The Trouble with Tape - an actor's on stage surprise

During a recent production of Goodnight Moon, our young mouse had more trouble with the tape dispenser than the script said she should.

How the scene is SUPPOSED to happen:


Account by Amanda Card-McCoy (the above mentioned mouse):
So, the normal routine is that Rona Carter gives me the tape dispenser, I grab the tape, stretch it out so that I get as long a piece as possible, and then repeat until Bobby Wyckoff calls me over. I usually have three really long strips, and when I run to Bobby they flap behind me in the breeze like streamers. Then I wrap Bobby's arm and my face in the tape.

This one particular time, when Rona handed me the tape dispenser, I grabbed on, pulled the tape as hard as I could, and a piece about an inch long ripped off, leaving the end of the tape lost on the roll. I put my little postage stamp sized piece of tape on the table, and proceeded to try to find the end of the tape. As I desperately searched for the invisible end of the tape, I started sinking closer and closer to the ground.

At this point, Sam Whited starts chuckling in the wings.

Then - finally! victoriously! - I find the end of the tape, breathe a sigh of relief, and give the tape a good tug.

Only to have another postage stamp sized piece of tape rip off.

At this point, Sam Whited starts laughing in the wings.

Then Bobby calls me over. He has been so wrapped up in his tissue paper that he has no clue that any of this has happened.

Until, that is, I grab my two little postage stamp sized pieces of tape and run over.

At this point, Bobby starts laughing on the stage. Then I start laughing on the stage. Then Sam Whited starts dying in the wings.

Trying to cover, I scream, "You're getting tissue paper on me!" and Bobby responds, through tears of laughter, "You're getting tissue paper on your own self!"

Aaaaaaand scene.