Saturday, February 19, 2005

We opened Sweeney Todd last night at Foothill. The audience seemed to really have a good experience of exciting theatre. I am so glad tech week is behind us. This has been the most exhausting experience. Sweeney Todd is not just another piece of American style musical theatre. It's also an opera. The music is difficult to learn and the staging is challenging. But if done well, I think it might be one of the best shows ever written for the American stage.

I believe that I may have the most costume changes of anyone in the show. Most of the ensemble wears one costume all night. A few wear two. But I have four! The difficulty presents itself when I have to run around the outside of the building to make entrances on the correct side of the stage. But that in itself is not really the issue. The crucial thing is to make sure the correct costume is there waiting for me. Last night, I left my policeman's hat on the wrong side just minutes before my entrance. So, I had to sprint around the building, find the hat, sprint back around and run on the stage in the nick of time.

Another moment of mirth emerged last night when Anthony, dropped the gun in Fogg's asylum. What is supposed to happen is that Johanna is supposed to pick it up and shoot Fogg (that's me). But when he dropped the gun, it broke into two pieces. Keite Davis, playing Johanna, slyly picked up the gun like nothing happened in it's two pieces, held them together and shot me anyway with the broken gun. I heard a few chuckles in the front row.

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