"Inherit the Wind" is gone with the wind (sorry--couldn't resist)

Yesterday was the last run of "Inherit the Wind." While Saturday night's audience was FABulous--getting all the jokes, laughing out loud, applauding when the desire hit them--the final audience was a bit dead. They didn't laugh much at all, and only applauded at a few scene changes--but then one lady told the actors on the way out that she wanted to applaud several times, but felt funny about it--afraid she would be the only one. What a shame. Anyway, it was a good show, in spite of all the mishaps along the way. Yesterday had a large number of problems, but in general the show had some challenges to face. Yesterday, Tom went in really early to repair the headset that had broken the night before and try to trace the feedback that was piercing the Stage Manager and light operator's eardrums during the show. When I got there 2 1/2 hours later, he was still struggling with the headset. Then Katie (Damron, Executive Director Emeritus) came to him with another problem--someone had pushed in the button on the file cabinet that locks it--and they have no key! Ten minutes before the doors open, and the box office has no cash. Tom solved that problem, and fixed the headsets. Meanwhile, no one for the box office has shown up, and only one usher. When one woman for the box office arrives, Katie greeted her with 'You're late!' This did not make this particular volunteer very happy. We pulled another usher from the cast and another box office lady showed up eventually. Whew!

This play was hard to do in the first place--it requires a lot of men, and all you theater peoplpe know that getting a LOT of men in one cast is difficult. Women are not so difficult to cast, but getting that many men with the time and inclination is a challenge. Katie beat the bushes, called in quite a few favors and bullied at least one jury member into it.

The rest of the play, we dealt with lots of sickness among the cast. One of the leads was diagnosed with pneumonia, another ran a high fever for several days in a row. A fair number of the cast got sick through the run, although the sickies managed to be sick on 'off' days. One cast member's job moved to Charleston, and he was told report or lose the job, so he quit after one performance. But the show went on and people who saw it really seemed to enjoy it.

Tom spent the Cast Party time on stage, striking as much of the set as he could since he will not be able to go in again for about a week. I went back and forth--I didn't think I would enjoy the cast party much, since we really hadn't gotten to know many members of the cast this time...but it was fun. They do gag gifts here--this time only the actors were included. In smaller shows, they include the crew, but not this time. Some of the things people come up with are really clever--it's fun to watch. The food was pretty good, too.