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okay. first off: the show was a Saturday matinee, with jenna leigh green on as Elphaba and maria eberline for Nessarose.
so before the show, mom and i went in the stage door to leave a message for derrick, saying that we'd be at the stage door so he could come get us. or whatnot. we weren't really sure how it worked, so after the show, we go in the stage door again and ask the guy at the desk.
me: i'm here to see derrick williams?
guy at desk: ...uh...is he in the show?
me: .............yes?
guy at desk: okay. hold on. *calls his dressing room, confirms it* ...okay, go through that door and to the left, down the stairs. you'll see signs.
me: kay.
mom and i follow the signs. past their call board. and wardrobe. and stuff. a short hallway and we emerge among the dressing rooms. "stephanie j. block", "carol kane", "kendra kassebaum" and "derrick williams". i stop and we stand against the wall near derrick's dressing room to wait. a costume lady is helping a techie organize microphones, and a little boy is sitting on the floor near the wall beside us. carol kane's door is open, she's at her vanity taking off her makeup. kendra's door is closed. derrick's door is closed. stephanie's door is closed; she's out sick still. after a few moments logan lipton and david garrison come down the hall, chatting. i say "great show, logan, david," as they pass; they stop to reply and the costume lady interrupts. "did you meet my son?" they greet the child and are distracted. mom and i stand still. they disappear down the hall. the techie goes away. the costume lady and her son go looking for someone else. waiting, mom and i study the dressing room doors. carol's has a small sign that says "MEAT. give me MEAT." with images of meats on it. i don't know why. madame morrible is a cannibal? stephanie's has child-drawn images of elphaba, very cute and basic. kendra's has two pieces of looseleaf taped to it. in blue marker, block letters, they read "LER... LAR... WHATEVER." and "...THAT WOULD BE... UNPREPOSESSING." derrick's has a microphone pack taped to it, i guess for safekeeping. i don't know.
 so we're standing there, and against the wall between carol and kendra's dressing rooms is a small wheeled cart of costume pin cushions and fabrics and tape measures and stuff. on top is a mannequin styrofoam head. on the head is the hat . i stare. "mom." i say. "that's the hat." she gives me a mischievous, approving look. i should have put it on. i wonder how much trouble i'd have gotten in. xd anyway. she takes a picture of me touching the hat . cools. after a little bit, david garrison comes by again and we tell him good show. he smiles. that man is SKINNY. seriously. finally, derrick's door opens. at the same time, the costume lady and her son are coming through. "OH," shouts the costume lady. "you remember fiyero, joshie? look, it's fiyero!" derrick smiles and greets the little boy, who grins, but is silent. mom and i smile awkwardly in the background. the costume lady notices the silence and leads her son into kendra's room to meet her. "hey," derrick says, smiling at us. we come forward. "i was so scared you weren't coming," he says, anxiously. "i couldn't get a hold of you, your emails were bouncing back to me."
"oh," i say "we've had work done on the server... sorry about that."
"it's okay, i just had no idea if you were going to be here...i thought, 'God, i hope they come!'"
"we're here," mom says, happily. "there's not much that could stop us from coming."
"i have a present," i say, handing him the box.
"oh, what ? for me? what... oh my goodness, this is so sweet of you..."
"it's a box." i say, shyly. he laughs. mom laughs. i smile. "i thought you'd like one."
"i love boxes," he says seriously. "they're useful." he proceeds to grapple with the difficult packaging.
 "it's an aptitude test," mom says shrewdly. "see if you can open it." derrick proceeds to make faces while grappling with said packaging.
"oh, do you..." he looks up. "do you want to meet kendra?"
"yes!" i say, gushing a little. he gets up from his chair and peeks into kendra's room.
"kendra? kendra, sweetie. i want you to meet my friend aly..." i peer around after derrick and kendra is sitting on the couch signing posters with a silver sharpie. she looks up, a little tired, a little distracted, and smiles pleasantly.
"oh hi! yes, yes, come in, i...i would get up, but i ...hello, nice to meet you." she shakes my hand.
"oh, nice to meet you," i answer, "you were just wonderful... i saw your understudy last time, so i was so excited to see you this time... you were amazing. it was such a ood show... thank you so much."
 (Darn that little boy blocking Kendra's pretty face!)
"oh, thank you," she answers, mildly surprsed. she seemed very attentive, but exhausted. "thank you very much!"
"thanks, kendra," derrick says from the door, as i exit.
"sure thing, no problem. bye, thank you, aly!" she waves and goes back to the sharpie. i stand in derrick's doorway with mom as he takes the box on in round two of their fight. he manages to wrestle the flaps undone and opens it up to reveal the 8x10 picture frame from marshall field's, encasing the picture i drew for him. it's him as fiyero in dancing through life, with the sheet music of the first four bars of DTL drawn to the right of him, and below the music staffs are the yellow brick road and the poppy fields. there is also the OZ crest, and in the bottom right it reads First National Tour, Wicked, 2005. to the right of him is a note that i wrote out, something to the effect of thank you for being an inspiration and such a kind person, you are a talented, terrific performer and you are getting better every time, and i hope to see you in many more shows to come, congratulations on everything, etc etc. so derrick wrenches the box open and just stares, getting this goofy, birthday-present smile on his face.
"oh. my. God , this is... did you do this?" he looks at me in admiration. i nod and smile. "oh my God ...this is beautiful, i..." he laughs, reading the note, and looking thoroughly impressed and moved. "this is wonderful... thank you so much, i... oh my goodness..." he gets up and wraps me in a big derrickhug, and a kiss on the cheek to boot. "thank you so much!"
"it's nothing," i insist, smiling happily. "you've done so much for me, and i just had to do something for you."
"you are so sweet," he repeats, shaking his head. "this is going on the road with me. this is wonderful. it's going right here." he sets it up on his dressing table, a prominent place of display.
 "i have something for jenna, too," i add, biting my lip. he nods.
"really? okay...she'll probably be done when we come back, if you want to see backstage first."
"sweet," i say.
"did you know she was going on today?" he asks, eyeing me sideways. i shake my head. "no? cause i tried to email you... i wasn't sure if stephanie was going to be around and i tried to tell you... but yeah... it's all good. let's go." he leads me and mom down the hall, down some stairs into the basement and shows us the prosthetics department with the monkey faces and such... and then the costume fitting room... and some extra costumes on a rack to be mended (including the dorothy dress AH). he leads us back up the stairs and into the backstage area. lots of set pieces and props... he shows us all the way around, where the girls change, where the boys change, the Oz head (which i totally touched, and is totally made of plastic and is lighter than it looks) and the bubble and the kiamo ko stairway. they have to hang a lot of stuff from the fly, to conserve space and such. must be a bitch of a show for techies, loading things onto the tracks, taking them off the tracks, hanging them up, shoving them aside... and still knowing where shit is and being able to get at it if need be. nuts, i tell you.
 at some point mom says that she missed the giant hat in the beginning, and derrick is like "you miss the hat? we don't. the cast always thought it was really hokey, really lame... but the audiences like it i guess, i mean... i mean, really, we're all under there going RRRRGRAAARRR and the audience is like 'ooh!'...but yeah!" and laughs. (note: RRRRGRAAARRR means derrick did this series of lunges with his arms up over his head as if he were carrying something, and then like staggered around in a circle on the floor and making that roaring noise....don't ask me WHY, he just did. i wish i had a picture of that. that and his face when he was 'failing the aptitude test' oft he box.)
so i take pictures of backstage, yadda yadda yadda, and we head back down into the dressing room area. "jenna, baby," he calls.
"yeah?" she calls from a room down the hall.
"you almost done?"
"yeah, i'm coming out, hold on..."
"she'll be out in a second so you can meet her," he says, turning to me again. "and then i'm off to the gym..." he stretches his arms and starts putting his stuff into his messenger bag. jenna emerges down the hall and comes out, closing her handbag. (she seriously is TINY. like cheno-tiny. wtf.) she looks up, fresh out of the shower, and smiles at me.
"hi!" she says, coming up to us. derrick pokes his head out.
 "jenna, this is my friend aly, she did my website and stuff. and this is her mom. hi mom." he laughs and continues putting things away. i shake jenna's hand.
"hi," i say, "the show was excellent. you were very good... really good."
"oh! oh, thank you," she says, brightly, breathless. "thank you very much! it's nice to meet you both." she smiles at mom, struggling to close her bag.
"i actually, ah, have something for you," i say, pulling out the gift i had originally intended for stephanie, but thought in the end jenna deserved it more (keep reading to see my reasoning). she stops messing with her bag and stares at me with her mouth open.
"you do?" she says. "you DO? oh my gosh, i didn't... oh wow, that's so sweet of you, i..." i hand her the green tissue paper package and she blinks in surprise. she opens it like a little kid who didn't expect any gifts for christmas. "what... what is this..." she is unfolding the waves of green tissue, and then she bursts into laughter. i smile. she holds up the green rubber duck and laughs as if it is a joke between the two of us. "this is GREAT. ah, thank you so much, you are so sweet! this is so going in my dressing room. this is definitely a keeper." she hugs me and mom gets a picture of us. i notice that jenna still has green on her scalp, under her hair, and i smile more, feeling even closer to her because i know what being green (and having to wash it off again) feels like. she thanks us again and heads outside.
 my reasoning for the gift, of course, was that she was an understudy, and understudies don't GET presents or fan letters or things like that. having been one, i know. so the duck went to jenna, and will henceforth be known as understudy ducky. (i wonder if i should make that a tradition. maybe i should get a pink one and mail it to katie adams, who i saw play glinda may 7th.) so yay for jenna.
a few brief parting words with derrick, and we walk up the ramp to the stage door. derrick stops, thinking he's forgotten his cell phone; mom reminds him that he put it in the side pouch of the bag before we left the dressing room. he realizes she's right and laughs, thanking her. before we get to the door he stops and thanks us both again, profusely, smiling, and gives each of us a great big derrickhug, as if we were family, and gives me a second kiss on the cheek. he pushes the door open and we step outside. there is a cry that goes up among the crowd at the door; there are fewer (and younger) people here than last time i was there, but they recognize him and get hyper anyway. mom and i steer ourselves sideways, past those closest to the door, and turn over our shoulders, calling goodbye. "hey," derrick says, reaching for us in gratitude, "you drive safely, okay? thank you aly, thank you mom!" "thanks derrick," we answer, smiling. jenna, in the middle of signing some twelve year old's program stops, looks up, and shrieks, "thank you so much for the duck, sweetie!" and gives me this terribly happy look. i grin and wave, "you're so welcome! thanks, jenna!" and mom and i part the crowd, heading out into the street. the teenyboppers stare in bewilderement and try to figure out who we are and how we got backstage.
what a day! |
