In the last week before the show, we’ve switched to just running the damned thing through. No going through a tricky scene twice, no skipping nights while they work on somebody else’s scenes, just curtain at seven-thirty and we’re done when we’re done. It’s very important to get some practice at this. The technical is technically not until tomorrow, but we’ve been doing all-but-tech for a few days, practicing set changes and some of the costume changes and other aspects of doing the show.
One of the things I find myself working on during this week is the important question of timing my journey from the green room to the wings. In the Sherman Playhouse, there are two dressing rooms (one for men, the other tidy and well-lit) and a Green Room downstairs, with a stairway up to either wing. It’s very convenient; most of my theater experience has been in places much less well-suited to doing theater. Barns, in fact, or near as dammit. Anyway, once dressed, the actor can sit in relative comfort on a moldering sofa, sipping tea and playing Scrabble or doing crosswords or otherwise quietly whiling away the minutes between exit and entrance. At the right moment, up you get, quietly up the stair, check the mirror in the wing, pick up your hand prop if you are unlucky enough to need one, and on you go.
But what is the right moment? I don’t like to be in the wings for very long. The requirement for silence is of course complete (in the Green Room whispering is customary during a performance), and Gentle Readers will know how difficult it is for me to remain silent for very long. More than that, though, the tension of being in the small dark space, silent, while keeping the energy level high is very frustrating for me. And, of course, the wings being a small space (tho’ larger than many I’ve stood in), it’s generally wise to stay out of people’s way as they make their exits and entrances or costume changes or prepare the set changes. So the idea is to stay downstairs in the Green Room as long as possible.
On the other hand, while being early to the wings is not great, being late to the wings is disastrous. Even without contemplating missing my actual entrance (and I hope the S.M. would notice my absence and send someone down to beat me before the moment), I don’t want to be flying up the stairs and running onstage without a chance to catch my breath, check the mirror, settle my hat and do the twist (don’t ask). The right moment is not the last possible moment. In fact, I am happier if I am up in the wings in time to notice that I’ve left my hat downstairs, go back down and get it, and then come back up and make my entrance without being out of breath. Not that I do leave my hat downstairs. I’m just saying if.
So this week I am trying to figure out when to climb those stairs. I’m not in the first scene at all. I will probably not even begin making up until places, when almost everyone is onstage and I can hog the lighted mirror. I certainly won’t put on the boots until we’re done with Covent Garden and into Wimpole Street. The gloves and hat and coat will be placed near me until time. I think maybe I should go up at three pages before my entrance, say just as Eliza is making her exit. Only of course I shouldn’t come upstairs just as Eliza is making her exit, because she has to come off and get totally changed (and possible made up again? I can’t tell) in the wings, without time to go downstairs to the dressing room. Hm. Practice, practice, practice.
Rich Alfie is easier. When the curtain rumbles open on the scene, I can put my hat on. I have two or three minutes yet, and it’s just slightly better if I ease upstairs after Pickering’s entrance rather than before, so I don’t need to put my hat on before the scene begins, but the curtain is my signal, and I can’t really miss that if I’m listening at all, right?
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
The twi…? Oh, right.
when I was a stage manager, I had a note in the margin of my script one page before each actor’s entrance to bring them in from the green room. But of course I can see that an actor might want to be in the wings a little earlier.
It’s a good idea for a stage manager to do something like that, but of course it’s also a good idea for the actors to be ready before the stage manager has to do something about them not being ready. And, of course, it depends a lot on conditions. We have no effective intercom, and the S.M. is unable to see the other wing, so she can’t really keep on top of getting actors from the green room.
Thanks,
-V.