A DAY IN THE LIFE . . .

Monthly Update

Well folks, it certainly wasn’t my intention to continually go so long between posts, but life on the road is a lot busier and more exhausting than I ever could have anticipated! After a typical morning of waking at 5:30 am; a bath routine of showering, brushing teeth, brushing hair, dressing and re-packing my suitcase; getting my items packed into the van; checking out the continental breakfast to see if there’s anything remotely palatable or containing at least a modicum of nutritional value (I wish I were joking- the over-sugared, half-frozen, bruised or week-old items they set out every dawn at some of these hotels would raise your eyebrows or maybe raise bile in your throat most of the time!), we pile into the van by 7:30 ish (7:45 if the Lord has smiled upon us) to be at the space by 8am. {Keep in mind folks that this is a typical day, not a NEW VENUE day or a particularly difficult Load-in where we’d move the whole schedule up a half hour or hour: Joy of Joys!}

Once at the venue we start unpacking the truck and setting up all our various and sundry equipment and constructing the set. This involves working with the local crew and tech-staff. Usually this goes well enough, but occasionally we get stuck with know-it-all crews or especially stubborn crew, crews who are actually temps and have never set foot behind stage or in a theatre (I’m not joking- not even a bit- this has happened several timesJ) and my particular favorite variety of uncooperative crew: THE SEXIST CREW! Being raised in the American Northeast sometime after the 1965 I have rarely encountered such levels of sexism and backward thinking, but visiting some of these (well Backwater is the term I’m thinking, but that sounds rude…) out-of-the-way places—places well outside the modern century, More than half of our company is looked at as weak, incompetent, unnatural, useless and maybe delusional for choosing a man’s career. What a way to start a morning huh? But honestly, we just grin and bear it most of the time because to make up for the handful of really jerk populated crews we get blessed with wonderful, helpful, fun and professional crews the rest of the time.

From about 8:15 (if the un-loading went well) until 9am I am meeting with the house sound tech and determining technical issues like ‘where can I plug in?’ and then having him do all the time-consuming tasks that require little-to-no brain power (I do this as busy-work while I set up more important stuff, usually because of the slow or incompetent crews, it is a safe default.) We have to set up my speakers, run cables, set up my sound rack, and set up my microphones.

At 9am I swap my sound engineer hat for the stylish House Manager cap and set out to locate my ushers and the local house manager. Like the crew, this collection of people can also be temps (which makes life really un-pleasant), they can be quite stubborn and set in their ways (this can be very difficult, but often ends up being a blessing because these people know the house and have run the house the exact same way since the fall of the confederacy), ancient (again, anti-bellum. I can’t tell you how many octogenarian house staff I’ve encountered. They are precious but often have difficulty with America’s teenagers of today), or completely wonderful (well-trained, flexible and cooperative.) I meet with them for 5 to 10 minutes outlining Chamber’s policies and procedures, relaying any special seating information and thanking them profusely for all their anticipated help.

Then I hustle back into the auditorium to finish my mic-set up and to run a sound check, determining levels and making sure everything is in working order—a very important step when your sound equipment lives in a truck getting jostled and rattled around daily!

By 9:45 we are supposed to open the house and start seating the schools. Sometimes this happens, but due to inevitable technical difficulties (old equipment, broken set, etc.)it usually ends up being closer to 9:50 to 10:00. When we’re ready to open I head uot to the lobby and greet the school groups!! This involves checking every teacher in and going over the behavior guidelines, getting them to sign financial papers, and handing them off to the ushers for seating. Sometimes there are only a handful of schools with groups of 30 to 50 and this goes quickly and efficiently. More often however I’m dealing with a veritable ZOO out front with 30 groups waiting to be seated, all of them wanting the front- the best seats, when the house is at full capacity of nearly 3,000 people! Eventually we get them all seated (though not always happily), and barring the old ‘Bus Breakdown’ story or ‘We’re lost and can’t find parking!’ all the schools are using the restrooms in droves and chattering loudly before the curtain goes up at 10:30!

The first act consists of THE TELL TALE HEART and THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, both of which the kids really seem to enjoy. They love the blood and murder in Tell Tale and get a kick out of the silly humor and special effects in Sleepy Hollow. During the first act I am usually still fiddling with levels and knobs trying to get the sound as perfect as possible (My father’s daughter), and during long stretches without any sound cues I’m starting my paperwork.

At intermission I run backstage and am in charge of changing the set. Our Stage manager does one half and I do the other. This means adding platform extensions, putting out new props, moving benches and dressing the set.

Then Act Two! Act Two means THE MONKEY’S PAW, THE NECKLACE, and THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY. The second act always starts off a bit rough, because the kids have just had about 15 minutes to get vociferous, to get up and use the restrooms, and to generally goof-off. However, by the exciting technical-extravaganza of a climax where the zombie son crawls home from the graveyard the kids are generally rapt. Then comes The Necklace. This one always surprises me- it is a lot of exposition, a lot of dialogue with not much action, in a word: It’s Boring for an audience of middle-schoolers. HOWEVER, in the end, when the ironic twist is revealed, the kids are really vocal in their response- they talk about the turn of events to their neighbors all throughout the scene shift into FROG and seem genuinely excited about what they have just seen. The reactions range from dismayed gasps to surprised laughs, even to shouted exclamations such as: “OH SNAP!” or “WHAT?!?!?” or “NO WAY!!!”. The teachers try to shush them, but we smile, glad that they have been hooked by the story. Then, across the board, every audience has LOVED the Jumping Frog story. This is like watching a cartoon come to life. Very campy, but they eat it up. A grown man in huge frog flippers doing a tiny falsetto voice just puts them in stitches every time! Then they all leave in an up-beat mood and it’s great to hear them as they exit comparing favorites or arguing over which was the best. It makes me proud to be a part of this venture- bringing theatre to young audiences who might otherwise never get to see something like this—keeping a grand tradition alive.

OK! Now we breakdown the set and equipment, pack it all away in boxes, on carts and such, then start re-packing the truck! I also have to call the home office and report financial information and relay the day’s events, while getting all the necessary info for the next day’s show. The show should end by 12:15 and we should be out by 2pm (one minute over and Chamber has to pay the union people for another whole hour! Nice union to be a part of huh?). We then hop in the vehicles and travel, often for many hours, to the next city where we lug our stuff into the hotel of the moment and generally collapse on our questionably-clean sheets. It is a gamble whether or not the hotel will have internet access, and even if I do have it I’m often too tired to muster the will to blog!

Now you know what my life is like. We live for weekends or small pleasures like good lunch or internet access. However, despite being so busy and tired, I am ultimately happy. This tour has improved immeasurably since our new stage manager Ahsley’s arrival on the scene. We are all a lot happier, more sane and in general more excited about our work. I am, of course, missing home, and eager to be on the way back at last, but am ultimately glad to have some incredible memories and fond feelings to take back with me- not to mention the valuable learning experiences (awww, sappy huh? Movie of the week ;).

See you all before you know it!

Love Always,

BETH