Being Jacob
You wrestle with the angel, even if you don't win, the angel is supposed to give you a blessing. That's the rule; I didn't make it up, so don't blame me.
Our set is an angel. Or some sort of cthonic, malevolent godling-in-training. I'm not sure which. In order for that to make any sense, you'd need to know that we carry around our entire set, along with all our costumes, props, makeup, supplies, lights, and sound in a 26 foot trailer that we unload and re-load every day we have a show. We even carry our own proscenium with us. It all fits together and comes apart with lots of bolts and a ridiculous amount of spit and prayers. In a benevolent interpretation, the set was put together to survive a very long time, and is therefore built of very sturdy materials - heavy wood (no particle board here, thank you), steel, etc. In the not-so-benevolent interpretation, it was designed by troglodytes who never bothered to put the damn thing together before they passed it on, so they had no idea how freakin' heavy it was going to be, or how seemingly demonically possessed.
It fits together differently every time. It weighs a ton (that's the individual pieces, mind you. Thing put together seems immovable. Oh, except when it moves). It often seems like it's going to come down around us during the show. Scrims don't work, curtains fail, platforms shift. And we unload it, piece by unwieldly piece, and put it together everyday before a physically demanding show in front of usually more than 1,000 people. And after the show, we take the damn thing apart, put it back in the truck, and drive to a hotel to, usually, watch TV and collapse.
All this is in order to say that I bleed almost daily helping to put this little slice of heaven together. And I consider that blood shed a fair trade. If the set doesn't fall down around us, I consider that a good day. Sacrifices must be made to the godling, or conversely, angels must be wrestled to obtain our blessing. And we all do our best, but given my occasional reckless disregard for my own personal safety (half-joking) and my complete imperviousness to pain (also joking), I seem to get a lot of the cracks and smackdowns from our set. So this is a catalog of today's bruises, cuts and scrapes.
Two new bruises on my left forearm (small)
One new bruise on my right bicep (medium)
One new bruise on my upper left thigh (small)
One reopened cut on my inner left forearm that bled like hell but wasn't that deep
a bunch of miscellaneous cuts and scrapes
Doesn't sound that bad, but keep in mind this is just today. We've been doing the show for a week, and already I look like a map during wartime, whole countries of subcutaneous blood rising and disappearing across the landscape of my skin.
This is what I signed up for. I'm actually having a damn good time, if you can believe it. So we wrestle with the angel, and we get to do a show. That's what I get paid for - to bleed a little, pick up and put down heavy things, and wear frog-flipper clown shoes.
Eh, it's a living.
Our set is an angel. Or some sort of cthonic, malevolent godling-in-training. I'm not sure which. In order for that to make any sense, you'd need to know that we carry around our entire set, along with all our costumes, props, makeup, supplies, lights, and sound in a 26 foot trailer that we unload and re-load every day we have a show. We even carry our own proscenium with us. It all fits together and comes apart with lots of bolts and a ridiculous amount of spit and prayers. In a benevolent interpretation, the set was put together to survive a very long time, and is therefore built of very sturdy materials - heavy wood (no particle board here, thank you), steel, etc. In the not-so-benevolent interpretation, it was designed by troglodytes who never bothered to put the damn thing together before they passed it on, so they had no idea how freakin' heavy it was going to be, or how seemingly demonically possessed.
It fits together differently every time. It weighs a ton (that's the individual pieces, mind you. Thing put together seems immovable. Oh, except when it moves). It often seems like it's going to come down around us during the show. Scrims don't work, curtains fail, platforms shift. And we unload it, piece by unwieldly piece, and put it together everyday before a physically demanding show in front of usually more than 1,000 people. And after the show, we take the damn thing apart, put it back in the truck, and drive to a hotel to, usually, watch TV and collapse.
All this is in order to say that I bleed almost daily helping to put this little slice of heaven together. And I consider that blood shed a fair trade. If the set doesn't fall down around us, I consider that a good day. Sacrifices must be made to the godling, or conversely, angels must be wrestled to obtain our blessing. And we all do our best, but given my occasional reckless disregard for my own personal safety (half-joking) and my complete imperviousness to pain (also joking), I seem to get a lot of the cracks and smackdowns from our set. So this is a catalog of today's bruises, cuts and scrapes.
Two new bruises on my left forearm (small)
One new bruise on my right bicep (medium)
One new bruise on my upper left thigh (small)
One reopened cut on my inner left forearm that bled like hell but wasn't that deep
a bunch of miscellaneous cuts and scrapes
Doesn't sound that bad, but keep in mind this is just today. We've been doing the show for a week, and already I look like a map during wartime, whole countries of subcutaneous blood rising and disappearing across the landscape of my skin.
This is what I signed up for. I'm actually having a damn good time, if you can believe it. So we wrestle with the angel, and we get to do a show. That's what I get paid for - to bleed a little, pick up and put down heavy things, and wear frog-flipper clown shoes.
Eh, it's a living.
posted by Scott | 8:20 PM
2 Comments:
See - it becomes more and more like you are in the armed forces - fighting a war. Keeping us free from large wooden set pieces everwhere - although the set is saying - Don't Tred On Me! :)
really enjoyed your post. i will be coming back.
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