Last night was the Drama Dragon's production of Snow White and Count of Monte Cristo. We'd been preparing for 6 months.
Snow White went really well! The kids all remembered their lines and cues. I was backstage helping keep them quiet and moving set, setting props.
After Snow White I was in the green room getting ready for CMC when Shauna runs in. She looked like she was on the verge of tears!
"Do you know where my mom is?" she asked frantically. Her mom, Hally, was the director.
"I think she's on stage mingling" Says I, "Why?"
"Coleman (the lead villain) collapsed. He's in intense pain, and I don't know what's wrong!"
I blanked for a sec, and then ran as fast as I could onstage. In half my costume.
I told her what happened, and she ran back stage. Coleman was shaking uncontrollably, and kept saying sorry to everyone. Tons of people were surrounding Coleman, and I figured I just add chaos by staying so I went back to the green room and waited.
A few minutes later Mrs. McKee ran into the green room asking for soft things to lay him on. We gave her stuff, and I followed her outside to check on Coleman. He was laying outside, people still surrounding him.
Suddenly, Hally seemed to realise we had a full house out there, waiting to be entertained. Annie (a 17yr old dancer) volunteered to entertain them. She plugged in her iPod and danced. After a bit, Alex (who was in charge of lighting, and is an actor himself) cam out and they gathered a bunch of actors from the audience and did improv.
Meanwhile, back stage they had gotten Coleman "sitting" up. He was to weak to sit by himself, so he was leaning on Mrs. McKee. By then I had learned what was wrong. Coleman was suffering of heat exhaustion.
Well, it took and hour, but finally he was well enough to preform. So, we put on the play. It went great until the last scene. Coleman started feeling bad again. And he still had his big fight left! Kate (on of the backstage hands) Was worried he would collapse before then, but Coleman pulled through!
At curtain call though, while Hally was thanking us, he stood and walked back stage. Coleman couldn't even walk straight.
The worst part is that Coleman came to me and said he was feeling faint from hunger, and was really hot. I noticed he was really flushed. Those are three signs of what was going on, and I didn't make the connection. I could have prevented what happened if I had told him to get a drink and cool off!
