Covering Your Tracks

There is a feeling swirling around Broadway at this writing. And not for the first time.

There is a sentence or two in the air, in the ether, and now roiling the hearts and minds of a group of actors who, being human, took the sentences and made them mean something hard to swallow.

Suffice it to say, Understudies weren't prepared to go on. 

Said someone.

There is scant evidence to support any such sentiment. 

This is being written in the time of covid. Cast members, along with company members in every capacity, are being swabbed, tested, prompted, masked, lectured, and swabbed some more. Tensions can run hot because the feeling is fresh each day...Who Can Go On Tonight?  Am I being safe enough? Is my mask tight enough? Is their mask enough?

Who is Ready.

There are, in fact, as many states of readiness as there are humans to learn a track, directors and choreographers and dance and movement captains to weigh in, phases of the moon to disrupt...

It is time to dismantle the term Understudy. 

A non scientific search of the Googles offers a centuries old usage of the word understudy. 1848. 

Perhaps we can move on.

Musical covers, recordings of work that originated with the artists who wrote and composed the work, are so often celebrated.

For being a fresh take.

A new idea.

A tribute to the creator.

Or. Just fun.

If theatrical covers, whose job it is to observe, take note, be ready...

with or without practical rehearsal

with or without full tech.  

or any tech

or ever working with the principal actors in a rehearsal room

Just Knew

The original and magnificent value you offer to the production.

Sure. 

Most tracks require precision in moments, and hitting elements for safety and for story.

However.

There is ample margin in many productions to make this role your own.

Different. Not better. And certainly not worse. 

Your. Own.

Sometimes you go on in roles for which you are not an exquisite fit. 

The job is to make it work, using the tools and gifts you have. That only you have.

When someone 'out there' makes a statement and you feel hurt, misunderstood, devalued, this is not their fault.

They just strung sounds together into words. Or typed onto a blinking tablet.

Are you ready to give that typing, those words, power over how you perceive your value?   Your work?

Truth here. No one really knows what is going on backstage, in the dark, in the blue change lights, with the humans moving heavy set pieces.  No one knows the intricate unwritten choreography of the offstage moments. 

No one but the people there, doing the work. We know.

And not enough praise can be leveled at the excellence of the insightful stage manager, the dresser who senses your mood, the crew member who urgently whispers that you are in the path of oncoming set pieces. The director who senses you cannot absorb a new note before you work the first one. We are privileged to work among such talent.

But let us also recognize the work of the swings and covers, who, without the structure of rehearsal as a foundation, maybe without a put in, possibly without that last fitting for their costume...

Let us recognize the sheer magnificent heart of these artists. 

No reasonable person would doubt the value of the National Guard. They are not the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines. They are, rather, where we turn, in this country, whenever we need help. And they train, and serve, and move where they are needed, often not knowing exactly what the job will entail, and often with little notice.

They are ready.

Swings and covers are ready. The days of rehearsal, the pandemic fracturing of cast dynamics, the amount of time spent on safety issues (which are undeniably paramount), and the hours available to explore scene work.  All variable. 

Our sense of how things go... how we do things... is evaporating. We are straddling the fault lines of social congregation, knowing we cannot possibly control the virus, the governmental decisions, the other person's mask.

We can, however, manage our minds.

One person's sentence, no matter how amplified, does not make it truth. And it cannot cause us hurt, or a feeling of injustice, unless and until we have a thought about it.

At last, the thing we can control. 

What we make something mean.

Cover: one definition cites  a thing which lies on, over, or around something, especially in order to protect it. 

Especially in order to protect it.

That's what we do.

Protect the show.

You're welcome.