A Skeleton in My Closet

This is the story of an unwelcome skeleton who just keeps popping up unexpectedly.  Here I am with him in the backstage workroom as we prepare for our show.  We've got him wired to the bridge which will be used in the romantic Music Man scene.  I made a barbershop quartet moustache and Jim stuck it on - someone else put a red light - a beating heart, inside his ribs.

We named him Horatio, and he's made it now to each one of our shows since his debut in Peter Pan.
Peter Pan was my first show. I'll never forget the huge rock we did of papier mache in my driveway.  Good grief - it probably took 15 gallons of papier mache and attracted flies from all of the continental U.S. and Central America!  If you DIDN'T have flies at that time, you can thank me!

This was Marooner's Rock, to which the evil Captain Hook chained his victims.  It seemed fitting that a skeleton be manacled and hanging there.

I arranged it and then left town for some reason, missing that particular show and his debut.  When I came back for the next show, everyone was in an uproar wondering who put the skeleton there!  (hoo, boy!)  To my surprise, I found out that the director did NOT want a skeleton in a children's show and he was summarily removed. Sorry!

So, we put him away, and kept him in a box in our workroom.  I made sure to keep him hidden, because a skeleton is just too tempting.

Ever since, he's just had to come out for each ensuing production.  We get him out for tech week only, so that he's not in a show that guests would see.  If I remember correctly, he did make it into Annie, laying on one of the orphan's beds, and unseen from the audience's point of view.  Quite a surprise to the actors. :)

Here's Horatio at Music Man tech week. At one point, Rachel lovingly stroked his skull while she was delivering lines - it was hilarious! We were honored to put him out with a friend's hat who was back from Afghanistan.  Thanks, Jeff, may God be with you every day that you are away from us.

The lanterns were a lucky nab - October is not the time of year you want to be looking for garden lanterns!  You may note the starry backdrop?  That's our 'starry night' curtain - made out of many panels of black loose-weave cloth, with many, MANY strings of little white Christmas lights safety-pinned onto them.  This was largely a project of a handful of CYT students - way to go, guys!
And just so you know, Horatio is safely tucked into his box, awaiting the next big show!  People, if you have any memories of Horatio popping up, give me a comment.  Some of them have been pretty funny.