Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Missing Gun

The theatre is an exciting place because every production is different. For one thing, a small error may alter the evening's entertainment in ways the playwright never imagined.

This story, told to me by a friend over coffee, shows what can happen behind the scenes, without the audience ever knowing the difference.

On opening night, Dorothy was excited. She sat through Act I, by turns nervous and enthralled to witness the play she had co-written come to life as a completed artistic vision. As the audience applauded at the end of Act I, she relaxed a little.

At the beginning of Act II, something went wrong. In horrified fascination, my friend watched the waving hand of the actor as he delivered his lines, aware that an essential prop was missing. The gun he was supposed to be brandishing was nowhere in sight.

Hardly daring to breathe, my playwright friend sat rooted to her seat. And the show went on, as it must. The actors improvised as best they could to cover the blooper.

At the end, the audience applauded as Dorothy exhaled in relief. The next day's review was positive, saying only that the second act had been a bit slow to get off the ground.

This story struck me as a metaphor for life. We put an inordinate amount of attention on what goes wrong, while on the whole, things are moving along just fine.

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