Tale #39: A Giant Box of Chocolates

Throughout my years at VACT, there was always one thing I could depend on being there more than anything else. There was one resource we could always guarantee we’d have at our disposal. There was one tool to improve the show experience that was always easy and cheap to provide.

Sugar.

There is so much sugar in community theater.

Let’s start with Saturday set builds/move-in days. It became customary that the producer, director, or set-construction manager would bring a box of donuts for all of the volunteers. The wisest VACT leaders always brought a box of freshly baked donuts from Miller & Sons Supermarket in Verona. If you brought Kwik Trip donuts or worse, pre-packaged donettes, you lost significant respect from your crew of volunteers.

An old friend of mine tried to bring “healthy alternatives” when he was set construction manager. That almost got him fired right there.

Miller’s donuts are amazing. I live in California now but when I go back to Wisconsin in September, I want a Miller’s donut. I would like the chocolate donut with white icing and white frosting center, you know, just to test if anyone is actually reading my blog posts.

Anyways, the Saturday morning set donuts were just one of the many places you’d find sugar at VACT.

Next up, techie licorice and dressing room candy.

Another tradition at VACT is to stock the two stage manager’s desks with licorice. Licorice is a relatively non-sticky option that won’t stain costumes and isn’t messy to eat. Every show, I could expect to hear the classic Red Vines vs. Twizzlers debate. Black licorice was turned away. It had to be red.

Now, this licorice is technically not meant for just anybody, it is meant for techies. However, if you, as an actor, held enough social clout with the Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager, you could be given licorice privileges. Child actors are often banned from being backstage before their entrance because they don’t stop asking about the licorice.

Actors looking to build community in the dressing room areas often bring candy to share. I’ve seen starbursts, circus peanuts, red hots, sour patch kids, etc. It did start to get a wee bit out of hand though with what people brought into the dressing room. The original goal was stain-free items. I mean technically we aren’t supposed to have any food in there, but yeah no one listens to that, so stain-free felt like a safe compromise.

We’ve had cookies, brownies, biscotti, scones, birthday cake, cake pops, etc. I’ve even seen crockpots running in dressing rooms preparing food for cast parties.

On to the next one: staff gifts.

Within my last few years of work at VACT, we started giving beautifully designed cookies as part of staff recognition gifts. Regular teen show producer Lynn would always make sure staff got their cute show-themed cookies. If ordering cookies wasn’t an option in the budget, you’d often see nice chocolates, funny themed candies, etc.

Next: Summer Camp.

At our summer camps, we provided fun snacks for the kids. Now, before you chop our heads off, please remember we followed appropriate serving sizes. We’d give the kids mini ice cream cups, cookies, popsicles, etc. We gave out twinkies one summer as an experiment and the results were: the kids thought they were disgusting. Staff members would always grab a serving of snack as well because at the end of the day, you needed that sugar rush to push you to the finish line.

Next: Steve’s Cookies.

Lighting Guy Steve was known for baking a big tupperware bin’s worth of delicious chocolate chip cookies. However, he’d never give any heads up as to when he was going to bring them in. So cookie day became a pleasant surprise. Similar to techie licorice, Steve’s Cookies are not meant for everyone. He kept them up in the lighting booth. You have to either be a crew member or someone Steve likes to gain access 1) to the booth and 2) to the cookies. As his fake fiancée (see Tale #10), I could have all the cookies I wanted.

Finally, one of the sweetest and kindest ways of getting sugar, was when kids brought the staff treats just cuz. Which brings me to the actual story part of this post.

In February of 2018, we were working on a production of Bye Bye Birdie YPE with children in grades 5-8. Mama Terry was the director and I was the choreographer. I had just come off of directing Godspell Jr. and The Hunchback of Notre Dame back to back, so I had already enjoyed many of the treats listed above. I wanted to get back into a healthy eating pattern.

So I had determined that for February, I was going to do a reset and cut out sweets. My first week went ok. However, on the second Sunday of the month, I had my ultimate test of temptation.

A group of youth show staff members were hanging out in the office when we heard someone struggling outside the door. We opened the door and a massive heart shape box was staring back at us. Behind that massive heart shape box was a very sweet young actress who was playing Ursula in the show.

She brought the box in and laid it down on the table. She said she wanted to get us all a little something to say Happy Valentine’s day and thank us for all of our hard work. We opened the box and it was full of incredibly delicious looking chocolate.

I swear this was and still is the biggest box of chocolates I have ever seen in my life.

I sat there, in the second week of my no sweets, and just stared at this massive box of chocolate. Now I was at the beginning of my rehearsal day as I not only had Bye Bye Birdie YPE rehearsals that afternoon, but Hairspray rehearsals that evening to lead. My anticipated stress level had the potential to make me stick my head straight in the giant heart-shaped box and just go to town.

It took every ounce of will and determination I had to not eat a single chocolate on that Sunday. But I did it. Might have cried a few pathetic tears, but I did it.

Overall, during my time in the real world Candy Crush game that was VACT, I made excellent use of my OrangeTheory membership.