digested in the scenes, set down with as much
modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there
were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might
indict the author of affectation; but called it an
honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very
much more handsome than fine."
-Shakespeare
Can you hear it? The slow groaning as thick green tendrils break slowly through the well-packed earth? Behold! Mother Nature arises triumphant, and a new stalk strains bravely towards the sun's warm embrace. That's right folks, its the sound of grass growing; because that's certainly the most interesting thing taking place in most of the cities we played last week.
It all began in Carthage, Tx, (home of the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame) where we scheduled for a private performance. This means that the city is too small to have warranted a stop, but wealthy enough to buy us out for a day anyway. So they pay a (hefty) flat fee, and we come calling with our big box of theatrical tricks.
The reason we would not normally stop in such places, is because the venue (usually a high school or in this case a junior high auditorium) is not equipped to handle the tech specs of our show. Instead of the high-tech electrical rigging we're accustomed to, we had a half dozen standard outlets. In place of a professional stage crew, we had a gaggle of enthusiastic eighth graders. The production has to be slimmed down in these circumstances, to the bare mininum. So we cut out quite a few lighting instruments, some set pieces and even a few hand-props to make do on the diminutive stage.
Another peculiarity of these private performances is that the show does not go on until early afternoon, instead of our normal 10:30 am. The school provides a lunch for us to compensate for the time adjustment, which at our last private performance in Delaware meant pizza and cokes. We were delighted this time to find a lovely boxed lunch of tuna, fresh greens and a fruit & nut salad from a local tea room. They also supplied each of us with a healthy portion of the bakery's decadent mudslide pie. We were quite happy with this little gem of a repast (except for Nate who doesn't eat tuna or sugar. He wasn't so impressed), and proceeded to perform "this afternoon's thee-ate-er program" as our play was referred to over the loudspeaker, that afternoon.
After the show the school's theatre teacher was ecstatic and very effusive in her thanks and praise. She had written a grant to be able to pay for the performance, and was so happy that her students were able to see professional theatre for the first time. As nice as she was, however, we were all exhausted and concentrating on packing the truck so we could finally get on the road. Towards the end of load out, Peter got his foot caught underneath the platform cart, which left him hobbling and cursing for the rest of the afternoon. When we finally closed the roll-down door, and headed for the open road, it was five o'clock and almost full dark. It was the better part of 10:00 pm before we finally reached Lake Charles, LA.
The next morning we awoke to a world covered in fog. The lake from which the city took its name was very near the hotel, which was near the venue, and so we had a dense fog in all directions, cutting the visibility to about fifty feet. It was eerie and cool, and felt straight out of a Stephen King novel.
We arrived at the venue and were overjoyed to have the help of a professional crew again, especially one that fit so superbly to a southern stereotype. Every member of the crew, to a man, had a scraggly beard and looked like they had just walked out of a mining camp. Any one of them could have doubled for the front men of ZZ Top. One of the bigger, older stagehand's beards was white and yellow and flowed halfway down his chest and out in all directions. They were a congenial lot, laughing and joking the whole time, and we had the place set up in no time. During load out afterwards, the grandfatherly one with his incredible flowing white beard actually got it stuck between two platforms while loading them out. Hilarity ensued, and even he had to laugh at the absurd sight of someone lifting a platform off his beard to set him free. We could almost hear the dueling banjos in the background.
That afternoon we traveled to Lafayette, LA, a short drive, and settled in for the night. Brent and I did laundry while Kate took Peter to the emergency room, because his toe had swollen up from the platform cart the day before, and was turning strange shades of blue. Meg was nauseous (a harbinger of things to come) so she went to bed early, and upon his return we found that Peter hadn't broken his toe, only jammed it severely. We went to sleep that night, wholly unprepared for what awaited us the following morning.
At breakfast Erin informed us that Meg had been sick all night. I was not feeling very well, and neither was Kate, at which point we realized that the dreaded stomach virus we'd been hearing about all through Texas had finally struck our ill--fated band. Nothing is quite so frightening, or demoralizing to a group of traveling actors, than the prospect of performers who can't perform. There were rumors that morning that Kate would have to play some of Meg's roles, since there are no female understudies. We weren't really sure how that was going to work, and were getting quite anxious during load in. Somehow, Meg managed to pull it together and finish the show, though at times on stage we were all worried she was going to scurry off in a flutter for the bucket we had waiting in the wings. When the curtain finally fell we were all tremendously proud of her for making it through, and hopeful that the worst was over.
The afternoon drive to Shreveport was subdued. We arrived that night at the Horseshoe Casino Resort, a magnificent structure with multi-level gaming and all the amenities. Brent went to check out the slot machines, while the rest of us stuck to our rooms: the nicest hotel rooms any of us had ever stayed in.
It figures that we would get the best accommodations on a Wednesday in the middle of a five show week when three quarters of the cast was ill. But each room was equipped with a stately bathroom, with a monstrous tub, a tv angled for bathtime viewing, and thrice the size of a normal hotel WC. It was the perfect refuge for recovery.
I did venture down into the casino to take a look around, and by far the most interesting sight was the "million dollar wall", a seventy-five yard stretch of hallway with 10,000 $100 bills glued to it, displaying one million dollars. It was impressive, and certainly the most inventive casino decoration we had seen yet.
The next morning we played the Strand theater in Shreveport, easily the most beautiful theater I had ever performed in. It was built at the turn of the 20th century, and was replete with balconies, chandeliers, and gorgeous frescoes with vignettes from famous operas. There were golden facades and rich velvet curtains, marble staircases and paintings of famous benefactors. The theater was a gem none of us had even remotely expected while traveling the hinterlands of Louisiana.
The morning got off to a rather rough start however. Because the presence of two other trucks in the alley did not give us access to the loading dock, we had extreme difficulty loading in the set. Miscommunication only compounded this problem, forcing the truck to relocate no less than five or six times. During one of these maneuverings, the truck accidentally gave a little love nudge to a parked pickup truck in the parking lot. The truck's owner seemed to think it was less of a love nudge, and more of a huge dent, and Erin spent the better part of an hour dealing with paperwork and insurance and police.
All of the shenanigans with the truck (we finally just double parked on the street, loaded out the truck and then loaded everything back up another ramp into the theater), we were hard pressed to get the show ready, and were forced to start a bit late. The show came off rather well in spite of all this though, thanks largely in part to the extremely competent crew, and we were back on the road well before two o'clock that afternoon.
We drove back to Texas and arrived in Houston a little after 9:00 pm. The notorious traffic had snarled us on our way in, and we were all exhausted. The next morning, we were again confronted with the nausea, aches and pains that had been dogging us all week. Meg and I both felt lousy, Kate didn't seem much better. We all put on a brave face though, and finished the week's final performance without a bang or a whimper.
That evening, we stopped over in Irving, Tx for the night, on our way to Oklahoma City for the weekend. It had been a tumultuous week, and most everyone called it an early night. I however let myself be kidnapped by some good friends from college, and spent the evening in Denton catching up. The next morning as we all piled in to the van once again, our faces expressed the weary reliefe of those who have weathered the worst of a storm and finally had the end in sight. Most of us were feeling moderately healthy again, and we were all grateful for two days off. Ahead of us we had only two more performances, and then a five day break for Thanksgiving.
Our morning in Oklahoma City passed without incident, and soon we were on the road to Tulsa, our holiday destination, and home for the rest of the week. That night at dinner Nate mentioned that TOOL, one of my favorite bands, was playing in Tulsa that night. We immediately scarfed our food and zipped down to the civic center to see if we could get in. Sure enough, there was a single ticket left, and after haggling with a scalper for another, we got inside just as the band took the stage for an amazing concert. The next morning, Tuesday, we were all psyched about the performance, knowing we were almost home free. We were very energetic, and had a tremendous show. Afterwards we were pumped, and relieved to have some downtime.
The next few days were pretty relaxed. We spent a lot of time at the mall, or at the local Barnes and Noble, happy to have nothing on the agenda. For Thanksgiving day, we went to the Cattleman's Steakhouse at the Hilton hotel (the only restaurant open) and had a lovely meal in their beautiful indoor atrium.
Afterwards we wanted a change of pace, and found an extremely country dive bar, that was actually quite full and made some mean drinks. They also had an entire Thanksgiving buffet setup (for free!) so we ended up eating dinner there, feeding the jukebox and mixing it up with the locals.
Tulsa had treated us very well, and there was lots to give thanks for. Friday we headed back on the road, traveling to Evansville, IN. The next morning we pressed on to Charleston, WV, where we spent a quiet weekend in preparation for our performance on Monday.
The last week has been one of cozy hotels and breathtaking mountain scenery. More of our meanderings emerging very soon!
-ICHABOD
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