[ilovemusicals]

I am understudying for Tzeital. We are starting the show in one week, and we end in mid decemeber...so its on for quite a while...4 nights a weeks, 3 weekends, with a few matinees.
I am just wondering, with the possibiliy of poor weather and bad health, whats the chances of going on? The girl im understudying for seems pretty healthy in general.
I just understudied a full run rehearsal last night, so i just want to know how confident i should be in the lines and dancing.
In your experience with community theatre, how often has an understudy gone on?

[reedzee]

I've only ever seen an understudy go on once. During our run of Joseph, Potiphar took one show off, because he had a funeral to go to. Other than that, I haven't seen it anywhere. Probably because we only ever perform 6 shows over the course of four days. So when it comes to something like 3 week run, I can't give you any examples.

[JIJane]

I was in a UK tour of a play last year and understudied both female leads and never got to go on. It just depends...

[babegal]

Understudies are extremely impotant. Twice in the past year my high school has lost an actor at the last minute. But we never had understudies so we spent the final hours trying to fit others in the part. Our shows actually turned out better.

If you don't get to play the role, consider yourself lucky to have gotten the experience to learn the part. You never know, a night may come when she can't come on.

[AnnieER25]

Some places that have understudies will give the understudy at least one performance to play the role. Like babegal said u/s's are very important and this does give you an opportunity to work on your acting/dancing/singing skills even if you never perform for an audience. When I did a four week run of FOTR as Tzeitel I had an understudy because I couldn't do a weekday matinee. I would have gladly given my understudy more shows if she wanted them, but she didn't. You never know, your Tzeitel may want or need to take a night off.

[LisaKitty]

In general, it's pretty rare to have an understudy go on in community theatre unless it is planned in advance (e.g. a planned vacation, wedding, work or other conflict). However, it is ALWAYS a good idea to be prepared and ready to step on at a moment's notice, because you never know when that last-minute emergency may happen. And you know that the probability that Murphy and his Law will step in and cause one of these emergencies increases greatly when you are not 100% ready.

[musicalFREEK]

in the show i'm currently in... VERY POSSIBLE!... but that all depends on the health of the cast and such though...

[phantomo88]

When I saw fiddler at JCC CenterStage Louisville,Ky, the u/s for perchik was on. He was one of the best parts of the show! But most performances i've seen at the JCC CenterStage have at u/s's.

[Celeste_SM]

In 14 years of doing shows on the type of schedule you outline (which honestly, isn't that taxing), I've only had to go to the understudy once. In that case a lead was diagnosed with throat cancer on preview night and the understudy performed the full run.

Chances are you won't go on. But you never know.