Lots of drinking… and some shrinking…

From Liz, Stage Management Intern

It’s really hard to eat while working 6-hour block rehearsals. We get 10 minute breaks and one 20 minute break. I usually spend most of those 10 minute breaks getting stuff ready for the next scene, washing prop glasses (there’s a lot of drinking in Betrayal), refilling prop liquor bottles, re-corking prop wine bottles (fun!), etc…

If I have something for lunch that I don’t have to cook or assemble, I usually have time to eat it on our longer breaks. I’m not really good at making quick lunches like that for myself (yeah, I know I just could make a sandwich…if I had bread…), so I usually end up eating room-temperature pre-packaged Indian food from Trader Joe’s, or lots of Clif Bars.

One actor in my show observed that throughout the entire show (which will probably be only a little over an hour long), he consumes 2 pints, several glasses of scotch, and an entire bottle of wine. He also commented that this is the most well-hydrated he’s been in a long time… right before he dashed off to the bathroom.

Our set is really cool, too. One wall moves downstage after every couple scenes, thus making the playing space smaller and smaller. Nothing like having an affair with your best friend’s wife in a shrinking room to help us all get our annual dose of awkwardness. Here are my wall position choices for Scene 10 of Betrayal (Pinter only wrote 9 scenes): The wall moves to the edge of the stage, thus pushing all of the characters to their deaths in the front row of the Leo K, or symbolically into hell. Adultery’s a bitch. OR the wall moves to the edge of the stage, thus squishing the characters between itself and the “fourth wall.” The second option allows for exhibition of the actors’ balance, mime skills, contortionism, and facial expressions heretofore only practiced in their bathroom mirrors at home. Moral of the story: be faithful to your spouses and loyal to your friends, or the very buildings themselves will exact revenge in a drastic act of karmic retribution.

I’m also excited about the looks in this play. Scenes are set in several years between 1968 and 1977, and as always, our costume designer is awesomely accurate with the period clothes… and period glasses… and period hair… What is it about a man with an overly long moustache wearing plastic glasses with a brow bar that either makes me think child molester or gay porn? Forgive my stereotyping. I think the current wig count for one actress is at 7. Sweet. Hair is fun… anyone for a 1970s hair-speriment party?