BWW Blog: Molly Garner of BIG FISH - The First Day of School

The First Day of School

On October 6th Musical Theatre West sponsored a Meet-the-Cast dinner prior to the first evening rehearsal. Food was provided by the delicious local restaurant Forbidden City, while the donors and board members who were there to meet the company provided desserts.

The first day of rehearsal feels very much like the first day of school, and in theatre circles it is consistently referred to as such. What to wear? I had chosen a not-trying-too-hard-but-still-cute sundress. I noticed the other girls had all chosen variations on the same theme. I also noticed that all of them are gorgeous. We're kind of a really good-looking cast. (Not to brag, but...) I arrived a little late, so I was confronted with the familiar first-day-of-school question, "Where do I sit at lunch?"

I spotted one seat available at the creatives' table. I had already met Peggy, the choreographer; Karen, the wardrobe supervisor; Larry, the director; and Mary, who does everything at Musical Theatre West. So the table wasn't that scary for me. As I sat down, I noticed I was the only one who had chosen to partake of the wine. I immediately called myself out for it.

I was sitting between Matt, the music director and an actor named Zach, who plays Don. I spent most of the night trying to figure out if and how I knew Zach. He has one of those faces that looks very familiar... but I think he just has One of Those Faces. Zach could totally turn out to be one of my best friends on this show, but as of Monday our attempts at small talk kept hitting a wall, even though we did have some things in common:

"You have a baby? I have a baby, too. A daughter."

"Oh, how old is she?"

"Nineteen months. How old is yours?"
"Seven months."

(Pause.)

"What's her name?"

"Fiona."

"Oh, I love that!"

"What's your daughter's name?"
"Delilah."
(Another pause.)

And so on. I didn't know Zach well enough to tell him that Delilah in fact had diarrhea for the last four days, and that you should never feed your baby cantaloupe, and that if you do, you should use it sparingly. I also know that when it comes to babies, I can Drone. So I stopped myself before I started. (And I finished my wine.)

Finally the time came for everyone in the room to introduce themselves. Zach stood up and gave a very cute and funny introduction, which made me feel like maybe we will be friends once I feel free to talk about diarrhea. I gathered from the rest of the introductions that most of the ensemble know each other from other shows at Musical Theatre West or elsewhere, and some had (very recently) gone to school together. Most people included their alma mater. I spent most of the time trying to figure out how I could work my baby into my introduction because, as I said, I can Drone. When it was my turn, I said, "Hi, I'm Molly. I'm playing the Witch. This is my first show at Musical Theatre West. I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University... some years ago. [Small laugh.] Most recently I closed the national tour of Billy Elliot-in Sao Paolo, Brazil, nonetheless. In March I gave birth to my daughter Delilah Grace."

Drone avoided.

The rest of the night went well. I learned some fun facts about Musical Theatre West. It began as the Whittier Civic Light Opera over 60 years ago before settling in Long Beach in the 1990s. They fully own the building we were sitting in, which is a major accomplishment for any institution, even more so for a theatre company. They raise about 70% of their budget from ticket sales, while the rest comes from the community, which is also impressive, as their budgets can run up to half a million. (They bought the Broadway costumes and sets outright.) They also provide meals in between shows for the actors, which for an actor is a HUGE DEAL! One assumes wine will not be provided with those meals... but we'll see!