(Featured image courtesy of giphy.com/Waitress the musical)
I first discovered the concept of stage dooring (that is, the act of going to the stage door after a performance and meeting the performers, getting your program signed and a picture with them, etc.) by accident after my middle school drama club group trip to see Stomp. On the way back to our car after the performance, my immediate group stumbled upon a group of the performers on their way to their tour bus, and our teachers were awesome enough to let this crazy crew of middle schoolers stop and chat. A few minutes later the prop newspaper that had been thrown into the audience that I had grabbed was signed (possible foreshadow to my Newsies obsession?), and a new era of my life began.
(And may I add that we have some peak middle school Deb on display: long unruly hair, faded Wicked hat, jean jacket, Cullen crest wrist cuff…fashionista, am I right?
As a Midwest kid who grew up having to scrape under the couch and save her allowance for months for a prayer of a nosebleed seat for a national tour or concert, the opportunity to meet the people who make the magic happen face to face was a euphoric experience. For the first time, the people I blasted on my CD player and read about on Broadway.com, were no longer the elusive, far way unicorns in the magical land of New York City, but were right in front of me in the flesh, stripped of the costumes and microphones and everything else that had made them another person for the course of their performance.
It was a bizarre phenomenon, but despite my often crippling social anxiety and feelings of isolation from my peers (crazy as it sounds, growing up in a tiny hick town with a weird Polish last name, a face full of acne, a stutter, and a love of musicals does not add up to popularity), I had little to no hesitation or shyness chatting with the big names of Broadway. Of course, I’ve made a fool of myself a few times, (looking at you, fifteen year old Deb meeting Bebe Neuwirth after the Pre-Broadway run of The Addams Family) but what can you do. I like to think it’s because despite the fact that Broadway’s brightest don’t know me from Eve, there’s still a connection in my head. These are the people I cheered for when they’re nominated for Tony awards, the ones whose songs pumped me up before a big audition, who had social media accounts I’d scroll through when I needed cheering up, and whose techniques I’d studied to master my own craft. (And through a bizarre set of circumstances I even befriended one of the incredible people I met at the stage door…see The Chaz Chronicles for that story).
With that in mind, I know that crazy theatre kids can be a bit intimidating in large groups simply because we are such a strange herd. Over the years people have asked me for tips and advice for hitting up the stage door, and I’ve been meaning to compile my knowledge from going to the stage door into a blog post for some time now…better late than never, right? And in honor of the upcoming Tony awards I decided I’d accompany this list with my old stage door pics, particularly those with nominees of the 2019.
Continue reading →
memoirsofatheatrekid 