I could get them all together.

A month before we opened, we worked on fight choreography. Our fight choreographer was a man named Marty Pistone. He was the most amusing fight choreographer I ever worked with because whenever he was agitated, or something didn't go right he would start talking in Sicilian. With him, you definitely had to keep on your toes and keep up with him. We would only get him for a couple nights in the whole thing. There were several scenes where there were beatings given. I was in the biggest fight scene of the show in the second act where everyone was involved. In that scene I would be in the back of the crowd for most of it until toward the end. Then I would come forward center stage in front of Jared where he would swing with both arms at me and I'd duck both times and then he'd clock me in the head and I'd fall back. This scene was funny because sound effects were added for comic effect, in a way like America's Funniest Home Videos.

Two weeks before opening we moved into the theatre and that's when we ran into problems, mostly with the dancing. In the rehearsal space we had plenty of room, but once we moved into the theater, we saw that our dancing space would be much smaller. During "Le Jazz Hott" in one section we'd spin in circles into our next place, but quite a few times we crashed into each other. In time Staci worked it out, before moving on to "cleaning up" the dance. She was quite the perfectionist about everything from our hand placement to straightening our arms to how close our arms had to be to our body. A lot of these were things that would go so quick no one in the audience would have time to notice.

End of "Le Jazz Hott"

We had three preview performances for invited audiences. During the first one we had to stop because the curtain that hid the hotel set didn't open when it was supposed to and the audience was not responsive. The other two went without a hitch and the audiences were very enthusiastic.

In this show were the four Proteans from the Spreckels Theatre Company production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum a year earlier: myself, Sam Starr, Anthony Guzman and Greg Maddox. As soon as rehearsals started, we picked up where we left off, quoting SpongeBob and also other movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas. During some of the early rehearsals we quoted lines from Forum as well as sang some of the songs and even did some of our moves. In the dressing room, though we didn't do this intentionally, we wound up against the end wall in a group.

In this show, I took to smoking fake cigarettes in several of my scenes. I would mimic smoking a cigarette during rehearsals and I'm pretty sure as a result they got a box of them to use. I think I was the only one who actually used them. I got so accustomed to fake smoking I would keep bringing my fingers up to my mouth, even when not in the scene. But don't worry, I never actually picked up the habit.

In the beginning of the run and also in some of the dress rehearsals I noticed that in this show I was picking up fallen garments from other people's costumes. First, during a preview, I had to grab Eyan's sash during the second "Shady Dame from Seville." Then during one performance I had to grab Abbey's bow, during "Chicago, Illinois" because it started falling off and she just took it off and tossed it my way. In this case I made it work, since the scene takes place in a speakeasy with men watching a show with girls and I dove for it as any man would do if a girl threw a piece of clothing into the crowd. Then finally during a performance, one of Shawna's detachable cufflinks fell off at the end of "Le Jazz Hott" so I grabbed it before getting offstage.

A couple times I had to think of helping someone onstage in a scene. And in this particular case it was the same thing both times. On the second Friday before the fight scene, which took place in the Chez Lui Café, there was a fake piano, but twice there was no piano bench because apparently, someone forgot to put it on the podium (oops!). Amy was the person who was at the piano, pretending the play to have to stand for the song "You and Me." Not wanting her to stand for that and then the fight scene right after, I grabbed an empty chair from a nearby table. I had to do the same thing again during the last Saturday evening performance.

On the second Sunday performance, something interesting happened. Taylor and Tim were onstage alone, and Taylor was singing her song "If I Were a Man." Then immediately as it ended the power went out. We were all wondering what was going to happen next. Would the performance be cancelled? Or would it go on? During the power outage, the cast went onstage singing "That's Amore" while Sarah played the accordion. Then right when we finished the song, the power came back on. It had only been out for ten minutes.



During the run, before the people in charge of the playhouse caught up with us, we had some backstage theme parties during intermission or shenanigans as we called them. They all happened on the girl's side of the dressing room. I don't remember all of them, but the two I remember that the entire cast got involved in were a disco themed one and then a beach party.



On the third weekend on Saturday, I decided to play with one of my parts, just to make it more interesting. In the scene immediately after "Le Jazz Hott," in the dressing room I played a party guest. Others in the show had a little backstory that I was a criminal mastermind and that two of the people in the room were out to kill me. So I decided to start imitating Disney villains during the scene for fun. I did these villains in this order for the remaining eight shows: Shere Kahn, Cruella DeVil, Scar, Madame Medusa, Ratigan, Lady Tremaine (Stepmother), Gaston and Ursula. I even said some of the lines of those characters (sotto voce) during the parts where I mingled with the other people onstage. However, during the performance where I was imitating Medusa, I couldn't go far into it because I had to cover someone and was forced to drop it.

For the party scene, Sarah, Jonathan, Janine and I would go on and begin it, but at one performance, one of us never showed up (I know it wasn't me), but waiting was not an option. He had to go on without him/her. Luckily, I knew all the lines in the scene, so I said those of the missing person until they showed up toward the end of our moment and said their last line. The person gave me a box of band-aids with mustaches on them as a thank you token.

The Party Scene. Left to Right: Janine, Jonathan, Me and Sarah

Unfortunately, I could not fully enjoy the show as I might have hoped. It had nothing to do with the show itself (though I wish I had gotten to do more singing and dancing) or the people who were in it with me, but rather a deep depression. There were several nights when I was very sad and often, I'd find myself in a dark corner backstage, in tears. There were even a couple nights while I was onstage during a performance when I had to fight back tears. It was only years later that I came to the realization that at the time I was still dealing with grief over my father's death a few months earlier. For a time, I convinced myself it was other things, but I was wrong.   

This show had the most performances I had ever done in a run, up to then. With this show, as many musicals at 6th Street, there was a possibility of an extension to the run if we sold really well. We didn't end up having an extension, which I was grateful for because in all honesty, I was done with that show after four weekends of performances. And I wasn't the only one who felt that way. This had not been one of my favorite shows to do, simply because I was not doing as much singing and dancing as I would've liked. It was one of my more relaxing shows, but I felt like I was not doing enough. But then, Victor/Victoria is meant to be a star vehicle with a few supporting roles and not much else.