Lair of the Ice Demoness

In every Pittsburgh Savoyard's production that I've been in, there has been some kind of dance party that goes on in the wings among the actors who are waiting to come on stage for the next scene. In the Mikado, we just danced randomly. In the Pirates of Penzance, I made sure to be up in the wings for the "Cat-like Tread" dance where myself and a couple other female chorus members and one of the double cast leads (who is still in high school) would imitate the pirates dance while they did it on stage. This is a lot of fun, a way to pass the time while waiting for the scene and builds energy for the performance.

Every day during performances there was some sort of snacks/food brought in. I always brought in homemade trail mixes --chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60% cacao), cranberries (craisins) and almonds in one bag and yogurt peanuts and raisins in another (because one of our cast members was allergic to all chocolate). Over the course of the run several cast members had birthdays so cupcakes appeared for those and we sang Happy Birthday to each one. The last birthday occurred on the day of the last performance and it was for the person playing the Major General so after we finished singing Happy Birthday to him, one of our cast improvised "For he is the birthday boy," and we all sang along.

The first Sunday of the run, the person set to play Mabel was in a multi-car accident but wasn't hurt. She came in about ten minutes before the show started (she wasn't on until later) and had two or three other cast members help her get ready and performed the role. This was most impressive as she is a high school student and was driving the car, her dad and a friend were with her and the friend went to the hospital to be checked out. I think it helped her take her mind off of what happened to have to concentrate on performing but it was still impressive and I'm not sure I would have been able to do that.

I discovered tonight that I work with a bunch of gamer geeks. At one point we were starting to rehearse a scene from the point where Mabel sings/says "Hold Monsters!" and when the director said, "Okay, after Mabel does "Hold Monsters" . . ."

I asked, "Hold Monsters? That's a cleric spell, right?" and about 4 women in the ensemble laughed and someone had to explain it to the young man playing Frederick.

It's a fun group, though.