For me, there have been several, but I think the scariest one was when I was with the Wyoming Shakespeare Co. We were doing Romeo and Juliet in a park one day and a t-storm hit. Lightning was all over us, the rain was pounding so bad it hurt, then it started hailing. It was so loud we couldn't hear each other. We were most afraid of the swordplay toward the end because of the lightning. The audience stayed through the whole thing, however. We continued through the storm and we were soaked and our ears hurt from the crashing thunder and wind, but it was unforgettable. I'd like to hear about what you guys have to say...
I was the Prince of Verona, in case you were curious....
2007-08-16 14:19:47 · 6 answers · asked by ndn_ronhoward 5 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Theater & Acting
Two of my favorites:
In a L'il Abner production, the director thought it would be a great idea to have animals on stage during the "If I Had My Druthers" Hillbilly song. You can probably see where I am going with this.
One Matinee, the duck was being a little boisterous, and annoying the lazy, lolling Bloodhound, who lifted his head, gave a dolorous Wooof, and kicked the duck............into the Pit.
All anyone heard after that was QUAACK!! QUAACK!!, and all anyone saw were the heads of the musicians popping up, Whack-A-Mole style, one by one as the duck was wrangled (by the 2nd trombone, BTW) and escorted out of the House.
Another one:
I was doing a Shakespeare in the Park type of production at a local community park (Dogberry in Much Ado..) when the parking lot behind the stage was suddenly the site of the end of a high-speed pursuit. Helicopters ,sirens, guns drawn, the whole nine yards. Talk about upstaging. Oh well, we got on the news at least, and in L.A. exposure is everything.
Oooh, I thought of another one:
A Pirates of Penzance production really saved $ on props by using old Fencing foils for the swords. One night, with a flourish, the Pirate King lost his blade. Picture this: "I am the Pirate Kiiiing (thwap thwap thwap thwap......dngngngngng)".
Fortunately, the blade landed, point down, in an aisle, not a patron.
2007-08-16 17:29:31 · answer #1 · answered by d_cider1 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, the mishap happened with me. I played the scarecrow in the wiz, and when I was eazing on down the road down the stage stairs(there were 4) I missed a step, tumbled down and hit my head on the piano as the pianist kept playing. The audience did a little Chuckle, and I got up and continued the number that never stopped by the way. The audience thought that it was just the scarecrow being the scarecrow. I on the other hand felt embarrassed inside.
2007-08-18 22:53:24 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Biggest mishap happened during a swordfight in a production of Shakespeare's Richard III. Toward the end of the play, I (as the Duke of Norfolk) had a long (2 minute) broadsword fight. Well, three performances went off without a hitch, but during the fourth, my fight partner forgot all of his choreography and threw himself at me (in retrospect probably to stop the fight in the worst way possible). Well, the hilt of my sword was raised and I couldn't get it out of the way in time... and I knocked out most of his teeth. He passed out, I grabbed his arm and a handful of his teeth, and dragged him offstage. I went with him to the hospital and--no joke--that was the last time I ever saw him. He quit acting and went back to school to get a business degree.
The audience was in awe and thought it was the most realistic and powerful stage fight they'd ever seen. Go figure.
Meanwhile, fifteen years later, I'm still in theatre. But I have to admit... any time I see a live broadsword fight onstage, I still feel like throwing up.
The other big one was a site-specific production of a W.B. Yeats play that was performed in the middle of the woods. My friend lead the audience from a central site into the woods by torchlight. Unfortunately, the costume designer forgot to fireproof his robe (as had been asked of him) and about halfway into the woods, my friend's robe went up like a match (it was burlap). There is nothing like seeing a person running through the woods in pitch darkness, completely engulfed in flames. He was OK, however, and only burned off some hair.
I have more, but those are the two biggies.
2007-08-16 23:27:20 · answer #3 · answered by irishberch 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, there are two that come to mind: One was a fire alarm going off in the middle of "Street Scene". That sucked. All the house lights came on immediately, and no one knew what to do. The house manager had to literally go to the audience and make them leave.
And then one girl fell from a thrust, about 4 feet to the floor, during "A Miracle Worker" I kid you not. It hurt her quite a bit then, but she laughs about it now. The only thing she remembers was the spotlight following her down!
2007-08-16 22:41:02 · answer #4 · answered by Matthew P 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The King & I
I think it was Act 2 where he rings the gong and wakes everyone up and we all came running from every entrance.
The wives were supposed to be acting all confused from having been woken up and then the King does something that makes us all bow suddenly. My hair piece came off when I bowed. Then my daughter's panang or skirt thing (Whatever it's called) came off during her speech as Princess Ying Yaolak. :-) These pieces we were wearing weren't even necessary but the director was SOOO concerned about the pageantry of the production as opposed to anything else that our hair and costumes and the sets were more elaborate that anything I've ever seen.
I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of at this time of night/morning!
Thanks for the memories...
2007-08-17 03:41:48 · answer #5 · answered by Marianne D 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A crazed 13 year old girl arose from her seat and yelled "I'll show you how to get on the freakin' Disney channel!" Then shot me.
2007-08-17 06:02:43 · answer #6 · answered by Big R 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋