BWW Blog: Adam Lendermon of Maltz Jupiter's A CHORUS LINE - Set Fire to the Rain

It's the little things that keep you going during tech. Jordan Fife Hunt (Paul) just offered me some gingerbread pita chips. I'll take what I can get (namely, sugar). We're three and a half hours into our first 10 out of 12. Thus far, there have been no stressful outbursts, costume disasters, short fuses, or small animals harmed. I'm gunning for a drama free tech process. We did, however, get off to a soggy and cacophonous start.

Somewhere around 7pm yesterday, the heavens opened up in South Florida. We could hear the rain pounding on the roof over the fly system. It started out as a drop of water from the ceiling every couple of minutes. I made a Sesame Street reference- "Two...two drops...ah ah ah". A couple of people giggled. Again, I'll take what I can geT. Fast forward an hour and forty-five minutes later when we decided to call it a night because we were suddenly teching Singin' in the Rain. So we left the stage with towels strewn about, soaking up the rain. I must admit I was a little bewildered as to why such a nice theatre would have this kind of problem. I was bewildered, that is, until someone opened the stage door and I saw the torrential downpour and gusting winds. I proceeded to run to my car (Does anyone really use an umbrella?), getting soaked even though it was only a couple hundred feet away. As I went to exit the parking lot, I saw that there was a back up of cars. It turns out the rear exit was flooded and we had to turn around. I wondered if I should abandon my vehicle and ask Noah (Noah Aberlin who plays Don) to help me build an ark. Surely, we would be spared because of his namesake. Alas, gathering all of those animals seemed far too time consuming and physically taxing, so I proceeded to drive 20 miles an hour the entire way home, slowing further at times to drive through flooded areas. Everyone made it home safely and I was content to be inside, where I could sleep peacefully to the sound of the rain. Or so I thought...

At 2:15am, I was rudely wakened by the brain rattling sound of the fire alarm. Now I'm not referring to one of those little round things you mount over your door. This was one of those banshee screaming, head splitting, kick your mother, industrial strength contraptions that had been tripped for the entire building. As I walked out of my bedroom bleary-eyed, I recalled this nonsense from my college years. My housemate, Alex (Al), was half-consciously and agitatedly trying to turn off the smoke detector on our ceiling. I chuckled to myself as I noted his sleepy ignorance and turned to see my other housemate, DeMarius (Richie) standing silently and giving the world a side eye. We all proceeded outside to wait for the fire department to arrive and relieve us of this headache (Note: There was no fire. My assumption is that the torrential downpour and fire alarm were in cahoots.) Alex sat down on the curb with his hood over his head, determined to be grumpy until he could return to bed. DeMarius and I just stood there, smiling at all the senior citizens in their various states of undress. In total, we probably waited for 25 minutes until everyone returned to their beds like extras on the set of Walking Dead.

So I got a little wet and lost a few minutes of sleep last night. If this is the sacrifice I have to make to the theatre gods to ensure a smooth tech process, I'll take it. Maybe I'll leave a bowl of Florida oranges on the stage as an offering just to be certain they are appeased. See you on opening night!