Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcc3.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcc3!co20waz From: co20waz@sdcc3.UUCP (Bruce Jones) Newsgroups: net.misc,net.theater Subject: Re: Theatrical anecdotes Message-ID: <2518@sdcc3.UUCP> Date: Tue, 4-Dec-84 22:11:29 EST Article-I.D.: sdcc3.2518 Posted: Tue Dec 4 22:11:29 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 05:15:34 EST References: <> <1930@nsc.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: U.C. San Diego, Academic Computer Center Lines: 60 Xref: watmath net.misc:7078 net.theater:7 > In article <225@ssc-vax.UUCP> adolph@ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark Adolph) writes: > > > >This is another unsubtle attempt to get a net.theatre started. > > Alas, they've started net.theater instead. > > >I'd like to > >hear from all of you theater people your most amusing theatrical anecdote. > > I have a lot of candidates. Like the time Joe Spano was playing Duke Mantee > in "The Petrified Forest" at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre". At a certain > point he slammed his fist on the table and the table fell off the edge of the > stage into the audience. It was someone else's turn to speak, and somehow they > managed to pull it off. By the way, that show was the first thing Joe Spano > did that was any good. Now he's a big TV star. > > Last night I attended a performance of Harold Pinter's "Old Times" at > San Francisco's ACT. After the show, the cast spent about a half hour > discussing the play with the audience. Barbara Dirickson (Kate) told an > amusing story about some of the things they hear the audience say during the > exceptionally long pauses that Pinter writes into the script. At one point > she is lying on the floor, stage front, no one is speaking, and someone in > the front row turns to her companion and says "I don't know how much more > of this shit I can listen to." Or, during another pause, someone in the > balcony remarked "Do you think they've forgotten their lines?" > > Last week I attended a performance of Simon Gray's "Otherwise Engaged" at > the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. There are some extrememly funny lines in > that play, especially in the first act, before it gets "heavy". The principal > character, named Simon, is discussing with his brother the brother's recent > interview for assistant headmaster of his school. The brother describes > an excruciatingly embarrassing moment. "I did something I haven't done since > I was twelve. (Long discussion of details of the interview) As I bent forward > to hear what he said, I farted." Pregnant pause. Simon: "You haven't farted > since you were twelve?" Or, earlier, when Simon tells his brother that he's > expecting a certain visitor -- a critic. The brother recalls one of Simon's > dinner parties fourteen years earlier when he had an encounter with this > critic. The critic had been drunk and had made comments to the effect that > school teachers of a certain category (to which the brother belonged) were > all latent pederasts. The brother had confronted the critic later, as they > were leaving, and had almost threatened violence. The brother has kept this > incident alive in his memory, constantly dwelling on it. Then, before the > brother can leave, the critic arrives. Of course, he doesn't remember the > brother or the incident. He learns that the brother is a teacher of the > given category and begins to make remarks. The brother tries to confront > him with the former incident and at one point says dramatically, "I'm the > latent pederast!" Pregnant pause. The critic replies "Oh, then you're in > the right job!" Oh, well. It's very funny on stage. > -- > Richard Mateosian > {cbosgd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!srm nsc!srm@decwrl.ARPA *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** More Anecdotes A friend of mine, who is a stage hand in San Diego, told me about a Passion Play staged in Old Town some years ago. It seems that the actor who was to stab Christ with a spear had failed to notice that the spear he was holding didn't have a rubber point, instead it was tipped in steel (not sharp). When jabbbed, the guy on the cross hollered "Jesus Christ, I've been stabbed!"