Author Topic: Don't Give That Girl a Gun!  (Read 3498 times)

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PSMKay

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Don't Give That Girl a Gun!
« on: Sep 25, 2007, 08:59 am »
(submitted by Lindsay)


     

Alright, this was a long time ago, and I was stage managing a SMALL professional theatre production of Lend Me a Tenor.  A few days earlier, we had a crew person quit on us, so needless to say I was calling the show in a french maid outfit, heels, fishnets and all.  The booth was only big enough for myself and my light board/sound board operator.  (Did I mention I was running the spotlight too?) 


     

So, the set is divided down the middle by this cut-away wall with a door in it between the 2 rooms.  The set is a rotating repertory set, so most of the flats are held together by 12 foot pieces of moulding.  This dear actress was having a bad night.  She enters from the 'kitchen' with a set of champagne glasses.  She sets them down, and I hear tinkling (she broke off the stems).  Then begins a long chase sequence.  She runs around the sofa and picks up the champagne bucket, then slams it onto the tray that it's carried in on.  The tray had a glass top.  Shatters it.  She runs into the next room and hits the wall, sending a 12 foot piece of moulding crashing off the set, onto a vase of flowers, and hitting a borrowed antique dresser.  She then proceeds to pick up the moulding, ad lib a line "These damn cheap hotels" and toss the moulding out a doorway US, narrowly missing the rest of the cast waiting for an entrance.  So, at intermission, I was out there cleaning up the
hotel in my little maid's costume, and screwing the moulding back into the set with a giant yellow DeWalt.  Classy, no?  The poor actress proceeded to break everything glass in 3 shows that summer.  (We managed to replace all of her glassware with plastic versions.)  Gotta love live theatre!



 

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