June 6, 2011 at 3:07pm
WHEN IT ALL GOES SOUTH >>>
One of the shows I saw this weekend was Play On! at Olympia Little Theater, in which an amateur company bumbles through the disastrous opening-night performance of a not-so-great production. Tread the boards long enough and you, too, Gentle Reader, may know the joys of a nuclear-grade Pakistani clustermug. I don't mean "an actor went up on his lines" or "we had to cover a missing sound cue;" I mean a "where the hell are we," "oh my God, is there a doctor in the house," "the director is now on suicide watch" category EF5 shitstorm. It's been almost 20 years since my brush with Satan, and I still remember the event all too vividly.
The show was The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, a light whodunit comedy from 1987. Several undergrad friends and I were recruited into a community theater production that wasn't going especially well from day one. The resolution of the play depends entirely on the discovery of a secret notebook. Meanwhile, of course, there's a violent thunderstorm--this is, after all, a mystery, where such things are obligatory--and there's also a slasher on the loose in what's essentially a locked mansion. After a particularly deafening thunderclap, there's a brief blackout. During that blackout, my friend Arlan (aka "the Bull") careened into a table, inadvertently knocking that all-important notebook off the table into deep shadows. Within seconds we were light-years off the map.
I ad-libbed furiously, praying for a miracle. Perhaps a duplicate copy of the notebook might streak from the sky on a stray meteorite. Perhaps its contents would appear magically on a wall like the prophecy at Belshazzar's feast. My friend Marc moseyed to the lip of the stage, rested his chin in his hand, and stared into middle distance in what was self-evidently a state of mental hibernation. The old codger playing an undercover cop staggered onstage, brandished his prop gun at the audience, and bellowed, "Uh-oh, I guess I came out at the wrong scene!"
If you'd asked me at the time, I would have sworn on a stack of First Folios that we were in the weeds for at least 20 minutes. The stage manager said it was more like two. Either way, I can remember everything about that catastrophic meltdown except how we got out of it. Probably, the actress playing Nikki Crandall invoked psychic powers. However we got back in sync, the play concluded without the notebook or further crippling humiliation.
In the lobby after the show, audience members insisted they had no idea anything was wrong. This says little for the critical faculties of audience members, and it may in fact indicate they're born, brazen liars...for which I offer my sincerest gratitude.
News and entertainment from Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s most awesome weekly newspapers - The Ranger, Northwest Airlifter and Weekly Volcano.
Thanks for posting! But I want say that Walkie Talkies are really required while organizing fun...
Really nice album. I have already purchased Vedder's Album. Listening to the song of this album,...
about Eddie Vedder’s "Ukulele Songs" available today - and I don’t hold a candle to that shit
Your post contains very beneficial content. Kindly keep sharing such post.
Vedder's album is really nice. I have heard attentively
about Eddie Vedder’s "Ukulele Songs" available today - and I don’t hold a candle to that shit
amazing information for getting the new ideas thanks for sharing a post
about 5 Things To Do Today: Art Chantry, DIY home improvement, "A Shot In The Dark" ...
446th Airlift Wing, 5 Things To Do, 62nd Airlift Wing, 7th Infantry Division, Air Force, All Ages, Army, Arts, Awards, Benefits, Best of Olympia, Best of TAcoma, Bobble Tiki, Books, Business, Camp Murray, Ceremony, Chainsuck, Classical Music, Comedy, Comment The The Day, Community, Concerts, Condemn or Allow?, Contest, Day Tripper, Deals, Defense Department, Deployment, DJ/Electronica, Events, Facebook, Fashion, Federal Way, Fife, Fircrest, Food & Drink, Future Things Are Coming, Games, Gay Rights, Genius, Gig Harbor, Green Crush, Happy Hour Hug, Health, History, Holidays, Honors, I Corps, In Their Words, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Judging by the Trailer, Keeping Up With The Coffeehouses, Kids, Lacey, Lakewood, Legislature, Madigan Army Medical Center, Marines, McChord Field, Media, Memorial, Military, Milton, Morning Joe, Music, National Guard, Navy, Nerd Alert!, New Beer Column, News To Us, Night Moves, Not Cool, Olympia, Outdoor Addict, outdoors, Photo Hot Spot, Podcast, Pop Culture, Poster of the Day, Puyallup, Radio, Rangers, Retail, Rocket Science, ROTC, Ruston, Schools, Screens, Sex, Shout Out, South Sound Sidekick, Spanaway, Special Forces, Sports, Steilacoom, Strykers, Summer Tip, Sumner, Tacoma, Talking Shop, The Mouth, Theater, Tightwad, Tournament of Burgers, Tournament of Mac and Cheese, Training, Travel, Twitter, University Place, USO, Veterans, Video Hot Spot, Volunteer, Web/Tech, Word, Wounded Warrior
Comments for "Carv's Weekly Blog: FUBAR" (1)
Weekly Volcano is not responsible for the content of these reviews. Weekly Volcano reserves the right to remove reviews at their discretion.
Jodi said on Jun. 06, 2011 at 4:36pm
Blood Relations.
Leave A Comment
Respond on Your Blog
Create an Account
or
Login
If you have an Account you can not only post comments, but you can also respond to articles in your own blog. It's just another way to make your voice heard.