break a lute

This afternoon, about an hour before our opening performance for the Christmas show, a lute got broken backstage. This was bad because (1) lutes cost a lot of money and (2) a *lot* of songs in the show depend on that lute.

Someone found a replacement lute, but it was too late to placate the theater gods. During the matinee, the lights blew out not once, not twice, but four times. Four. This is not some podunk theater, my friends. This is Lisner Auditorium. It seats 1400 people. It hosts major traveling acts. And the lights blew again. And again. And again.

The first couple of times it almost worked. The first was late in a scene where we all die - I'm the first to die and I was flat on my back in the balcony looking up when the lights went out and thought, "whoa, new light cue!" but then the house lights came on and the work lights came on, and I realized it was not, in fact, planned...but we might have fooled the audience.

Then in the second half they blew again. This time it was right in the middle of this really slow, melodious, dull round, and...well, the round just kept going until the lights came back on. This was fine, though, because audiences love singing this song.

But then it happened twice during the mummers' play. I think by now the audience was pretty much onto this not being planned, but we just forged ahead. What the hey. It's Revels. In the fight scene with St. George, the dragon ad-libbed something about how St. George couldn't stop fighting just because the lights went out.

In the lobby after the show, every audience member I talked to was practically exploding with delight. Lights or no lights, we are putting on a darn good show. (They fixed the overheating piece of equipment between today's shows.) On stage through December 16th!!