Ouch!

The day began when Leigh arrived at our van. Coughing, and a tad hoarse. This made two ill cast members (Ben has also been hacking for a few days) for our show today. Then, on our trip to Montclair, a short stop in our passenger van caused Michelle to hit her left hip. Very hard. Arriving at the theater, we loaded in (slowly and carefully; no more injuries, please), set for the show, did our best to scare up some energy (remember, I've been doing the perform-in-the-morning, rehearse-at-night thing, which zaps me) and got our show started.

And then I got hurt.

During "Looking for Max," the opening number, I wound up stepping on something sharp, which cut through my shoe and stuck itself into my left foot. Very conscious that something not-so-good had happened, I hobbled through the rest of the number, stumbled backstage for my Gracie fast change and discovered a nasty puncture wound, about the diameter of a heavy-duty staple, on the left side of my foot. Thinking quickly (remember, this is all during a timed, fairly fast change), I sprayed my foot with the isopropyl alcohol we use to clean our bunny ears, wrapped the wound in gaffers tape, changed my bloody socks, threw on Gracie and got myself on stage for the scene. The show must go on, right?

At the break between shows, Emileena gave me the first aid kit and I went hunting for the perpetrator. I found that it was, indeed, a staple, one that had worked its way out of the stage and was standing straight up, about an inch tall, with one of its sharp ends waiting to do further damage. A set of pliers and some major hefting later, the villain has been extracted and was on its way to the garbage can. Not only revenge on my part, but also a public service effort for the company. As of now, all we had that remained unharmed were two bunny scouts, and we needed to keep it that way.

We finished the day, I rehearsed at the zoo, got back to the apartment, drank wine, downed two Motrin, changed the bandages on the wound (which hurts, but is healing) and am crashing. There is a tetanus shot in my future, I do believe.

Kid (er, Parent) quote of the day: After the show, we met two little girls who had been excellent audience members. They were thrilled to meet us, and we were thrilled to meet them. When Michelle was introducing me, she told the girls that "Ethan plays Gracie, but he's not really a girl," to which one of the mothers replied, "Oh, that's just like Uncle So-and-So. He likes to wear dresses sometimes too." Hmmm...

Call tomorrow: 6:15am, Manhattan garage near Columbia. Our last local show on this tour.