Tornado Magnet has been a pretty relaxed show thus far. So much so that Karen Johnson-Diamond and the stage management team have been having a little pre-show fun that I thought I would share here.

I’ve been doing the majority of the pre-show chats for this show because Rona has been working from Toronto. As a result Karen (as Dotty) has decided to take it upon herself to guess what “DJ” stands for during the opening of each pre-show chat. Below is what she’s guessed up until this point – as revealed in the stage management reports. To me, the funniest thing about this is that Karen actually knows what DJ stands for; I’m not sure if she remembers though. Dotty on the other hand has come up with some crazy guesses.

The other bit of fun they’ve been having in the pre-show is coming up with an “excuse” for Alec, the apprentice stage manager, to go out on stage and give Dotty her cue to start playing “Sweet Caroline” on the accordion. This is the official beginning of the show and happens right before the pre-show chat. It’s not the conversation they have that is important; it is just the fact Alec has come out to talk to her that is the cue. So they thought they’d have a little fun and say something a little more interesting than “this is your 2 minute cue”. Below are the excuses for starting in 2 minutes that they’ve come up with up to now.

As more of these happen each day, I’ll update them on the Lunchbox Theatre Twitter page. Follow us @lunchboxtheatre to see what wackiness is made up each day before the show even starts.
-dj

February 26 - DJ was Dijon
February 27 Evening - DJ was Derek Joseph
March 2 - DJ was Desmond Joshua, and the 2 minute call was “We were locked out of the booth.”
March 3 - DJ was Dexter Joshua, and the 2 minute call was “Rosie needed to finish reading the lighting board manual.”
March 5 - DJ was Dweezl Jasper, and the 2 minute call was “Rosie has to finish a level of her video game.”
March 6 afternoon - DJ was Dilly James, and the 2 minute call was “DJ couldn’t find his pre-show chat script”
March 6 evening - DJ was Dasheel Johnson, and the 2 minute call was “We are still looking for the place where we turn the lights on and off from”
March 7 - Caroline was Christine, and the 2 minute call was “ we are waiting for a couple more lunches”
March 9 - DJ was Denmon Jacob, and the 2 minute call was “The Stage Manager for the next show came in and, well, you know Stage Manager’s”