Such Stuff as Nightmares Are Made On

Over at the American Theatre Facebook page (become a fan today, won't you?), for Halloween I asked folks to tell us their worst theatrical nightmare, real or imagined. A sampling of my favorites:

Opening scene of Carousel: One of the horses fell off the Carousel with our Juilie Jordan on it... The curtain immediately closed. To this day, I'm haunted by a horse head resting at my feet, chorus members scrambling and Julie screaming "Why, why..."

I still dream of my college's performance of Sweeney Todd, and in this particular nightmare it's just a play for everyone else, but somehow real for me, and so when I sit down in that barber chair for my "shave", I wake up screaming when I plunge down the trapdoor...thanks, Sondheim!

I was in a production once where we were all seated at the dinner table eating and I cut my thumb WIDE OPEN! I didn't even realize it until I looked down at my plate and blood was every where! I did wonder, however, why everyone else was looking at me funny through out the scene. LOL!

I frequently have dreams that the theater has burned down and we have to stage the production elsewhere. Best so far: THE ROVER in the produce aisle of a grocery store.

A recurring nightmare where I am in a production of "Macbeth" and keep murdering the cast backstage so I can take over the show.