It's an event that as an amateur-at-best costumer I've always been intimidated by. I attended last year as Prince Lir with other friends all dressed from The Last Unicorn. My costume was pretty spot on, though not entirely complete. And despite many compliments and praise on the costume and the rest of my unicorn entourage, I still felt underdressed. Trust me, people go all out on Labyrinth.
Anyway, a friend of mine called me up and asked if I would be interested in joining the cast. At the time I had no money to build a costume and buy a ticket, so being given a role to perform at the event was the perfect solution. I joined up, came in to meet the team, and eventually got to rehearsals. As I'm getting inducted into the cast and crew, I gotta say I felt really out of place. Not only because I was a last-minute addition to a fairly well established clique of performers, but because I knew nothing of the show element of LoJ. Not only was I shamefully unaware of the shows last year, I had no clue of what this year's one was about. They told me I would be playing a Lich, who rule of the Talisk, a race of Dark Elves who branched off to practice soul sucking as a method of self preservation rather than the other group who--and then I was explained the long history of elvish politics. This started with them asking me, do you know what a dark elf is, and me cautiously responding with "...an elf, but.. darker?" Eventually I caught up on my role in the production, and the show in general, but I never really had a grasp on it. Still, as long as I knew my part, I was fine. I could tell this was a great group of people who were passionate about creating a quality show and fully capable of doing so. And they were really nice. When it comes down to it, that's all I need to work.
So now it was time my scene. I was playing a relatively small role, only needed for two scenes. In the more involved scene, I come out to drain the energy from our leading lady so that I may restore my own life force and continue existing. If I recall correctly, the directory wanted me and my lich companion to appear as broken when we moved, and remain low, so that when we are first seen, not only is it creepy, but it shows that we are weary and frail creatures despite being a totally powerful threat. Then we suck some soul from the heroes and we can stand erect, rejuvenated once more, and we can continue from there. So when it came time, I mustered up my HHN experience and walked out with every joint I had bent and moved in a jagged line until I reached my victim, where I hunched over, then convulsed my chest, let my arms follow in the motion, and for some reason thought standing on foot would help illustrate what was going on. After a few goes at it, talking with the lich girl and playing around until we got what we wanted out of it, and still standing on one foot like it's a good idea, we had the physicality of the Lich crafted. Which is good, because we were also told the Lich can only communicate by movement anyway.
So here's where I start to brag. The director was pleasantly surprised with how well I moved as this decrepit being. I got praise and a few constructive notes, which made me feel really good about being thrown into this show and having to catch up to the team of very talented dancers and a practicing troupe of stunt-fighters who were brought in for the same scene I was in. What made me feel even better was at the end of the night when the fight choreographer came up to shake me hand and tell me good job. This was a big deal because the troupe was SFI, and he was one of the instructors, and I was this kid who was looking to join up with them. I don't know if he was joking or not, but I could have sworn I heard him lean into the director during one of my run-throughs and say "I wanna work with this guy." I was ecstatic. Whether or not that is true, having him come up after to tell me I'm doing good work still made me feel awesome. And as if that wasn't enough, the director told me I should look up a certain play, because "if [I] can talk as half as good as [I] can move", she wants to work with me on this play. How awesome is that?! I could've just been offered a hearty role in a pretty cool sounding play from a rehearsal! And to keep me invested in this group of people, not that they really needed to, these two came up to me after most every rehearsal and reminded me that I'm still doing very well. Which I never tire of hearing. It's always good to know I'm doing good work and making my directors happy.
As rehearsals continued my lich companion and I got compliments from others who were coming in to the rehearsals to see what was going on. And by compliments I mean people saying we were genuinely creepy and looked really messed up. That made me feel so good, which is odd. Honestly, I can't tell how I'm coming across, and to be perfectly truthful, I can only imagine that I look like I'm just convulsing around like a dingus, so I welcome reassurance in that what I'm doing works. Especially when I'm surprised to hear one of our rehearsals is going to be broadcast.
So finally the weekend we've all been waiting for comes. My costume is wicked, they scrapped the prosthetic I was supposed to wear which makes me happy, and I'm well rehearsed. I'm very excited for the night to come. The first of the two nights only involves my smaller scene in the grand ballroom, so most of the night is spent wandering around with my horde of talisk minions, just bein' creepy. We had a whole fellowship of evil in our group, and I declared myself the Lich King. Mostly because of wanting to reference Adventure Time, partially because there was only one male lich, but also because I had warrior guards, scouts, a handler, and a grand something-or-other-lady who kept everyone in line. The pretty-boy host of the event Sypher may have his court, and they may own the place, but I had my own. And ours was way more badass.
But I digress. We're out to entertain the guests and give an appetizer of curiosity toward to grand production. Whenever we cross paths with the elves we have a stare down, or whenever I see a Knight of Sypher I cower behind my warrior minions. Actually, I do a lot of cowering. All the time. The other lich and I were informed that we are totally afraid of a fight. Cuz we're old. And because I'm old I'm holding onto one of my helper talis every time I walk down a flight of stairs. It made for a grand entrance most every time, which I found amusing. I'm sure most every single one of the guests didn't realize we were part of the show. They just assumed we were a group of fans who were way too into their costumes. We had people coming up to guess what we were, and then felt "completely dissed" when we wouldn't respond in English. I had someone come up and compliment my leather work, then persistently suggest I enter a contest they heard about. It was kinda awkward. Still not as awkward as when I would point out friends and say something raspy to them, thinking that since the prosthetic was gone I was easily recognizable, but instead only getting legitimately weirded out looks. Later I toned down the character so I could actually get to spend some time with a few of my friends who I was very excited to see without creeping them out. At least not too much. Still, the night was spent with me wandering around in character, trying to incorporate all the weirdness I had been directed and encouraged on, and hoping it creates an impression.
Saturday night was the big night though. At least for me. This was when I got some good stage time and get to fight a knight with dark side of the force powers. I was hella excited for that. Unfortunately, preparing for the night was about as rocky as it could get. I'm not hear to bad mouth, but I'll say that problems arose and we had a very late entrance to the ball. We didn't do nearly as much walking around as before. And when we did, it was rather hurried. I didn't get to fall back and see anyone like I had the previous night. Still, I remained excited for the stage performance. Our group had grown, and despite attempts to get all the talisk together in the same badass way we had on Friday night, it just wasn't happening. So when time came the seven of us made our way backstage, and had an incredibly kickass performance. The audience responded really well, as they are expected to do when six simultaneous epic fights are happening on one stage. I, however, was very surprised how well they responded when the Lich entered. Even more so when I had my moment of playing puppetmaster with my opposing knight. Then Sypher shows up and everybody goes crazy, cuz he's a boss. Way more a boss than the Lich King. But aside from probably never showing my face toward the audience, I had a great performance. And then I was off. Quick as that. Short, but awesome.
We stuck around in the stairwell so that we may join in the company bow at the end of the whole show. So we did that. And then everybody started dancing, which I didn't know was going to happen. I didn't feel much like sticking around for that, so I and my Lich queen left. But... we had agreed to be a part of one last attempt at having a throwndown with the elves in their courtyard, so we did that. I wouldn't say it went smoothly, but we finally pulled it off. Once again, I helped kill a guy, felt refreshed, and left. It was a pretty good note to end on. Though I'm sure everyone watching was thoroughly confused.
After that I once again changed as quickly as I could into my own costume to head down and join the ball as a guest, where I would then be free to hold a conversation and eye contact with my friends. And I also got to stand up straight and not feign that I'm about to fall over every five steps, and that felt great. I did, however, keep the all black outfit and mask motif.
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