[net.theater] Theatre anecdotes

chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Cheshire Chuqui) (12/06/84)

Hmm... Well, when I was in high school I worked on a few productions in the
backstage... All of us wore matching T-shirts, at least until the high
school chicano gang decided we were muscling into their turf... (Of course,
the gang also went after the band, too... There weren't many rival gangs to
terrorize at my high school...). 

Couple of pranks, more than anecdotes. One day we tied one of our fellow
stage crew onto a bar and flew him into the light rigging just before
lunch... He was still up there, hoarse, when we came back, too... Another
one of our wonderful crew had this habit of moving curtains and flies by
climbing the ropes and unlocking them with his feet to use his weight to 
move them quicker. Imagine his suprise when he didn't notice that somebody
had removed all of the counterweights prior to a dress rehearsal. he got a
GOOD view of the ceiling. Of course, it took 6 people an hour and a half to
get that turkey back into the roof and weighted again, but it was worth
it...

chuq (the 43'rd time you do South Pacific, you tend to get into
mischief...)
-- 
From the center of a Plaid pentagram:		Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui  nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

  ~But you know, monsieur, that as long as she wears the claw of the dragon
  upon her breast you can do nothing-- her soul belongs to me!~

afo@pucc-h (Flidais ) (12/07/84)

{removal of this line unlawful}

Anecdotes from high school theatre days:

	One of the many hassles we had at our high school was a
music department and a drama department that usually weren't
speaking to each other. This led to, among other fun stuff, a
production of 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' with the songs
lip-synced {If we had done it live, then the music department would
have had casting rights}.  Actually, that turned out to be a
blessing, as the Charlie Brown character turned out to be totally
tone deaf, so we dubbed his singing parts.
	Now, among other disasters, the music department would
toss an operetta or two during the year.  Since the music department
had no technical crew, the drama department tech crew would be
called in to take care of stuff.  Well, one of the prima donnas of
the music department {you know, one of those first sopranos that can
hit high notes only dogs can hear} did not have one of the most
pleasant personalities one could ever hope to have.  She spent most
of her time complaining about something or another, usually without
*any* justification.  We finally got tired of her, and popped her
into a stage coffin {doesn't *every* high school have one of
these?}, and left her to stew. Well, she made a big enough stink
that someone let her out; then she went to complian to the drama
director about what a bunch of heathens we were.  Soooo, our drama
director herded us into the room, and asked us 'Did you people lock
her in the stage coffin?'.  We replied yes, that we had....and he
said 'Well, I've only one question... why did you let her out?'

-- 
Laurie Sefton
{harpo,ihnp4,allegra,decvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h!afo

~As he lay out the tarot, the devil and death, two old and very dear
friends of mine, appeared.~