Swing Life!

We are now at the end of week 5. We’re just past the halfway point to Christmas break and I’m (Rachel) just past halfway point in learning my tracks. I feel that I’m JUST now starting to get into the “swing of things” so to speak. For me, a huge part of settling into my job as swing has been just trying to figure out my system. Having been a long time since my last swing job it has taken me a while to remember (or maybe reinvent) what works best for me to track someone but to a certain extent you don’t get much choice in the matter. You can either watch from the house or from the wings, take as many notes as possible, ask lots of questions and confer with the other swings but when it comes down to it, at some point you just get thrown on and hope for the best! See, swings never get what we call a “put-in” rehearsal which is exactly what it sounds like- a chance to be put into the track you’re covering and get to physically go through the motions of whatever that person does on stage. Instead, they just trust that we swings are sharp enough to notice every detail possible and then the first chance we get to try out a track is in a real show with full audience (and full pressure). This means there is no stopping, no slowing down, no time to double check or really even think about what you’re supposed to do next and certainly no chance to go back and fix it if you were wrong!! One thing I’m learning is that no matter how many times you’ve watched or how good your notes are, things always feel different on stage and there will be things you didn’t quite catch or didn’t even know to look for! Besides all that and the stress of not wanting to be in anyone’s way, there is the minor detail that thousands of people are watching you!!! This is all just part of the adjustment I need to accept-You’re on! Keep your eyes open and make it work! The fact is, I will probably not actually EVER feel as prepared as I’d like to (definitely not for a first swing on and most likely not for months to come)! Even if you’ve already been on for someone before, there is always room for surprises. We are getting into winter now and people’s immune systems are starting to break down. Of course, they try and fight it and sometimes the decision to call out sick comes at the very last minute! Therefore, you may have figured out, the word gets to us at the last minute that we are on and whatever else you had planned to do that night gets pushed aside. This weekend we had our first taste of that type of situation. The other female swing (Tera-Lee) and I had scheduled “swing-outs” to check off our next tracks. I was scheduled to be Carole on Saturday so that I could move on to finish tracking Hannah and be ready to swing her off early next week and Tera-Lee was supposed to be Thomasina on Sunday. However, our plans went awry when Merrill called out sick Friday night and I was the one to go on for her since Tera-Lee hadn’t tracked her yet (which also meant I couldn’t do my final check on Carole stuff). Then, we heard by the end of the night that our lead was feeling sick so I spent the next day reviewing the track of the girl that covers her. When I got to the theatre everyone was fine and I was back on schedule as Carole and had to switch my brain again. Meanwhile, Hannah called out for Sunday so Tera-Lee had to put off her Thomasina debut and I had to put off tracking Hannah. I’m not sure if that makes any sense to an outsider but it was almost as confusing as it sounds! The point is that you have to be ready for whatever is asked of you because that’s what swings are for. It’s the scariest part in the beginning but it’s also what becomes the exciting part of the job later on. For a swing, life never gets dull & repetative, your job is different from one week to the next and always keeps you on your toes! J

Now that I (Chris) have a year of swing experience on this particular tour, I can say it does get easier.  I remember early on thinking that I will never learn all of it and will never feel comfortable.  And while that is probably true for some tracks, there are others that you eventually learn every tiny detail of, and they live in your body.  It usually happens when someone goes on vacation for a week and you get to do the same track 4 or 5 times in a row.  You might screw something up the first show, but then you have several more chances to really nail it and eventually you get to relax and really enjoy doing the show.  After that, every time you come back to that track, it feels like home.  Even still, there are moments in every track (they may be different for each) that you have to stay focused or things can go really wrong, really fast.  I’m reminded of a story about Troy (other male swing).  He was on in “Voulez Vous”, the finale of Act I.  This is one of the most complicated numbers, especially for a swing. First, everyone enters and dances in a circle.  Next, you have traffic to find your 1^st dance partner where each couple has a different dance combination.  Then, you have traffic to find your 2^nd dance partner where luckily all couples have the same choreography. After this, you have more traffic to your 3^rd dance partner and another different combination for each couple.  Finally, you find your place in either the inner or outer circle and depending on what side of the stage you are on and which circle you are in the combo starts with either the right or left foot and splits in different directions half way through. Ugh!  So, Troy had made it through the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd couples and then suddenly forgot “who he was” and had no idea where he was supposed to be in the circles.  Usually when this happens, it’s a split second of sheer panic and then you see a face or an opening and jump to your spot at the last second.  However, in this particular moment every cast member is headed in a hundred directions and Troy found himself center stage, arms in the air, shouting for help!  Luckily, Christopher (who understudies 2 roles and knows the feeling) grabbed his fellow cast-mate and just dragged him along for the ride!  The greatest thing about this swing nightmare, is that it lasted 2 seconds and the audience had no idea any of it happened!

So, as you can see “Swing-life” can be quite an adventure and we haven’t even talked about the travel part of it yet! (next week) And speaking of how busy our lives are, this ended up taking us a week to write so at this point we’ve completed week 6 and are on to the next city and next adventure! Can’t wait to see what it brings and to share it with you!!

-Rachel & Chris J

On stage for sound check at the Fox Theatre, Atlanta

First Post- Welcome to Our Lives!

Dear World, J

We have embarked on a new adventure! Chris and Rachel are making their way across North America with the National Touring Company of Mamma Mia! Such adventures, while quite exciting, do present certain challenges- namely staying in touch with friends and family. This, along with the unique nature of our situation led us to an idea, “Why not join the information age and start a blog to let people know where we are, what we’re doing, and any interesting stories we have to share along the way?” Sooo… TA-DA! Here we are!

It’s hard to choose where to begin this story so we’ve decided to start with NOW and catch up when we have the opportunities. We are NOW in our 4^th week on the road with Mamma Mia and are currently on a bus that taking us to Canada! We are coming from New Philadelphia, OH and heading to Hamilton, ON. This is definitely one of the longest bus rides (8 hrs!) we will be taking during the tour but not our only visit to Canada (apparently they love their ABBA!) Most of the time if we’re traveling this far it will be a flight but if it’s only a couple hours we will bus. There are certainly pros and cons to both like worrying about baggage, or worrying about potty breaks but we try to make the best of either situation.

This past Sunday, we were in Atlanta and we had our first chance to perform onstage together in Mamma Mia!  It was the end of the third week and already we had what we call, an “all skate” for the swings.  This is when for one reason or another all four swings are in the show at the same time!  This happened because we had two cast members out sick, one on a personal day and one on vacation. How exciting for us! The only time we really got to meet onstage was as dance partners in the closing number of Act I, “Voulez Vous”. Sounds like a nice husband and wife moment to share doesn’t it? Well, Chris was on as a “dad cover” and therefore “Patches” in this particular number. The “Patches”persona, is not a scripted character but rather has to do with the costume Chris was given to wear in this track. It is an amazing collection of pieces. We start off with the denim, bell-bottom jeans that are sprayed gold all over and have silver flames running down the outside of the legs. Did we mention they are so tight, they’re basically painted on?  Next, is the lovely crop-top (yes) in denim and tulle patchwork (thus- Patches). Finish it off with silver, high-top converse and a shark-tooth necklace and it’s time to dance! Clearly, it’s not a choice, “Patches” was born this way.  Anyhow, it was a ton of fun and a dream come true to dance together on a Broadway tour.

Perhaps, you’re wondering what a swing is and what the difference is between that and an understudy or a stand-by.  Well, let us tell you.  A stand-by is someone who is not usually in the show, but is at the theatre and ready to go on at a moment’s notice if the star of the show can’t perform (we don’t have any of those).  An understudy is usually someone who is in the ensemble of show, whose job is to also learn one or two principle roles in case that person is out for any reason.  A swing is someone who doesn’t have a set role in the show, but has to know several different ensemble “tracks” (one person’s show from start to finish) and is ready to go on when an ensemble is out for any reason.  We are both swings.  Rachel covers all 7 female ensemble tracks and Chris covers all 7 male ensemble tracks, plus understudies one role. 

Well now it’s time for us to head to the theatre! We hope you enjoyed this first little slice of our lives and we’ll keep working on filling you in. Soon to come- a tour schedule, pictures, and more stories!!! Stay tuned!

Love,

The Traveling Myers’ J