Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Entering Elphaba's World

Hubby & I were invited to tour our performing arts center, as a little thank you for being partners. We RSVP'ed for last night with the hopes that I wouldn't be too exhausted after clinicals to go. Then clinicals got cancelled for yesterday, so the hope became "please don't be too swamped in homework to go." 

I thought it would be cool to see the stage and everything when no one else is in the building, but it wasn't exactly something I was super excited to do. Lo & behold, I got my homework done & I was looking forward to a night out. When we got there, we got a huge surprise as they told us that we were getting a very special tour because the man who deals directly with every show was there & giving us a tour no one else has ever gotten. We were going way, way behind the scenes, not just in the orchestra pit & dressing rooms like they had planned to do. 

The man asked if anyone was scared of heights, because we would be going up on the catwalks at the very top of the building, 150 feet above the stage. Hubby is not scared of heights, per se; he is scared of falling off of heights. His fear of falling off of heights matches my fear of anything with wings killing me, though he says one is an acceptable fear based on reality & the other is funny. He's confused. 

On the first set of catwalks
above the stage.
While hubby was suddenly way, way nervous, I was suddenly way, way excited. In all the ways we are so alike, hubby & I have a few ways that are just as extreme in how opposite we are. He said he would go as far as he could...or something like that...I didn't really hear him or anyone else for all the giddy thoughts taking over my brain. 

It was so cool to see all the backdrops hanging across from us, the huge wires right next to us, and hear all the ways that just a few men or women run along that catwalk just wide enough for one person at a time, to do exactly what they need exactly when it's needed. I was so impressed by all that goes on up there, right above the actors, while we're sitting in our seats watching the show. 

One of the spot lights. HUGE!

Lookingdown from the
spot light room.  
We went higher yet to the spot light room. Learning how the spot light people stand in a dark, extremely hot room, with their headsets, waiting to hear when they need to turn their light on, how strong it should be, what frame it needs to be in, and be able to do it the second they are told without wavering...so impressive. 


These lights get changed
by someone hanging upside
down from the catwalk
& reaching around. 
And yet even higher, hubby waited behind while I went out on an even tigher catwalk with all the lights. 












We walked back down to the stage...

Center stage! 

It's so beautiful.

Hubby on the stage where
Phantom stood!

And I'm standing where
Elphaba has stood!

Our seats are just
behind me. Woot woot!

So much fun! 


Then! Then! Then the tour man asked who wanted to go to the very top of the building! I may or may not have yelled, "I do!" Hubby took one look at the elevator & said, "Hellllll no." 

I think I saw Dr. Who
exit this earlier. 



The entire inside. That's it.
That's the door on the right. It is
deep enough for 1 1/2 people
to stand back to back, wide enough
for 2 people to stand shoulder shoulder.



The elevator went up...
...and up to those twin
lights way at the top. 












The catwalk when I stepped
out of the elevator.



The stairs to take us
150 feet above
the stage. 
 The holes in the steps were so huge that I had to take my heels off because they would have fallen right through. I walked the rest of it in my socks...which Tour Guy had to help me do because metal bars between huge holes does not feel so great on the feet. No matter how I placed my feet it felt like I would go straight through. Either my heel was hanging through the hole or my toes were. I felt like a monkey hanging on with my feet.

The very top of the building. 

I chose not to take the
stairs back down. 

Yeah, no. 



Then we went back stage where Tour Lady led me straight to Elphaba's dressing room!  You would have thought I met Elphaba herself, as giddy as I was. I may have frightened the little old ladies in the group, I'm not sure. 

Elphaba sat there!

Elphaba got make-up-ed here!
I'm standing in front of
Elphaba's dressing mirror!



The cast signed this white board. 

The other cast signed this brick!











From the first Phantom hubby saw.
Hubby did go higher into the building than I thought he would be able to, but he avoided the tiniest, highest of the catwalks, as did some others who thought I was crazy to go up there. At the end of the tour, hubby asked that next time we not get the super special tour & we just see the basement & orchestra pit. The tour ladies agreed that they much preferred those tours. Silly people.

On the way home, I was exclaiming over being in the exact spots Elphaba had been in. Hubby laughed & said he knew that is what would be what I would say in the dressing room before I even said it. I asked him if he thought the same thing about being where the Phantom had been. He shockingly said no. I couldn't believe it.

I tried to explain how Elphaba is a part of me, she is me, how watching or reading Wicked is like a part of me has been opened up. Hubby asked, ""Cause you're green?"

Me: Weirdo, I'm not green. I would be willing to go all over the world to see all of the show tours, that's all. I just have to reunited with Elphaba any chance I can get. Wouldn't you do anything to be reuinted with your penis if someone took it from you?

Hubby: [clearly not sure where I was going with this, giving me quite the side eye while he was driving]

Me:  Elphaba is my penis!

Hubby: What??

Me: She's that much a part of me. If someone took your penis, wouldn't you go anywhere to find out where it is & be reunited with it, even just for 2 hours?

Hubby: Of course.

Me: Okay. Now you get it.

Hubby: No, I don't get it. Elphaba is a penis you don't have?

Me: No, she's as much a part of me as if I did have a penis & she was it.

Hubby: If I could record you saying this, I would make it my first ever Facebook status.

Me: Are you recording this? Did you turn your phone on to your camera?

Hubby: No, but I wish I had.

Me: You still don't get it.

Hubby: I'm still confused about you having a penis.

Me: Elphaba is my penis!

Our conversation went on for 20 minutes with me trying to explain but I only ended up looking crazier than I really am. He brings this out in me, I swear. I didn't intend to make Elphaba my penis in showing how awesome she is, but that was the only way I could make it relatable to him, since he made it clear he had no desire to stalk Phantom of the Opera.

Not that I'm a stalker. I'm not that nutty. I just really like her. Like a man likes his penis.

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