Especially when the scarecrow is gone (taking my script with him!)
And the lion is ill. (For an entire week).
And the guard is MIA.
It means the tinman and I are doing a lot of talking to air.
There's always the element of the unexpected like C's jeans ripping all the way up the inside seam on her leg - just before the jitterbug dance. This leads to text messages to Ryan asking him to bring up the largest pair of jeans I have so she doesn't have to finish out the rehearsal half-clad. Thankfully Sarah dropped a bunch by last week so I had a pair that would fit her.
Then there's the sight of 12-15 kids running down both asles screaming. Some of them look like monkeys. Some of them look like man-eating kids.
But after four runs of getting dragged down the steps and asles by three of them, my arms are a lovely shade of light pink from fifteen pairs of fingers.
We only stumbled on the stairs once.
After this there's the countless repeats of the jitterbug song which requires belting in a jazz style - and dancing at the same time. It's not so easy to keep the voice from hopping when you do.
A change of pace brought a treat in the middle. Ice cream poured over soda - or in my case, about half a cup of iced rootbeer. I was chatting with the understudy and tinman when this kid runs up, pats my hip, says something incredibly fast and darts away.
I glance at Andrew, "They're having a VIP party?"
"You're invited..." he informs.
"Oh, well I guess I better go." I glance across the foyer to the curving stairs, where it's barricaded by a cloth cord behind which fifteen munchkins are chilling with glasses of various colors.
"I get to come to the VIP party?" I ask.
I duck under the loop, being informed this is where only the cool people can come and I have to sit at the top of the cluster since I'm the main charecter. They seem to be of two camps - those who think Dorothy should have the top step and those who really want to sit beside her.
Yes. It was flattering.
So I drank my rootbeer with the munchkins as they described what my costume will look like. One dropped her spoon into my cup since she wasn't going to use it and was tired of holding it. She informed me I could use it to check for ice.
Then she dropped her entire cup and soda and icecream flew. I caught the cup before it fell down the stairs and assured her it was fine as I wiped ice cream out of my hair.
I told the muchkin mayor that I couldn't have ice cream and he told me that it wasn't very good ice cream anyway. He had hardly eaten any of his.
Then the muchkins were sent home, hyped up on ice cream and the Tinman and I returned to arrive at the Emrald city - without half of our party. Which meant I was the only one who knew the blocking since the Tinman missed those rehearsals.
I completely forgot the Lion dance but we got through it alright.
I passed Marie who had Trey on the phone as Tex asked him if he would be willing to act in his "Pokemon Movie" that he wrote himself and if he was interested, just call his mother back.
Trey already told Marie that he would do anything for Tex. So Tex's movie will make it's debut when he's just six years old. I think it's pretty adorable and the kid has great taste in actors. I've been contemplating grabby Trey myself to play another Trey in "Swing."
Then there's more work and the talk with Cody who observes I could save a lot of gas if I had a bike. I tell him my bike is at my real home three hours away. He offers to take me up and back to rehearsal if I'm not opposed to riding a motorcycle.
So there. There's my new theater family. It's a lot different than Center Stages but I almost feel a lot closer to these as people as well as actors.
I'm glad it was a good night. I've been tossing back and forth in my minds and moods about my future that it's great to have something good in my present.
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