Computer Woes

hey everyone! Happy Halloween :) Just to give you the latest: I had a monster blog all typed up and ready when the internet spazzed out on me and I lost it before I could post it! Now I'll have to start from scratch. I'm really excited to have you all read up on what's been happening on tour, so I'll try and have it up tonight. I love you all and have been having a great time!
Until we meet again... :)

Beth

Everything's up to date in Kansas City!

Last weekend we had the onderful luxury of spending a long weekend in Kansas City, Missouri.
Folks, let me tell you that Kansas City may well be my favorite city outside of New England- definately my favorite thus far. It was simply charming! It had the amenities of a city: Shops, restaraunts, cinemas, coffee shops, book stores, parks, statues, PEOPLE, pubs, museums, etc. But it is still a wuite manageable size- smallish-to-middling, so as not to overwhelm or dwarf a visitor. It had lovely brick buildings, cobblestoned walkways, it was impeccably clean and it was very friendly. You may not hear it every day, but I highly recommend KANSAS CITY, MO as a fine vacation spot, a wonderful place to visit.
Not only was CHAMBER THEATRE in residence at the Holiday Inn Express (A fabulous, modern, clean and hospitable hotel, the finest we've stayed at yet!) but another bunch of people bound to tour the country with a message for kids and adults alike . . .

. . .
Here they are parked next to the Chamber Truck . . .

THE OSCAR MAYER WIENER MOBILE!!!!

We were all very excited abouth this legendary vehicle sharing our hotel and parking lot. And boy is this a luxury transport! It was huge! I peeked inside and saw comfy individual pilot seats each embroidered with the Oscar Mayer logo, lots of legroom and space to spread out, granted you'd have to put up with the orange and yellow hot dog decor, but It looked like in the back of the bun section they may have had a restroom and bunks, or maybe a small kitchen-like area! It looked like fun.




All in all, I had a fabulous weekend. It was well earned by all and well enjoyed as well. We went to nice restaraunts which made a nice change from Highway Fast Food stops. We got enough sleep, we did laundry, we strolled about with a sense of liesure and exploration. I even went to a supermarket!!! (this is a luxury not often afforded to Chamber Players.)
Most of us went to see the new Martin Scorcese Film "The Departed" which is set in Boston and steeped in Irish Catholic Culture, which was alot of fun for me- Alec Baldwin even said "Brockton" in one scene, and Matt Damon & Mark Whalberg were both in it, so their accents were naturally flawless! But honestly, all the accents were pretty great- When you're from boston it can really get under your skin when actors try to master the Boston\South Shore accent, because it's a complex dialect and rings very false or very ridiculous if done poorly-- but everyone in this film was great (even Jack Nicholson, who occasionally slipped but never sounded ridiculous because he is so charismatic in this role.) with every actor PERFECTLY CAST, which is a real treat as a filmgoer. It made me miss home though, with tose shots of the statehouse and the constant references to towns and sentiments that I grew up with. Anyway, I'm fairly certain that I was the only audience member in that Missouri Theatre that was representing BROCKTON MA!!!!

AND THEN THERE WAS TULSA . . .

The venue in Kansas city on Tuesday was bad. It was designed for cage-fighting and rock concerts. Our show looked bad, sounded bad and the seating for the students was akward and uncomfortable. If the students grew bored with the echoing, feedback riddled and dimly lit show, their eyes might wander and happen upon any number of beer banners, some were even lit up in flourescents- or maybe on their way to the bathrooms they could stop by the concession stands and see what beer was on tap! (Obviously no one was serving, but stil...) It wasn't an appropriate venue by any means and hopefully future tours won't have to be subjected to the ridiculously wide but dreadfully shallow platform stage with literally no wing space and folding chair seating beer hall.
We thought nothing could be worse. It is a good thing we had that weekend, because, I kid you not, had I not been properly rested and restored before this week of hell began, I would probably be home right now- I came close, even with the nice weekend. Ok, here's the story:
We moved on to TULSA OKLAHOMA and were scheduled to play Oral Roberts University. This is a lovely campus with very interesting and varying architecture. It is incredibly conservative and christian, and each building on the campus, i'm told, is designed to represent Items or stories in the bible! I''m not sure what the building we were in was based upon, but judging by the day we had maybe the plagues of egypt.
First of all, you should know that as House manager and sound manager I get reports from previous tours about the venues we play (unless they are brand-new to Chamber such as the cage-fighting beer hall). These reports help me figure out things like seating, hadicap access, sightlines, capacity, lobby size and such things. I also get Sound reports letting me know where to hook into the house's sound system, where to set up my sound rack, how the sound sounded in the space and so forth. The stage manager gets reports and so does the electrician. We have, between us, fair warning if crews are rude or helpful, if space is large or crowded, if dressing rooms are inconvenient, if the hall owner is helpful, if the lights tend to shut off mid-show and all sorts of things of that nature.
I want you to know that EVERY SINGLE REPORT We had in our hand about this space warned and begged Chamber NEVER to book this place again. It is a Basketball court. A sporting arena. As afar as basketball courts go it was awesome! As far as theatres go it was a disaster. Every report told us that the sound was disaterous- and I found that this is because my mics end up infront of and pointing towards their huge cluster speakers, this causes huge amounts of feed back-- but it wasn't an option to do without thier speakers because we had 1178 students coming- my two little speakers would have no chance, especially with the huge, sprawling and towering nature of a basketball stadium (complete with crushed peanut shells by the way). The lights were at akward angles and cut off a huge amount of my seating. The actors had to literally run for 15-20 yards to get from the stage to the wings, which was difficult for quick costume changes and entrances and exits. And then, the coup de gras: I have eleven hundred people coming at 9:30, I have 10 ushers and 5 traffic security gueards to meet with and brief by 9:00, the house opens at 9:45, and I have to set up the entire sound system et al, BY MYSELF because the "Sound Engineer" they had wouldn't lift a finger to help me (which is what chamber pays them to do- help me with set-up and takedown since I have two jobs in the morning.) Nope. He's a "sound engineer" and not a "stage hand". He won't even move to help me take the lids off my equiptment (which is a two-person job because they are large). I was furious. I was near tears. I guess he consisdered his duty to show me where to plug in. Wow. Thanks for your help. I can't even tell you how much he got paid to be there, but it's more than I was.
Since we were only provided with 2 proper "stage hands" qualified or at least willing to lift and move and touch things, the stage manager felt he couldn't spare one to help me. I nearly walked out. There have been alot of problems with this tour and this was nearly the straw that broke the camel's back. HOWEVER my friend Katie, and actor in the show, came to my rescue. She's in charge of costumes and dressing rooms for the show, but once she's done she's able to help us set up the set and tech stuff. Usually she helps the lighting people or the set people, but this day she told me in no uncertain terms that she would be by my side until everything I needed was accomplished. What an angel.
So, she's helping me set up and we're running this really bulky, heavy cable up the hundred or so steep steps up to my sound board when Mr. Useless, the Sound Engineer decided to interfere. He wants to know why I've decided to put my sound rack where I had. Dad- you can probably imagine what my face must have looked like. I probably looked exactly like your daughter. I'm thinking: This Jerk will sit on his rear end and watch two girls lifting heavy speakers, drag huge cables and not lift a finger to help or make things even slightly easier for us, but now he has a thing or two to say about where I've decided to set up!?!?!?! I calmly (though very coldly) explained my reasons to him- as house manager AND soundmanager I had made a educated and well-thought-out decision to have my sound rack wasy off to the side where student would not be sitting due to the poor sightlines, and where I could freely run my huge cable up the steps because no one would be using this particular aisle, thus there was no worry about tripping and falling to their certain death from the sheer steepness of the stadium seating. I Knew that since I was already well behind (because of HIM) that I'd have no time to tape down a cable on ever single of the hundred or more steps. {by the way, when I say 'cable' you need to imaging it to be the width around of 5 or 6 extension cords taped together- it's big and heavy and very stubborn.)
He then argued with me - having no grounds to do so, until he bullied my stage manager into having me move my rack. Now it is in- to my mind- the most inconvenient spot in the house. I am now directly in the way of the cross aisle between the mezzanine and the secvond mezzanine, my cable has to go up the very center and most highly trafficked audience aisle, and I can't even tell you why. I guess he wanted me close to his sound board, even though I explained I'd rather run one small cable (even slimmer and less obtrisive than an extension cord) across the flat surface of the cross aisle, out of the way behind the seats and only needing to be taped down in TWO PLACES, to my board than move my board to be close to his and in the way of everything. This is sort of like the needs of the one outweighing the needs of the masses. My stage manager bowed to this bullying and I was behind again. I told them in no uncertain terms that I would not be able to tape that cable down- and that as house manager I would not open the house unless it was done, because I wasn't going to have broken legs, twisted ankles or worse on my hands. A stage hand was finally dirscted to help me.
The show sounded terrible. It certainly wasn't worth the ticket price and I felf awful for those kids that came to see it. Then we had to pack up with no help and it was just a long, long, frazzled and high-tension day. What is the best part? Did I mention it was my birthday?

My friends in the cast were great though- after the show they really made everything better. we laughed, mostly because if you don't laugh you cry. I even got some gifts and I spoke to every office I could get a hold of in Boston and made myself clear on the subject. I was told in pretty basic terms that it was about money. I told them in return that money shouldn't be considered over and above quality, that they were inspiring poor customer relations and very poor employee relations by cutting corners in this way. At least my opinions have been voiced,saying: "I'm just wondering why, why, when all the reports we are holding in our hands tell you not to book this place, not to play this place, that it is ill-suited to chamber's needs, why then do you choose to book here yet again, when there are even suggestions of other venues in Tulsa? Why would you conciously ignore these reports? Should I stop filling out mine- are they simply being filed away as compulsory and not being regarded?" They didn't rwally have any answers beyond monitary.
Ah well. When I rule the world...

We've all been growing together alot more lately, becoming a family in this little world. The very next day we played the Orpheum in Wicita- and when we arrived at 8 am found there was no crew at all to help us unload and set up. none. Apparently the office dropped the ball, a message got missed or a contact got bungled and the crew that we are promised wasn't told when to come. I'll be honest: after Oral Roberts I just sort of smiled. What else can you do? You walk out, refuse to do the show (the office isn't meeting thier end of the bargain, why demand it of us to pick up the slack), or you accept it and push forward. Maybe it's the Irish in me, maybe it's the new-england girl, but something in me just clicked into place and redoubled my efforts. What can you do? GHundreds of kids are on their way, are we going to cheat them out of a field trip because of something that isn't their fault? We did alot more work in a lot less time than we are meant to. But, different than at Oral Roberts, we were all in the same boat. It wasn't just me that was up the creek- it was all of us. This helped my mood. We helped eachother, we worked cohesively and professionally, and once I accepted (ala the 'serenity prayer') the things I couldn't change- such as the house opening late and the show starting a little late- I even sort of hummed while we got everything done. Luckily the housemanager for the orpheum was great and such a helpful gentleman for me, and the crew showed up eventually so we made them do the bulk of the load out! [Let me tell you that my back- and all our backs probably- were quite tight as we drove that night. we were sore in places we didn't even know we'd had muscles!!]

Light at the end of the tunnell:

Friday the 13th started under an unlucky star- a huge and heavy instrument case decided to roll off the truck of it's own volition during load in and careening off the truck breaking one of our actor's toes. his big toe. The strange thing is that we weren't even at all that an extreme of an angle- barely percievable to the eye, and we've certainly been at worse angles, but today that cart just decided to go for it. I'm not stretching the truth when I tell you that a case of this size and weight rolling at that velocity and falling from the truck at that height could have SERIOUSLY injusred someone. I'm talking broken limbs, spinal damage, someone could have been crushed under it. I shudder to think of all the possibilities. We'll take the broken toe- if that's the tribute to the fickle gods that rule unlucky friday the 13ths.
Other than that it was a beautiful, blessed day. The Missouri Theatre is St. Joseph is beautiful- incredibly well maintained and just a dream to play. This old vaudeville house with its modern technological updates is exactly the sort of places chamber should be playing- our kind of show looked like it was made for that stage. Then we went out to this mom & pop restaurant that had delicious food at great prices, I bought a winter coat at St. Vincent DePaul's and we set off toward Nebraska with a much improved morale, and a much restored mood. I am blessed to live and work with some of these people- to get to play places like the Orpheum (think The Marx Brothers, Fanny Brice, vaudeville, great, great history) and the Missouri Theatre. I am so very fortunate to be able to see this incredibly beautiful country of ours and to be working in the profession I love. The hard, the wretched and lonely times make you appreciate all the more the friendships, the comfort and the triumphs.

I'll post lots of pictures soon, but right now I've got to get going, we're driving to Colorado today... i'm looking forward to seeing Aunt Jane and Uncle Chip!!
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading- this was a monsterous post encompassing about 2 weekd worth of material. I've been DYING to post more often, but as you can imagine- at the ends of days like those afore mentioned I just crawl into bed and rest my tired body. I love you all and miss you very much.

Love and Gratitude,
BETH

Ole Man River

I may have flown over it several times before in my life, but yesterday I actually SAW the Mighty Mississippi River. It was brown and wide but over too soon as we cruised over the bridge in our white Chamber Van, which my friend Steven has dubbed: Vanna White. He's been on alot of chamber tours and confided in me that whenever tha van is white she ends up being Vanna White. If it ain't broke...

I don't wish to jinx myself or tempt fate by saying that my job seems to be getting easier. Of course the JOB isn't any easier, but my body and spirit are submitting to it with less resistance, which makes it appear that finally things are falling into place. It is still a time crunch trying to do the job of 3 people and do them all well, but at some point you just have to resign yourself, smile (at the specific request of my father), and get it done. If truth be told, I find it very difficult to smile on some days, or in some perticularly trying moments, but then I get to see the Mississippi River (if only fleetingly), I get to meet alot of very friendly and interesting people, and I get to see the magic of what our show does for those children.
Even if the show hasn't gone particularly splendidly, even if energy and morale is running perilously low and all sorts of problems littered our way, when I see the kids and hear them getting into it, whispering between scenes and laughing or gasping or "eeeeeewwww"ing at something we've done, then the corners of my mouth lift without effort. I can't tell you how many teachers and chaperones have told us what an impression we've made, how these children don't get to see live theatre much and what a great thing we've done coming out there and doing the show for them. Sometimes that's the only thing keeping my heart in the game. And I am grateful to be able to have a position in the house for every show, because without that things may be difficult to keep in perspective.

Last night I saw the biggest bug I have ever seen in my life. It was bigger than the dreaded and evil cockroach that plagued me on one of my last days at The Stratford Arms, and no less horrendous. I'm suprised the whole building didn't hear me shriek. I quickly called the hotel desk and asked someone to come "deal" with it. When the gentleman came in I handed him a cup. He just sort of tried not to chuckle at me and declined the cup.

He squished it.

I never in a million years could imagine stepping on something so large- it would be tantamount to stepping on a canary (almost) or a chipmunk (nearly). I asked if it was a Palmetto bug- I'd seen one flying about in one of the carolinas, and they looked like nothing more than a larger, flying variety of cockroach. {this one hadn't flown, but I wouldn't put anything past the beast.} He told me it was called a "Water Bug". I was skeptical, telling him that that thing didn't look like any type of water bug i'd ever seen. He then admitted that the 'water bug' is a close cousin to the cockroach.

IN happier news, a couple of days ago in Alabama, I tried a popular local dish. I hope you'll be as proud and shocked as I was of myself! I sampled Fried Alligator Tail. Yes folks. Alligator tail. It isn't something I'd make a habit of whether or not I liked it, because I don't think alligators are a creature we should be exploiting- be it for belts, boots, purses or even appetizers. I couldn't, didn't have the heart (or the nerve) to order it myself, but did try a piece offered to me by a local. He maintains that it is highly nutritious and very good for you.

I'll admit that is actually was pretty tasty- at least a lot tastier than I'd imagined. It was battered and fried and served with a zingy pinkish sauce, and though it was (as you can imagine) very tough and chewy, the texture didn't put me off at all. I can't decide whether it reminded me more of chicken or of steak, or of pork. But it did not taste in the least like fish or squid or scallops as I had expected. Now I can say I've had Alligator Tail.
I'm still hoping to sample squirrel one day- but I'm not sure where I'd have to go to find that on the menu!
(By the way, my meal- which was baked chicked with a rosmary crusted sauce, was absolutely dilectable and probably the most satisfying meal I've had while on tour- so it was a very good afternoon all in all!)

Missing you all very much- missing my mother's spaghetti sauce and my father's whistling! Love from Louisiana and Bayou Country,

BETH