Regular Life
Now that I've done a traitional show week of 8 shows, this feels like a regular life. It's funny how quickly you get used to a life of lazy days and busy nights, with the occasional rehearsal in between. It's true though, I'm used to it already, and in some ways it feels like I've been doing this for years.
This week has really been a good time for me to get truly used to the show. Although anytime you're working in live theatre, there's always the chance that something new will happen to make it exciting. Just when I think I've got my track down pat, strange things start creeping up. For example, in the opening musical number, where we're rehearsing the opera Hannibal, there's an important part where Carlotta storms off and I have to pick up the scarf that she's thrown. Sounds simple, right? Instead, that scarf has already become the bane of my existence.
One night, it caught on the end of her wigged ponytail, and as she walked offstage I had to grab it off her back. Another night, the tenor Piangi walked over it as he walked offstage. It got caught in his costume and I had to run after him and stomp on the end of it to stop it from going offstage with him. One night, one of the men walked over it and it got caught in a draft and wafted almost offstage. Even if everyone in the show gave the same exact performance every night, the scarf would never be the same! It definitely helps keep me on my toes.
The other cast members also do a great job of keeping everybody else ready for anything. I can't even tell you the hilarious things that are constantly said on stage. Everyone has their own special style of onstage chatter, whether it's talking about real life, continuing a conversation from earlier in the day, speaking in the voice of their character, or speaking the same nonsense every time. I already have some spots where I look forward to meeting people on stage every night just to see what they're going to do.
On an unrelated note, I am on a crazy tour. As I've said before, there are very few tours that go out these days that are really A-Level tours, the Expensive tours. I found out this week that just one of Carlotta's costumes can cost about $25,000. For real! Before coming on the tour, I was fitted for my two pairs of custom shoes. When I got here, my boots were made incorrectly. Instead of being mid-calf height, they're knee high. Because of this, they're not really wide enough around my meaty calves, and the tongue doesn't cover my shin. Apparently the company that makes them said that they had made them correctly, so the costume people here had to prove that they were made wrong so that I could get correct ones. So today I got my calves cast. Seriously, there are casts of my calves being sent with the boots to some company somewhere so I can get a new pair of boots. And in the meantime, I wear some other new shoes. This is all ridiculous. The Phantom people who have been involved since the beginning are probably rolling in dough, because the show apparently takes in about a million a week with all the companies running.
So I'm just a cog in the great Phantom wheel, but it's not a bad gig. The more I perform in the show, the more I'm getting a chance to really bite in to my part, and do some character experimentation. The curtain call still feels a bit surreal, but I'm very proud of the work I'm doing. Today a Canadian friend of mine who happens to live in Toronto came to see the show. It was great fun to hang out with people after the show (since of course it's such a small world that Shane knows a bunch of people in our cast) and have supportive feedback. Knowing that someone who I respect as a performer complimented me tells me that I'm on my way. This is what it's like to live a regular life. In a very irregular career.
This week has really been a good time for me to get truly used to the show. Although anytime you're working in live theatre, there's always the chance that something new will happen to make it exciting. Just when I think I've got my track down pat, strange things start creeping up. For example, in the opening musical number, where we're rehearsing the opera Hannibal, there's an important part where Carlotta storms off and I have to pick up the scarf that she's thrown. Sounds simple, right? Instead, that scarf has already become the bane of my existence.
One night, it caught on the end of her wigged ponytail, and as she walked offstage I had to grab it off her back. Another night, the tenor Piangi walked over it as he walked offstage. It got caught in his costume and I had to run after him and stomp on the end of it to stop it from going offstage with him. One night, one of the men walked over it and it got caught in a draft and wafted almost offstage. Even if everyone in the show gave the same exact performance every night, the scarf would never be the same! It definitely helps keep me on my toes.
The other cast members also do a great job of keeping everybody else ready for anything. I can't even tell you the hilarious things that are constantly said on stage. Everyone has their own special style of onstage chatter, whether it's talking about real life, continuing a conversation from earlier in the day, speaking in the voice of their character, or speaking the same nonsense every time. I already have some spots where I look forward to meeting people on stage every night just to see what they're going to do.
On an unrelated note, I am on a crazy tour. As I've said before, there are very few tours that go out these days that are really A-Level tours, the Expensive tours. I found out this week that just one of Carlotta's costumes can cost about $25,000. For real! Before coming on the tour, I was fitted for my two pairs of custom shoes. When I got here, my boots were made incorrectly. Instead of being mid-calf height, they're knee high. Because of this, they're not really wide enough around my meaty calves, and the tongue doesn't cover my shin. Apparently the company that makes them said that they had made them correctly, so the costume people here had to prove that they were made wrong so that I could get correct ones. So today I got my calves cast. Seriously, there are casts of my calves being sent with the boots to some company somewhere so I can get a new pair of boots. And in the meantime, I wear some other new shoes. This is all ridiculous. The Phantom people who have been involved since the beginning are probably rolling in dough, because the show apparently takes in about a million a week with all the companies running.
So I'm just a cog in the great Phantom wheel, but it's not a bad gig. The more I perform in the show, the more I'm getting a chance to really bite in to my part, and do some character experimentation. The curtain call still feels a bit surreal, but I'm very proud of the work I'm doing. Today a Canadian friend of mine who happens to live in Toronto came to see the show. It was great fun to hang out with people after the show (since of course it's such a small world that Shane knows a bunch of people in our cast) and have supportive feedback. Knowing that someone who I respect as a performer complimented me tells me that I'm on my way. This is what it's like to live a regular life. In a very irregular career.
posted by Beth at 11:46 PM
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