"Camelot" Final Weekend, And Strike


Left: King Arthur makes Mordred an offer he accepts to Arthur's face, but refuses behind his back. King Arthur (Gil Sebastian) and Mordred (Jon Jackson).













King Arthur (Gil Sebastian).


















Two more shots with Nimue Dancer (Meg King, foreground), Merlin (Paul Fearn, middle), and Nimue Singer (Bridget Maguire, background).



Kaya The Hawk was hungry on Friday night, and complained about it back stage during the performance. On Sunday, the Sebastians presented Kaya with a chocolate Easter Bunny, but the offering didn't mollify her: her unscripted calls could be heard several times in Sunday's performance.

I think we were all happy to have a living raptor in the show: it added a lot of color. And now, we all know what a Red-Tailed Hawk sounds like (I saw pigeons panicking Saturday morning over a hawk circling near where I live in Sacramento. Bridget Maguire says there are raptors circling everywhere in the area, and I'm sure she's right).

A couple of bumps and scrapes were suffered by people back stage from the moving furniture during the weekend - nothing serious, but always a reminder that theater has its dangerous side.

On Sunday, the may pole dance got a bit tangled - it was always a danger, but the problem lurked until the last show to express itself. No big deal; just mildly embarrassing....

In Act I, Sunday, a woman in the audience abruptly started talking loudly, just a couple of feet from the stage, and very-nearly knocked Gil and Marguerite off their scripted lines. Obnoxious and rude! Director Lenore Sebastian posed a rhetorical question back stage: "Why do all the meshuganas have to sit in the front row?" A good question! If I had had a voodoo doll with me that instant, I'm sure Lenore could have converted it into a pin cushion.

Audience rudeness is a problem that sometimes bedevils live theater. Perhaps audiences should be encouraged to stop shows as needed and ritually ostracize unwelcome noisy individuals. It could be spooky and weird, like in a Twilight Zone episode, so as to discourage violations. Someone stands up (perhaps an usher), points at a loud person and shouts "J'accuse!" The show stops and the offender is hooted out of the theater. Or maybe it should be done with paintballs. Or pitchforks. Or tasers. Whatever works!

Strike was an easy business this time, and we all went out for pizza afterwards.