Entrances

Our production of Pride & Prejudice has been going well. Attendance was thin on Thursday, but it was sold out on Friday, and I expect another big crowd tonight. The audience has liked the show, and giving us a fair amount of laughter as we play.

And then I will be done playing Mr. Bennet, a role I have enjoyed a lot. He's ironic, witty, and loves his children. Why wouldn't I like him?

The real drivers of the play are of course the young people. This adaptation sometimes feels like an ensemble piece, but the core remains the story of Elizabeth's romance with Darcy.

This production has a cast of 20 or so and a multitude of entrances and exits. For example, I have something like 20 entrances myself. Anyway, it can get confusing, and last night we had a case of one missed entrance causing another.

Basically, 2 actors weren't on stage who should have been. So they didn't say their lines. The good news was that the missed lines were not critical to developing the story. The bad news was that the next actor to enter didn't hear the lines she was waiting for, so she didn't come in either!

I was sitting on stage, "reading a book", with another daughter "reading a book", and "Elizabeth" standing silently. I realized this couldn't go on, so I said to Elizabeth, something like: "Didn't so-and-so say she was coming in to join us? Could you see where she is?" I spoke with a booming voice.

I think the audience knew what I was doing, because some people laughed; and the missing actress almost immediately appeared, because she heard me and realized she was wanted on stage after all.

A line in a play is like a domino,
carefully set to make the next one go.