We still get the odor of food when we play in the California Theatre pit. Sometimes it smells like someone is grilling burgers. Sometimes it’s a more chocolate-y smell to this nose. It’s distracting, but I can live with it.
At the final Romeo and Juliet performance someone very close to where I was sitting (I’m guessing it was someone in the first row of the audience) was wearing soaked in perfume. Each time I took a breath it was as if I was eating the scent. Yuck.
The other day, at a rehearsal, a colleague who is a heavy smoker came to a rehearsal after doing the cigarette thing. I felt as if I was inhaling cigarettes. Yuck.
Sometimes people bring magazines or books into the pit. If there’s a lot of down time it’s quite possible to read. I have rules about this (for myself and my students, mind you; I can’t make rules for my colleagues!), most not scent related. First, If the audience knows you are reading, stop! It’s easy to put the reading material on the stand and keep it out of view. Some audience members are bothered if they believe we aren’t fully into our performance, and don’t believe we’ll play well if we are reading during rests. I rarely read; I just don’t feel connected when I do, and I enjoy listening when I’m not playing. Also, if you miss an entrance, stop! (If the magazine or book is so engrossing it causes you to miss an entrance you shouldn’t read.) And, finally, if the magazine has perfumed inserts please remove them! They can really smell up the pit. Simple, eh? Too bad some folks don’t know about the scented inserts … and too bad magazines insist on putting those in our magazines.
Just a reminder to my friends and students (and those of you who are both!); we are very “scentsitive” (Sorry … I guess I’m not resisting these silly things recently.) to smells and it is especially troubling to those of us who have to take deep breaths before we blow through our instruments.
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