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Well, I am back from my little time away from work. It was a long and busy week getting ready for and doing the show.
It always amazes me how a show that is not ready to perform can come together in the last couple of days and turn out okay. Such was the case again this year with The Nutcracker.
On Thursday we had to morning shows for second graders from several schools, and we had another show Friday morning for some more second graders. Saturday was our big day, we had three shows for the public. 2 pm, 4 pm, and 7 pm. Talk about a long day. You could really see some of the littlier kids starting to drag by the time we did bows for the last show.
My biggest worry leading up to the show had been the fight scene with the rat queen when I play the nutcracker. It starts with me being pushed out on stage lying on a bed. The little soldiers do the pushing. We couldn't/didn't practice the bed part until we were at the theater. It is a regular old bed, and let's just say they need to come up with some better wheels. The first time out, we were aiming for the down right corner of the stage and it just kind of curled around towards the up right corner. lol... But the little girls playing the soldiers were real troupers and they eventually got it down.
My biggest frustration with doing this show is, they have too many people that think they know what is best, aka: too many chiefs and not enough indians. As the butler I was suppose to be pouring drinks for the guests at the top of the show. Well, instead of faking it, I went out and bought some of that sparkling grape juice. After trying it in a rehearsal, two of the adults working back stage come up to me and ask if we were going to be using it in the show. I told them Kathy, the director, said to try it. They were like, what if it spills? I thought to myself, there is a butler and a maid in the show, I think there is enough help to whipe up a spill. Well, they apparently went running to the director because the next thing I know they are coming back to me and saying that Kathy decided not to use it. I thought, Yeah right. You went and told Kathy that we shouldn't use it, and she caved to you. The trouble with the adults that help with this show, is that this is the only theater experience that most of them ever have, and they have comeplete tunnel vision when it comes to doing anything different with the show.
As for the old sayine, Break a leg.....
I tried my best to take that to heart. lol... In the fight scene I had with the rat queen, we used wooden swords. They were at least a good half inch thick. We were actually going to town pretty good with them. By time the show was done, the edge of the sword I was using was pretty beat up. During the final performance we were kind of getting closer to each other than we usual did. We start the battle with four cross hits over head, then we are suppose to swing down and hit once down low. Well, I don't think the girl playing the rat queen realized it, but when she swung down, she actually made contact with my leg. It's a good thing I was wearing a big nutcracker headpiece, or the audience probably would have seen the look of shock on my face. We finished the scene, and I didn't really think much more about it. When the show was done and we were packing everything up to leave, I took a moment to get a picture with the dog that was my brief dancing partner when I was the butler. I sat down next to the dog and ran my hand down my pant leg and felt this bump. I pulled up my pant leg and I had this huge goose egg bump on my shin. I was kind of like, holy crap she really did hit me. The owner of the dog pulled a bag of ice out of her cooler and I put it on my leg. I decided I had done enough packing and headed over to the house where the cast party was going to be held at. I took my bag of ice too. lol... I found a chair, put my leg up and sat there with ice on my leg all night. It was kind of funny, people would come in and see my leg up, and they would ask me what happened to me. I told them the rat queen got me and I lifted up my ice. I got the same reaction from everyone. EWWW!!!!!!!!!! I got a real laugh at one point during the night. For the last few years they have hired a professional male dancer to come and be a part of the show. At the party he was sitting there complaining about how someone's jewel had come off their costume and he had stepped on it and it had caused him so much trouble dancing. After several minutes he realized I was sitting with an ice pack on my leg and he asked what happened. I showed him, and he was like, You win. I don't have anything to complain about compared to that.
It hasn't bothered me to much, until now that I am running up and down the halls here at work. It is starting to hurt a little. Yippy........ At least a majority of the swelling has gone down. It is starting to turn a lovely shade of yellow. :p
This does continue the streak I have of getting hurt in shows. Am I a clutz or what? So next time I do a show, please be careful when you tell me to, Break a leg. lol.......................
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