We might have had the most entertaining performance of
Disaster! yet this week, and when I say entertaining, I mean for us cast members; the audience seemed to enjoy the show but we were losing it backstage. On Tuesday nights, our curtain is usually at 7:30pm but something was wrong with the sound system so we held curtain until 8pm to give the stage management team time to fix whatever was happening (in all honesty, I have no clue what was wrong but bless our awesome sound engineer, Nissa Syverson, for dealing with the madness).
So 8pm roles around, the show starts and everything is going smoothly. We are enjoying our typical shenanigans where we dance around like fools while singing back up harmonies off stage.
Robb Sapp and
Matt Farcher performed a beautiful pas de deux. Please note the evolution of their glorious duet in the picture below. Then it happened.
Jennifer Simard and
Annie Golden are onstage doing a pretty important scene where we learn a lot about Annie's character, Shirley. The whole thing takes place in an elevator and when Shirley needs to tell Sister Mary something pressing, she "stops" the elevator. Me typing up what happened will not do this story justice so I had Jen make a little video for you guys so you can see what happened. BONUS! She also tells us about a hilarious incident where something went wrong during "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." I have personally watched this video multiple times before even posting this blog because it makes me laugh so hard (you'll hear me cackling in the background...). **Please note how hot Jen is! She's out of costume for the video and I've included a shot of her in her nun habit, still smizing/werking for the camera** While this was happening onstage, the entire cast was offstage peeing our pants from laughing so hard. After the elevator moment happened, we kind of braced ourselves for what was ahead because Act 2 is very heavy in the sound effects department. Some stand out moments:
1. Remember this video? http://youtu.be/flCRH8drIiA Saum Eskandani "falls" to his death after "Loving You" and instead of a thud it sounded like a tender leaf gently falling from a tree.
2.Disco diva, Levora Verona (played by the rifftastic Charity Dawson), tries her luck on the Vicky Sue Robinson slot machine which naturally plays "Turn The Beat Around." We actually use her version of the song and also a slot machine sound effect and this all leads into a "disaster" sound effect which, unlike Saum's death scene, came out loud proud. I think at one point we just stopped our fake screaming cause there was no way we were being heard.
3.This has nothing to do with sound but there's a small bit that happens in the house. Matt Farcher, Saum, and I run into the aisle and it's usually a big open space where we do a scene in a "lifeboat." Not on Tuesday!!! One of our audience members required assistance in the form of a walker. Said walker was being stored in the previously mentioned "big open space." The three of us run out and the only light we have is a flashlight which I bring out and shine on whoever is speaking. Here's how it went: We run out, we hear a crash, I flash my handy flashlight to find Saum entangled with the walker, we finish with us crying from laughing while we're trying to talk about how we can escape the disaster in a lifeboat.
Needless to say, it was an adventure. Our wonderful audience was along for the ride and we had a blast experiencing the magic of live theater. Have I sold you on coming to visit us yet? Get on it, girl! You know you want some of this madness
www.disastermusical.com
Matt and Robb, treasures of the dance world
Haven Burton and I getting crazy backstage
Look at the sassy smizing!!!!! Look at it!!!
