On The Road Again- Hershey!

Let me start off by saying that my holiday lay-off was far too short.  Nine days to try to see and hang out with everyone?  Nonsense.  I'm grateful that we got the break we did, but another week would have been appreciated.

We just left Hershey, Pennsylvania.  It was a cute little place.  The street lights are Hershey kisses, and sometimes the entire town smells like chocolate.  It rained a lot and snowed very little, depriving me of even a wintry end-cap to the holidays.  At this point I'm skeptical as to whether or not we'll see the ground covered in snow at all.

Hershey Theatre, Hershey, PA

Just a cool pic I took one day during a show

It was an interesting week.  Before layoff, the longest we'd gone without doing the show is one day.  That being said, the first few shows of the new half of the tour provided some entertaining issues.  We also said goodbye to Alexa and Rachel, the two girls who alternate playing Young Fiona and Young Shrek/Grumpy.  They went back home to go to school and be with their families and we got two new girls to fill those roles.  They've done five shows so far and they rock.

While in Hershey, I visited Hershey's Chocolate World, where I took a virtual tour of the factory and made my own chocolate bar.  The tour was similar to a Disneyland ride, where you hop into a moving car on a track and look at all these fake machines of real machines and listen to how chocolate is made.  Making my own chocolate bar was a little less interactive than I'd hoped, but was still fun and delicious.  And for your information, that was pretty much the only chocolate I ate during the week- you know, new year's diet and all....

Overall, it was a slow start to this half of the tour (which will undoubtedly pick up speed soon), but I'm back on the job and ready to see parts of the continent that I've never seen before.  This week: Providence, Rhode Island.

Florida Pt. 2: Melbourne, Sarasota, St. Pete/ RECAP

As I said in the previous entry, the last leg of the tour had been going severely slowly due to my anticipation of being home.  That was all cured during this past week of tour, however, when our first two hotels of the week were right on the beach.  The days just seemed to disappear….

Arriving at the hotel in Melbourne/Indialantic was quite a refreshing shift from Miami.  Even though I had been to the beach in Miami, this town was a lot smaller, with a much less-populated beach.  There was strong wind and the waves were huge, allowing for a pretty good workout trying to fight against them.  I later found out that section of beach was one of the most dangerous in the country due to the unclear, choppy waters; sharks often misinterpret humans for other animals in their diets.  I got to experience the beach in the morning, all day, and at night after the show.  It was beautiful.

King Center, Melbourne, FL

I hadn’t thought it possible while in Melbourne, but our digs in Sarasota were even more awesome than Melbourne.  The beach was more expansive with white sand and calm, crystal waters.  When I went looking for shells, I found a hermit crab and a sea slug and made them race.  They were totally against that, however.  Some of the cast/musicians played a game of beach volleyball, which was a blast- I’m actually still sore.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Sarasota, FL

Our last day in St. Petersburg was pretty exciting just for the fact that it was the last show we’d have to do in 10 days.  I had my own hotel room with a king-size bed, giving me plenty of space to practice my karate-  you know, just in case I’m greeted by hordes of zombies upon my return to the QC (a lot can happen in 3.5 months).  I was greeted at the show by Adam Lounsberry’s parents with tidings of Christmas cookies.  It was really nice to see familiar faces; they had a blast at the show.

Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, FL

And now, I’m on the plane home (via Detroit).  So, I thought it would be interesting to throw out some random facts to recap the first half of the tour.

# of cities, theaters, hotels, beds:  22

# of states:  12

# of shows:  107

# of miles traveled:  about 12,000 (including to and from home)

# of comic books read: 26 individual, 21.5 graphic novels- or 181 individual comic books

# of TV shows watched:  8 seasons of scrubs, 4 seasons of South Park, 1 season of The Office, 1 season of True Blood, and all of the current seasons of The Office, Big Bang Theory, and Glee

# of movies watched:  40 (13 of them were X-Mas movies)

# of times doing laundry:  3 (and I didn’t even smell that bad….)

# of major bodies of water experienced:  3- Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico

# of times ill:  1 (not including many random sinus issues- really acts up going from place to place....)

# of hangovers:  2 (I partied, but usually not very hard)

# of haircuts: 2

The list just gets less interesting from there…..So that’s the first half of the tour!  Merry X-Mas, everyone, and I’ll be back on the road in about 9 days.

Florida Pt. I: Fort Myers/Return to Miami

The last three weeks before the holidays (aka layoff) are in Florida.   Two weeks ago was Fort Myers, last week was Miami, and this week is Melbourne, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg.  I've been referring to this entire period as the "home stretch".

We flew directly from Chicago to Fort Myers- talk about a shift in climate; we easily packed on another 50 degrees in temperature.  We performed on the campus of some easily-forgettable college.  It was a nice facility, the weather was beautiful, and we were within walking distance of essentials.  The Wednesday of that week, I went to the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre for a matinee performance of White Christmas.  Many of our cast members knew performers in the show.  Little did I know that I worked with the director, Ann Nieman, on A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline.  I enjoyed the show thoroughly, and reveled in how appropriate and applicable it was.

Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, Fort Myers, FL

Miami had little spurts of excitement, such as eating at Pollo Tropical (essentially tropical KFC), going to the beach, and performing in the country's second largest performing arts center, the Adrienne Arsht Center- the first being Lincoln Center in New York.  The week as a whole, however, was very exhausting.  It takes a lot out of you being in a place that's so populated, expensive, and culturally different.  I'm glad I got the chance to return to Miami, but I was over it pretty quickly.

Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami, FL

Miami Beach

These last couple weeks of the home stretch have been going so incredibly slowly; I'm very eager to come home to friends and family.  Also, it doesn't feel like December with the temperature in the 70's and 80's, making it hard to get into the holiday mood.  But all things considered, I shouldn't be complaining too much:  As I type this, there's a nice breeze and sounds of waves rolling in with the tide as I'm looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean.  More on this in Part II!

Current View

Return to the Midwest (and some Alabama....)

We flew from Forth Worth to Indiana two weeks ago (I know- I'm a little behind).  It was my first time in temperate climate since early September.  Needless to say, it was pretty rejuvenating.  The leaves were off the trees and I had to wear layers- it was awesome.  We stayed on campus at Indiana University in Bloomington, and I can't tell you how many times I heard from cast members, "Ah, it feels like I'm in college again!"  And they had plenty of right to make the statement, for it was hard not to feel that way after slinging a bag around your shoulder and hoofing it to the theater on campus among the countless poor college kids......those were the days. I even had a college night after one of the shows- two bars, many drinks, up super late, staggering home.

The theater itself was pretty cool.  At night it was illuminated with the title of the show and other decorative lights, which is very welcoming as you're approaching it to perform.  We had a nice little extension of our college days with great audiences.

Indiana University Auditorium, Bloomington, IN

The latter half of the week was spent in Huntsville, Alabama.  There wasn't really anything that stood out in Huntsville........it was slightly warmer.....

Von Braun Auditorium, Huntsville, AL

A week ago we woke up incredibly early to fly to Wausau, Wisconsin.  Now when I say we, I mean the musicians and the crew.  The cast got to sleep in and fly in the afternoon.  I didn't mind the early flight- it was nice to have the entire night to myself.  What made me even less jealous of the cast is all of the problems they had with their flights; while recounting it, they made reference to the "running through the airport scene in 'Home Alone'".

Wausau was a beautiful little town, especially with the pre-winter weather.  There were plenty of places to walk to close by; the mall was about two miles away and it was 32 degrees out, but I walked there anyway.  It was here that I started breaking out the Christmas candles, music, and lights, and became possessed with Christmas spirit.

Grand Theater, Wausau, WI

On Thanksgiving day, we traveled to Rosemont, Illinois.  That night we had a cast dinner at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse.  It was lovely.  Probably the most notable thing about our time in Rosemont was our trendy hotel and modern rooms.  I felt like a hipster.....a little late, considering we left Portland over two months ago.

Rosemont Theater, Rosemont, IL

Oh yeah, and on the Saturday after Thanksgiving we had our first and hopefully only three-show day.  We did shows at 10:00, 3:00, and 8:00, and they were surprisingly well attended.  There were so many understudies and swings filling other roles that I could barely keep track of them.  The venue fed us in between the shows, as is mandatory when the shows begin five or less hours from each other.

Doing only one show on Sunday was very refreshing.  My friend Mike came to that show and I spent the rest of the evening with him.  This morning he dropped me off at the hotel to board the bus as it was snowing.  I got off the plane a couple hours ago and it was about 78 degrees and humid.  Illinois to Florida in late November is quite a shift.  To be honest though, I'd rather be visiting Florida in February.  This heat might throw me off my X-Mas spirit a little bit.....

Fort Worth It

Last week was spent in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.  Despite the predisposition of it being a week sit-down after "hell week", Fort Worth was a great place to spend a week.

The downtown area was metropolitan without too much hubbub.  The weather was warm in the sun, cool in the shade, and very pleasant after sunset.  And after said sunset, most of the buildings and trees become alight- I'm not sure whether this is just for the holidays or all year, but it was gorgeous.  Almost anything you needed was only a few blocks away at most.

There were these unified holiday decorations all over downtown!

The theater was right around the corner from the hotel, which was awesome.  Across the street from the theater was a Barnes & Noble, and caddy-corner was The Flying Saucer: Drought Emporium.  So there was a place to hang out before/between shows and after shows........respectively.......no, I didn't drink before shows.

The theater itself was incredible.  If I knew the first thing about architecture, I'd give you a pretty detailed description.  Instead, I'll just post some pictures.

Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, TX

(notice the heralding angels dominating the front- pretty cool)

Angels were the theme throughout the theater's design.

We had a solid week of shows (thanks to the rest from NOT traveling) and amazing audiences.  We also had a lot of visitors in the orchestra- apparently it was "significant other" week in the pit.  Ah well, misery loves company.  Haha, just kidding............misery prefers to be alone.

So this week we're in Bloomington, Indiana, on the campus of Indiana University Mon-Thur, and travel on Friday to finish out the week in Huntsville, Alabama.

Montallafayorange

Montgomery.  Tallahassee.  Lafayette.  Orange.  Four cities in four different states in one week.  The cast had been calling it "hell week".  It was basically an intense, concentrated dose of tour injected into a small period of time.  People were tired, physically exhausted, on edge, etc., but luckily it's over.  And the best news is that it was the worst-scheduled week of the tour................I don't know what tour everyone else was on- I had a decent week.

We spent Halloween in Montgomery, Alabama, and our hotel allowed us to use one of their meeting rooms for our party.  We drank, ate tons of candy, had a costume contest, and the young 'uns in our cast got to go to each of our rooms and trick or treat.  It also FINALLY started to feel like fall.

Montgomery PAC, Montgomery, AL

Tallahassee was our first arena show.  We performed in the arena where Florida State University plays basketball.  For you Quad-Citians, picture something a little smaller than the iWireless Center, with our stage set up about half-court.  The pit was set up behind the stage, which made for an interesting show.  We got to see some of the things that go on backstage and wear whatever we wanted.

 Leon County Civic Center, Tallahassee, FL

Lafayette was where all the exhaustion started to kick in.  We had done more traveling than we'd been doing and it was starting to get to everyone.  And to top it off, about 12 of the cast members had taken a road trip to New Orleans to see their friends on the Rock of Ages tour and had just gotten back the morning of the 2-show day.  We pulled it off, however.

Heymann Center, Lafayette, LA

Orange, TX, might have been the best city with which to end the week.  The people were friendly, and the theater workers cooked us a potluck dinner in between shows consisting of mostly southern dishes.  Oh my god, I can't describe to you how delicious it was.  One of my favorites was the chicken and sausage gumbo.

 Lutcher Theatre, Orange, TX

After a week like that, it's nice to have an entire week in one city.  And so far, Fort Worth is a great place to have this sit-down.  Pictures/details to come!

Split Week Soup: El Paso, Little Rock

Last week was our first split week, which, as you may have guessed, is a week during which we're in two or more cities.  We arrived in El Paso, TX on Monday, had shows there on Tuesday and Wednesday night, flew to Little Rock on Thursday, and had five shows there on Friday through Sunday.

                                                       Plaza Theatre, El Paso, TX

El Paso was pretty cool.  The hotel was right across the street from the theater, and less than a mile away from the U.S./Mexican border.  As you may have guessed, the culture there is largely Mexican.  Therefore, I had to dust off and use my Spanish occasionally.   The road leading to the border was lined with dozens of tiendas selling huge quantities of nearly everything for very low prices.  I spent my first day trying to gain courage to go into these stores, and the second day actually doing it.  I didn't buy much, though.

Our hotel in El Paso was the historic Camino Real (not the Casino Royale, as I had initially misheard).  The hotel bar was featured on a televised broadcast of the 100 best bars across the nation- the network of which, I'm not quite sure.  Over the bar is the largest Tiffany glass dome in the country.

Little Rock was extremely refreshing.  The weather there was in the upper 50's and lower 60's and was my first taste of fall weather.  There were very, very few trees there changing colors, but I'll take what I can get.  It should hold me over until I'm in the Midwest in a few weeks.

                                             Robinson Center Music Hall, Little Rock, AR

I'm really enjoying the traveling.  People love the sit-downs (staying in one place for a while), but I'm liking the more frequent changing of scenery.  Fortunately for me, this week is even more crazy than last week.  We're not just in four different cities, but four different states this week: Montgomery, AL; Tallahassee, FL; Lafayette, LA; and Orange, TX.

Also, I like our bus more than I thought I would.  Having the cast and the band on one bus helps us to interact more, and I don't mind sharing a seat.  It makes for a cozy home-away-from-home.