UNDERSTUDY WORK
During my senior year at SUU, I discovered a hidden talent for understudying in the most inconceivable of circumstances. The wealth of knowledge I received from such a high-pressure and last-minute job was just what I needed to round out my education.
MOTHER COURAGE
Typical track: Swiss Cheese
Understudy track: Mother Courage
At the beginning of the rehearsal process, I was selected to understudy the titular role, while also preparing my usual track as Swiss Cheese.
Unfortunately, just a day into tech and less than a week until opening, our Mother Courage was too ill to perform.
She was, thankfully, able to return for the end of tech, and the majority of our shows! But she was required to quarantine for nearly a week, during which time I carried the cast and crew through tech in a track I'd studied, but never practiced.
Though I never expected it, my efforts were rewarded far beyond what I imagined. To recognize the arduous task of leading the cast and crew through the majority of tech, our director and our lead performer offered me the matinee performance. I wish I could say I had to be convinced to go for it, but I couldn't have turned it down if my life depended on it. I had my own show as Mother Courage, with our lead sitting right up front cheering me on. I'd like to point out that this was a college production, which means a short run. My director and my lead didn't have to do all that for me, but they did. It's a memory that will always give me butterflies.
Mother Courage was the show that convinced me to major in theatre.
Illness aside, this was a dream come true, and a wonderful learning opportunity. Bertolt Brecht would often have his main cast watch their understudies to enhance their comprehension of the show and their characters; this was a wonderful opportunity to explore these concepts in an educational setting. I'm so grateful to my director and our lead actor for making this opportunity possible!
FALSETTOS
Usual track: NONE
Understudy track: Trina (last-minute)
I had been looking forward to seeing this show all year. I never guessed I'd become a part of it!
On Monday of their tech week, Trina's understudy tested positive for Covid-19.
The director asked me if I would consider learning Trina's track in the highly unlikely event that our usual Trina would also become compromised.
On Wednesday, two days later, our usual Trina also tested positive for Covid-19. By this time, I had watched her do her track one-and-a-half times. Thankfully, rampant and hormone-driven teenage obsession came to save the day: when I was in high school, I was obsessed with the 2016 revival cast of Falsettos.
(You've seen Hamilton kids, right? I was a Falsettos kid, through and through.)
I had one rehearsal (final/only dress!), and then opened the show and ran as Trina for the first full week of performances. I had an iPad in my hand with the score in case my memory failed, but after a performance or two, it became more of a back-up than a necessity. In less than a week, I was damn-near off book in a role I was never supposed to play.
Once again, I found myself in the educational opportunity of a lifetime. (Though I would have preferred my friends stayed healthy!) I'm happiest to say that our original Trina was able to come back after the first week, and they came back swinging!
“I was absolutely floored by Fin’s thunderbolt firestorm artistic rendering of Trina”
-Dr. Darius Omar Williams
"You had one week? F*** you, kid"
-Derek Livingston