On Saturday night, Becca, Melanie, Josh and I went to a performance downtown by a dance company from Los Angeles called Diavolo. They do pieces that are rather Cirque du Soleil-ish and involve simple yet elaborate props. They did two pieces on Saturday: Tete en L’Air involved a staircase with many doors and hatches, and Trajectoire was done on a large half-cylinder that rocked back and forth on the stage. It was strange at first, but as the dances became more physical and acrobatic, it was really neat to watch.
The other part of the evening though, was that our seats were on the front row. Like, really, on the front row. In the orchestra pit, on the part that moves up and down to raise and lower the orchestra. The music for the performance was piped in, so they replaced the orchestra with seats, and we were on the front row.
Ok, so now you have an idea of where we were sitting. The pit floor was lowered part way, to be at the level of the theater instead of the level of the stage. As a result, there was a 2-foot vertical gap/hole at our feet, which I didn’t discover…
…until I dropped my purse through the hole and onto the pit floor beneath the stage about 6 feet below!!
Yes, I dropped my purse through the stage. And couldn’t figure out how to retrieve it. It was far enough below me that though I knew I could jump down, I was unsure that I’d be able to get back up, and because of a strategically placed curtain (which was very deceiving and is the reason I didn’t see the hole in the first place), I couldn’t see whether there was a way out of the under-stage area. So I went and got the first usher I could find, who was inexplicably about 5 feet tall. I’m not sure if he was a kid, or just short, but it only made the situation funnier. He consulted his boss, who told him to “just go get it.” I discouraged him from that idea, seeing as how it was a 6 foot drop and neither of us knew what was down there. He consulted his boss again, and said they’d get it at intermission.
Intermission came, and Josh (whose seat was the section over from us; we bought the tickets too late to get 4 together) came over to chat. We informed him that my purse was down below, and showed him. You could see it lying on the floor if you pushed the curtain back! Josh, matter-of-factly, jumped down and retrieved my wayward purse. Just, bloop, jumped down. As he was worming his way back up, the usher was trying to help him and ended up slamming his back repeatedly into the stage (as I said, the gap was fairly small, and vertical, and tough to get out of).
But Josh saved the day. Hooray for Josh!
And the lesson is, don’t drop your purse down the orchestra pit!
