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Video: A Declassified Understudy Survival Guide from Megan Kane
Sep 3, 2024
In this video, andamp; Juliet understudy extraordinaire Megan Kane, who is usually onstage eight times a week as Lucy, breaks down how she manages doing double understudy duty as Anne and Angelique.
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I close my eyes, I take a deep breath and I say
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You can do it. ♪♪�
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Hey everybody, I'm Megan Cain. I play Lucy in Anne Juliet on Broadway
0:17
I also understudy Anne Hathaway and Angelique the nurse. Well, when I first auditioned for the show
0:23
I always knew that this particular track came with an understudy role as well
0:28
well, two understudy roles. So it was one of the things that really drew me to the project
0:32
because I think just being able to use multiple parts of my brain to cover multiple roles at a time was really, really exciting to me
0:39
So when I found out that I booked the show, I also found out that I would be covering these two roles
0:45
I think having a very large sense of play, being able to bring yourself to multiple roles
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requires just being really familiar with who you are and what you have to bring to each one
0:58
because you are not the person that plays the role. So, I mean, eight times a week
1:02
You play the role every so often. So finding a sense of yourself to be able to bring to it
1:09
being able to let things go when they don't go 100%, being able to just kind of say
1:17
that happened and I'm moving on to the next moment. For me, it was really important to keep three separate books
1:26
Three separate scores and three separate scripts because each script I could write exactly what I needed to know
1:32
for that particular track. And then to this day, when I go on for Anne
1:36
or when I go on for the nurse, I can grab that script and I can go over notes
1:40
I write my notes in the front of the script as well. So I can grab that script and go
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oh, right, that is across the stage right. Or for Anne, it's across the stage left
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It's just a really helpful guide, and for me, it's important to compartmentalize each track
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so that I don't mix them up. So we have rehearsals towards the beginning of our run
2:00
They were more frequent. We would do music rehearsals with our associate music director
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and learning all the different harmonies that you need to know for both of my tracks
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They sing different harmonies during the same song. So it was really learning music first and then we went in
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and I was lucky enough that there were many people going into the show in their understudy tracks
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so we had a lot of people to play with when learning the track. And now that we've been up and running for a minute
2:27
we have sporadic rehearsals, just brush-up rehearsals to make sure that things are staying fresh in our brain
2:33
I think it's different for everyone. I think everybody has different needs as to how to stay up
2:38
on all the things that they need to know being an understudy. For me, it's about going over the lines
2:43
just maybe randomly saying to my friend or my castmate or my husband, hey, can you run this scene with me
2:49
Or oftentimes backstage while the scene is happening on stage, I'll just mouth the words to kind of just keep it fresh in my brain
2:57
Keeping up on voice lessons, keeping up making sure that you remember the harmonies for each role
3:02
and yeah, I think just constantly preparing your instrument for being ready at any moment
3:10
So I'll get a text message from our stage manager, hopefully there is enough time to do that
3:15
I'll get a text anywhere from really early in the morning to just a couple hours before the show
3:20
And then, gosh forbid, should there be an emergency during the show
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it'll come over the loudspeaker, hey, Megan, you're on for such and such track
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I'll go downstairs, get ready, and be on stage as quickly as possible
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And also something that's very cool is that sometimes our principals go on vacation because everybody needs a vacation
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So sometimes we'll actually know in advance that we get to go on, sometimes for a week, sometimes just for a day if it's a personal day
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So then we get to invite our family and our friends, which is so special because it is such a gift to know in advance
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that you're going to go on and really have a moment to prepare and celebrate with everybody you love
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So the first time I went on for Angelique, there's this amazing costume change that happens on stage
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And because it is on stage, you do it yourself. So there's no dresser there to help you
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and the first time I went to go do this quick change, it's behind a curtain rack, or clothing rack
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and I went to go take it off, and it just wasn't budging. So I ran to the wing, and our amazing dresser, Jeannie
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was right there, and she kind of helped me slip it off. Now, I didn't make the cue on stage, but like I said
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you just kind of have to cancel, continue, and keep moving. I close my eyes, I take a deep breath, and I say
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you can do it
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