Ride The White Pony

Oh man. I feel for you. There was one time I was doing stage crew for "Into the Woods", and I had to fill in opening the trapdoor, to facilitate the witch's smoke-filled disappearance in the next scene. I think I was even subbing for this guy, and doing a far worse job. Anyway, I had to remove a piece of stage, and had trouble getting it out at first. I finally did, but in my haste to get back to the wings, I stepped right into the hole I'd made.

I lucked out and caught myself before I fell all the way into the orchestra pit. I think Ashley nearly had a heart attack watching me barely catch myself, and drag myself out of the hole. The cast saw it, the crew saw it, and the audience couldn't have missed it. I too felt a surge of adrenaline, allowing me to heave myself up and dash off stage quickly, and escape my humiliation. At the time I thought, "This is why I am not a tech", actually, though I'm sure I'm also a danger to my own life while acting as well.

i totally remember when that happened Sean, we thought you were gonna die, i think that was the first time I saw Ash panic.

Then there was the time during the other Into the Woods production when we were manipulating the tower/tree and somehow, i still don't know how, it started to fall over WITH Emily inside it. As I remember it Nick Doan saved the day but i can still hear the gasp from the audience. that was when i realized i was better off working at the stage manager table where i couldn't accidentally kill the actors with large set pieces.

2 brief fall-related anecdotes from last night:

Claire, the house manager at the theatre (who has known me since I was like 10, incidentally) overheard a couple of girls at intermission talking about my fall. They said I turned instantly crimson with embarassment.
Claire pipes in, "That was Kati. She blushed very easy."

When recounting this story to my stage manager, Ritz, she just said, "Oh God yeah. You were beet red. Almost purple really. It was hysterical."

Great.
Luckily for me though, all the people amused by my red face were equally impressed with the 'She-Ra Princess of Power'-esque strength that I harnessed after the fall to pick the chair back up and go on.

that's blushes, not blushed.

walk it off, sweetie

Just some two cents worth of recent history:
During a scene change into "Crapshooter's Ballet" in our production of GUYS & DOLLS, I aid in carrying a large board onstage to place on two sawhorses so miraculous feats of a dancing nature can be executed off said board. Neat stuff - really.
Anyhoo, I was running up the downstage-left vom steps, back of the board in tote, when my shoe caught the edge of the stage and I too "ate shit"
Oh I ate such shit!
We have a thrust stage so my ass was in the air a mere four feet from the closest patron.

Cha-ching.

I wanted to tell my own embarrassing stagehand story to demonstrate solidarity but realized I have never been a stagehand. So I'll just reference Dustin's by now well-known embarrassing stage story and remind you that as bad as you might feel, at least no one saw your vagina.