This photo was taken years ago during a show at Performance Works Northwest seconds before I accidentally kicked over that bottle of water you see at my feet. If you're wondering what that grey shark-shaped item is in my lap, yes, it's a shark puppet but that's a story for another time.
Many years ago, when I was performing in a cozy theater in Portland, Oregon, I accidentally kicked over a bottle of water in the middle of the show. It was a full bottle of water which glug, glug, glugged all over the stage.
"Uh oh," I thought as I saw it spread. My next thought was: "Maybe if I ignore this, nobody will see it."
The problem was, however, that everybody had already seen it. It had just happened in front of them! And if I continued to ignore it, all the audience would think about would be the spilled water as in, "Does she see it?" "Will she step in it?" and not on my story.
So, in the next moment, I simply said, "Oops" and stepped around the water. I felt something shift in the room as the audience could now forget about the spilled water because I had acknowledged it.
Have any of these mishaps happened to you?
Have you ever:
Lost your place in the script?
Forgotten your train of thought?
Realized you left out something important?
Dropped your notes or your prop or the equivalent of kicked your water bottle?
It's tempting to ignore it and hope that nobody notices it. But usually they've already seen it and they're wondering why you haven't mentioned it. It's a funny thing but if you mention it, like I did with my spilled water, the audience is able to forget it and move on.
What's your worst mishap moment and how did you recover from it? I'd love to hear.
Here's to recovering from misadventures on the stage!
Photo thanks to Performance Works Northwest