This is David Fetzer, reporting on behalf of SLAC regarding the show "Boom." They cast me as the character "Jules," because "Jules" is a misguided youth, a homosexual, clean-shaven, and has a limp. For those of you who haven't seen me in other SLAC productions, I generally play characters who are misguided youths, gay, clean-shaven, and with limps. To stave off any misconceptions, I myself am fairly grounded, physically dexterous, mostly heterosexual (David Bowie does something for me sometimes, though), and capable of growing a full, fine, thick beard. I promise. I went through puberty. I'm almost thirty years old. I just... I just want you all to know that I have the capacity to grow facial hair. They won't let me at SLAC. But in all other contexts of my life, it's allowed, and it happens. There are witnesses. Just ask people.
Anyhow, I was considering from which perspective to write about our show, and now I've decided that I just want to tell you about our performance tonight. It was a little case study of Murphy's Law.
So there's this one scene where the delightful Emily Burnworth (playing "Jo") implores my character to assist her in a plastic-bag-suffocation suicide. She accompanies this plea with the physical action of grabbing a bag on the stage and pantomiming what exactly she wants my character to do ("Hold the bag over my head, pull it tight, and don't let go."). In rehearsals, many times, it's been the case that the plastic bag she reaches for is not always where it should normally be, so our solution was to overcompensate by pre-setting about 400 bags in different parts of the stage, so that there would ALWAYS be one to grab for. Tonight, however, even with 400 preset plastic bags, there were none immediately conspicuous. But there were plenty of diapers and tampons strewn about the stage (you'll have to see the show to understand), so Emily covered by grabbing a diaper, holding it over her mouth, and saying "Here, just hold this diaper over my mouth and nose and don't let go." Fortunately, in the moment, it was justifiable for my character to laugh, which I definitely did. But later... There are several instances when "Barbara", played by the delightful Holly Fowers, pulls a lever which literally freezes mine and Emily's characters in place. And it was during one of these freezes, where one's mind tends to wander, that I recalled the diaper incident, and just broke. I had to turn my head upstage and stifle my laughter. This, of course, prompted Emily to do the same, and although we may delude ourselves that it was mostly unnoticeable, meh... doubtful. There was just no way of controlling it. It's an involuntary biological function. Your entire being doesn't want to smile or laugh, but, you just do. Impossible to control.
Other unplanned stuff happened in the performance tonight, too, but I'm getting insecure about the length of this blog entry, so I'm going to draw it to a close. But I just want to tie it all together by saying that this is part of why I love the theatre. It's live. It's dangerous. Shit can go wrong. And it does. And when it's not totally demoralizing, it's usually pretty funny. And fun. "Boom" has been both of those things for me (funny and fun, not demoralizing (I don't think)), from start, and I anticipate, to finish. So come see it if you haven't. You might be lucky enough to catch me fuck something up. And then you can feel better about yourself. Although, competent or no, everybody, I CAN grow a beard. A really thick one.
boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb plays Wednesdays-Saturdays @ 7:30 pm, Sundays @ 2 pm & 7 pm until December 5th. Tickets available online or by calling the Box Office 801.363.7522.
