Wednesday
It's not typical for a high school play, even a musical, to sell out one performance, let alone its entire run. We did one or two sold-out nights with Man of La Mancha the year before, and I don't think we sold out a one for Bye Bye Birdie my sophomore year. And yet we did with West Side Story. That was a great feeling.
As I've mentioned before, I played Doc. Since my hair was pretty long at the time -- brushing my shoulders, almost -- that meant I had to get a haircut to look the part. So did Jonathan ("Towny"), who had a laid-down mohawk at the time. We both put it off as long as possible, but this was the day the length had to go. So to say goodbye to our long hair, I bought a can of Aquanet and we both sprayed our hair straight up during our third hour open period. I had to hang my head upside down while Towny sprayed mine. He put his head at the edge of a cafeteria table so I could spray his mohawk on one side, wait for it to dry, then spray the other. We left a fan of hairspray residue on the table; I feel bad for whoever ate there during lunch.
The long self-pitying quote was by Lisa, one of the theatre regulars. She played Anybodys in WSS, an orphan kid who isn't claimed by either gang. At the time, I wasn't sure if she was writing in character or not. With distance, I think she was probably writing as herself. Like so many of us in high school, she was awkward and self-conscious; maybe it was just closer to the surface for her, or a more constant state. She certainly had friends (though I dunno, maybe she was fighting with them at the time).
Apparently the crucifix in the Maria's room set belonged to the mother of Mr. Deignan, the theater tech teacher and set designer. Funny that he was so proud.
Thursday
Performance week was such a marathon. Each night we did a 7:30pm performance, but on Thursday and Friday we did matinees, too. That 7:30am call was a tough one the morning after opening night. And for the middle schoolers to be rude on top of it really pissed us off. Thankfully, Mr. Faust told the middle school teachers just how disappointed we all were.
Rob H., one of the only black kids at my school (we had minorities, but they were mostly Latino or Asian), played a policeman in the show (Officer Krupke's right hand man). Unfortunately, his costume emphasized his, uh, package. Noticeably. It was the comedic talk of the night.
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