My acting teacher, Mike, who I greatly admire, usually has a funny story for everything.
One such story is about his grad school. At his college, every year they would put on a show about Lincoln. Now this show gained a bit of notoriety, and because all the actors in the show were at least semi-professional, a lot of people came to this show every year.
One year, it had rained all day long. The stage was slick, and although they tried soaking up water, the way the stage was built, it just stayed slick. They considered cancelling the show, but the actors all said they would rather go on, especially because a few had family coming that day. On with the show!
Meanwhile, Mike was backstage with the other actors, preparing to go on. He kept joking and laughing “SOMEBODY IS GOING DOWN TODAY! SOMEBODY IS GOING DOWN!”
Sure enough, as soon as the show started, Mike walked on stage and he went down. Slipped on the boards and busted his butt. He got right up and kept going, but it was a lesson in Karma, I suppose. Or just a funny story.
Well, last night, at Beyond Therapy rehearsal, we came across a problem. You see, at one point in the show, a vase has to be broken. The director was adamant about not using a sound cue there, and instead, actually breaking a vase backstage. We thought originally to break it in a box of gravel, because the glass would be contained. Not so. The sound came out wrong, and the glass still sprayed.
So Jenn, the stage manager, tested a few theories and found that putting the vase inside a plastic garbage bag, then hitting it with a hammer would produce the sound. Minimal glass problems too.
So I went backstage, informed the actors of what we were doing, and the whole time – made jokes about it. “SOMEBODY IS GONNA GET CUT! YOU ALL SIGNED WAIVERS! I’M WEARIN GLASSES, YA’LL GONNA LOSE AN EYE!”
Sure enough, the moment of truth arrives. Jared holds up the bag and smacks it with the hammer. What we didn’t know, is that someone forgot to change out the garbage bag. It was an old one that already had glass broken in it twice. Thus, glass shot out sideways, and lodged in my toe.
I’m fine, it wasn’t a huge cut, but it hurt.
As soon as it happened though, I thought of Mike, and realized there is such a thing as theatre Karma.
