Momen Thinks

So yesterday was kinda drama filled at that Shaw Festival.  On Friday, Thom Marriott, whom I understudy, came into our matinee feeling very sick and told me to get ready for a possible performance tomorrow.  I was obviously excited/scared/really scared.  He also told me that his wife Claire, who plays the title character in The Stepmother is feeling worse than he is.  Anyways, the matinee goes on Friday and Thom does exceptional, as expected, under his condition.  I love watching this guy, he’s immensely talented and makes it seem every night that he is doing it for the first time.

Saturday comes and in comes Claire to rehearsal for After The Dance.  She was too put it mildly…crazy ill.  Christopher Newton arranged rehearsal so that she could go home and rest before her performance of Stepmother.  To make a long story short, Claire calls Marla McLean at 6:50 pm saying she can’t go on.  Thus began the crazy shuffle.  There was a debate as to what was going to happen?  Stepmother had their understudy line run on Thursday and there wasn’t a blocking rehearsal yet.  Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell was posed with a problem.  Should she do the show with actors who are unfamiliar with blocking, should she stage a reading of the show, of should she just call the show off.  After examining her options, she unfortunately, and rightly felt that the best course of action would be to call the show off.  

It’s always sad when something like that happens and makes you realize just how different my line of work is.  At any other job you could call in sick no problem.  It also reminds you that you need to be ready as you never know exactly what may happen.