After a visit to the ER, actor Ben Smith returns to Kechi’s 'Much Ado About Nothing'
After getting a "cocktail” of medicines and an appointment to see his cardiologist, he was back on stage the second weekend.
A year ago at about this time, Ben Smith felt a pain in his gut that turned out to be a pulmonary embolism. “It was hell week,” he said, referencing the tech dress rehearsals that lead up to opening night. Smith was playing the Comte de Guiche in last season’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” at Kechi Playhouse, which featured Joseph Ross in an adaptation of the classic.
At Wesley, an operation removed a blot clot between his lung and heart. After three days, he returned in time to watch his last-minute understudy fill in for Thursday’s final dress rehearsal before taking over on opening night.
Director Misty Maynard resisted, telling him, “You just had an operation!”
“And it took care of the problem! I’m fine!” Smith replied.
This August saw a “Groundhog Day”-esque repeat of the unwelcome excitement. On the Sunday morning of opening weekend of the adaptation of another classic that once again featured Ross, Smith felt “the same kind of pinch” and returned to the ER. Dan Schuster filled in for him for that performance, as described in my review of the show. After getting “a GI cocktail” of medicines and an appointment to see his cardiologist, he was back on stage the second weekend.
“I do not like sitting in the hospital with nothing to do,” Smith said. “I don’t like people fussing over me.”
Including his mother. “She hovered,” he said. “My dad went about his day.”
The “Much Ado” cast hovered, too, fretting over him upon his return — especially after a scene in which, after uttering the line, I shall see thee, ‘ere I die, look pale with love, he emitted a small, strangled cough.
The moment they were backstage, Ross grabbed him and said, “Please don’t die right now.”
“I said, ‘Joe, I just swallowed my own spit; I’m fine!’ Joe asked, ‘Is it me?’ I said it was either him or the playhouse, I wasn’t sure which.”
"Much Ado About Nothing" continues through August 24.
— Anne Welsbacher is the performing arts editor of The SHOUT.
Support Kansas arts writing
The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation.
