CMU School of Drama


Friday, August 31, 2007

Actor Cuts Himself on Stage

NPR: "An actor in Shakespeare's Julius Caeser got a little too realistic. The play includes the killing of Caesar by Roman senators he knew. Caesar turned to one and said, 'And you, Brutus?' But as it worked out on a stage in Aspen, Col., Brutus should have said that to himself — because he stabbed himself."

4 comments:

BWard said...

Actor's fault or crew's fault? Why would a shakespeare actor be using a real blade rather than a dulled-down one?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, echoing what bward said, I don't really get why this would have happened. But if he was ok enough to continue being onstage until he excused himself, hopefully it wasn't that bad. I also don't know how you cut yourself in the leg with a knife. Maybe it was a sword? Maybe he was kneeling? Interesting stage accident.

Anonymous said...

Wow, hum, that’s interesting. I feel bad for him being in pain , but how exactly did that happen? Who let a blade that sharp on stage in the first place? He must have had to really jab that in if the blade was dull. Not to mention the mess on stage, getting blood on the costumes. Way to go Brutus. Some pore intern probably had to clean all that up.

Ryan Hewlett said...

That poor Stage Manager. What is the best course of action after you have one of you leads hurt themselves so badly they have to leave the performance for the hospital? Best case is the understudy is in the ensemble and is ready to go on after a quick change, but how often does that happen? I have heard many a story about people being hurt on stage, having to leave and there was no one in the building to take their place. I once saw an opera where the leading lady just walked off stage in the middle of her biggest song because her voice was gone. The singer playing opposite her just stood there looking off stage for 10 minutes before the main rag came in. We had two intermissions that night. One to wait the 20 minutes it took the on call cover to drive to the theater and get dressed, and one to do the 25 minute scene change. That cost the opera a lot of money in unhappy patterns. I wonder what the price tag for the company was on that one cut leg.