Things actually went reasonably smoothly for opening night of “Man of La Mancha.” I’d say the venue was about 3/4 full, which isn’t bad at all. My castmates did a great job, with high energy and everyone on top of their cues. We had a few mishaps with microphones, but they were easily fixed on the fly.
The one heart-stopping moment came toward the very end. A stairway/bridge is supposed to lower as Cervantes and his servant (me) are summoned to the Inquisition. But the bridge only came 3/4 of the way down (the mechanism got hung up on one of the side curtains.) I was supposed to make my exit up the bridge, but it was dangling a foot above the stage. I could have just walked around it and exited off to the side, but that would have broken the illusion. On the other hand, if I stepped on the bridge and forced it down, I was worried I could shatter the entire mechanism. Opting to maintain the illusion, I walked forward carefully, placed my foot on the bottom step and pushed down as hard as I could. It slammed the bridge down to the floor and I was able to walk up it. I didn’t hear any accompanying breaking noise, so I’m hoping I didn’t break the stairs.
Ah, the excitement of live theater.
Howard Margolin was in attendance. Hopefully other web denizens will be able to make it.
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