What Is the "Sweet Charity" Cast's Favorite Part About Two Show Days?

Saturday, April 21 marked the two show day of Ohio Northern University's production of "Sweet Charity." Two show days are infamous among actors because they truly suck the feeling of life from all of the cast and crew involved. This production is especially draining because the ensemble and a lot of the leads are constantly singing, acting, dancing, changing costumes or moving set pieces. Our productions Oscar Lindquist, played by Riley Alexander, still has control of promoting the show through social media. In honor of the two show day, he decided to take to Instagram's story feature to ask cast and crew members what their favorite part of having two show days is during intermission of the first show. He posted the stories on the Freed Center for the Performing Arts' Instagram channel, @freedcenter. The amazingly creative responses can be seen below and costume credits go to Ameera Ansari:

Hallie Heffernan, the titular Charity Hope Valentine, answered Alexander's question with her own question, "Is this a trick question?"

Senior, Kyle Wilkerson, an ensemble member who covers tracks like police officer and Charity's former boyfriend, Charlie, responded as truthfully as he could with, "The break in between [the shows]."

Talia Heskett, a senior musical theatre major, serves as the A-2 for this production. This position is in charge of making sure microphone changes occur successfully and checks all the microphone levels before the show starts so everything sounds great! Heskett sweetly answered the question with, "I love seeing everyone all day. It's like a huge sleepover and we're all in this together."

Megan Timmons, a senior musical theatre major who covers many ensemble tracks of the show including one of Daddy's Assistants, referenced how we like to overeat between shows with her response of, "The gassy show number two."

Alec Beiswinger, a sophomore musical theatre major in the ensemble was also excited to eat in between the shows because he said his favorite part was, "Getting to eat at Viva (Maria) during the dinner break!"

Connor Rock Brunken, one of the production's fierce Assistant Stage Manager (ASM), said his favorite part of two show days is, "Louis." Louis is not pictures here, but he is one of the percussionists in the orchestra and he is amazing.

Sarah Matlow, another fierce ASM, answered the question regarding her favorite part of the two show day with, "I don't have to put props away after the show. I can just leave them out!" 

Patrick Riley, who doubles as the character Herman and an ensemble member, responded with "Not having to put my costumes away in between shows!"

Ensemble member, Taryn Lester, told Alexander that her favorite part of two show days is, "Getting to redo all of my mistakes from the first show."

Ensemble member, freshman Holden Davenport, said the very best thing about two show days has "Gotta be putting on my damp undershirt that is just soaking with sweat from the day show."

Danielle Mouch, who plays one of Daddy's Assistants, responded to Alexander with, "Getting to wear glitter all day!"

Stephen Coakley, who gets to play the drag queen, Carmen, said his favorite part about two show days is "Getting to spend more time with my castmates." 

Senior Australian musical theatre major, Kaitlin Jempson, who portrays the iconic Ponytail Girl, said her favorite part of two show days is "Getting to perform my craft with people I care about multiple times in one day... and also getting to leave my makeup on in between shows."

Joey Nicoletti, who plays the Italian heartthrob, Vittorio Vidal, said his favorite part is "Not having to take my costumes back between shows."

The amazing sweetheart, Alecia Pagnota, who portrays Ursula March, told Alexander her favorite part of the show is "Going to get dinner with my family between the shows."

Emily Schmid, who plays one of Charity's best friends, Helene, had a simple answer to Alexander's question. She simply replied, "The cast party!"

The iconic Sybil Anast, who portrays Charity's other best friend, Nickie, gave one of my favorite answers to Alexander's question. Anast replied, "When they are over so I can sleep." I feel you, girl.

Addi Helms, who doubles as Rosie and ensemble, said her favorite part of two show days is "My family seeing both shows!" What a sweetheart!

Betsey and Charity's understudy, Bridget Mahoney, said her favorite part is "Spending all day in the theatre." Following her answer she gave the camera a very cute thumbs up. Bridget is such a sweet girl.

Audrey Bivens, ensemble member and the final one of Daddy's Assistants, gave a beautiful answer when she said, "Bringing the story to twice the amount of people in the same amount of time."

Michael Swain-Smith, who portrays Daddy Brubeck, said he loved two show days. He loves two show days because his favorite part is "I get to see my best friend, Hallie, onstage twice."

I kept my response simple and honest by replying, "The never ending feeling of death inside of me."

Freshman, Ryan Book, replied to Alexander with, "I love always having sweat on my face." Ryan wasn't kidding. We get very sweaty during these shows. We are all very thankful to Ansari for washing what we need washed every night.

Alexander provided the final answer. He said, "My favorite thing is that we get a second chance to fic all our mistakes from the first show."

If you haven't already checked out Ohio Northern University's production of "Sweet Charity," you still have one more chance to see it. The final performance is April 22 at 2 p.m.