I am often asked what I do in order to get ready for a show. People realize that there is more to a performance than what you see right there on stage, but they don’t always know what it is we do. I thought in this week’s entry I would give you a little bit of insight as to what I do to prepare for Sunday in the Park with George.

It starts before I even arrive at the theatre. What kind of a meal I eat will determine the type of energy that I have for that two and a half hours on stage. After my last entry, Stacey asked me what I ate before a show, and if it differs from my regular meal.

To tell you the truth, it doesn’t really differ that much from what I regularly eat. I try to eat as healthy as possible, even if short on time. Whether that means a piece of chicken and a salad, or a nice meaty sandwich… along with a smoothie made in my Magic Bullet… as long as the meal isn’t soaked in grease, I’m good to go. If I’m running short on time and I have to eat something less healthy, I find that my energy isn’t as high by the time I get to the end of the show. Sometimes I’ll also bring a snack to nibble on throughout the performance… almonds or trail mix, something like that.

I do, though, try to time out when I eat my meals, so that I’m not too full by the time the curtain rises. The last thing I want is to feel weighted down and in a “food coma.” I usually try to eat about two hours before the show so that my body has plenty of time to digest.

For Sunday I usually arrive at the theatre just after an hour before curtain. The latest we can get there is at the half hour, but I like to allow myself some time to leisurely warm up and get things my mind in the game. When we arrive, we have to sign in at the callboard to let stage management know you’re there. If you haven’t signed in by the half hour call, they’ll start looking for you, or calling your cell phone to make sure you aren’t caught in traffic. The last thing that we’d want to do is to start a show without one of the cast members there in the building!

The type of warm up I do depends on the type of show, and what it demands of me. When I did the puppetry for Little Shop of Horrors last year, I would start my warm up about an hour and a half before the show. Since this production isn’t as physically taxing on my body, I find that I can afford to arrive a little later.

At around 40 mins before the show starts, our musical director Paul Sportelli leads a voluntary group warm up. It changes day to day, but it’s basically a bunch of scales to get the voice active, work the resonators, push our ranges, and energize the articulators. I also find it nice to warm up in the theatre itself. It’s one thing to sing scales in the shower, but hearing how your voice sounds in the theatre is a whole different thing.

Once my voice is nice and warm, I head down to my dressing room. In this show, my bare arms are exposed. I have a tattoo on my right shoulder, so I have to cover it up with make up before every show so that the audience doesn’t see it. Tattoos are fine in 2009, but you didn’t really see them in 19th-century France. I use a special cover-up make up to mask it. Up close, you can still see it, but from on stage, you can’t tell that it’s there.

Before/After Tattoo Cover Up

My tattoo becomes invisible to the audience (copyright 2009 David Cooper Photography)

Next, 15 mins before the show, Jay, Stephen, Anthony, Kawa and myself have a pre-show push up routine that we like to do. We are slowly increasing how many we do at a time. Within a few more weeks, we should be able to do 4 sets of 25 for a total of 100 push ups! We change it up every day, doing different types of them. Regardless of how many we do, it’s a way to physically get our bodies focused while clearing our minds as a group.

After the push ups, all I have left to do is to get into my costume. As I make my way backstage, I usually do a quick focus/meditation to ground myself and then I’m ready to go and to have a great show!

Thanks for the interest that you’ve already been showing in the blog. Hopefully this was able to answer some of the questions you had. Feel free to post anything else you’re wondering about and I’ll answer it in an upcoming entry. Until next time…