It all began as an innocent Sunday morning. I woke up, got dressed, and lazed about the apartment. Anyone observing would think it would be an average, ordinary day just like any other.
Oh, how very wrong they were.
At around 1:30, myself and my friends Scott and Nate walked into town to get a traditional Irish breakfast. And by “traditional Irish breakfast”, I basically mean a plate stuffed full of hot delicious food. We waged war against the food, shoveling it down as fast as we could. But, in the end, the food won.
Just as we were leaving the restaurant to go waste time in a shopping center, it started down pouring, so we got completely soaked…which is always fun. Which is, I’m sure, exactly how the two boys felt about going shopping (but I really needed a cardigan.)
After wasting an appropriate amount of time and money, I parted ways and headed over to the Macnas headquarters at Fisheries Field. I was called at four to prepare makeup and everything for the performers who would start coming in at five. I was a bit hesitant about doing makeup since I had absolutely no idea what we were going to be doing and only my Stage Makeup class experience to back me up.
You know in the movie Twister when it gets eerily still and quiet right before the giant F5 tornado sweeps in an destroys everything? That’s pretty much how the room felt as all the makeup artists milled about while waiting for the first called performers. The makeup and brushes were laid out in perfect order and a hush had fallen over everyone as they were lost in their own thoughts or studying the design charts for the thirtieth time (me).
Then suddenly…the tornado hit.
Thirty-three loud, obnoxious teenagers came tearing into the room. Each had to be made up with a white base, then move on to the details stations (where I was) to get kabuki-inspired makeup applied. There was no set design so we were free to experiment within reason. I got only boys, who when asked if they had any ideas, merely shrugged and left me with nothing.
Next came another group of thirty-odd teenagers. They required a pale white base before coming to me and the other makeup artists to get Bacchae-esque stripes of red and black. We were now a good hour and a half in to the makeup process when the designer asked if anyone was willing to take on a special project. I, never wanting to pass up an opportunity, immediately volunteered.
It turned out I was going to be doing the character Pan’s makeup. Full body makeup from the waist up. And let me tell you…man was ripped with a capital R.
After a few seconds of staring in shock and possibly even drooling a little, I looked at the iridescent green makeup in my hand, my tiny brush, his torso, and may have died and gone to heaven. So let this be a lesson to you kiddies: Never. Pass. Up. An. Opportunity.
About forty-five minutes later as I was covering his last arm with makeup, the Shoal of Fish showed up. I (sadly) finished off with Pan and then went to help with their makeup, which was metallic silver on the whole face and then covered with glitter. I was the last to get my makeup done, then ran to change into my fish/Buzz Lightyear costume.
There was a small fish snafu that involved me trading Abbie a ukulele for her fish (don’t ask…seriously), but we were soon headed down to the Claddagh where we would await “backstage” until moving into our positions for the start of the parade. People came out from bars and cheered us as we walked past, snapping photos and lifting little children up to see.
After waiting for about a half an hour, we were finally given the signal to cross the bridge and assume our position in front of Orpheus himself near the Spanish Arch. Orpheus was this giant metal contraption that moved and made fire. With the crowd listening to a band dressed up in the style of the Tiger Lilies (yay DK!), we waited for Orpheus to “wake up”. Once he did, creaking as he raised to his full height, we were off.
I admit, I experienced a little bit of shock in the first few moments of the parade. There were literally 50,000 screaming and cheering people lining the streets of Galway, and here I was with silver paint on my face, a piece of glitter in my eye, and a giant tin fish on a pole in my hands. I realized at that moment, I had two choices: Be scared and stick to the clump of fish, or engage the crowd and get into it.
I got into it.
We would occasionally do our “routine” we practiced as a group, but my favorite thing to do was to swoop my fish down on members of the crowd, especially little children (they eat that stuff up). We paraded up and down the streets, laughing, dancing, doing our routine, and diving our fish over the crowd.
It all led to a huge climactic ending. Orpheus, having finally found his Eurydice, stood elevated from the crowd as a choir sang behind them in the dramatic backdrop of the Galway Cathedral. Meanwhile, the Fish, the Windsocks, and all of Orpheus’s little clown children danced about madly in the street in a huge celebration.
The music swelled…and all of a sudden there was confetti. Red strips of confetti blew out onto the crowd at the climactic moment of the parade. Looking up (still holding my fish, of course) and seeing the confetti rain down on the crowd, I decided I had to either be dreaming or in the ending scene of some epic movie. Looking back, I’m still not sure I wasn’t dreaming.
Being in the parade was, without a doubt, the most amazing, life-affirming thing I have ever done. Just the sheer ridiculousness of it all makes it amazing, but the fact that the people loved and adored every second of it made it just that much more cool. I have one memory that will stay with me as long as I live: Somewhere along the parade route, there was a little girl sitting on her father’s shoulders somewhat deep in the crowd. I could see her excitement at the spectacle but also the disappointment that all the kids in front were getting attention from the performers. So I slowly crept up to the crowd barricade, and since I had a very long pole, brought my fish over the heads of the crowd to her.
The look of joy and wonder on her face as she reached up to touch the fish reminded me that; despite the whining and complaining, the late nights, the chaos, the stress, the tears, the fights, the anxiety, and the general overwhelming nature; that this, this was why I do theatre. Because, in an instant, you can change someone’s life.
Even if it’s just for one night.
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