off and running

This morning I will post the cast lists for Doubt, Greetings, and Southern Comforts. Director Phil Counts and I held auditions Monday and Tuesday and Phil had a brief call back on Wednesday night. Several of the actors auditioned for all 3 shows and several auditioned for only Greetings. Through all of the auditions however we were still short a male actor ages 20-30's. We had 3 roles for males that age and only had two audition. We cast both males and are still looking for a 3rd. We will continue to audition actors even after announcing the cast lists.

Last night My Way opened for the second weekend. At the very beginning of the show Cheri Paxton walked onstage to sing and her wireless microphone wasn't working. I was running sound for the show seated at the back row of the auditorium next to the exit door. In a split second I knew that Denise the stage manager couldn't leave the booth to hand Cheri the handheld without missing light cues which would create more problems. The actors wouldn't be sure enough to hand Cheri the hand held microphone because they were all focused on singing their songs. It was up to me to get that microphone to Cheri and yet leaving the sound board unattended would risk feedback to the audience if someones microphone got too loud while I was running backstage to fix the problem. What to do? In theatre you generally have to go with your gut feeling when something goes wrong. Fix the issue immediately and move on.

I immediately turned on the hand held wireless microphone, exited the auditorium, went through the lobby, around the outside of the building, walked in the stage door, walked up to the side of the stage. As I ran I was thinking if I could get one of the actors to hand the microphone to Cheri or if I was going to have to walk onstage pickup the microphone and hand it to Cheri myself. As I got to the side of the stage I say David sitting by the piano, as forcefully as I could whispered/yelled David.. David.. He looked at me startled to see me and I told him to give the hand held microphone to Cheri that we keep on the piano for just such a problem. He nodded and I ran back out the stage door, back around the building, through the lobby and into the theatre back to the sound booth and began to adjust the sound levels using the hand held. All of this took approx. 30 seconds.

The stage managers have a running joke that I can tele-port myself from the audience to the backstage instantly. In reality it takes me less than 5 seconds at a dead run from the lobby to the stage door. If you were outside the theatre last night you would have witnessed a man in a suit in an Olympic sprint running flat out alongside the building. Cheri used the hand held until a few moments later in the show when she isn't singing and can stand at the back of the stage. Victoria casually walked over and jammed her hand down the back of Cheri's dress onstage (there is really no other way to reset the transmitter gracefully- Cheri just stood there and smiled as if nothing was happening while Victoria did this) and Victoria reset the transmitter pack which was buried in the back of Cheri's dress so the microphone worked again. Then Cheri set the handheld microphone down and the show went on for the rest of the evening without a glitch.

I'm thinking they should make an Olympic event for directors. The backstage run. It is amazing what adrenaline will do.