How to get rich doing community theater

Our props team and running crew for Arcadia have to provide an ongoing supply of stuff for us to carry around, including a decanter of wine (Septimus) and a glass of wine (Valentine). On dress rehearsal night during scene 7, Sasha (Septimus) opened the decanter and I learned that we would be using real wine. Effective way to get the color right, I guess.*

So Sasha and I drink a few sips from the same glass but Patrick (Valentine) has his own glass. On opening night, I noticed that his glass, which he carries on, was pretty full. Being the sort of low, base person that I am, I promptly bet Patrick a nickel that he couldn't finish that glass during the scene. "Get your nickel ready," was his reply. No cheating, so he couldn't start drinking it before he went on.

Not surprisingly, Patrick, for all his bravado, could not drain several ounces of wine in a scene where he's doing most of the talking. About physics, no less. My job in that scene is to listen to and prompt more physics talk, so I could have more or less polished off his wine, my own, and a fair bit of the rest of the decanter, had I so chosen.

My only real reason for posting this story, of course, is to tell the entire internet that I won a silly little backstage bet. And to tell the entire internet that Patrick owes me a nickel. When he pays up, I'll update this post. So if two hundred years in the future, you are reading this and there is no update, go ahead and assume that Patrick still owes me a nickel.

Update: Patrick is a man of honor. And a gentleman and a scholar. The nickel has been paid.


* My recipe for making stage red wine is Cranberry juice with a couple of drops of blue food coloring. Just FYI.