Flying monkeys, Winkies and Pregnant Nuns, OH MY!

My goodness, it's been awhile.

As my job goes, I have been working near the sixty-hour-a-week mark for over a month now, but things have finally come to a halt for the time being. We at American Musical Theatre of San Jose just finished a rough build of "The Wizard of Oz." If I see another Winkie, Munchkin, Jitterbug or Flying Monkey I'm gonna chaunch.

This experience has been full of stories, I must admit. On first dress, the Wicked Witch of the West went flying out from house left and then taking a dramatic spill into the wall, breaking the molding, sending it bouncing into the seats, almost hitting my co-workers. Fortunately, this was only a dress rehearsal, so not many people were sitting in the audience, so no one was hurt. Then we had a flying monkey with a much too tight costume split the ass out of his pants while in midair. Assless monkeys exist in reality, but onstage it's a rather unfortunate sighting...much like assless chaps. Not pretty.

The best creativity in theatre arts comes to us when we screw up or are faced with special circumstances. Another co-worker of mine told me a story the other day about when they built "The Sound of Music" and their Maria turned out to be pregnant. She was honest about her pregnancy, but the stage manager, a man, misunderstood her and thought she said she was five weeks pregnant. She was actually five MONTHS pregnant. A pregnant nun. That is the ultimate special circumstance in costume building.

Now that my life is somewhat normal for a few weeks, I promise to catch up with friends, grocery shopping and a normal eating and sleeping schedule, away from the land of Oz.