Oklahoma! wasn't 'OK' for a few minutes last night. We were at the Bloomington Civic Theater, a suburban community theater we'd never been to before. It was the smokehouse scene, just a little before intermission, and there was a fog machine going and the actors playing Curly and Jud were sparring -- when suddenly alarms started going off and the auditorium lights came on and the actors looked at each other and the audience with a look that said, "What do we do now? Keep acting?"
The ushers made everybody, including actors and orchestra members, leave the building until the fire department and the police arrived -- alarms and sirens sounding everywhere. We mingled for a while with the very-suburban audience outdoors (oh, what a beautiful evening!) until they gave us the 'OK' and we went back in to our seats and Curly and Jud started the scene again, this time with no fog machine to disturb the overly-sensitive smoke detectors.
In the end, Oklahoma! is still Oklahoma! and how much can you do with it?, but I was impressed with this particular performance, despite the extra intermission. I like the idea of community theater companies, and we should be at least occasionally supportive. We'll venture to some of the other theater companies out there in the burbs.
3 comments:
sounds like fun. I'm sure it was a heck of a lot better than the Oklahoma! I was in, not that that is hard to do.
Ruthie, what was your role?.. I should have taken you!
LOL, I was just an old town person in a country looking dress dancing like an idiot square dancing style(not that anyone can imagine me on a stage dancing at all). It was the worst play due to terrible casting (with 1 or 2 exceptions), terrible choreography, and possibly up for worst MHS musical ever performed! I enjoyed it though. Bye Bye Birdie would likely be up there too for one of the worst ever, or at least worst set design. I at least got to be an angry parent in that one so it was a lot more fun to play and true to my character. LOL
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