A Day In the Life

Week 12: Jacksonville, FL


A very nice fan from Hershey wrote me and asked if I would give a description of the actual day to day workings of the production of "Spamalot" and to explain some of the terms and things that I refer to in this blog. I thought it was a lovely invitation to share with you a little about the day to day of being in this tour.

On Monday, we travel to our next city. This week a large portion of the company took a flight from Nashville to Jacksonville, some company members drove themselves down. When we arrive in the city, we get our transportation together (here in Florida there are shared rental cars) and we go check into our housing. Our company managers provide us with two options for hotels or efficiencies in each city--these are laid out for us on an offering sheet called a "greenie," because it's printed on green paper. Some company members choose to find their own housing, perhaps sharing an apartment or house with several others; some stay with friends or family in a given city. This week I have a very nice studio efficiency and am carpooling into Jacksonville for the gym and work with another actor. Our assistant company manager Jeff is a whiz at getting us free access to gyms in the towns where we work, and believe me when I say, it's a necessity that we stay in shape. It's a great benefit to working on this tour.



Tuesday, 5:30PM

We report two hours before the opening performance for sound check. While the orchestra rehearses, we all gather for a company meeting where our production stage manager, Ken, tells us about the facility, what if any understudies will be performing during the week, and other business to aid us all in adjusting to the theatre and the space. After the meeting we go on stage for sound check. Each performer in "Spamalot" wears a microphone. Those of us in principal roles wear two. These mikes are small and flesh colored and usually sit on one side or the other of the forehead, with a cord that is pinned to the hair and runs down the back of the neck to a mike pack which holds the battery and transmitter, and is held in place in an elastic belt. This cord is then covered by our wig caps (a nylon cap that covers the hair) and then the wig goes on over that. At sound check we just pin our mikes on and run through a handful of musical numbers, especially group numbers, both to rehearse with the orchestra and for the sound technician to get the right balance of all our voices through the system and with the acoustics of the particular theatre.



After soundcheck is done the first night, we don't do it again, and simply come in for our 7:30 half hour call. On Tuesday, some go and get a bite to eat or warm up prior to half hour. At half hour we receive the call over the intercom. Usually at half hour people start makeup, do some vocal warmups, and generally get prepared for the show. On opening night in each city we also meet our dressers. A dresser is someone who works with the wardrobe crew and assists the performers in getting in and out of their many costumes. There are dressers assigned to the ensemble men and women and also to the principals. I share a dresser with Brad Bradley, who plays Patsy in the show. Dressers are indispensable! They make it possible for us to do lightning fast changes of costume and character. They also make sure we have water backstage when we need it and other small things that make a big difference to our performances. Not only that, they do our laundry! That's a lot of sweaty tights!

At the 15 minute call, my hairdresser Suzanne comes in with my wigs and puts me into my first one. She pins it into my wig cap, which is pinned into place using little springs that get clipped into my own hair. All the wigs (there are 88 of them in the show) are made of human hair and the hairlines of each are hooked into flesh colored transparent netting or "lace." These hairlines are based on tracings of our own hairlines so that when we put the wig on the hair appears to be growing out of our own heads! We have three amazing hair and makeup people who travel with the show and we always have another hairdresser in each city who assists in the hair department.

We get a five minute call and then a "places" call at which point all of us who will be in the opening portion of the show go and get into our starting positions back stage. The last few moments before the overture, we stretch and chat a little, get our props etc. I get up into my place during the overture. It is a small platform with a cushioned piece for me to kneel on behind the high window of the portal tower stage right (stage directions are always from the actor's perspective). So I climb a ladder and kneel there during the opening number, watching the "Finland" extravaganza. Then when the scene changes, I crouch down and the window is opened by a stagehand. And at the appropriate cue, I pop up in the window: "Hallo? Who goes there?" and my show is off and running.


I hope that gives you a little taste of back stage. More on the workings of the show in a later entry. We opened tonight in Jacksonville at the Times Union Center, a huge modern facility with 3000 seats. It was a little challenging to do the show in such a huge space. The audience seems (and is) so far away from us! Jacksonville is all reflective towers and modern architecture, and it feels very clean and very Florida. We met our new King, Gary Beach, today. I don't know if any of you have ever gotten to work with someone you greatly admire, but I am just thrilled to work with Gary. He is someone who is the kind of comic actor I would aspire to be, and who has given some incredible performances on Broadway, most notably of late as flamboyant director Roger DeBris in "The Producers" and as star of the revival of "La Cage Aux Folles." As a fan of his work it is so fantastic to have this opportunity to share the stage with him. He is in rehearsals this week and we will get to join him in rehearsal later this week. Well, I am a bit bushed so I will sign off for now. More later from sunny Florida.