Some Pictures

The Bunny Scout Anthem - This is Max and Ruby's house from the outside. Ruby is in the yellow dress and the three "girls" are her best friends and fellow Bunny Scouts. Max is the kid in bandages in the middle.

This is Max and Ruby's bedrooms. Max's is on the left with the bed where he is supposed to be napping. Ruby's is on the right where she is writing a play on the desk that is further offstage than this picture allows you to see.

This is Grandma's Attic. The set rotates from the outside house to this attic scene and the fences on each side of the set rotate to display all the things Grandma keeps in her attic. This scene change always gets a reaction.

0 This is the set from the sound board (which looked like a spaceship) at the Mahaffey Theatre in St Petersburg. It was a beautiful space.

And that is what I do all day. Load it out, put it together, do a show, take it down, pack it up, drive it to a new location.

Today the new location in Hammond LA for a pajama party at the Columbia Theatre.

Onward and Upward

Breaking down- in more ways than one.

Since breaking down I have been in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We were in Ft. Lauderdale for a day off (which I spent at the dealership), a show day at the Miniaci (where all frequencies seemed full) and we opted to stay one extra day instead of driving halfway to Alma GA and then driving the rest of the way the next day. Ft L was fun; we stayed with Josh in his condo and were able to go to cheesecake factory, see a show, make dinner, go to the beach and watch some Golden Girls. All in all pretty enjoyable.

Alma GA was less so. I am pretty sure my phone was on roaming the entire time and small town south isn't my most favorite place to be. The show at Bacon Primary School went well with the exception of a few minor blocking problems due to the house taking a huge stroll Stage Right on it's last rotation. It was great to be back in an elementary school and really makes me consider teaching again.

And we had our first re-routing. I had been calling the Gospel Church in Montgomery AL for over a week with no response. On Friday I handed the calling torch to Theatreworks and they tried several numbers before cancelling the show. During our lunch break yesterday I called in for instructions and I was told they were cancelling the show and giving us new travel plans. I spent my hour making sure I could get to Montgomery from Alma (just in case) and wondering what our new route would be.

Theatreworks decided to send us to a small town just east of Tallahassee so that we would be on I-10 for our drive to Hammond LA. Unfortuantly that also meant we were no longer going to Montgomery and the cast had decided to cancel the TWUSA reservations and go with some hotel rooms we found on Priceline. Therefore we were out the money for those hotel rooms but still had to pay for our rooms in small town FL.

Needless to say the cast was upset. However, TWUSA does warn us that they can change our schedule whenever they want. We are driving their vans, spending their money and working for them. TWUSA also reserves hotel lodging for us at all sites and if they rooms in Montogomery had been the same rooms they had originaly reserved then they would have been out the money.

So today after our breakfast we are going to be making our way across the south into Mississippi. Ahh the joys of touring. Isn't this job glamorus?!

Onward and hopefully Upward.

Stupid Van

On our trip we drive 2 large Sprinter Vans. One is a passanger van- 11 seats and a cargo area. One is a cargo only van- chock full of our set and props. They are both desiel which can sometimes cause issues when we are looking for gas stations but.. on the whole hasn't been a problem.

There are several issues with the vans. The passanger van turns it's windshield whipers on and off at random. The cargo van has a left turn signal that is out. And yesterday the coolant warning came on.

Damn it.

So. we pull over. I consult the manual and Ryan and the PM for Theatreworks and then the manual again. I call my dad (who is in Amsterdam, by the way.. I found out) I hyperventailate (just a little) I purchase some coolant and pour it into the empty space marked coolant. I wait. The light is still on. I wait. The light is still on.

During this exchange my cast is sitting in the gas station eating Subway because it is our lunch hour. I run in, order, eat and go back to the vans.

The light is still on.

I move both vans to the pumps and fill them up. When the cargo van driver goes to turn the van back on the dash flashes red and says "remove key."

Well that's not good. I call Ryan, I consult the manual, I call the PM at Theatreworks. (I don't call my dad this time- time difference) Then I call the 1800 number for Dodge and get sent to a menu at a Dodge Dealer in West Palm Beach.

He treats me like a complete idiot. At one point he actually asked me what color the liquid I poured into the coolant jug was. Its green. Blue liquid is for windshield whipers and the rest of it is usually oil. Finally I send the rest of the cast onward to the hotel and one staff member and I sit in the car. For an hour. Then I turn it back on and drive (slowly, although I am not sure why) to the hotel.

We get to the hotel without another incident but now the staff is hesitant to ride in the cargo van and I have to take it into a dealer when I go to Ft Lauderdale later on today.

I hate cars.

Moving Right Along

Tonite we are on our second night in Clewiston FL. Go ahead and google map it. Oh yeah. That big body of water that they call a lake is really a swamp. The movie theatre is only open Thursday- Saturday and the big shopping center in town in Walmart. We have been there twice already.

Today we had two shows in Belle Glade FL a "college" town 30 minutes to our east. The shows were fine. I found the utter disgust for anyone from Clewiston to be pretty funny considering Belle Glade looks exactly like Clewiston AND is only 30 minutes away.

Here are a few photos from the road.

Winston Salem Children's Theatre. Don't worry Magik- the building had more space but they shared it with 3 other theatre groups AND they don't produce their own children's theatre but act as a roadhouse for tours.

Savannah was pretty fun. Here are some of the actors I work with- Josh, Mara, Brian and Virginia standing on the water next to an old steamboat. After this picture we spent 30 minutes in a candy store. YUM! Later that evening we ate WAY too much at Paula Dean's.

It looked like a Subway Station but didn't seem to take my Metrocard?!!

This picture hung over our table at a coffeeshop in Savannah. I find it to be disturbing.

Tomorrow we have 2 more shows in Belle Glade and then drive over to St Petersburg for a day. After than we drive a few miles east to Avon Park and finish the week in Ft Laudersdale with a stay at Josh's condo instead of another hotel.

Onward and Upward.

So many states...so little time

Today we are in Georgia. Savannah to be exact. So far we have been in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

8 States in 6 days.

So many attractions within those states that we just aren't going to see. We simply don't have time. We go from van to theatre to hotel to van to theatre to hotel.

But not today. Today we went to downtown Savannah and saw the sights. After a walk on the river, a trip to the candy store and a viewing of the park in which Tom Hanks discussed how chocolate and life are similar we ate dinner at Paula Dean's resturant. On Sunday they only have the buffet. It is a huge mass of fatty southern foods. All you can eat salad, bread, mac and cheese, various vegtables cooked in pork grease and meat. Not really very veggie friendly but the company was great. After you gorge yourself on southern comfort dishes they feed you dessert.

On the way back to the hotel in the rain food coma set in and now we are watching movies and wearing our elastic waist pants.

Hopefully we can roll into the van tomorrow for our 8 hour drive to Clewiston FL. Luckily.. Clewiston FL has no sights to see.

Onward and Upward

North Carolina

Max and Ruby are on the road. On Tuesday morning we got up and drove to Richmond VA where we spent the night at a Red Roof Inn. The next morning we got up and drove to Lumberton NC. That was a pretty short drive so we were able to spend some time in the metropolis known as Lumberton. (Which by the way was not named after Lumber but a guy named Lumbee)

After spending about 40 minutes trying to convince the front desk people at the HoJo to not charge the Theatreworks credit card and instead run our personal cards we finally got into our rooms. My room was bigger than my entire apartment in NYC. We had frozen dinner night in our room after a trip to Kmart and watched Waiting for Gufman.

Today we got up and went over to Givens Performing Arts Center for our first performance. After loading in for TWO HOURS the set was finally up and we started the show on time. Well, close to on time. The site staff forgot to give the sponsor a mic to use for the announcement and we had to hold 10 minutes until I finally suggested that they just use a body mic.

Overall the show was good. We has some feedback issues due to the fact that the set was on a thrust stage so the microphones were downstage of the speakers, and I had a few late mic unmutes but all in all pretty good.

Tomorrow we perform in Winston Salem's Children's Theatre. We have 3 shows tomorrow and one on Saturday morning before we pack up and drive to Savannah for our day off.

Onward and Upward.

Here we GO!

Tomorrow morning we leave NYC for Richmond VA. The drive is about 6 and a half hours long not counting stops and any traffic we hit driving through, NYC, Baltimore, Washington DC and any other major towns.

I must say I am a little nervous. I have a lot of responsibilites besides just SMing. I also need to make sure we follow all equity and TW rules and procedures, handle the financial aspects, play the peacemaker (if any issues arise) and generally keep us on track, safe and not lost. And of course fill out 8 tons of paperwork.

Luckily for me I have a group of mature, responsible, calm and creative artists who I am sure will keep life interesting and fun.

I'll keep my Google Map and my blog updated as I can find wireless access.

Onward and Upward.