Hello Foto

Here are some photos from the last week or so of my adventure:

Here's my desk. The bins next to it are places for each stage manager to stash stuff they want to claim for their tour. I've already claimed a cooler, 2 road atlases, a copy of "Next Exit" and some money pouches.


















The "Big" rehearsal room has two sets up. This is the Encore set. I was standing on the Classics set when I took this photo. This was Day 1 before we figured out that the bean bag chair was too bulky DC.


















Here's the view to the north from the "Small" rehearsal room. Not too shabby!

















Here's what we call the "Small" rehearsal room. Not to be confused with the "Tiny" rehearsal room. Everyone is, of course, confused by this, so I've taken to calling the smallest room the "Tiny Tiny" room.

















The building we rehearse in is an old Masonic Temple. This is a skylight in the room we use as the kitchen.

















Here's nice big allusion to The Pajama Game:

















And this is part of the creep sculpture of masked beings near the T stop!

Tropical Brainstorm

So yesterday we had a Tropical Storm warning from the remnants of Hurricane Bill, but he ended up circumventing us and heading toward Nova Scotia. I personally would have loved the rain and the cooling off it might have done. On the other hand, I realize I left my new umbrella in Chicago.

Also, yesterday was the first day of rehearsal. I spend 90 minutes before lunch giving math lessons to my cast and director. As theatre-folks, they have successfully avoided math for quite some time, and while I haven't had a formal math class in 11 years, I do get excited about it on a fairly regular basis.

Here are some of the mathematical concepts in the script which we covered yesterday:

• Order of Operations
• Prime Factorization
• Lowest Common Multiple
• Greatest Common Factor
• Pascal's Triangle
• Probability
• The Fibonacci Sequence
• The Golden Rectangle

Connecting the DOTs

Today I met my cast. After a brief intro from the AD (which included the history of the company), some business and info from the PM, the three returners departed for fittings and the two new folks and I headed over for DOT physicals. I am now certified by the Department of Transportation to drive a commercial 26' truck and 15-passenger van.

Tomorrow I meet my director. We'll do some tablework in the morning and get on our feet a little in the afternoon.

The coming week will be tricky since there are two companies and only one rehearsal set (there is another rehearsal room with the set taped out, though).

Let the games begin!

First Day

So it took 2 days of driving, 4 days of rest, and 1 day of air travel to get here, but I made it and survived my first day.

It should be an interesting little adventure. 1 director, 2 shows, 5 actors, 3.5 weeks of rehearsal (pre-tech), 4th floor walk-up, 0 air conditioning, 0 internets.

And, if you needed any more proof that the world is small and shrinking, I met one of the other SMs today who is from Chicago and knows my friend/former ASM Anna.

Also (and I cannot tell you how excited I am about this), I found out my electrician's name is Jesus. Not hey-SOOS. GEE-suhs. I hope he has a sense of humor because I intend to crack many jokes about how Jesus said, "Let there be light." And if he's navigating while I'm driving the truck, "Jesus is my co-pilot."

This Is Chicago

It hit me on my way home tonight that I am going to be gone for months. I spent the afternoon and evening with some amazing people who I will miss very much.

Spring Cleaning

I've found a friend of a friend who is collecting items to sell at the big neighborhood yard sale next month, and she's going to come by tomorrow to pick up all of my stuff! Yay! This saves me a trip to the resale shop and having to load the car myself! Lots of exclamation points!

In other news, I decided that the to do list of packing and cleaning everything was too overwhelming, so I split it up and made myself a schedule. I have already fallen behind and gotten ahead of schedule in the 4 hours I scheduled so far today, but it seems to be working well to keep me on task and not too overwhelmed.

I'm a little bit terrified of the "Get Everything Out Of The Bedroom" item on tomorrow's schedule. I told my friend Jamie this morning that these last two days are the hardest part. We'll see if my prediction holds true.

Brainy

I have approximately 57 hours until I depart during which time I have a whole lot to do involving packing and cleaning and saying goodbye. None of these are my favorite past times, but nevertheless, they must be done. As my friend Suzanne says, "Isn't being a grown up fun?"

I've been getting various tidbits of advice from people over the past few weeks when they find out I'm going on tour. The one I'm focusing on tonight is my brother's colleague and friend who warned me that there will be a lot of drinking on tour and that I should plan ahead by bringing things to nourish my mind. I don't kid myself that I can avoid all the drinking; I've never been a loner. But I do plan to bring some books, decks of cards, logic problems, and sudoku puzzles. I was thinking that I should set a goal for myself on this tour. I want to complete a collection. Perhaps it's time to read the plays I've never tackled in The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Or read more than simply The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in The Chronic (what?) cles of Narnia. I've also been meaning to read the Bible and the Book of Mormon for quite some time.

Well, I've got 56.5 hours in which to decide what to bring...

Wanderlust

These maps of the tour stops kindle my wanderlust.

October:












November:












December: