Friday, November 30

Stage Manager Nightmares

So I had this anxiety dream two nights ago, and then I had an interesting conversation about it today.

The Dream
I'm stage managing at a theater I've never worked in before (in my dream, I knew it was CoHo but it totally wasn't CoHo-looking at all), and I'm late for our opening performance's show call. I have all the normal anxiety dream problems: I can't find parking (I was driving Velma in my dream! Very exciting! Also, along a cobblestone street? Maybe? I guess I was in Rome? I don't know), the lobby is really crowded, my bags are heavy and numerous, my family is there to see the show and is trying to get my attention, I am encumbered trying to fight my way through the crowd that lead to booth door. When I open the door, I have to climb a long, steep, narrow flight of stairs to get into the booth, like Park Hall's booth stairs (I just remembered that right now, as I tried to describe these stairs).
When I get to the top, I see my board operator standing at the light board with a girl I knew from college, who's name has been changed for a good reason. Let's call her Hannah. The booth looks down at the stage from a distance (a big distance!) and I can see through the window behind these two; I notice that the curtain is down and the audience is filing in. There is a light projected on the curtain with the name of my show. Big proscenium, big booth, big house, big show.
Hannah has her back to the booth window and is minxing it up with my light board operator: running her hands over his biceps, playing sliding a finger down the side of his face, sashaying her hips while standing in place. I'm walking across this extraordinarily long booth, bogged down by my prompt book and my bags when I see her run a manicured finger along the GO button and saucily ask, "What does this button do?"
My light board operator explains that the GO button advances the light cues and moves the show along. She then puts a hand behind his head as if to pull him to her and looks deliberately over his shoulder, locks eyes with me, smiles, and pushes the GO button.
Chaos ensues.
The lights come up on stage (behind the curtain), which my actors take as the cue to start the show. They're panicking because I haven't given a places call yet, so they're all scrambling and terrified. The curtain begins to open, revealing this mess and the audience starts to panic as well, since the house lights are still up and they had no idea the show was starting. Everyone is freaking out 50 feet below us and Hannah is staring at me, never taking her eyes from my face, pressing the GO button over and over and over and over. Scrollers are wheeling madly, lights are flashing everywhere.
I drop everything in my hands and close the gap between us in a moment, pushing my light board operator and Hannah out of the way. I slam my hand down on the blackout button and pull a cord to drop the curtain back down on the stage, thereby cutting the panicked audience off from the panicked actors. I reach for the God Mic to make a house announcement but before I do, I spin around and slap Hannah across the face as hard as I can.

The Conversation
I told the Artists Rep T.D. this dream this afternoon, presenting it as a funny story. "Look at silly Olivia! She has these silly stage management anxiety dreams! Look, haha!" I wanted to make him laugh.
He did laugh, but then he said, "So: who's pushing your buttons?"
Okay, now you should all actually laugh at me because I, the Lit student, the tarot card reader, the dream interpreter, NEVER FUCKING THOUGHT OF THAT. Seriously. I guess it was too literal for me to think of? I don't what it is but Van said that I just kinda stood there, flabbergasted.
Who is pushing my buttons indeed.
Dude, everyone is pushing my buttons. Everything is pushing my buttons.  I have been frustrated, angry, sad, and children's-book-simple-y unhappy for the last two weeks. People who normally get on my nerves have filled me with rage, people who I normally adore have filled me with rage. This is not to say that I have been stomping around in a bad mood for two weeks, but rather that my mood has been switching on a dime. And more importantly, when it switches to all this negativity, I feel like I was never actually happy before. I feel like whatever positive feelings I'd just been feeling were flimsy plywood walls and this anger, this irritable frustration is my solid wooden structure; all the good stuff has always been just a shitty cover up.
I have my theories about where this is all coming from, and I'm trying to eliminate the options one at a time. Our good old friend, the scientific method. I'm trying to narrow it down.
I want to know who (or what) is pushing my buttons.

1 comment:

  1. That is an incredible dream.

    What I thought at the end? "Yeah, if somebody did that to a show I was working, Olivia would be the one I'd want in the booth, and I trust her enough to know that she'd go through with the absolutely-called-for slapping."

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