Tonight was our fourth performance of Blood Brothers. Let me tell you the story of what happened:

About an hour before the show, I go to the tech booth to get my microphone (a small headset I use only for my solo in act 2). I'm about to receive it when the stage manager comes into the theater and says that the director wants to speak to everybody, which is somewhat rare at that specific time. everyone gathers around him and he tells us that a fuse in the lighting console is dead, and the console needs to be replaced. The technician was on his way over with another one, but the lighting would need to be done completely manually, rather than one button controlling a pre-programmed cue. This is a slightly big deal, but the show would go on mostly as normal.

We go outside for our warmups. In the middle of them, our director beckons us over again. He tells us that the dimmer switches are shot. Dimmer switches are the electronic devices that control the brightness of the lights;...( Without them, a light can only be fully on or off. Basically, the entire show would be either all the lights on, or blackout. Since lighting is important for the audience to understand what the various parts of the set are, this was a major issue. Also, a few scenes (the opening, etc.) REQUIRE certain kinds/colors of lighting. Finally, that nice fading theater lights normally do would be replaced by lights going imediately on or off.

Before the show, the director explained the problem (and the set) to the audience, he did the rest of his routine, and the lights went to blackout so we could get on stage. We start singing the opening song, and suddenly only the blue lights came on, then only the red, then only a light on center stage (that would normally be on). We're starting to think that they fixed the problem. I get off stage like normal (I'm one of the last ones off), and I see a bunch of people huddled on the ground and I hear a person saying "Everyone back off." As I'm going to the other side, I see that one of the actors is lying on the ground. I soon learned that she had collapsed (and was having trouble breathing). She is carried off (completely limp), and the entire cast gets that terrible feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when something goes horribly wrong. Worst part was, the director was at the piano, and it was nearly impossible to tell him what had happened. We eventually did manage to tell him, and the show went on as normal (with other actors saying the lines instead).

As I'm waiting for my scene, I hear what sounds like several switches being pressed, and the lights on stage switching on and off accordingly. What had happened was that the stage manager and the lighing person (a professional) had found the cue sheet with a complete list of what lights were in what scene. They had both gone backstage, and were turning the individual circuit breakers for each of the lights on and off, so that we had close-to-normal lighting.

The actor that collapsed eventually recovered, and was back to normal by intermission (but watched the play from the audience rather than perform). I heard that it was dehydration, but its only a rumor.

During act two, there is a dance that involves the lights switching red-blue-red-blue-red, etc. I was backstage and observed the awesomest thing I had ever seen: the lighting guy was turning the switches on and off accordingly (to the beat), so that the lights alternated as normal.

Later, one of the actor's cell phones went off backstage. It was small compared to everything else, but embarassing.

When the director said the lighting guy was God, he wasn't kidding. He told us that he was sitting at the piano constantly wondering "How were they doing that?"

...and that's what happened tonight.