Stage Stories: Fiddling on the Roof

As a high school and community theater vet, I've got loads of stage memories. How about you?

It hurts to bind your chest and pull off spirit gum beards! I don't recommend trying it. My sophmore year muscial was Fiddler on the Roof, and, yes, you've remembered correctly that I went to an all girls Catholic high school.
Due to the lack of Tevye-calibre men at our school and our brother schools, we had an adult in the lead role, which was contraversial to the students and a blessing to the theater-goers. Tevye's voice just can't be changing and have credibility. The rest of the cast filled in beautifully, and the set was a work of art.

As the lone violinist in the pit orchestras at the time, I was cast as an impish fiddler in this fantastic staging of the much-loved show. Rather than featuring the fiddler in just the opening and closing scenes, my fiddler was a constant presense representing tradition in almost every scene. When Tevye would plea to God and tradition, I would be there to interact with him. I had to memorize the score and play from stage, got to dance and pantomime- a fantastic role.

It was, however, terrifying, painful and nervewracking. Inspired by Matisse, the external set was colorful, assymetric and abstract. In the center was the house whose facade opened at the center to reveal the sombre, traditional interior of the home, referencing Tevye's disrupted outside world and traditional hearth. The interior floor of the house was raked, and the bed at the center was on wires so that it could roll down the rake during the famous dream scene. A fireplace at the back allowed cast and crew to slip in and out of the house while the facade was closed. the large facade panels were hinged at each side, and each half hosted half of the raked roof, which was just a peice of plywood at an angle.

My costume included binding my chest, knickers, white pirate blouse, velvet vest, velvet hat, spirit gum beard, and strands of my hair left loose and curled as earlocks. Very attractive, I assure you.

Now that I've set the stage, I can explain why this is so vivid in my memory. The opening scene of Fiddler was me under follow spot on the "roof" playing the famous violin solo. Cool, right? NO! I was sitting with one bun on a ladder, the other bun and leg hung over the plywood raked roof peice, which was hinged and unstable. The ladder was sitting on top of fluffy bedding, which was on a plywood platform bed on wheels that was held from sliding down a steeply raked floor by guidewires. I had to sit up there, shaking, and play my violin at my absolute best with character and animation, then I had 7 counts of blackout to hand off my violin and bow to a tech, climb down the ladder, quietly step off of the bed, help take down the ladder, safely take back my violin and bow, hand it to another tech through the little fireplace, crawl through the fireplace, turn around and catch the end of the ladder in time for the whole ladder to exit, along with the tech.... all just in time for the doors of the house to open and full on lights! At the end of thw show, I'd have to do it all over again to close the show, with another fast exit to take part in company bow. Every night was a panic, and the more I panicked, the more heavily I breathed, the harder I breathed, the more painful my binding would become.

Each night, bruised, happy, nervous and anticipating the cast party, I'd head to the dressing area and painfully peel off my beard, unbind myself, sit, breathe, and grin.