Last Week’s Show – South Pacific

Last week was spent in the Midlands playing South Pacific with a company I’ve been with since I was 19. It’s only an amateur show but they’re a good cast and I like to catch up with the friends I’ve made there.

I’m not a big fan of the South Pacific, with gaping plot holes a clunky story and a less than flowing score it didn’t make a great impression. The production itself was good and the it had a few perks that helped the week go by with a little more fun 😛 but the main reason for this post tell you about a few more disasters that I’ve added to my show list.

For a full and up to date catalogue of these take a look in my Show Category.

The new top three this week are:

The Lighting Rig Shuts Down

Without any warning the lighting rig froze keeping the stage in an erie kind of perpetual twilight. Eventually (we could see this happening in the wings) the crew decided to pull out the whole system and put on the regular rehearsal lights. This made the appear as if you were going blind and could just make out the blurry shapes. Gradually each section of the rig started to behave and come back to life but it took an easy 10 minutes to sort out. Good stuff!

Emergency Dep

Two members of the Orchestra were called away in an emergency 10 minutes before the show started. Randomly one of the stage crew was a young trombonist and lived locally?! What are the chances?? He ran home, grabbed his gear and made a fair job of covering the part. That was very lucky!!

Oh Dan…how does it always happen to you?

Dan is my friend, fellow trumpeter and old house mate from my conservatoire days. I asked him to dep for me for a night on this run as I went to see Reel Big Fish play at rock city (a good gig). Dan has had a few interesting stories on gigs he’s depped for me. One of my favorites being the time his exhaust dropped out of his car half way down the A38!! 😀 But I think this could top even that!!

The venue is hard enough to find when you know where you’re going. Never mind if you have to leave the duel carriage way an exit early because of an accident. – Unlucky! Managing to find his way to the gig after the MD and I guided him in over the phone he ran in just as the show began. Not too bad in a regular pit. But when the entrance is located by the front row of the audience… nightmare. 😛

Dan managed to dart in (as he describes it, with a pull the plaster off mentality) and excuse his way past the front row during the Overture. Expecting a round of applause he crawled and waited next to the trombone before he made a move on his seat. He didn’t realize that there’s only a brief applause before the cast start the show and didn’t have time to move.

Eventually he managed to crawl to his seat and the gig went happily ever after!!