On the stageToo shy to ever appear on stage myself, I still hung around theatres like a bad smell when I was younger - lighting and set design were what I was good at.
Backstage we'd attempt to sabotage every production - us lighting geeks would wind up the sound man by putting the remote "pause" button for his reel-to-reel tape machine on his chair, so when he sat down it'd start running, ruining his cues. Actors would do scenes out of order to make our lives hell. It was great and I don't know why I don't still do it.
Tell us your stories of life on the stage.
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chthonic, Fri 2 Dec 2005, 11:02)
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Classical music madnessMany moons ago I used to do quite a few classical guitar concerts - back when I could play. Nothing huge - church halls, W.I. meetings, art galleries.
Everyone going on stage gets nervous. When you get nervous you stop breathing properly. When you stop breathing properly you tremble. Trembling is obviously a poor thing to happen to you when you need accuracy in your fingertips of shall we say, 1/100 of a mm - like when playing classical guitar.
In order to assuage The Trembles, I'd have two double brandies (all right, 4 or 5) and go for a run round the block - the latter to get me breathing properly, the former to calm me nerves. And to make me feel better. Hic.
Once I shared the bill at an arts centre with some dancers, who went on before me. One of the girls, spied my "bottle of water" while I was out getting all out of breath running about. She took a giant swig, promptly coughed it straight back up and sprayed herself and the rest of the troupe with cheap brandy.
When they came on stage, I'm told, the audience were hit with an unmistakable whiff of hard booze. Those alkie girlie dancers. Huh.
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petuniadb, Fri 2 Dec 2005, 12:26,
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