Break a leg / LJWorld.com

Archive for Friday, January 18, 2008

Show goes on despite cast member being stuck in cast

Catie Provost slings a crutch at a cast mate while rehearsing for a play with the English Alternative Theatre at the Military Science Building on the Kansas University campus. Provost and her fellow actors have had to integrate the crutches and her broken leg into the play they will perform at the regional Kennedy Center competition in Omaha, Neb.

By Terry Rombeck

January 18, 2008

Past Event

When: Saturday, January 19, 2008, 10 p.m.
Where: Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H., Lawrence
Cost: $6 - $10
More on this event....

Catie Provost has heard all the jokes.

She's an actress. She broke her leg.

No, she didn't take the age-old stage advice literally, at least not on purpose.

It happened Dec. 19. Provost heard a neighbor in the apartment below her screaming for help. She called the police and ran down the stairs, horrified.

She tripped, and the outside bone on her left foot snapped in two.

Provost, a recent Kansas University graduate, was scheduled to play a lead role in Whitney Rowland's play "Lights Fade, Curtain," in regional competition at the Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival in Omaha, Neb., Jan. 20-26.

The play is one of five produced by English Alternative Theatre that has been selected for the conference. Rowland wrote three of those, which is a record for the competition, says Paul Lim, the KU professor who also directs EAT.

With Provost's leg in a cast, the show is going on with a few tweaks in stage blocking. A benefit show is scheduled for 10 p.m. Saturday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

"What makes this whole incident somewhat amusing is that the character she portrays in the play is married to a very angry man who is not incapable of being physically abusive," Lim says. "But we don't really want audiences to think that she is on crutches with a broken foot because her husband threw her down the stairs or something horrible like that."

Rowland is beginning to worry that her stage writing is cursed. In addition to Provost's injury, a KU actor in one of her plays recently suffered a concussion from a car accident, and another actor starring in a Rowland play at Johnson County Community College needed vocal cord surgery.

"I want everyone to quit the shows for their health," she says.

Even with Provost's injury, Rowland says she never had a thought to re-cast her.

"As soon as I got the e-mail, I cracked up," Rowland says. "Not at her misfortune, but at my situation. I thought, 'I told her to break a leg, and she took it literally, and it's my fault.'"

The injury has led to some unexpected laughs during the play, which is a fairly serious look at a playwright's visit to his comatose mother on her deathbed.

"One of the characters says to her, 'Well, you look well,'" Rowland says. "Now, that's going to be funny."

Provost says the pain on stage is tolerable. So far, the jokes have been, too.

"The funniest joke I've heard was from my orthopedic surgeon," she says. "It was a play on words, something about how I'm the one in a cast ... in a cast."

The least funny part? It turns out Provost's neighbor - the one screaming for help - was only reacting to an overflowing toilet.

Discussion

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18 January 2008
at 7:53 a.m.

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ImTooOldForThis (Anonymous) says…

This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
18 January 2008
at 8:03 a.m.

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Soapdish (Anonymous) says…

Wow…who wee'd in your cheerios?
18 January 2008
at 9:08 a.m.

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artplane (Anonymous) says…

ImTooOldForThis:

What an incredibly rude thing to say on many levels who asked you what is news worthy? I can't imagine how devastated she or her friends/family must be reading your entry. Try thinking before you spew your hateful comments.
18 January 2008
at 9:12 a.m.

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bburns03 (Anonymous) says…

wow…some of the things people say on here. This girl happens to be one of my best friends. She is an amazing girl who is talented.—some people really need to get a life instead of bashing people on an internet forum.
18 January 2008
at 9:32 a.m.

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fu7il3 (Anonymous) says…

“It happened Dec. 19. Provost heard a neighbor in the apartment below her screaming for help. She called the police and ran down the stairs, horrified.”

So,it is a waste of time to hear about a girl who heard a scream, called police, then broke her leg trying to get assistance to someone that may have been in serious danger? Not a waste of my time. I'm glad to see it. Just because it turned out to be nothing doesn't mean that the act was any less couragous.

How about this story. Girl hears scream. Doesn't call police. Doesn't rush down the stairs. Doesn't break leg. Neighbor found dead the next day. Instead of “I broke my leg trying to save my neighbor from the attack of an overflowing toilet.” It would be, “I thought I heard a scream, but I ignored it because it wasn't my business.”

Hats off to the girl. More people should be like her.
18 January 2008
at 10 a.m.

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rjmwx81 (Anonymous) says…

Forget the actress, what the heck happened to the neighbor?
18 January 2008
at 10:10 a.m.

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mom_of_three (Anonymous) says…

That is going to make a great story for a talk show one of these days when this girl becomes famous.