But! I also learned some kind-of awesome Paramount Theatre lore: There is a rather unfortunately located column just offstage right behind the first masking curtain. I don't know if it's load-bearing or if it contains can't-be-moved electrical or plumbing lines but it's a person-wide tower of concrete that stands exactly where a person would naturally exit from the front of the stage. Plus -- like every backstage surface at every theater in the universe and beyond -- it's painted black. The Paramount Theatre stage crew has helpfully marked the corners of the column with glow tape and posted signs to call attention to its presence so actors don't crash dramatically -- as if there were any other way they'd do it -- into it as they leave the stage. But from time to time it's bound to happen, right?
And guess what? Not only does it indeed happen from time to time, but look at the tally marks in this picture. The stage crew actually keeps track of the crashes. WITH GLOW TAPE. And even though I've never seen a crash of glow-tape-worthy severity -- and I certainly understand and empathize with the people in the rushed, in-total-darkness-situations where such crashes could unfortunately occur -- I nonetheless see this glow-tape crash tally as pants-splittingly funny. And I know a thing or two about splitting your pants on stage. And it's always funny
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