a life in the theater

First of all, happy birthday to my mom. She's 56 today, and looks 40-ish. I hope I age that well...

Today (well, technically, yesterday) was a strange show day. In my show, I have this dramatic moment in the latter half of the play where I compose myself before rushing offstage. It lasts maybe 5 seconds, but it's just me on stage, and the audience is usually all, "what is he going to do?" and the silence is deafening.

Well, in the matinee, some guy belches HELLA loud, right in the middle of my moment of silence. And you could hear a woman's voice, right after, whisper, "Oh my GOD," like some old guy's being chastised by his wife for disrupting the show. I couldn't help but shoot a dirty look in his direction before leaving the stage - something you're not really supposed to do.

In hindsight, that was hilarious.

I was cruising along during the evening show, and I come off stage for my quick change before the tail end of the show, when all of a sudden I had to go to the bathroom. The last three scenes of the play are each about ten minutes long - and I'm onstage for almost every minute. And my change was too quick to go then.

So I got dressed, and headed to make my entrance. The guy who is in the first of the three scenes (he shares my real name, by the way, which is always confusing during rehearsal) is holding a prop for me, per usual. As I grab the prop and we head backstage, I tell him, "I gotta piss, so I'm going to do this at rain speed."

And I did. We finished 4 minutes early, which is a ton of time to take off a show. But when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Need to sleep - a big day t'm'row!