Those quirky moments in community theatre you love- Page 3
Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
#50re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/19/07 at 8:00am
Oh dear, where do I begin? lol.
I also saw a community production of Chess in Los Angeles waaay back in 1995. It originally starred one of the original Broadway cast members: Marcia Mitzman Gavin, but by the time I saw it, she had left the production. Though she was there in the audience at the final performance I attended.
The Svetlana was an actress that had appeared in numerous episodes of "Married With Children" as the butt of fat jokes by Al Bundy. It was quite jarring at first seeing a Svetlana so different from what I was used to picturing in my mind. But after the initial surprise, I found she was quite good in the role.
Also, in a 1994 community production of "Into the Woods," the two step sisters couldn't sing for ****. lol. While in a pro production such a thing would be a no-no, it actually worked really well here. Hehehehe.
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
#51re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/19/07 at 11:13amLil Abner - they brought a piglet on stage that got so excited it had a heart attack and, well, died.
"Love Life. Live." Michael Bennett
#52re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/19/07 at 2:24pmI was in a production of "Sweeney Todd" with the worst director I have ever experienced. Good thing we had an amazing cast. However one key thing was over looked until very late in to rehearsals. The razor!!! About three days before opening our "director" says to the cast "So, who's getting us the razor?" We all started looking for a rental or a company who could loan us one but the ONLY theater around us that had one is stock had just rented it out and shipped it half way across the country. So our stage Manager did the best she could to make one. It was an angle finder spray painted silver with a small Elmer's glue bottle filled with blood masking taped to the handle. OMG it was horrible!!!
"You know just because you put a smiley face after it doesn't change the fact that it was an a-hole comment." ~ Sumofallthings
Anti-Romanticist
Understudy Joined: 8/23/06
#53re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/19/07 at 8:50pmAt a high school performance (qualifies as community IMHO, and this really could have happened anywhere) of Beauty and the Beast I saw a couple of years ago, it was at the end of the final battle between Beast and Gaston. Everything went well until Gaston made his exit falling off the castle. After he fell, you could hear him go "Ow".
Bow before the cuteness of my cousin!!! ;]
#54re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/19/07 at 8:55pmFootlooser I just had the same Sweeney experance, when they got the razors one closed on my fingure and sliced it open during one of our last rehersals. Then they were like "Oh maybe we should tape those."
gymdudeva
Broadway Star Joined: 1/29/07
#55re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 12:18am
I don't know if this counts, but...the sweetest of memories...
Back in 1979, my last summer before college, as part of a festival, we did an original, locally written skateboard musical (!) composed by a local teen prodigy. (The music was fantastic.) We performed it on the upper deck of a parking garage. My brother had one of the leads....he could not sing or act, but oh man could that boy skate! At the end of act 1 the entire cast laid down on the ground and he jumped over them all, right to the beat of the last song. For the act 2 finale, right around dusk, the set opened up to reveal a huge U-shaped skateboard ramp (painted like a street). The thing was lit up in flashing lights, and all the skaters (including some who were not even in the rest of the show and just kind of showed up for this part) were riding the thing, flying WAY up into the air at either end, while the rest of the cast were singing and dancing in front. It was really strange and breathtaking.
evadiva
Broadway Star Joined: 12/9/06
#56re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 12:59am
"....So our stage Manager did the best she could to make one. It was an angle finder spray painted silver with a small Elmer's glue bottle filled with blood masking taped to the handle. OMG it was horrible!!!"
LMAO!!!!!!!!!
"At last...my arm is complete again!!!!!!" (glue bottle falls to the floor)
Timmer
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/06
#57re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 10:16am
Wen I was in college, our college theatre group did 110 In the Shade for Parents Weekend. In the scene where Jimmy comes back on stage beating a drum, the guy playing Jimmy dropped his drumstick. So the fellow playing H.C. said,"I'll get it," got up, handed the drumstick back to "Jimmy", and went back to his place as if they were supposed to do it that way.
My mother and I looked at each other and said, "Good cover."
Timmer
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/06
#58re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 11:07am
"In the scene after Annie's first public performance, Buffalo Bill was supposed to come on and tell us (the three children) to go find Annie. Unfortunantly, he didn't so we had to improvise this whole scene until he arrived."
You might want to rent the Marx Brothers movie "The Cocoanuts." There is a scene in there where Chico Marx's character is supposed to tell the romantic lead that his girlfriend is marrying someone else. Unfortunately, Chico cannot remember the other guy's name. Finally, the other character (who is in jail -- don't ask) blurts out, "Do you mean Polly is marrying -----?" "Atsa right," says Chico.
gymdudeva
Broadway Star Joined: 1/29/07
#59re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 11:34am
how about an all male, gay version of the fantasticks? that is going on this fall at a community theatre near me.....should be...interesting?
Oh Lord. Please keep us posted!!!
#60re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 1:32pm
how about an all male, gay version of the fantasticks? that is going on this fall at a community theatre near me.....should be...interesting
Suddenly the lyric, "Plant a carrot", takes on a whole new meaning. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Check, please!
avab802
Broadway Star Joined: 5/17/06
#61re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 2:34pmI was in a dinner theater production of Hello Dolly that had roller skating waitresses instead of dancing waiters in the Harmonia Gardens scenes, because we didn't have any male ensemble members who could actually dance and the director thought we needed a "gimmick" in those scenes. The stage was a 3/4 thrust, so at least we could do all of the skating on the floor so no one would fall off the stage. But the aisles we used for entrances/exits were rather narrow & we all ended up with a lot of bruises from running into the railings on our way off stage.
#62re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 4:04pm
In a production of Crazy For You there are a couple of scenes in Lank's Saloon where cowboys get into a fake fight and shoot each other.....well the gun wouldn't work so my actor thought it would be funny to just throw it at the other person....which he did. The person falls over dead as if he'd been shot.
While this was mildly amusing the first time (the audience didn't mind), he then did the same thing again a few nights later (this after being told not to do it again). Couldn't really 'fire' him though half way through a run.
LoringsGuy
Broadway Star Joined: 9/28/04
#63re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 4:42pmI get a kick out of seeing community theatre productions in which it's apparent that EVERYONE who auditioned got in. You often end up with, like, 100 people on stage during the ensemble numbers, and yet the aural effect sounds like, oh, maybe eight. It's alternately endearing and excruciating to witness.
"Word of advice: Be who you are, wear what you want---just learn how to run real fast." Marc, UGLY BETTY
#64re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 5:36pm
In a production of 42nd Street (the first of the many times I have seen this show), the male lead in Shuffle off to Buffalo was so flaming, I called it "Sashay off to Buffalo." He was great though, and so was everyone else.
At the same theatre, I saw Into the Woods. The scene where Cinderella's dress falls from the sky? The dress got stuck in the tree. Cinderella was able to extract it with only a little difficulty. After her exit, you could hear her say "The dress got stuck in the damn tree again" before the mic was shut off.
The same production, the same Cinderella. The scene where she enters the stage and falls on her behind? Well, she did it, but fell HARD on her backside, the kind that leaves bruises. It made such a loud sound you could tell the audience not familiar with the show thought it was unplanned, and the ones familiar with the show thought it was hilarious for her getting so into the role. She took several seconds to get up, it was obvious she was hurting, but she kept in character, so I starting cheering loudly "Bravo!" until she rose. The audience joined me in a huge hand, and she was soon able to get up and continue what was an excellent performance in a great production.
#65re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/20/07 at 11:36pmIn my high school's production of Beauty and the Beast, the girl playing the enchantress got to "fly" when she cast the spell on the prince. After that scene, the stage crew had about 45 seconds to change the set during the introduction to the next song. Well the person who was helping the enchantress "fly" didn't let her down all the way, so she couldn't take her harness off. The next song begins and there's the enchantress hovering about a foot off the ground in the midst of all the townspeople.
<--Sometimes it's easier to get out of a jam than into one
Urban
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/05
#66re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/24/07 at 10:25am
Okay, it is a play and not a musical, but recently I saw a local production of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts", when Osvald was being bandaged after the orphanage-fire scene, he revealed some very heavy duty tattos that didn't really go with the 19th century deeply conservative rural Norwegian setting. (Though Osvald was in Paris for many years... damn corrupting Parisians).
It made me smirk.
vidkidd
Swing Joined: 11/21/04
#67re: Those quirky moments in community theatre you love
Posted: 8/28/07 at 7:56pm
Hi there, I was just reading your post about the LA production of Chess that you saw... I am kind of sorry to admit to having been in that production. (Not anything against the production which other than the lack of an orchestra, I found quite decent... rather I never felt satisfied that I was the best choice for the role I was playing).
Mary-Pat Green was the actress you saw play Svetlana, I believe she did the entire run.
when we first opened (in workshop) the cast was Patrick Cassidy and Kathleen Rowe McAllen... with Mary Gordon Murray as Svetlana. When we moved to the Hudson Theatre it was Douglas Sills, Marcia Mitzman (pre "Gavin") and Mary Pat Green... later in the run it was Cynthia Hunt as Florence, I forget the guy who came in as Freddie.
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