Seeing that theater disaster improv post again just makes me think of Nightmare, which is all improv and can have a whole lot of potential weirdness happen by nature of how and where itās built. Apparently one night a whole ass deer walked INTO my hunterās cabin set building to check things out during the run of the show and the poor confused actors in there radioed for assistance becauseĀ āWHAT DO WE DO ITāS AN ENTIRE DEER?????ā
Casting shot back to them,Ā āWell, youāre a hunter. What do you THINK you should be doing?āĀ
This year I was working in the clown surgery playground set when the power went out. Now, we are built in the literal woods with all the hazards that come with that, so if the lights are out when they shouldnāt be, itās dangerous for patrons to keep moving through, so as actors we are instructed to grab a flashlight, shine it on the ground, and stop the patrons from moving forward until ops can get the lights back on. All while staying in character, of course. Which can get tough when people think youāre just doing a bit and not actually trying to get them to stay where they are for safety reasons.
The two high schoolers in set with me that night have no idea what to do, one of them wonāt stop lifting the flashlight up and keeps shining it in peopleās faces. But weāre doctors and clowns so I just yell āIāM GONNA HAVE TO SURGICALLY REMOVE MY EYES PLEASE SHINE THAT ON THE GROUNDā several times, bc they kept forgetting and lifting it up again
And while Iām radioing for assistance, I also have to keep telling the patrons to Hold The Fuck Up, insisting thatĀ āWe do our BEST doctoring when we can see what weāre doing and you REALLY want to wait until the lights are on because we donāt want AAAAAAANY malpractice suits in here.ā A couple of them werenāt buying it and shoved past us anyway and we canāt really do anything about that except hope that they donāt fall into a ditch and that the next set is able to stop them. As they ran away into the dark I reassured them thatĀ āIf you break a leg cause you didnāt listen to us, at least youāre RIGHT BY a CERTIFIED doctorās office! Weāll patch you riiiiight up! :)ā
