A CARMEN evening

For a 7:30 performance of Carmen, I arrive at the Bickford Centre around 6:15, beating the rush at the makeup table.  After putting on my costume, I apply the makeup, a routine I know pretty well:  foundation (all over the visible face), shading (along the jaw line, both sides of the nose), powder (on the cheeks, forehead, chin, nose), rouge (just a little on the cheeks), eyebrow pencil, lipstick (just a little).  I usually have some time to spare before we do a musical rehearsal and go upstairs.

At the start of Act 1, I guide the stage right curtain as it opens, then sit in the foreground.  I've improvised a routine where I sniff the flower girls' wares and look disgusted.  After the Habanera I wait in the wings for a while.  I prefer to sit on the stairs away from the crowd. (As I get older, I seem to like crowds less and less.) I come back in for the scene where the factory girls report Carmen's fight with Manuelita, then go back out until the final scene where Carmen escapes.

Some of the chorus are onstage at the start of Act 2, but not me.  Yet I tend to be in the wings then.  I come in for the scene with the Toreador song, then have a relatively long break when I can read The Pioneers downstairs.  I come back for the big number at the end. (The last time we did it, I was a soldier in the first act and had to change into a Gypsy costume for the second, but this time I'm a civilian throughout.)

Before Act 3 I have to put on a cloak.  Then Larry and I are smugglers carrying in a box of contraband from stage right.  During the tarot card number I pretend to be asleep.  Then we all move our stuff out stage left. (It took us a while to learn to exit quickly.) During Michaela's long aria I tend to sit near the stage right steps.  Then we all come in for the final number.

There's just a short break before Act 4, when I put away my hat and cloak downstairs. (Carmen and Escamillo have to change costumes in the wings because they don't have time to go downstairs.) The chorus sings its last part offstage.  Then we all come back out for the curtain call.