One down, four to go
“Enter Laughing” begins with my character, Mr. Foreman, alone on stage, and the first thing that happens is I receive a telephone call.
At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen.
Tonight, I was tinkering with the lone machine in my machine shop, waiting for the phone to ring. The telephone ringer had only been set up on Thursday, and apparently tonight there were problems with it. I waited what I thought was a reasonable amount of time, pretending to tinker with the machine, and then I weighed my options. Finally, I just answered the phone as if it had rung, and moved on with the scene.
A few moments later, the phone was supposed to ring again, and it did — right on cue. But then in a later scene, it was also nowhere to be heard. In that case, our lead actor, Ben Reeves, covered beautifully. He came up with an excuse to make the call instead of receiving it. (That particular gambit would not have worked in my case, since I didn’t know the person who was supposedly calling me.)
In retrospect, I might have started making a call, picked up the phone and then been “surprised” to find someone already on the line. But hindsight is always 20/20.
Other than that, tonight’s performance went swimmingly. The crowd wasn’t huge but it was appreciative. (Many of Community Playhouse’s season ticket holders opt for opening night tickets, so the opening night crowds tend to be savvy and drama-friendly.) Ben Reeves, who is in every scene and is on stage for almost the entire play, nailed his performance. He has grown so much since our first rehearsals. I knew Ben was in high school but I didn’t realize until tonight that he was only 16. (He’s the tallest person in the cast by far.) His mother, my co-worker Mary Reeves, and his father and younger brother were justifiably proud.
Everyone else in the cast was terrific tonight as well. I waited in the wings during some scenes when I could have slipped away backstage just because I wanted to hear the performances and revel in the crowd’s laughter.
There were a few senior citizens from Shelbyville there who knew me, but no one I could really count as friends or family. Just as well — I wolfed down a plate at the opening-night reception and then headed on home. It’s been a long, busy and stressful week, for a number of reasons, only some of which I’ve been able to discuss here. The past few days, I’ve had to get up earlier than normal because of my editor’s illness, and then I’ve been staying up late with rehearsals every night. I’m tired, and thankfully I will get to sleep in tomorrow.
We have performances tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon. Then we have Friday and Saturday performances next weekend. I should have several friends and family in attendance tomorrow night, and I hope we can give them another performance like the one we gave tonight.
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Trace Sharp
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