Sunday, June 06, 2010

Green room productivity

Patrick Healy has a piece in the New York Times about the unusual ways in which some actors spend their downtime during a performance: Jan Maxwell (doubly Tony-nominated next Sunday) helps her son with his homework; during August: Osage County, John Cullum actually went and did another play, then returned for the curtain call.

Since a recent post on local actors who can improve box-office receipts scared up a lot of comments, Bobo thought this topic might do the same, providing some modest entertainment value. So ... local actors, how do you spend your time backstage?
Any amusing stories about people completing their master's theses, brushing their teeth, changing their cousin's baby's diapers in the minutes before rushing onstage as the fourth chorus girl from the left?
[ image: from thegreenroomstudio.tv ]

3 comments:

  1. productive green room activities I have observed and/or taken part in: eating, flirting, paying bills, comparing boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/wife stories, clipping toenails, reading, backrubbing, laughing, crying, puking, listening to a baseball game on the radio.

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  2. My first job in Summer Stock, I was 16, was a 3 Act in which I was killed at the end of Act 1. We were performing on a college campus, and I had a room in the dorms, so after Act 1 I returned to my room, had a light dinner, watched a little TV, and returned to the theater in time for curtain call. Until the director found out. Then he recruited me as one of the "Offstage Voices" in the middle of Act 2 - which meant I had to stick around the green room for the whole evening. ~~sigh~~

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  3. I always enjoy watching Dave Rideout do crossword puzzles. He doesn't let me help or anything, but just basking in the glow of him finishing a crossword is enough for the little people. Sometimes, I sneak backstage to shows I'm not even in just to watch that.

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