We were doing the last show of a quad (two shows Sunday, two shows Saturday). Everything going normal. Started the second show. Dolly sang I Put My Hand In. They do a few more ditties. As I'm waiting to get the cue to move the winch during Put On You Sunday Clothes, I hear an odd thing. I hear Ermengarde and Ambrose singing but barely a hint of Dolly. I didn't even know the other two even sang there. Did her mic go out? Being in the wing, I usually hear live voices and not much from the amplification. This still sounded strange, more than just a mic going out. I'm wondering why my ASM* hasn't run up to me to get a dresser to fix her mic. Hmm. There is a dresser right there and she doesn't seem to be worried about anything.
We do the scene change into the hatshop. There seems to be a little buzz going on between people with headsets. During Ribbons Down My Back I overhear a whisper of 'stop the show' and 'get Bobbi ready' (Dolly's understudy). I see our lead rail getting ready to pull the Austrian curtain down at the end of the song - which normally does not happen. We still have two songs to go with this scenery. And that curtain does not come down until the end of Act One.
Dolly's voice had left her. Nothing came out when she came on to sing Sunday Clothes. Which is weird, especially since she sounded fine in the other songs. Not only that, she had just done an entire show! Bobbi, who normally plays Ernestina, is Dolly's understudy. And Gail, who normally plays Mrs. Rose, is Ernestina's. So all the understudies are right there.
Right before we stopped the show, the ASM had me fetch a few things from the rehearsal hall, three flights up. I didn't know how long I had, so I ran all the way up and all the way down - totally winded. I didn't get a chance to hear what the stage manager announced to the audience. Then he asked me to relay messages about the body mics . So I went to the women's dressing room and ended up helping out with the mics. (I was wondering how long it was going to be until I had to use my sound skills). Later, the dresser gave me a big hug and said, "I'm so glad your here!" I helped with a few non-sound things and was proud that some of my suggestions were used.
As we got back in to places, I had this nagging feeling that I needed to figure what it was that I had to do differently now. Nothing. Really. Nothing. It's my old sound engineer instinct surfacing. Because something is always done differently in sound when understudies with body mics go on. But it doesn't affect the job I'm doing now.
The phrase, "Gotta love live theatre!" got thrown around a lot. Our intern asked me, "Is it bad that I love this adrenaline rush?" "No," I said. "That is why we do live theatre." It was actually rather fun for a lot of us, since we were at the very last show of the week and were on automatic pilot. But now the endorphins kicked in. What was old was new again.
Everything went fine. Everyone really stepped up.
*Assistant Stage Manager
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