Is this consummate professionalism?

Nearing the end of a performance of Cyrano, his nose fell off and I deftly kicked it stage left, into the wings. He rushed off to have it glued back and returned a little while later with flowers as if that's why he left. Meanwhile I hummed a pretty ditty while trimmimg the artificial roses. Critics were in that night but we had convinced them and the entire house that it was all part of the piece.

Is this consummate professionalism?
So what , his nose was running !! :-)
Reply:Normal service has been resumed.


The writer's standpoint of amateur dramatics in village halls in the nineteen thirties is the running gag here.


It has yet to prove to be amusing and what generally happens is that it angers gullible people who think this is a genine question from an actor.


It isn't.


It is more unfunny shite.


Why do you bother?
Reply:A bunch of people mincing around on stage, pretending to be something they're not. You can see that for free everyday on the building site !
Reply:Gee, I dunno...I thought it was pretty amusing.





I actually saw this one during a performance of Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes" up at ACT in San Francisco. One of the characters slapped another across the face, at which point one of the guy's glued-on mutton-chop sideburns was launched skyward, making a slow, lazy arc across the stage, where it landed in a furry little heap. The audience, after a moment's silence, erupted in hysterical laughter. The actors never flinched; they held their intentions during the laughter, glowering at each other, at which point the actor who'd been slapped spoke his next line:





"I'll never forgive you for that!"





Needless to say, the audience burst into another fit of laughter. During the next scene break, they sent out the black actor playing one of the family servants with a dustpan and a whiskboom, and he swept up the errant hairpiece. The next time that actor came onstage, BOTH of his sideburns were missing!





But, hey...that's part of why we love live theatre, right?
Reply:Considering that he could have frozen or done something immensely stupid on stage, I'd say you got off pretty lightly. He thinks well on his feet. You should be grateful. What if it had been your costume that lost it's skirt, I doubt he'd have let your backside show...which is sort of what this question sounds like.