Community Theater Story

The first time I did "The Odd Couple, Female Version," it was with the short-lived Hutto Players. We were performing it as dinner theater, and the restaurant had no space we could use to change clothes. However, there was a bakery a couple of doors down the street that allowed us to use their place. So, when we had finished a scene, we ran out the back door of the restaurant, down the alley, and into the bakery. Only trouble was that the bakery had an automatic lock on the back door, which meant that somebody had to sit right by the door to let people in, who were frequently in a tearing hurry. The night of the dress rehearsal, we hadn't quite figured this out yet.

I was sitting in the bakery, waiting for a cue, when there came a horrendous pounding on the back door. I ran to open it, but nobody was there. I had figured out what had happened, and went back to the front. Sure enough, the door flew open, and an actress rushed in, shirt off, dragging off her jeans en route. She was, to put it mildly, upset. "Gawd damn it!" she said, "The f***ing door was locked!" and looked up to meet the eye of the actor playing Manolo. He was sitting there with his jaw on the floor.

In real life, he was the minister of her church.