Re: It “depends” on your contract

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Hi, Diane! Years ago, I was touring with a ballet orchestra, and we were performing in a pit which was lowered down after we had all taken our places. It was in Mexico, and some of the musicians were feeling the effects of Montezuma’s Revenge. There was no way to exit the pit except by climbing up to the stage, so we were trapped. At least there was an intermission! On the same tour, we were travelling on a bus that had no toilet facility in it, and the driver got lost. We drove around for quite a while after having had large breakfasts and lots of coffee. Pretty soon, we were looking up the words for “Stop! I have to go to the bathroom!” in our phrasebooks. He finally deigned to stop, at a little tiny gas station with one outhouse for the men and one for the women. It was like a scene out of Dante’s Inferno as that little bathroom, odiferous to begin with, was used with gusto by an endless stream of gasping musicians. Most of the men ran off to the yucca plants to relieve themselves.