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The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On

Episode 158: The Show Must Go On

Everyone has a show must go on story. Sets fall, lines are forgotten, sometimes the light board catches on fire. In this podcast we hear a number of different “show must go on” stories that all emphasize the same point: No matter what happens, you have to keep it together and keep that show going. Except maybe if there’s a bat dive bombing the actors.

Show Notes

Episode Transcript

Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and theatre educators everywhere.

I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk.

Hello! I hope you’re well. Thanks for listening!

This is Episode 158.

You can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at theatrefolk.com/episode158.

Today, we are busy today. We’ve got lots of different pieces to put together. I’m telling stories. Craig’s going to show up later. We have interviews in not one but two different states. It’s busy, man – good busy, though. It’s active, right?

Today, we have an active podcast.

Today, we are talking about The Show Must Go On.

If you are in theatre, if you have ever been onstage, you have a “show must go on” story and we have a bunch for you.

The impetus for this podcast is I was adjudicating a festival a couple of months ago and one of the shows started and everything started fine. And then, an actor came out and she was supposed to say one thing and a completely different thing came out of her mouth. There was a moment of silence. The actor looked strained. And then, she ran offstage. I’ve never seen that before. I’ve never seen someone just be in a moment of such panic that the only thing that they felt they could do is leave.

But what happened onstage was amazing because they just carried on. It was as if this run offstage was in the script and people threw in lines that weren’t there. There was a musician who was supposed to react and he was right there on cue and I had read the script so I knew that there was something awry and it was obvious that there was something a little bit awkward about what was going on but it was a play acknowledging the fact that it was a play so the awkwardness really worked – even to the point when one of the characters said in character, “I don’t know what to do right now!” It worked! They were going to keep going.

Soon after that, the student director for the piece came down the aisle, from the booth, walked onstage and said to the audience, “We’re starting again.” The actors looked at her and went, “Okay.” They just went into action and they got back into their place. They started over and you never would have known that there was an issue – even with the girl who ran offstage. She came on and she did her thing and you never would have known.

I was just so impressed with the ensemble to keep the play going – not only to keep the play going but they were going to keep going. They weren’t going to stop. The show must go on and they didn’t think to stop or break character. That, I think, is remarkable. And that, I think, is something that we all want to give to our students. There’s a better word, I can’t think of it right now, but to emphasize to our students about what “the show must go on” really means.

It’s about that community and helping each other.

I’ll have my own “show must go on” story later. It’s not pretty but it’s great for aural listening. No video.

Now, we’re going to head over to the Southeastern Theatre Conference where I asked teachers about their “show must go on” experiences.

Let’s get to it.

LINDSAY: All right! I am talking to Tricia Oliver.

Hi, Tricia!

TRICIA: Hi!

LINDSAY: Okay, we’re talking “show must go on” stories.

TRICIA: Right. Okay, as I was developing this program, still fairly new, we did “Flowers for Algernon.” I thought I would do something very deep, very thought-provoking for both the audience and the kids who were involved. So, we were doing “Flowers for Algernon” and I had a couple of kids who were amazing at improvisation and I’m very thankful for that because, once we went into – I don’t know if it was the second or third night of the run of the show – about halfway through one of the scenes, we realized that they had completely skipped a scene and I was panicking because, at that point, we didn’t have microphones and headsets to be able to communicate backstage. That wasn’t something that we had gotten into yet – very small basic program and still learning.

Next thing I know, they had all worked it out themselves. They finished the scene, went back and did the scene that they missed because it wasn’t pertinent to telling the story, having the two scenes switched, and then they continued on with the next show. I sat back in awe of my kids who completely took care of it themselves because they were so good at improvising. It didn’t shock them and it didn’t stop them.

Having kids who are well-prepared made me, as a drama mama, so proud.

LINDSAY: Well, that tells you something about your leadership because, you know, it takes a leader to make sure that everybody feels that nothing will shock them and they can take care of things on their own.

I think that’s a fantastic story. Thank you!

TRICIA: Thank you! That was awesome!

LINDSAY: All right! KellyBrooke Brown, tell me your “show must go on” story!

KELLYBROOKE: Okay, this is a show that I was actually performing in.

We were doing “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The whole concept was black and white and grey. It was kind of like you were watching a black and white movie. Anyway, the power went out. Of course, we were in the theatre. There were no windows. There was no light. We did the whole entire show with spotlights ran off of a generator from the back of the house so it looked also like everything was in slow motion and in black and white.

LINDSAY: It’s almost like you planned it that way!

KELLYBROOKE: It’s almost like it was better that way! Sometimes, it’s pleasant mistakes, I guess.

LINDSAY: You know, sometimes, that happens.

KELLYBROOKE: I know.

LINDSAY: I know a teacher who she was in a new school and they had no lights – new school. So, they did “Our Town” and they did the whole thing with flashlights and fake lanterns. It was like everybody said it was beautiful.

KELLYBROOKE: Of course! “Our Town” is kind of dark anyway. It’s supposed to be in her head, in the dreams, and everything. You know, I think that’s a beautiful concept.

LINDSAY: Awesome. Thank you very much!

KELLYBROOKE: All right, thanks!

LINDSAY: All right, Matt Webster, what is your “show must go on” story?

MATT: We were doing a show at the University of Hawaii that we wrote called “D-Force.” It’s five kids going through a video game about surviving divorce. We had an audience of 700 children in the audience. We were five minutes away from the end of the play and the five characters were supposed to walk to the end of the stage and make a statement. One of the actors didn’t. She stayed in the back of the stage and we kind of looked over our shoulders to see what was going on and she did her lines from sitting back there but she didn’t do the blocking!

And so, we figured something must be wrong. We turned and saw that she had a really pained look in her face, got her offstage, and found out that, when she had went to stand up, she had reached her arm behind her and dislocated her shoulder onstage in front of 700 people and managed to finish the scene and finish the show and left the back of the stage on an ambulance gurney.

That is “the show must go on!”

LINDSAY: All right, Mary Claire Millies!

MARY: Yes!

LINDSAY: Tell me your “the show must go on” story!

MARY: I was working in a theatre in New Jersey, just out New York City. We were doing “All My Sons” – a very heady drama. Audience was in their seats, ready to start, and the power goes out completely!

The solution was for the theatre staff – which I was a member – to get high-powered flashlights and to stand at the edge of the stage and in the wings and light the cast.

LINDSAY: It must have been just a lot of faces?

MARY: A lot of faces. We did manage to, at one point, get a ladder because there was kind of a dramatic scene where we had a downlight – you know, it had already been designed so we had someone up on a ladder holding a downlight. It was quite a thing but it was a really great experience because, like, the show goes on and the audience loved it. They love when they feel like they’re in on something that’s exciting, you know?

LINDSAY: Yeah! You know, well, it’s that whole notion of this is an experience that is never going to happen again. Like, no, you’ll fix the lights and everything will go on as proper. But they were there for that moment of theatre.

MARY: Exactly, and I think they were just so grateful that you kept going – that you weren’t, like, “Sorry, go home. We’re going to refund your tickets or come another night,” and that they were part of the excitement of theatre. They were there and they gave a standing ovation. They loved it! They loved it. It was wonderful.

LINDSAY: Thank you so much.

MARY: Thank you!

LINDSAY: Okay. I am talking to Mandy Woodhouse.

MANDY: Yes!

LINDSAY: Tell me your “show must go on” story.

MANDY: A few years ago, we were doing “Miracle on 34th Street” and I had a role, I was speaking to Santa Claus, and we were doing it for local schools. As Santa Claus was coming down, the elastic on his pants actually broke and his pants fell down. He luckily had something on underneath but flashed everybody. It was his first time onstage and it was my first time onstage in about eight years acting. We had to hold everything together.

You can imagine 300 children laughing all at once and it was at a very serious moment in the show. At the same time that that happened, someone backstage saw it happen, laughed, and dropped something which caused a domino effect of several different things falling behind the stage all at once. We had to hold it together because it was a critical point. It’s the point in the show where she fires Santa Claus. I mean, that’s a critical point in the show. We had to hold it together and we had to improv some things and I had to help him pull his pants up. It was interesting.

LINDSAY: I like that, though. I think it’s a really good point of, when those things happen, if everyone else is laughing, you don’t get a free pass to start laughing yourself. You have to stay in character, you have to stay in the moment, and it really would have been detrimental to the whole experience – pants or no pants – if you had started laughing.

MANDY: Absolutely.

LINDSAY: I love that! Thank you so much!

MANDY: Thank you!

LINDSAY: Before we move on to the next bunch of “show must go on” stories, here is my “show must go on” story.

So, way back – waaaaay back, anyone in Canada, you know what that is – waaaaay back, I was an actor for about four seconds and I was doing children’s theatre and my character was the white whale – a white whale – all in white, head to toe white. We had done a show at a school in the morning; in the afternoon, we were doing a show in a retirement home.

After the morning show, I started to feel unease. That unease grew throughout lunch and that unease became massive discomfort and stomach pain. It was not going anywhere.

We get to the retirement home and there’s a point where I look around and go, “All right, if there is not a bathroom in my way in the next two seconds, my lunch is going to go all over this floor.” So, I’m banging on doors, finding the bathroom, there’s somebody in there, another cast member. I’m like, “Get out!” Things happened. I’m like, “Okay, I just have to get through this show.” It was great because I had a part. I had one little part and then I was supposed to hold things afterwards – set pieces. I’m just like, the focus is grim. I’m just grimming and I get to the part where I’m supposed to do my thing. I do my thing. I look around and I eyeballed because the other half of whatever I had which came up as vomit the first time was taking a different path – let’s say that.

All of a sudden, the white costume was just not white anymore.

I made it to my part. I’m like, “Okay, I’m very ill. I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to do it. I have to. The show must go on. I’ve got to do my part.” At the end of the show, I came out. When I was supposed to be doing all the other things, the director just stepped in and she’s waving a sheet. It doesn’t even like the show just went on, no problem.

It was pretty amazing because it was like, you know, when you’re in that position – not my position but their position – it’s like, “Well, we’ve got to make it happen.” And so, it did.

Ugh! There’s a reason I don’t act anymore. Good times! Very good times!

Okay. So, there’s no more of those kinds of stories.

Let’s hear the “show must go on” stories from the folks at the Florida Thespian Festival.

All right, tell us your name and where you’re from.

SU: Su Edgar from Deltona High School.

LINDSAY: Right before we started recording, I heard the words: “when the board caught on fire.”

SU: Yes.

LINDSAY: Tell us your “show must go on” story.

SU: Opening night for Midsummer, we go to turn the lights on and the board goes, “No.” All the lights go down. It blew up. Caught fire. We had to shut it down and then do the show. So, we stopped it because we were about three minutes into the show or something. We did the entire show with the spotlight. So, the show went on. We just restarted it and did it with a spotlight and that was all the lighting and mics and everything that they had was the spotlight.

LINDSAY: And someone put the fire out?

SU: Yes, fire went out, new board got replaced.

LINDSAY: But you didn’t stop the show?

SU: Nope, the show went on!

LINDSAY: Hello, Ed Mason!

ED: Hi, Lindsay! How are you?

LINDSAY: I’m excellent.

All right, tell me your “show must go on” story.

ED: My “show must go on” story?

LINDSAY: Yes.

ED: Last year, we were doing – oh, the name of the show is… give me a second – beep beep beep! “Captain Fantastic” was the name of the show.

LINDSAY: Perfect.

ED: The guy who was playing the lead had to punch himself and fall down. Dress rehearsal, we’d been doing it for ages. He’s been falling right. Dress rehearsal, he overspins, falls, and breaks his collarbone. Oh, my gosh.

LINDSAY: Oh, man, that’s not even…

ED: And went on.

LINDSAY: Oh, man!

ED: You know, we had to improvise what he was doing. We had to make sure that people gathered more so he didn’t have to actually hit himself so he could fall. We had a trampoline where the superheroes were supposed to bounce out. I said, “You do it, I’ll break the other collarbone.” But he went on all three shows, in pain.

LINDSAY: That’s pretty awesome!

ED: Yeah.

LINDSAY: Collarbones, they’re not fooling around.

ED: Yeah, I really didn’t know because it didn’t break out. It broke down. As we were sitting there trying to look and feel for the break, you couldn’t feel the break. But they went and his mom said, “Well, we’re going to get it checked anyway.” When they found it, they found it broke down.

LINDSAY: Awesome, and still went on?

ED: And still went on.

LINDSAY: The show must go on!

ED: That’s your “show must go on” story!

LINDSAY: Hey! Tell me your name and where you’re from.

OZZIE: Hey! I’m Ozzie Quintana and I’m from Miami, Florida.

LINDSAY: Perfect!

You were preparing your “show must go on” story. Let me have it.

OZZIE: All right. So, we did an original show. We had three weeks to actually put the entire show together and we did a show on Charlie Chaplin and we lost two actors before the show. We had two actors involved in another show and we had a huge, big effect of a Buster Keaton move where the entire building would fall on someone and they would slip through the window.

We couldn’t endanger the lives of our students. We had to figure out a way to get that to work in the short time that we had. So, as we were trying it out and we realized the death rate might go high, we found something that something could actually work for us and we decided to make the entire façade out of Styrofoam – for safety reasons.

We decided to go to one-acts. We literally rehearsed in a parking garage because we didn’t have any rehearsal time. We had a musical opening at the same time. We were rehearsing in a parking garage. I was throwing stuff together and it was a moment, just a clear moment where I was like, “It’s not quite coming together but we have to move forward with it.”

We threw the thing up, we went up onstage, and as the set piece was falling over the student, all the Styrofoam just exploded onstage everywhere because it just struck and blew up everywhere. It took us extra time just to sweep the stage. We got the show done. It wasn’t our best work but we were able to get it done. It was the Styrofoam explosion that I remember the most.

LINDSAY: Well, it’s also the thing because it happens in every show, right? You get to that point and you’re really like, “This isn’t going to happen. This is just not going to happen.”

OZZIE: You just realize it’s not going to be perfect and, you know, you want it to be perfect.

LINDSAY: And that you still should go forward. You’re not going to junk everything. You’re going to figure it out.

OZZIE: It was a moment for them. It was the experience of having to put this work on in the first place. For them, it was the greatest moment for us.

LINDSAY: Awesome. Thank you!

OZZIE: All right!

LINDSAY: I’m talking to Mark Marple.

Tell me your “show must go on” story.

MARK: Okay. It was doing Charlie and Flowers for Algernon and there was a scene where my sister is coming at me with a knife and I went to reach for the door and the whole set piece fell down – the whole flat with the door and everything fell on top of me. And so, everybody was really quiet and I opened the door and came out. I finished the scene and walked off. Standing ovation.

LINDSAY: Awesome. Of course, of course! Thank you so much!

MARK: Thank you!

KENDRA: Kendra Blaizi, New Smyrna Beach High School.

LINDSAY: And what is your “show must go on” story?

KENDRA: Back about ten years ago, we were doing a production of “Into The Woods.” Opening night, one of our gals on stage crew had her father pass away unexpectedly. I told her, of course, that she did not have to be there for the run of the show. Her reaction, she looked at me and said, “But I want to be here. If I’m at home, all I’m going to be doing is sitting there with my mom and brother, crying, and that’s not going to help anything. It’s not going to bring him back. Can I please do the show?” I left it up to her and her parent and I said, “Absolutely, if this is where you want to be, come on down.”

Ten years later, she contacted me, just a few weeks ago, and said that it was the best choice she ever made because it was a real therapeutic process for her to still have a place to go and it was definitely the show must go on for her.

LINDSAY: You know what? Because a lot of these, we’re asking this question, you know, there’s always a funny story, there’s always a set falling down story, there’s always a costume awry story but the show must go on has a lot to do with internal stuff too and how sometimes the theatre is a home.

KENDRA: It is.

LINDSAY: And how it’s really helpful for these kids – you know, for high school students – that we think of theatre as a home for them.

KENDRA: It gives them a place to go when sometimes they don’t have other places. In this case, she didn’t want to be at her actual house because of the memories that were tied to it. It gave her a place to go outside of there.

LINDSAY: I love that story. Thank you, Kendra!

KENDRA: Thank you!

LINDSAY: Thank you to my Florida folks!

I just love Kendra’s story. It is a great lesson that, when we say the show must go on, it’s not always what’s happening onstage.

Okay. I have two more stories to share.

Claire Broome had so many things go awry before the show went on that it was actually amazing that the show went on. Last, but never least, my Theatrefolk cohort in crime, Craig Mason spent fifteen years as a professional actor and he actually has a “when the show shouldn’t go on” story.

Here’s Claire and Craig.

So, I am here talking to Teacher Claire Broome.

Hello, Claire!

CLAIRE: Hello!

LINDSAY: Recently, you directed two of my shows – “Censorbleep” and “Stroke Static.”

CLAIRE: Yes.

LINDSAY: Okay. Now, I think that you don’t just have a “show must go on” story but it’s like a show must go on and on and on and are we going to stop? No, we’re going to keep going and going.

What was the first thing that happened with your productions?

CLAIRE: Well, the first thing that happened was we had a student who ended up with a concussion and her memory took a very, very long time to come back. We ended up going with one of our understudies. The irony was, the year before, we thought, “Oh, maybe we should start working with understudies,” and I’m so glad that we did that because, in both shows, we had to replace actors and understudies were so necessary. However, that wasn’t even enough this time around.

LINDSAY: Okay. So, one concussion. And then, the next thing to befell one of your actors?

CLAIRE: The next thing was we had a student who moved unexpectedly and this was the second actor that we had put in this role. It was a play that we had worked on in class and the original actor decided that he didn’t want to be part of the show so we had recast it. And then, he moved three weeks before the show opened. So, we had to make a very quick decision about finding a student who could do that role and we were very lucky to find one who did it so well. We were very lucky.

LINDSAY: But it doesn’t stop there!

CLAIRE: No, it doesn’t!

LINDSAY: And the next thing that happened was?

CLAIRE: We had another student who got very sick and was scheduled to have surgery and so wasn’t going to be able to do the show. Then, what we ended up doing was taking a student that we were using sort of as a minor character in “Stroke Static” and we made him a major character three weeks before the show.

LINDSAY: Now, I don’t think I knew that one because there’s still another one, isn’t there?

CLAIRE: Well, there’s that one…

LINDSAY: There’s the wheelchair.

CLAIRE: Oh, right! I forgot.

We had a student who played a minor role in “Stroke Static” and then a bigger role in “Censorbleep” and we had to put her in a wheelchair because, two weeks before the show, she blew out her knee. So, we had to reblock a whole bunch of scenes and we had to figure out what we could do. That was huge for us, actually. It kind of felt like, at that point, the theatre gods were telling us we needed to stop. But we thought this was a really good lesson in resiliency for our students so we kept going.

LINDSAY: I think that that is what these stories, I think, they’re really important to show. You do make a choice, right? You make a choice whether you’re going to go on or not. What did this teach? What did this teach your students?

CLAIRE: For our students, one of the biggest things was to trust each other in their process. One of the students who ended up filling in for a major character in “Stroke Static” had three weeks. Within a week, he had his lines down and then it was almost a half a week later, he all of a sudden had this character and it was a gorgeous character. You never would have known that he had to throw this together so quickly.

It was interesting because the student who played Russ, as much as he put on a brave face, he was terrified. Two days before we opened, we sat with the cast and we talked about just how proud we were that they were so resilient and they were able to keep going. The student who was playing Russ said to the student who ended up filling in, he was terrified and he was shocked and the fact that this student kind of pulled everything together so quickly just put him at ease. And so, he felt that they were putting on the best show that they ever could have put on and they did. It was an incredible performance in the end.

It’s funny because I think things could have gone really badly and they didn’t. We were so lucky.

In “Censorbleep,” same thing, we had a student who took a lot longer to memorize his lines. I think it was almost our second last rehearsal that he actually had everything down. So, you were sort of sitting in the back of the caf – because that’s what we have is a cafetorium – and I watched him and the whole time I just kept thinking, “Please, remember your lines. Please, remember your lines.” He did a fantastic job.

I think one of the things that’s so tough from a drama teacher’s point of view is choosing whether or not the risk of failure is worth it. I think that’s a really tough decision to make because these are kids who are going up onstage and it’s their reputation. As much as your name is attached to a product, it’s really them who’s putting everything on the line. If you can trust your students and you can trust their process, that’s fantastic.

I will tell a really quick story where I did have a group of students who were great right up to opening night. The night that we opened, they all suddenly got the biggest case of stage fright. I was really lucky that we were in a festival format so, if we did shut down a show, the audience had somewhere to go to. They just lost it.

So, we sat with the cast and talked a lot about ways to relax and meditate and “what did you learn from this?” I think it was a very positive process for them.

One of the things I did for that cast was I showed a professional performance I had on film where I totally lost my lines and it was obvious and it was terrible. I said, “The best part is that you did it in high school and not when you were being paid as a professional.” I think one of the thing is our society is so quick to try and save kids, sometimes giving them that lesson in “things get tough” and “how do you get around it?” is so important. In both cases, they were very positive experiences.

LINDSAY: That is so awesome. I think these are my favorite stories – the stories where the students persevere on their own and that we didn’t save them and they saved themselves.

CLAIRE: That’s true, and the show went on!

LINDSAY: And the show went on! Awesome, thank you so much!

CLAIRE: Thank you!

LINDSAY: All right.

We have everybody telling “the show must go on” stories for this podcast.

Hello, Craig Mason.

CRAIG: Hello, Lindsay Price.

LINDSAY: I think, for your “show must go on” story, I was actually there in the audience.

CRAIG: I’m trying to remember. I think you were there.

LINDSAY: I think. I seem to recall the audience response.

CRAIG: It was one of those shows where, if you were there, you would remember it. I’m going to say that you do remember it and you were there.

LINDSAY: Awesome. What is your “show must go on” story?

CRAIG: I was doing a play called “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” in a summer theatre. The theatre was originally built as a curling rink. It was this big cavernous barn. In the summer time, I was doing summer theatre, it was also home to wildlife – not the least of which was bats. Pretty much all theatres get bats at some point or another so this is a bat story.

It was a two-person scene. We were in the middle of the scene. We were getting close to closing night so, thankfully, we were very comfortable with each other by this point. Out of the corner of my eye, I sensed a disturbance in the force. I sensed some kind of movement that I hadn’t been familiar with before. You know, animals come and go. Sometimes, the bat appears and it disappears just as quickly as it comes. And so, we just kept sauntering on with the show. But then, the bat became bolder and bolder and bolder.

LINDSAY: Also, because it wasn’t just you guys who were dealing with the bat. This theatre was in the round so everybody was dealing with the bat as the bat started to dive-bomb.

CRAIG: Yes, we were in the middle of a scene, working it, and then the bat starts taking passes at us. We let it go for a little bit. After a certain point, the audience was right out of the show.

LINDSAY: You stopped the show. I think you stopped the show!

CRAIG: Yes, right, that’s where I’m going.

LINDSAY: Totally! I forgot!

CRAIG: So, what you’re supposed to do in situations like that is just, you know, ignore it. But it had gotten so bad and the bat was also dive-bombing the audience. At a certain point, the audience was right out of the show and there really was no point in continuing with the scene because we were about to enter a really emotional section of the scene. And so, we needed to address the bat before we moved on with the play. You know, the show must go on but you also must try and preserve the integrity of the show somehow.

Luckily, we were still in the “funny part” of the scene and I just dead stopped and said, “I swear this is not part of the show,” which was great because the audience loved it. They laughed and applauded. What we did was we just took a short one or two-minute break. Well, it was the artistic director who was actually in the audience and he came and got rid of the bat. And then, we came back in and picked up a couple of lines before we stopped and went on and finished the show.

LINDSAY: You know, I think that’s an excellent point because we’ve had stories where they kept going, we’ve had stories where people have taken different tacks to things, but I really like the way you put that – that sometimes you have to preserve the integrity of the show.

CRAIG: Yeah. At some point, it comes down to a judgment call. You know, we knew the show well enough. We could have gotten through it but there’s also the aspect of the audience’s experience. At a certain point, you know, if the set falls down, at a certain point, you need to stop and put the set back – I mean, depending on what’s coming up.

LINDSAY: I seem to remember there, everyone went, “Whoa! Whoa!” So, no one was paying attention to you.

CRAIG: No. So, that’s a good thing to say. Sometimes, you do actually have to stop the show – just temporarily, to deal with whatever the issue is – and then move on. You know what? The audience loves it and everyone in that audience – except for Lindsay Price – clearly remembers having attended that show that evening. It’s just one of those unique experiences that we can only have in the theatre. I mean, that’s why I love theatre. Every single time you see a show, it’s a completely unique performance and, you know, usually, the shows aren’t that varied but it’s always a unique experience and interaction between the artist and the audience.

LINDSAY: Awesome. Thanks, Craig!

Thank you, Craig! Thank you, all!

It was a lot of fun recording these stories and I hope they were fun to listen to as well.

You know, theatre doesn’t always go perfectly. I think that’s half the reason we go to the theatre, right? It’s live and everyone onstage – and offstage – and in the audience, we are all human. That means that human things will happen and something at some point will go awry.

It’s also a great lesson in community and commitment. What do your student do when things go awry? Do they turn inward and just go, “Well, it’s not my job, I’m not going to do it. It’s somebody else’s line. I’m not saying anything. It’s somebody else’s line,” or do they help each other out? Do they work together to keep that show going on?

Before we go, let’s do some THEATREFOLK NEWS.

This is already long so I’m just going to give a little shout-out here to this podcast.

I love recording it and I love having the opportunity to share it and I love hearing from you when you tell me how much you listen to it. We’re 158 episodes strong so head on over to the main page of the podcast at theatrefolk.com/podcast and check out some of our other wonderful aural listenings or podcasts. I’m not sure why I changed the name there.

2016 has been a great year of interviews so far and I can’t wait for you to hear what’s coming next.

I’ll put the link to the podcast in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/158.

Finally, finally! Oh, no, that was not good. Finally, where, oh, where can you find this podcast? We post new episodes every second Tuesday at theatrefolk.com and on our Facebook page and Twitter. You can find us on youtube.com/theatrefolk and on the Stitcher app. You can subscribe to TFP on iTunes. All you have to do is search for the word: “Theatrefolk.”

And that’s where we’re going to end. Take care, my friends. Take care.

Music credit:”Ave” by Alex (feat. Morusque) is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

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