My Time at Temple Studios, Part 27

Show #27

Wednesday, July 2: 7 pm

 I did a little better in the lift lottery with this show, owing to the fact that I didn't need to stop by the box office. I managed to make it into the second lift, manned by Luna (Kathryn McGarr), who patted my shoulder and gave me a “lovely to see you again” on my way in. I got off on the first floor and zipped across the arcade over to the studio back door, heading for Studio 5. My goal was to catch an old favorite, who I hadn't spent any extended time with since September: Emily Mytton's Alice Estee. Previous experience (with other Alices, a key fact that I didn't consider) told me that she should probably be in there with Claude and Frankie, just prior to heading downstairs for Frankie's initiation.

What I neglected to count on was the earlier weekday entrance times, as I explained in my previous post. I actually made it to Studio 5 mid-Bulldog – the middle of the song, anyway. The room itself was empty, save for a single black mask near the door. I slowly wandered, thinking I'd take the opportunity to finally check out the back side of the set, but when I got there I was met by the sight of the actors milling about, otherwise hidden from view. I quickly returned to the center of the room, feeling very self-conscious about it. I didn't even see how many of them were back there, although I did identify the iconic grey jacket of Claude (Omar Gordon). While I waited for them to emerge, I wandered over to the dressing area, where I found Faye (Sonya Cullingford) and Dwayne (Oliver Hornsby-Sayer) engaged in kind of a low-key, extended version of their post-Bulldog flirtation. Basically, filling the space until it was time to start in earnest. Still, I'm not one to pass up the opportunity to watch Faye do anything, so I stuck around until Claude wandered over to straighten up his costume in the mirror. A few intense glares and commanding strides later, and Claude and I were off to the basement, where I had to assume Alice was hiding. When we got there, he disappeared into a small locked chamber in the Masonic Temple, leaving me alone.

Everything felt off-kilter. Even the large openings between the Temple and the Antechamber were swung most of the way closed. The music droned on and on as I waited, seeming to last longer than it ever had before – but of course, that was impossible. Soon, I heard Frankie (Daniel Whiley) in the antechamber and slipped over there to watch him get creeped out by the effigies of Marshall and Mary. When we returned to the Temple, Claude had emerged, dressed in his initiation outfit. He opened the door between the Temple and Antechamber a little farther and took up a spot near the orgy table. Then. . . he stood in his spot, motionless. And continued to stand there. I feel certain that Claude never waited there for that long before, but there he was. Finally I heard a key in a lock, and Alice strode in, followed by Dolores (Bryony Perkins) from the other direction, and finally Stanford (Sam Booth) and his white masked companion. I took up my usual position and it was time to get the show on the road. It was nice, returning to the initiation after so long away. And nice to be enjoying some Studio creepiness, since my previous show had been almost entirely town-based.

After the initiation, Alice was the first to leave, and I zipped after her. She paused outside the changing room, then gestured inside with a snippy “well come in, then.” The door locked behind me and Alice's 1:1 began. When it was finished, unlike the last time I had it, she left the room with me, and we both headed to the Temple Anteroom for the rolling desk dance.

Last time I saw this dance, I commented that the magic had worn off, and my interest was waning. I'm not sure why, but this time felt a lot better. Perhaps it was the two month break, or perhaps it was just because it was Emily. I feel kind of bad saying this, because I do like both Laura and Pascale's performances as Alice (especially Laura), but it may be that the rolling desk dance just needs Emily. At any rate, it was much more enjoyable this time around, and I got a real kick out of her drunk/drugged style of walking at the end – which make all sorts of sense, because her walking style has always been the best thing about her Alice. She makes such a production of it that you can't help watching, and usually chuckling a bit. It's glorious.

I followed her out to the hall and around half of the basement to pick up the wheelchair, and then we were back in the Temple for the orgy, at which point I was surprised to find myself getting a little bit misty. I do so love that sexy line dance. . . but I also knew that this was certainly not the last time I would see it, so why was I getting worked up?  Emotions, man.  No figuring them.

Afterward, Alice gave Dolores the role of the grandmother (she makes the most horrible faces when she's mocking Dolores's labored breathing), and then we headed upstairs for the murder. This felt all kinds of wrong to me – we went up the back staircase near the anteroom, then crossed through the ornate bedroom and backstage nexus on the way to Studio 2. I could have sworn the last time I followed Alice at this point we used the staircase that comes out near Studio 5. Times change, I guess. Alice grabbed a white mask in the hallway outside of Studio 2 and took him/her (don't remember which) to the murder, which was actually quite nice to see up close and uncrowded again. I've taken to watching from the stage most nights at the end of the show, just to avoid dealing with the crowds, so it was almost a new experience.

Then we headed upstairs for the delightful casting dance in the secretary's office, though it seemed a bit more subdued than I remembered. Also, Claude's chair seemed to be broken, and he took a slight tumble in the middle of it – but he managed to get back into the groove with as much dignity as possible.

At this point, I knew it was about time to leave – I wanted to catch the Dust Witch, and I knew she would be emerging somewhere around scene 2 or 3. I stuck with Alice a bit longer and watched her berate the Gatekeeper (Paul O'Shea). Best part: mumbling “what is this, a god damned holiday camp?” when she found his hat not on his head. Then, when she headed back into the Studio, I took my leave.

But I didn't head up to the desert right away. Suddenly I heard the first strains of the Codfish Ball coming through the wall just a few feet away from me. Quick debate in my head – there's a common theme to all of my attempts to arrive at a particular scene: invariably, I am early. Thus, I can afford to wait one more scene, right? Right?

Sure. I slipped in the back door to the boardroom, taking up a spot right behind Mr. Stanford. Best seat in the house, really, and a trick that I would have to remember for the future (because rest assured, I would be seeing Faye again). It was absolutely lovely – I love that number as performed by any Faye, but Sonya has the perfect mix of innocence and aggression to turn it into pure magic. I was tempted to stick around, but the Dust Witch beckoned.

If you're wondering why I was so dead set on seeing the Dust Witch, it's because she was played by Marla Phelan, who was my favorite performer at Sleep No More. I was very excited when I heard she was joining the TDM cast, but to this point, she had not performed at any show that I attended. I would have preferred to see her play Wendy, or Dolores, or, you know, any role where I could see her face – but beggars can't be choosers.

Even with my one-scene delay, I got to the desert slightly early. I've really got to work on that. I wandered through the chapel for a bit, trying to commit it all to memory, than went back outside, where I found her approaching from the darkness. I also found her entourage, a terrifying swarm of white masks that emerged from the darkness behind her and then just kept emerging, one after another. How had she accumulated so many after emerging from a locked room mere seconds earlier?

Fortunately, since I was coming from the direction of the chapel, I was able to slip back in and get a good spot for the endless pouring of sand from the bible and the preparing of the paint for Miguel's anointing. Over the course of these two bits, I started to notice something she was doing – she kept reaching out to the white masks, as if she was about to take their hand. But then she'd just move past them. This led to masks sometimes neglecting or refusing to move out of her way at first, because they thought she had just chosen them for something (confession: I was one of those people. Just a single time). It wasn't until she left the chapel that I finally became clear on what she was doing – it was the blind act. She was feeling her way around. The moment of revelation was just as she passed through the doorway – for a second, she slipped into a shaft of light and I could see under her veil. She was staring straight ahead, with the dead, thousand yard-gaze of the blind. I have to give her a lot of credit for that – with the veil in place, there's no reason she would need to be performing with her face. It was a hundred to one shot that I saw it. But she did it anyway.

At Miguel's (Georges Hann) anointing, I found myself staring down at the ground for much of it. The Dust Witch was standing directly in a spotlight, and as she reached out to him, seeming to almost direct him with the contortions of her hand, the angle of the light turned her hand into a giant claw, emerging directly from her feet. It was fascinating to watch the changing shape of it in the sand, and I couldn't tear my eyes away.

Once the anointing was complete, she made her way to the wall and slowly felt her way around it until she got to her 1:1 room, and disappeared inside with a white mask. I took the opportunity to explore the back rooms of the factory, noting as many details as possible in order to update my model of the set. Then I heard “Catalina La O” start up and I knew I had no choice but to rush out and catch Faye's desert dance, about which there is almost nothing left for me to say – except that I loved it, of course.

Once the moonshine trio had departed, I wandered in the darkness for a bit, blissfully alone, until the Dust Witch finally re-emerged for the ritual of light. I took up my usual spot, right in the center at the end of the scarecrows and was, as usual, overwhelmed by just how beautiful it is. There are other scenes I prefer, of course, but from a purely aesthetic standpoint, nothing else can match this scene, from this position. Absolutely gorgeous. I found myself tearing up a bit again, and this time, it felt more justified. This truly would be my very last ritual of light.

When the light died down, the Dust Witch headed over toward the staircase and beckoned with her hand – for a moment, I thought she was trying to attract a white mask for some sort of interaction, but I should have known better. She was calling to Dwayne, well before he actually appeared. Kind of creepy, actually. Once he had come and gone, I followed her as she collected his clothes, catching my usual tail end of his dance at the murder mound, then followed them down to town. Marla's Dust Witch seemed much less kind than the others throughout this segment, at times seeming to outright chase down the clearly terrified man. It was less like she was supporting him and more like she was hunting him. After the cleansing, when she revealed her face to him, there was no relieved collapse into her arms like I had seen with Leslie and Luke.

At that point I slipped out of the room, assuming she would be leaving as well – that's how it's always gone in the past with Dust Witches. I thought I'd get out ahead and avoid the bottleneck. But then, as I waited, there was no sign of her. I stepped outside into the woods and saw a large crowd following someone through the Horse & Stars. Uh-oh. There is a back door in the side room with the bathtub. She must have slipped out of that while I was waiting in the center room, and was already on her way back upstairs. I rushed over to the crowd, which had come to a stop at the base of the stairs. This was odd – was it just a traffic jam? Was she performing something on the steps?

No. Have you figured out my mistake yet? It was actually Andy (TJ Lowe), who does climb the steps slowly, performing his breakdown all the way up. But then what the hell happened to the Dust Witch? I headed back to the chapel, only to find her midway through the trailer park, heading my way. I'll never know what happened while I was away, but apparently she just spends more time in the side room with Dwayne than any of the other Dust Witches. Bummer for me.

I slipped in with the crowd and followed her upstairs, where she stood around and watched Andy and Miguel's scene (already in progress). When they departed, she waited just long enough to see the newly resurrected Mary (Kate Jackson) arrive, and then. . . left. She just headed for the 1:1 room. No scene with Mary. No comforting. I don't feel especially good about that – the Dust Witch has so few scenes as it is, and that one in particular is really the only time (outside of the 1:1) that she feels sympathetic. It's important. Alas. At any rate, I had come full circle, so when she disappeared again with another white mask, I headed back downstairs.

I wasn't really sure what to do at this point. My first thought was to take a stab at a Barman loop, since I hadn't ever done one before – but when I got to the Horse & Stars, he was nowhere to be found. I headed out into town, where I found Carl Harrison's Tuttle returning to his shop. Ah-ha, let's try him again. I got to see him do an interesting scene with the clown doll, moving it around his shop window and drawing Lila (Kath Duggan) toward him as if entrancing her. Playful, in a very creepy way. He left the shop to sell her the doll, and I wound up standing right to the side of the door, between it and the sign. Once the doll was sold, he headed back for the shop, then turned back to her, standing right in front of me. They exchanged a few more words while he slowly stepped backward, squashing me against the wall. I flattened myself as much as possible (which is not that much, admittedly), but there was nowhere to go. On all four sides I had either the sign, the door frame, Tuttle himself, or a throng of white masks. Quite a relief when he finally slipped back inside and closed up shop.  Moving on.

Off to the side, Dwayne was beginning his solo dance for the Drugstore Girl, but eh, Dwayne. So I went back to the bar for round 2 of trying to find the Barman (Nico Migliorati). This time I found him, all right. I also found packs of clearly enamored women encircling the entire bar, leaving nowhere to stand. Sigh. Back out to town. By this time, Faye and Mary had arrived and I found myself much more interested in watching the dance. Since it was already underway, I decided not to try to exit the Saddlery, and watch from there. It was an interesting vantage point – I couldn't see as much of the dancing, but I had a much better view of everyone's faces, from closer up. I was struck by just how petulant Faye was, right from the get-go. There was never a point in that dance where she was unaware of what Dwayne was doing with Mary, and she was not happy about it at all.

After the dance ended, I headed back to the Horse & Stars one more time, and caught Conrad's (Ben Whybrow) Cabaret. By this time, I had had enough of drifting around, and decided that I should just do what I had clearly been subconsciously trying to do all night – a Faye loop. Rather than chase her down, though, I stuck around for Conrad's undressing (and Nico's Barman's hilariously over the top reaction to it), knowing that soon she would come to me – and as soon as Conrad left she did, which meant I had a perfect spot for her flirtatious dance with the barman. Afterward, we headed to Bulldog and I used my usual trick of cutting through the saddlery to catch up to her at the Studio back door ahead of the crowds.

I wound up watching Bulldog from a new position, right on the end of the bedroom set. Not bad – though I couldn't really see Faye and Drugstore Girl (Lily Ockwell) in the kitchen cupboard, which was a bit of a shame. It did leave me in a good position to catch Dwayne and Faye's backstage interaction after the song, where I was surprised to see Dwayne acting in a not-entirely dickish manner. He was bordering on respectful, even (the note was delivered with a “got something for you, ma'am.”)! Somewhere during this chain of events I was unsurprised to get a nudge in the ribs from my friend Alexis, also known to be a confirmed Faye/Sonya fan. Looks like this was going to be a buddy loop.

After Bulldog came one of Faye's most joyful scenes, as she finds all of the new goodies that the Seamstress (Annabeth Berkeley) had left out for her. It culminated in something I hadn't seen happen before – an actual scene between the two of them. Well, technically I'd seen it the night before during my loop with Miranda's Faye, but never prior to that. Previously they'd always only met in passing, or not at all. It left me with a bit of a question about the Seamstress. She was very pleased that Dwayne was making moves on Faye – was this just because that was part of the plan? Because the whole Faye situation is what gives him the confidence and drive to make his final move on Mary at the hoedown? Or does it indicate a bit of rebellion on the part of Miss Dove? Maybe she's pleased because she thinks Faye has a shot at disrupting the affair. She has seemed to become less and less satisfied with the whole studio conspiracy over the final months of the show, so. . .

But anyway, back to Faye. Things proceeded as usual – she witnessed the car dance, chugged some vodka (her gagging, coughing reaction stood in stark contrast to Miranda's drinking the night before), and then danced around Dwayne's trailer. One thing Sonya does here that I love – she actually pulls a cigarette out of the case on the table and uses it in her dance instead of miming, the way that the others do. And then the way she tosses it back with such disdain and disgust, letting it represent Dwayne – fantastic. Another interesting note is that she's much less flirtatious with Andy than any other Fayes – they didn't even reach the point of the near-kiss.

Then it was up to the desert for, yes, my second desert dance of the night. I found myself a good spot, peeking through the gap between one of the columns and a white mask, but then he shifted his weight and blocked my view. I moved to the other side of him and watched through the newly created gap – and then he shifted, blocking my view. This continued throughout the entire dance. Good thing I had already caught it once. I love the way Sonya plays the end of the scene – she runs away, laughing and singing, reveling in her dominance and victory – but then, once she is away and on her own, she lets loose with a venomous “gotcha,” revealing just how upset she still is underneath. It's the layers that really bring it to life. Speaking of being upset, prior to this loop I had never picked up on just how angry she was with Dwayne at the hoedown. Every time he came near, she would recoil and glare and on occasion, it was enough to make her break out of the choreography and completely stop dancing. So much anger – I guess her revenge wasn't as satisfying as she had hoped.

The journey to the motel was much less steamy and aggressive than what I had seen the night before, but actually more in line with how I like it. I prefer to see Miguel pulled in two directions, and it was a little heartbreaking to hear Faye say “No, it's Faye” when he calls out for Mary, completely misunderstanding what's going on. Another nice touch that is unique to Sonya is to start undoing her bra before she turns around and finds Miguel gone. Obviously, she doesn't actually undress any more than any of the other Fayes, but the gesture implies a continuity of action, and makes it all feel less choreographed.

Once she did turn, she refused to believe that he was gone at first. She laughed, she searched – she even looked under the bed. It was only when she saw him going into Mary's house that she accepted what was going on. It's interesting – after having my four-quadrant Faye theory validated the night before, I found that Sonya's performance was kind of tearing it apart again. She still seems more worldly and understanding compared to Katie Lusby's version, but the difference is not nearly as stark as I had remembered. I almost wonder if she's deliberately started to play it a little younger, a little more girlish. Or perhaps it's just the contrast with Miranda's Faye. Either way, I was already a fan, but the performance was feeling much stronger than I remembered (ironically, in part because Faye herself was feeling weaker).

Accepting that Miguel was gone, Faye halfways-put herself back together, ending with an obligatory, useless spurt of hairspray that was clearly going to do nothing for her. I might have actually laughed out loud at it, had I not been so otherwise upset. She stumbled out to Dwayne's trailer, and then into the Horse & Stars, where she pulled up a stool, completely alone. After a few seconds, the Barman rushed inside, shoving me to the side and vaulting over the bar. He quickly dug around for a bottle of whiskey, but found nothing – then he pulled a flask from his pocket and poured her a shot from it – and at that moment, Nico became my favorite Barman, simply by virtue of how badly he seemed to want to comfort her. We are simpatico.

The whole sequence had a bit more dialogue than I was used to, and Faye even announced her arrival onstage (“I am a star! Ladies and gentlemen, Faye Greener!”). That extra touch right there just kills me. Eventually Harry (Edward Halsted) arrived to escort her down to the wrap party. He went with a variation on the “They invited me to the party but insisted I bring you even though I didn't want to” dialogue, which I think is my favorite version of it. I'm a sucker for playful teasing.

When we got down to Studio 2, Faye grabbed Alexis for the murder, but Harry stayed close. I'm really kind of fascinated by this ongoing evolution of degrees of Faye/Harry interaction at the murder. In this case, I was a little disappointed to see her go with a standard walkdown, rather than sticking with Harry.  Once Marshall was gone, though, I got a pleasant surprise – she released Alexis and turned back to Harry, and they danced together for a moment, cheering and smiling. There it is – that's what I wanted to see. And then, yet another pleasant surprise – she released him, grabbed my hand, and danced me across the stage, leaving me at the bottom of the steps with a kiss and an “enjoy the party”.

This left me positioned directly in front of Luna during the big stomping line dance portion of the finale, and I would definitely have to give the award for most intense and aggressive performance of that dance to her. I guess since she doesn't get to dance during the rest of the show, she has to get it all out of her system in those few seconds. It's almost scary.

And that was that.  Two shows down already, six to go. Tick-tock.