Taking a flying leap across the Theatre Dublin

When I was little, one of my favorite movies was “Superman The Movie.”  

I was caught up in John Williams’ score as Christopher Reeve donned the suit for the first time and flew straight at the camera. It was so cool.

Cool was not the way I felt during the morning practice of Dublin Community Theatre’s production of “Annie” on March 7. While practicing a musical number, I crossed the stage to sing part of a song, and not wanting to cross in front of the rest of the cast, I walked behind my good buddy Adam Lausch. The reason for going behind the actors was so that I would not cross in front of them. It made perfect sense in my head. 

As everyone – including myself – were singing the next line, I all of the sudden took flight and went from walking to completely being taken off of my feet when I walked into a black box and fell across the stage.

While I was falling, I knew what I had done because I had hit a few of these boxes while starring in “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” The only difference then was I was not walking that fast. I would hit it but be able to keep from falling. That is not what happened at practice because I was trying to walk quickly back to the other side – thus the block took both of my legs out from under me and caused me to fall toward the stage. 

I landed hard and the book that I was also reading flew out in front of me. What I recall was that the music stopped playing, my cast mates stopped singing and I heard gasps come from the audience. As I laid on stage wishing that nobody saw what happened, I heard several people ask if I was OK? 

While face down, I decided to lay there for a little bit to make sure I could move my arms and legs. I really wanted to be still, hoping that nobody saw that or was looking at me. But I could clearly hear the questions and knew I could not remain on the stage like that for too long. 

Was I okay? I was in pain but I did believe I was good enough to at least sit up. But truthfully, since I had not too long landed from my unannounced take off, I did not know if I was totally okay. 

Besides pain coming from my foot and side, I believed I would be okay. The next question I heard was what happened? I knew what had happened. I walked into the black box. I didn’t see it because the script book I was carrying blocked my view of the box. I stepped around Lausch and the next thing I knew I was taking off like Superman.

Honestly, maybe what I did was more like William Katt in “The Greatest American Hero.” From what I remember from this 1980s ABC television show, Katt’s character – Ralph Hanley – could take off and fly but he never landed right. That was pretty much what I did.

Standing up on stage, I looked at my cast mates and told them that I just showed them how not to go across the stage. I then asked my wife, Jill, who is helping out with the orphans in the cast, for some drugs while clarifying she was handing me some pain relief pills. 

Director Glenda Berry asked me if I wanted to sit for a few minutes while practice continued. As I contemplated this, that famous phrase in show business, “The show must go on,” was ringing through my head.  Or in this case, practice had to keep going and since the opening dates for “Annie” – April 23-25 – are now almost a month away, I was bound and determined to make the best of it even if I had to limp on. Also, I was hoping that the young actors watching would see that it was going to take a lot more than a box to get me to tap out of practice and that the best thing to do when you fall is to dust yourself off and get back to work. 

In one of my favorite movies, “Batman Begins” – another comic book reference – a young Bruce Wayne accidentally falls into an old well. Young Wayne was asked, “Why do we fall?” The answer he received from his father Thomas, and later by Alfred Pennyworth, was “So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

We all will fall. Hopefully, not on stage. But somewhere in life something will happen and we will go down. Thankfully, the good Lord allowed me to get up and keep on going. 

Embarrassing? Yes! And what did I learn? Two things actually – keep your eyes where you are going and the sooner I can memorize the music, the sooner I can better see where I am heading.

Later that day all of us had to be measured for our costumes for the show. Maybe it is not too late for me to request a cape on mine just in case I should happen to take off again.