Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Italian Runthroughs

So, quick life lesson before we begin: do not perform two tour shows and participate in Italian runthroughs of your shows for next months with a 101° fever. It's not a good time. Just I wouldn't reccomend it. Anyways, moving on, I'm basing this one off my day today, so enjoy! That's all, thanks for reading! Xx. ❤

Italian Runthrough: It's a colorful way of saying speed through, a rehearsal in which the actors deliver their lines and perform the action at a much faster rate. Also called an Italian rehearsal or a Russian run, it's typically employed to help combat slow or dragging pacing, especially in comedies.
-TFD Theatre Dictionary

Pippa walked into rehearsal that afternoon, not feeling her greatest, but she choked it all up to all the work she'd been putting her full energy into as of lately, considering that Hamilton got their Broadway call just a mere three days prior.

"Are you alright, Pip?" Renèe asked, seeing her younger Schuyler Sister walk into her dressing room, not looking her greatest. "You look a bit pale."

"Yeah, just tired." Pippa nodded and sat in a chair in front of the mirror to start her makeup. They were to be in full dress today.

"Jazzy!" Renèe called as "and Peggy" herself walked by.

"What's up?" Jasmine backtracked and came into the room.

"Does Pip look sick to you?" Renèe asked, and Jasmine turned her full attention to the girl that was sitting down.

"I mean..." Jasmine began. She touched the back of her hand to Pippa's forehead and cheeks. "You feel a bit warm, but I mean, you're also in this huge coat." Jasmine flapped the bottom of Pippa's fuzzy NorthFace. She was freezing either way.

"See, Renèe, I'm fine." Pippa replied.

"You don't look fine at all. Please, Pip, I know when people are lying." Renèe said. Pippa sighed, she really did, didn't she? "Exactly." Renèe sat down. "And there is no way I'm going to let you get out there in that suffocating corset of yours. You need to rest. Tech is coming up." Renèe rubbed Pippa's arm, comfortingly.

"Renèe, I'm going to be okay. I pinkie promise. I'll rest all tonight and be completely healthy for tech." Pippa half smiled.

"Promise?" Pippa nodded. "So, if I FaceTime you randomly at ten o'clock tonight, you'll be in bed?"

Pippa chuckled. "Yes, I promise I'll go to bed at nine tonight. How about that?"

"Good." Renèe laughed. "Now, we should probably get ready."

~~~~~

The cast all gathered on stage, all in costume. They all turned to the door as Tommy walked in. "Alrighty, Cast, tech week starts tomorrow morning, so tonight, we're going to do Italian runthroughs." Tommy clapped. "For the songs, we just do the blocks, okay? The orchestra will still play, but you don't have to sing. Rest your voices for tech, we'll just do blocks."

"Got it." The cast collectively replied.

"Alright, break on three," Everyone put their hands in the center of the circle. "1...2...3..."

"Break!"

~~~~~

"See, I'm fine." Pippa taunted to Renèe on a five minute break. They were set to run through the show, Italian style, three times in all tonight. So far, they'd completed one Italian runthrough.

Renèe sighed, touching her hand to Pippa's cheek once more. "You're still pretty pale there, Love. And hot."

"We just did a two and a half hour show in forty five minutes, of course I'm going to be hot." Pippa sarcastically replied.

"Well, you're still looking really pale, Pip. I don't want you making yourself sick."

"Renèe, I feel fine, I promise. And if I start feeling sick, which I won't, I'll sit these out, okay?"

"Okay."

~~~~~

The cast had been through two successful Italian runthroughs, and we're headed straight into the third.

Pippa would be lying if she said she was doing fine. In all honesty, she wasn't, but it wasn't like anything was going to happen, right?

Well, that's what she thought. That's what she thought until the stage started swaying under her heels, and Lin's face in front of her started flashing in and out of her view. That's what she thought until her mind was clouded with white noise, and she couldn't hear Lac's orchestrations. That's what she thought until she opened her eyes and found herself in the stage left wings, laying across a few chairs, surrounded by Tommy and Lin

"Wh-What happened?" Pippa asked, rubbing the side of her head, as she sat up. She quickly realized that sitting up only made her head hurt worse, so she laid back down. After a few deep breaths, she slowly made her way to sitting up, propping her back up on the theater wall.

"You passed out, Pippa." Lin stated. "Renèe told me you weren't looking well to begin with, and you just kind of froze up." Lin frowned.

"Why didn't you say something?" Tommy asked.

"Where are my sisters?" Pippa asked, trying to deflect Tommy's previous question.

"Phillipa, answer my question, please." Tommy said, surprisingly calmly for the amount of pressure that was on him right now. "Once you answer my question, I can send Renèe and Jasmine over here, okay? So why didn't you say anything?" Tommy asked once more.

"I-I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't. I just, I didn't want to miss anything because we're headed to Broadway, and, I just...I don't know." Pippa shook her head slowly and looked at her knees, closing her eyes.

"Hey, Tommy. Before you send the Sisters over, I want to talk to Pippa real quick, one-on-one." Lin said.

"Yeah, sure...go ahead." Tommy stood up and went back to the stage, telling the cast that Pippa was alright, and he started going over any big notes he noticed in the delivery of lines during these runs.

"Pip?" Lin asked, tilting her chin up. "We're going to talk about this rationally. Not creator-boss-to-actress, we're going to talk about this actor-to-actress. Alright?" Pippa slowly nodded. She started focusing on the feeling of Lin's hand running back and forth, over her knuckles. "From what I understand, you were scared to say you weren't feeling well because you didn't want to miss any rehearsal before B'Way, correct?"

Pippa gently chuckled at Lin's abbreviation. "Yep, that's about right." She instantly felt ashamed.

"Okay. And this is your debut, I understand that it can be just really overwhelming and exciting and all of that, but think back to Comet, and answer me this: before a show and tech week, do you eat mindfully or do you just eat everything?"

"I eat mindfully." Pippa nodded, seeing where this could be headed.

"Exactly. So why treat your health, right in this moment, any differently? Why not be mindful of how your body is feeling going in to such an exhausting week?" Lin tilted his head. Pippa stayed silent. She knew Lin was right. "See what I mean?" Lin asked, and Pippa nodded. "Okay, now, I'll hand you off to your Sisters." Lin smiled and kissed Pippa's forehead, slowly letting go of Pippa's hand as he went to get Renèe and Jasmine to go see Pippa.

~~~~~

A/N: Yep, that was based on my day. Therefore, I actually had a 101° fever, and didn't know it. So because of that, I passed out like not even a minute after the curtain closed after our matinee, so that was great. (You can just hear the sarcasm). But hey, I'm alright now.

And disregarding my irresponsible health choices, I still hope that you enjoyed this one! Xx. ❤