More years ago than I care to remember I was the father in the third act of Plaza Suite (about a bride who won’t come out of the bathroom). At one point I was supposed to grab a champagne bucket from the bar and rush the bathroom door, to be stopped by my wife.
Since I’m pretty much blind without my glasses, I had paced the routine carefully during rehearsals. But one night the props person put the bucket on the wrong end of the bar, resulting in my grabbing the bucket, turning, taking one step and going ass-over-teakettle over the corner of the bed. Since the tux I was wearing was my own, I had to have it cleaned at a one-hour=$$$ place the next day; but at least the audience loved it.
(At one point the bride is communicating by rapping on the bathroom door, and the father has a line that goes something like, “Mimsey, cut out the rapping, you’re gonna ruin your knuckles.” In one rehearsal, perhaps subconsciously, I said, “you’re gonna ruin your knockers.” Something I never would have done during a performance.)
There have been a few, but the Globe Theatre has workshops every year for Shakespeare’s birthday, and for one of the earlier ones they did, in around 2003, I took along a load of EFL students, pre-intermediate level, ie conversational sort of. One of the workshops means you can get on the stage and recite lines from Shakespeare. You can choose easier ones or harder ones, given to you on a slip of paper. They could all read English well.
Every single one of my pre-intermediate students managed to get up on stage and say a line from Shakespeare on the stage on front of a big audience of strangers. One recited a whole speech really well - strong accent, but he got the emotional aspects just right, and the audience applauded in a completely genuine way.
One was very shy, unsure about doing it, so we all said of course it’s fine - do it if you want to, and if you don’t, stay here. There was zero pressure. He watched the others, then got out and said his line and did it well.
Everyone got applauded because getting up on that stage is brave, and every single one of them actually did do well.
They came off stage glowing - they were so lit up and enthusiastic and happy that you could actually feel it.
Their language skills improved after that, especially the shy boy - hell, they’d been on stage at the Globe, they could talk in class, they could do presentations - and I’m certain it’s one of their best memories from their English classes, because it is from mine as a teacher.
When I was in high school I played sax in a killer stage band, and we toured BC and Alberta playing on various stages in front ofmvariius groups. It was a hoot.
My Karate school used to give an annual demonstration at a large venue in the city. We’d go out on stage and demonstrate Kata, fighting techniques, etc. I had my class of kids come out and break pine boards in front of their parents. A good time was had by all.
Outside of middle school, I’ve only acted outside on grass.
I also ate a stage prop once. I was an audience member, though. (Yes, yes, that’s not exactly on topic but I thought I’d mention it.)