Friday, November 13, 2009
Cast perseveres through events onstage and off
Priscilla Richardson is columnist The Botetourt View. You can contact her at 981-3430 or via e-mail.
Priscilla Richardson
Recent columns
Did you see Attic's "Moon Over Buffalo," starring Freda Wood and Carl Bridgman? You probably know it centered on the behind-the-scenes chaos that sometimes does happen in live theater. Worse than the play's story: the true story of the two disasters behind the scenes for Attic's version of the play.
First of all, before the play opened Bridgman suffered what may have been a mini stroke, requiring surgery on a neck artery. It caused him to miss rehearsals for a week, but happily he did come back. So when the play called for Wood to massage his neck, she had to be very careful not to disturb the stitches.
Worst of all: in the middle of the first act on the first Saturday night of the two-week run, Wood dislocated her jaw. As Wood tells it, "In the play, Carl and I are bickering over his attraction to a young girl. We make up, we're ahugging and a pretty girl walks in. He stands up to leave and I come off his lap onto the floor.
"Now we had tried it several times, but something went wrong. Instead of landing on his feet, I slid off his lap onto the floor. I hit the floor harder [than during rehearsals], my mouth flew open, my jaw dislocated, just hanging there. I grabbed my face and I couldn't talk. So I just left the stage. The cast realized something was wrong, they closed the curtain and Trina [director Katerina Yancy] made an announcement to the audience."
They put ice on her jaw, she relaxed a bit and started to massage it. Within five minutes it came back into place. After a quick visit by Dr. Lianna Lawson, Wood told the audience what happened and went right back to the show. It made Mallori Shaver and Josh DiPalma even more protective when Wood had to fall into their arms. After this, the cast gave Wood their "Show Must Go On" award.
To cap off her memorable October, shortly after the show's close Wood suffered a broken bone in her foot when a freezer she and Pete were moving tilted over. This however gave her a reason to sit with her foot propped up during a recent Botetourt Chamber of Commerce event. She didn't miss a thing. Everyone came by to greet her and laugh with her over her story.
Wood, 62, started her Botetourt career teaching in the Fincastle preschool. From that she moved into real estate as an associate with her husband. She never did much in drama while in college, and none while their two daughters were small.
But then, the late Geraldine Lawson put an article in the paper about starting a theater. "I showed up for the auditions," Wood remembered. "I wanted everybody to remember who I am, so I did a finger play from preschool, Little Bunny Foo-Foo, hopping through the forests. Geraldine would laugh at that, she could tell I was working with 4-year-olds.
"The first show, I came out as an announcer. So for the next play, "Wuthering Heights," she divided one part in half [for me]. That was my start and I just loved every minute of it."
The Attic format doesn't allow actors to get swelled heads. "You can be greeting the audience and as soon as they leave you go and clean the commodes. Everybody does their part."
In between catching most of his wife's performances and selling real estate, Pete Wood also serves as president of Historic Fincastle and the recent Heritage Days. Hey, no dislocated jaws. And no dropped freezers. It had to be a success.
