# Opening Night Crisis



## Misha (Feb 8, 2007)

I was doing a production of Urinetown and it was opening night...we were all excited...about 5 mins before the places call one of the ushers comes into the green room (which is where all the tech's were...the actors were in the dressing rooms) and tell us all he needs pillows...we all kinda look at him funny and he says "some old lady fell down the stairs and says she broke her hip" great...so we delay the show 15 mins so she can get out of the theatre and get to the hospital..

intermission comes...i have to move some stuff offstage...and i have to revolve the well...revolve..we had scfolding on the revolve and one off the revolve...as it is going around the staris on the revolve catch on the scf. off the revolve and crack...so im doing that...intermission get delayed ...

durring the show we lost signal for 6 of the wireless mics...someone tapped theirs really loudly, almost breaking it. the band moniters stop working and many other things


to top off my long story...the lady is now sueing our theatre...


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## u_dakka (Feb 8, 2007)

Ouch man, tough break. I hate the litigation culture - wtf happened to accidents??

andy


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## Chris15 (Feb 8, 2007)

u_dakka said:


> I hate the litigation culture - wtf happened to accidents??



Down here we blame that trend on the States, but I have to agree I wish that it were not so...


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## Footer (Feb 8, 2007)

Well, if there was a reason that the fall occurred (no railings, slippery surface, etc...) then the suit is valid, if not then its not. Anytime any injury occurs that cost alot to repair, pain and suffering... etc the insurance company of the injured almost always pushes for a lawsuit. Better make sure your building was up to code, and if it wasn't, then the facility is liable. This is also why liability insurance is carried.


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## Misha (Feb 8, 2007)

the building is up to code...its a college theatre...the lady just slipped


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## Footer (Feb 8, 2007)

Misha said:


> the building is up to code...its a college theatre...the lady just slipped



Wouldn't worry about it then, it'll settle out of court, if it goes at all.


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## Too_Tall (Feb 8, 2007)

i hope our opening of Urinetown on the 22nd goes better.


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## Misha (Feb 9, 2007)

it most likely will...we just have stupid old people who fall down stairs!


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## Footer (Feb 9, 2007)

Misha said:


> it most likely will...we just have stupid old people who fall down stairs!



Don't forget, one of the reasons that most regional theatre are around is old people. Can't tell you how many shows I have done where the theatre is filled with red hats, or full of old people that just got off a tour bus. Old people buy and keep buying subscriptions, and if they really like the theatre there is always the possibility of an estate....


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## Van (Feb 9, 2007)

Footer4321 said:


> Don't forget, one of the reasons that most regional theatre are around is old people. Can't tell you how many shows I have done where the theatre is filled with red hats, or full of old people that just got off a tour bus. Old people buy and keep buying subscriptions, and if they really like the theatre there is always the possibility of an estate....


 
Sunday matinee', There's nothing like looing out of the booth window and seeing a "sea of blue". Sometimes it's a "sea of grey".


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## Footer (Feb 9, 2007)

Van said:


> Sunday matinee', There's nothing like looing out of the booth window and seeing a "sea of blue". Sometimes it's a "sea of grey".



Don't forget that smell, and the 900 miles lines at intermission.


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## punktech (Feb 10, 2007)

never in my life have i seen a person under 50 in the audience of a sunday matinee...this is includes when i was acting when i was a kid, so this covers quite a span of years...


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## Van (Feb 10, 2007)

Footer4321 said:


> Don't forget that smell, and the 900 miles lines at intermission.


And the running out of assisted listening devices in the box office


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## Misha (Feb 11, 2007)

thats surpising...we got so many younger people...about 3/4 of the audience...

and our sunday mat. was full of youngins....mostly family and friends...hardly any older people


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## Van (Feb 11, 2007)

Misha said:


> thats surpising...we got so many younger people...about 3/4 of the audience...
> 
> and our sunday mat. was full of youngins....mostly family and friends...hardly any older people


 
Is this at school ? If so that's why. In Pro theatre, and community theatre, your sunday matinee's are invariably over 65 on average. Sometimes it seems they're over 90 on average.


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## Misha (Feb 12, 2007)

community theatre renting out a college theatre


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## icewolf08 (Feb 14, 2007)

It seems like the average Sunday Matinee age is deceased.


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## drawstuf99 (Feb 21, 2007)

Hahaha...funny icewolf.

At our community theatre we've had to hold house a little bit on matinees to let all the old people sit down--literally.

Nothing like the old people though-they support theatre so much it's crazy. Those subscriptions and donations are what practically makes theatre in some of our venues here.


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## LDtheLD (Feb 21, 2007)

Our summer repertory theatre audience here is always, literally, 99% elderly people. It is kept alive by the old folks. Which is a scary thought when one realizes those people won't be around forever. The younger kids just don't care about theatre and we can't seem to get them to care. 
(The audience during our school year season is always students from the Creative Arts class who are forced to come to the shows and write a paper on them, and spend the whole time sleeping or texting on their phones.  )


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## brendonb11 (Feb 22, 2007)

It's a shame that the only time "kids" come to theatre is because a class forces them to. They don't know what they have until they lose it. Culture :-(


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## LDtheLD (Feb 22, 2007)

No kidding, I find it incredibly sad (and infuriating.)


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## Cooze (Mar 7, 2007)

Maybe someone said the dreaded M word before your show to make all those bad things, the other day, one of our actresses said it and poof the curtain breaks, lovley huh! luckily it was a rehearsal and we had 2 days to cut out all the curtain cues and replace it with entertaining scene changes with period music.


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## jonhirsh (Mar 7, 2007)

Matinees = nap time for the audiance. 

JH


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## ricc0luke (Mar 7, 2007)

the long lines of old ladies for bathroom- which only had 2 tiny stalls- (at EVERY SHOW)

then they put on a $50,000 addition that was nothing but a ladies bathroom.


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## bcfcst4 (Mar 19, 2007)

Being a High School, most of our matinee's are full of itty bitty kids, especially when we did Cinderella (i had a mother come up to me while i was working doors telling me she lost her kid, most terrifying three mintues of my life (the kid ran up crying)). We usually only do matinee's for our musicals, but once we did one for our drama, To Gillian on her 37th Birthday, and every person in the company literally was calling everyone they knew to see if they could come to the show. The audience i believe was under 20 people, and even though it was a black box, there were still tons of open seats.


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