Live theatre is visceral, in your face, immediate. It is also a breeding ground for mistakes and embarrassing moments. As an adult, I am pretty flexible and able to deal with these mishaps. When I was in high school, I was not so self-assured. My senior production of Guys and Dolls was almost my undoing.
I was so proud to get the part of Adelaide, the long-suffering fiancé of Nathan Detroit. It was a belty part, and frankly, I was stealing the show. My comedic timing and accent were the hit in our small community and I even did some physicalization, changing my hair, my walk, my hand movements. These were unheard of in my high school, and especially for me. I loved the theatre where I could take on a persona so unlike my own.
Adelaide was on in many scenes and had a dozen costume changes. The most challenging part as a 16 year old, however, was the “Take Back Your Mink” song. I had to do a strip-tease and then walk around in lingerie for the remainder of the song. By dress rehearsal, I was confident, though, having practiced the costume changes at least a dozen times.
In our final dress, all my guy friends were in the audience—the strip tease was their favorite part of the show. No worries. I was particularly flirty that day, with only them in the audience. They were hootin’ and hollerin’, all of it encouragement to the girls that were on the stage, actually. The dance was great, but half way through, I would rip off my tearaway long red gown to a red lace camisole and slip, discrete, but sexy..
I was strutting my stuff, flipped off the pearls, the hat, sexily removing my long gloves. Then stood center stage to rip off the gown. I grabbed the side ripped it off and all of the cat calling stopped immediately. I kept singing, a little less sure, and then it built back up to a crescendo with stomping and yelling. I ended the song in my usual pose on top of the piano to great applause.
Grabbing the dress, etc., I rushed off stage to dress for my next scene. My director was waiting back stage for me.
“Don’t ever pull that again!” she yelled. “The show will get shut down,”
“What?” I replied confusedly, rushing to the dressing room to change. She followed.
“Wear the slip, LaDonna, this is a high school show”. “What??” I repeated? And looked down at my teddy. Well, where my teddy should have been. In the rush for the previous scene, I had missed some of the undergarments. I had just stripped down to a black bra, panties with garter belt, and character shoes with high black heels. I gasped and looked over at her mortified. “oh my god” I whispered.
I was very conservative in high school about my dress, was quite the preppie, and I had just done a burlesque show for 6 of my friends, and my boyfriend, in the gym of the school. The custodians had also all stopped in to watch my song. I didn’t think I could leave the dressing room. I really didn’t. My director quickly recognized my panic and also realized I was not going to ever leave that room again! She personally helped me into my next costume, reassuring me that it was fine, not a big deal, surely no one even noticed. ….right.
I made it through the next scenes until the end of the rehearsal and tried to run to my car to avoid my friends. No such luck. They all knew it was a mistake but relished in it. They were surrounding my truck when I went outside. The catcalls began. I raised my head and walked towards them as if I knew what had happened.
“Like the show guys? “ I asked huskily.
“yeah”…a few said….confused.
“Well, I had to do something to liven up the rehearsal!” I said as I climbed into my truck, slowly pulling away.
They all stood there, dumbfounded, wondering if it was really me playing a joke on them.
I went home and cried and it took everything in me to finish that production. My friends still talk about it, and I only recently told them it was a mistake and how very very horrifying it was. They were shocked!
