“In today’s matinee the wheel got stuck": Haunting challenges met on stage and off at Ghost The Musical
As props go, they don’t come much more challenging than a potter’s wheel.
Even more so – especially when the actor in question has to fashion a full-blown pot in every performance.
But this is the task faced nightly by actress Rebekah Lowings, who plays Molly in the Grand’s current production of Ghost The Musical featuring the steamy scene where, in the film version, Patrick Swayze snuggles in behind Demi Moore and guides her hands on the clay.
But unlike film, live theatre only gives you one chance to get it right.
Stage director Mike Ward said: “In today’s matinee the wheel got stuck. Molly couldn’t turn it off so she got up leaving it still turning. We were all in the wings going ‘Nooooo...’ but thankfully the pot didn’t spin off. It was funny but it’s stress for stage management.”
Most actresses come to enjoy working the potter’s wheel, says Mike. The actress who played Molly in last year’s tour loved it so much she wanted to keep the pots she made on stage and have them fired.
The clay is good for only two shows before it has to be replaced, it turns out – just one of the many jobs taken care of by the show’s super-efficient backstage crew, the unsung heroes behind every live performance, be it in Wolverhampton or London’s West End.
Mike Ward took the Express & Star on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Grand’s wings area which can often throws up more drama than happens on stage. One of the first things the crew has to consider when arriving at a new venue is the rake, or tilt, of the stage. The 125-year-old Grand is one of only about a third of UK theatres still to have a rake, installed to help actors at the back of the stage to be seen by the audience but not favoured by newer theatres.
“It causes havoc for us,” said Mike. “We could never have Starlight Express here. Everything has to be battened down so it doesn’t roll, and can also affect dancers’ shins.”
A shelf unit containing individual character’s props is placed closest to the stage, each item in its own labelled, squared-off space – Molly’s letters, Sam’s wallet, Willie Lopez’s gun, coins and dollar notes, a rack of mobile phones. Next to it is Wardrobe, with seating and racks of clothes, where the mad-dash costume changes take place all overseen by head of wardrobe and wigs Helen Robinson-Tsingos. Dotted about are mannequin heads with wigs – Ortisha’s brassy red-streaked orange hair and the hooker’s long blonde ringlets putting the rest in the shade.
Ghost doesn’t pose too many challenges for her team. “Sam probably has the quickest changes although he’s only got two because after that he’s a ghost. But if anything goes wrong, we have to fix it. We become tailors, cobblers, hairdressers, the lot.”
As well as being stage director, Mike is also in the cast as part of the ensemble and doubles as both Sam’s and Willie’s dead bodies, being wheeled on to the stage prostrate on a stretcher trolley. “Three years at drama school for this,” he jokes.
All the props, including the coffin used in Sam’s funeral scene and psychic Oda Mae Brown’s crystal ball, plus the flypiece in the rafters above us, the lighting equipment and speakers front of stage, all owned by theatre producer Bill Kenwright’s company, arrived in five big lorries at 10am on Monday, and the The 10-strong stage crew spent till 9pm and part of the next day putting the set together ready for the cast’s arrival at 2pm on Tuesday for warm-up and sound checks. They will start taking it down immediately after tonight’s(SAT) show, hoping to get on the road again before 4am.
By that time Mike will be back home in Manchester – “I’m in the car before the play-out’s finished” – but he’s had a great time. “It’s a beautiful small theatre, one of the best on the tour. I’ve performed at the Grand a few times and it’s always good to come back.”
