Theater|The stand-ins for theater performances are preparing to jump into the actors’ shoes when the real scene comes. That’s what happened to Osku Ärila on Tuesday.
Actor Osku Ärilä was just looking for props for the Helsinki City Theatre Moulin Rouge -next to the stage of the musical. At the same time playing Harold Zidler Risto Kaskilahti stopped the show due to unwellness.
It was Tuesday night. Moulin Rougen about 25 minutes of the show had passed. It had 2 hours and 25 minutes left.
Ärilä watched as Kaskilahti and the dance captain responsible for fixing the actors Saara-Elina Partanen discussed the fate of the show.
Soon Ärilä, who acts as Kaskilahti’s deputy, was asked to the stage.
Angry had prepared for just such a moment, but still the situation was extraordinary.
“I thought for a while and decided to go now. I immediately ran to change clothes and to the mask chair, where hair was smeared on my face. I had to catch my breath a bit,” says Ärilä.
The dance captain came to show the thumbs up and tell where to continue.
The break only lasted a quarter of an hour. The band started playing. Ärilä noticed that “replies started coming out of the mouth”.
“It was it was all absurd, but at the same time I felt like I was in good hands. The actors supported me”, says Ärilä about his unusual experience.
Risto Kaskilahti plays club owner Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge.
Osku Ärilä jumped to play Harold Zidler, the owner of the famous Moulin Rouge club in Paris, who tries to save the club from the brink of bankruptcy. According to Ärilä, Zidler is a sensitive prankster, but also a nice guy.
It is one of the main roles in the show, but its actor also has relatively many breaks.
During the training season, Ärilä was able to hone the role in a performance-like exercise. It’s been a couple of months since the last training session as Zidler. He also used to rehearse the role always before the performance.
Even on Tuesday, just before the screening, the actor had time to rehearse the role at home until the first half.
Even during the breaks of the performance, he gathered the notes made for the role. However, it was no longer useful. The whisperer who was in the evening exercises was alerted for support.
Along with everything else, Ärilä’s blood sugar values jumped exceptionally high due to the adrenaline rush. Ärilä is diabetic, so she had snacks close at hand.
There was no need to snack on them during the show.
In the end, in Ärilä’s opinion, the show went well, despite everything.
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He considers the work of a deputy to be a service profession.
Osku Ärilä applied to act Moulin Rougeen through auditions. After the audition, he was invited to portray Zidler to the jury and was soon asked to stand in for the role.
Moulin Rouge is Ärilä’s first production at Helsinki City Theatre. Ärilä, who works as a musical actress, is working as an understudy for the third time in her career.
The substitute’s work is compensated in accordance with the actors’ collective agreement.
Moulin Rougen assistant director Kirsi Karlenius alternates are selected very carefully.
“You have to quickly take on the role within the framework defined by the other artist and the director. I have a lot of respect for them,” says Karlenius.
Ärilä has been involved Moulin Rougen in every performance, as he also has a background role in the musical’s ensemble.
A background role in the ensemble means that Ärilä doesn’t have a role name, but she is in the scenes as if as a filler. On the other hand, Ärilä’s ensemble role was filled by a so-called swing person, who takes over Ensemble roles when necessary.
Although according to Ärilä, the job of a deputy is “more special than that”, he considers it a service profession.
“I don’t want any kind of glory for this. I was just doing my job,” says Ärilä.
At issue it was the first time that Osku Ärilä has been asked to perform in the middle of a performance during his ten-year musical career. Also according to Kirsi Karlenius, the case is very rare.
“During my more than 30-year career, this has only happened to me once,” says Karlenius.
In the event of such situations, the organizer will interrupt the performance. After that, the conductor, the dance captain and the lighting and sound department make the decision to continue, says Karlenius. Usually, interruptions are caused by a technical fault. They have happened Moulin Rougessa twice.
The aim is to take Karlenius with the show all the way to the end.
“In musicals, we have a good stand-in system, so the show usually continues normally despite the interruption,” says Karlenius.
According to Karlenius, if Osku Ärilä had been ill, Tuesday’s performance could not have been continued.
Osku Ärilä is still playing Zidler in Friday’s show.