Anyone Addicted To That Backstage Feel?

Or dress rehearsal buzz in the air?

I love it! That is one of the reasons I sometimes prefer to be behind the scenes, you really get a chance to take it all in, it's great?

Any good backstage, dress rehearsal, stories?

I have a few, but I'll let you guys go first!

 

Man, so many back stage stories, so little time. He, he. I will just tell one of my favorites. It was last summer when I was playing Aunt Polly in the Adventure of Tom Sawyer. During one scene I had to do a cross-over infront of a scrim for the scene change. Once I was done with my little bit, I was to run backstage, get behind the scrim and take my place in the scene about to unfold. The scrim always came up really quickly when I was trying to do so, and I usually ended up barely getting around it in time. For those who don't know the scrim is a cloth drop near the front of the stage that hides the rest of the stage. Usually there is a pole on the bottom of the scrim to make sure it doesn't blow around. Well, on one of the nights, I didn't actually make it and I happened to be straddling the pole of the scrim when it started to rise. My feet lifted off the ground and everyone back stage began to flip out. I jumped off the bar before it could take me into the rafters, but I couldn't avoid hurting myself in a tender area and snagging the back of my dress on the pole. The scrim just kept going up and it took my skirt with it. The rest of the crew was cracking up, but unfortunatley, the audience got a little too much of a show. Atleast my friend who was playing Widder Douglas lifted up her cape so the audience didn't have to stare at my ass for too long. My skirt fiasco was the talk of the day backstage. It was embarassing, but funny to remember. Peace

 

Actually a scrim is an open-weave fabric used in the theatre for it's transparent properties.

If lit from the front it appears like any old curtain, if lit correctly from the back it appears to be transparent.

It does not have to be hung downstage. It can be hung on any batten. For my lighting designs I have used it upstage of a cyc, I have used it to project gobos on for Les Miserables and I've also used it for a see-through window type effect.

The scrim is very useful.

 

i was on costume an i said 'im just going outside to practice my lines'

but i actually went to have a joint

giggle

 

heres my favourite blooper that was mixed into a play

Black Comedy,

but some awesome dude

anywyay theres a big bit of the play where an electrician comes with a torch and a toolbox to fix the lgihts which are invevitably cut off. both were needed because both were intergrated into the blocking and script further in. also, the torch was needed for a lighting change (in this play, these are the central focus of the whole story) and the tool box.. evidently to tool the light system.

well one night, the torch AND the toolbox were not backstage, but the tool box was onstage, in a particular room.

me and my coactors fit in (improvised ie) a whole sequence of me going to get my own toolbox (i was the owner of the house that theplays set in) and anotehr character get him a lighter, and such, and to fit it into the script (and in a comedy, of course each line is very important)

it was thrilling. especially the fact that this whole play is set in pitch darkness (so we pretend we are in the dark but there are lights) so this is done with that element.

and of course, the audience knew nothing

thats just a more memorable fun stage impro, caus it was a challenging play and a complex situation. i love it. its my favourite part of onstage acting, improvising around mistakes and making things funny! hooray!
unfortunately directors arent too fond of my impulse

 

Many strange things happen backstage, most that the audience doesnt realise.

Sometimes they do, as I was a stagehand for a nat'l theater that put on "Inherit the Wind" complete with 50+ cast and an overhire spider monkey named Sticky (cause he was). Sticky made more per show than most equity actors do in a week, but he endeared himself to me by biting an actress.

He would fling dung and piss onstage, and generally do his best to repulse the actors, audience, and crew.


One night, Sticky got loose at the end of the play, ran onstage and into the house while actors were doing the last lines of the last scene!


Thanks to the patron that stepped on his leash, he was corralled by the monkey handler/owner, who had run out onstage to collect him using the organgrinder accent but NOT in costume anymore!

 

i miss that feeling


i really gotta get back to doing some theatre work

 

I usually take a nap on a couch or puff a bowl. Pretty un orthodox.

 

Phew, I'm the exact opposite. As much as I love being in the spotlight, the "backstage buzz" is what gives me that brief instant of total dread, like "maybe now is a good time to slip out the back door and drive to Alaska."

 

addicted so much im majoring in it and making it my life?

absolutely!!!
totally love it.

 

how exactly do you get a major in acting? iv never understood that. actors who have no training can be better than actors whove been at acting school since children. and i see it. i never get what they learn, ;ast the basics of stage techniques that you can get through in like a week if you were training for it.

or do you mean stage-related stuff?