Saturday, December 06, 2008

The Joy of Community Theatre

I got a phone call at 6pm from the guy who plays one of the Wickersham Brothers in our production of Seussical. He said he had been throwing up all day and wouldn't be able to make tonight's show.

Well, we don't actually have a Stage Manager (whose problem it should have been), so I had to handle it. For those not familiar with the show, there are supposed to be three Wickersham Brothers, so it shouldn't be that big of a problem. You just shift a little placement. Maybe make sure some lines in songs are covered.

BUT, we only had 2 Wickersham Brothers.

It's really tough to make many things work with only one of them.

The only solution (because we are teen/adult male deficient in the chorus as well) was for me to step in. This is on top of already portraying General Schmitz and Yertle the Turtle.

So, I had to learn the dances to 2 songs (thankfully VERY easy steps) and the music on one of them.

Normally, this wouldn't have been a big issue, but I've been fighting a cold for about a week and a half. I nearly lost my voice completely during my big solo as General Schmitz, but I soldiered through and managed to get everything out all the way to the end of the show.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Cold or no cold, I heard you covered it rather well :)
I plan on seeing it next weekend. (closing weekend, yes?)
:D

Anonymous said...

You actually had a stage manager as well as an assistant director, but the director refused to allow them ANY access to the show and turned them into sound and light board operators...Ahhh community theatre. Ya gotta love it!!