This has become a recurring dream in the last 6 months or so. I don't know if that's because I saw
Wicked with a good friend of mine last fall, or because some unconscious part of me needs to
fly be green be onstage in front of hundreds of people.
Anyway, in the dream, my high school theater director calls me up and begs me to help out in their spring production of
Wicked. Never mind that a) he has retired since I was in high school b) I was never cast as a lead in real life c) I don't have the requisite voice to carry off the part anyway. It's a dream, and anything is possible in a dream, so I happily play along to live vicariously through subconscious Rachel.
I accept, and Torg (the director) is so happy that I am willing to play Elphaba in the production. I am the only alumna in the cast, the rest are still in high school. I go to dozens of rehearsals to run lines, learn blocking, practice flying in the rig, and learn to apply the green makeup in record time. Everything goes perfectly in rehearsals and I cannot wait until opening night, when everyone I have ever met will be there to
cheer me on have me laugh in their faces in the thought I couldn't do it. The rest of the cast is doing very well with their parts, and Torg is content with our progress.
Then... the final dress rehearsal before opening night. I am sick, but don't want anyone to know for some reason, and oversleep and am late getting to the theater. Everyone has tried to think of a way to stall the director from noticing my absence and someone decided to pull the fire alarm AND stage a break-in in my dressing room. Good for a distraction, bad for me since there is no other green makeup available anywhere in town. Once everyone files back into the theater and I successfully convince Torg that I was indeed there the whole time, the cast and I run through the show without me wearing the green makeup. I now have less than 24 hours to figure out how to get green for the first live performance.
The dream varies a bit from here: sometimes I Tweet Idina Menzel to ask for her personal supply of green makeup to be airlifted to me; sometimes I dye my skin with green Kool-Aid or lime jello; sometimes I combine blue and yellow fingerpaint from the kids I babysit and hope it doesn't sweat off halfway through act I. But however I turn green, I always make it onstage and ROCK THE HOUSE with my singing. Some nights I even fly for real instead of being attached to the rig...
And then, for curtain call, while people applaud and throw flowers at my feet and yell name name, I raise my arms, look at them all and answer, "HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW, SUCKAAAAAS?!"
and wished that they too had a hunky Brit to love them... Anthony Joshua, world renowned boxer and charming British man himself, walked in and demanded to Sean, "Oi! What are you goin' with my girl? I came to tell her I love her." They proceed to transform into duelists, wearing Pride & Prejudice-esque outfits, twirling their respective fencing blades, and speaking in excellent P&P parlance. Not that I remember all of the dialogue... but it was lovely to behold.
