A fascinating trip to bring Audrey to town. Audrey is the name of a carnivorous plant from the show “The Little Shop of Horrors”. We had to bring various sizes of Audrey back from another theater. The trip there was uneventful. No problems, and the GPS unit, while a bit annoying, led us unerringly to our destination.

Then we saw the plants. All I could think of was: “Would it all fit in my truck?” All of the stuff was soon loaded into the truck, and we were on our way. On the way to get some food, I was sure the stuff in back would need to have a tarp to be safe at speeds over 40 mph. We stopped at a Meijer store to locate said tarp. I was sure I had enough cords and straps to contain the load. Everything looked good to go.

Starting down the road, the load looked good. At 45-50 mph things started to come apart. Something came off and the back end of the tarp was flipping all over the place. I started looking for a place to pull over. In looking at our prized load we found that the tarp had ripped, and a one of the bungies broke. We thought we saw some of Audrey fall off the truck, but we could not find any of the pieces. Tying down the load again we took off at a slower speed.

Things still weren’t looking good, so I found a better place to stop. I was too close to the road the last time, and tying up loose ends when traffic is flying past you at 55+ isn’t something on my list of things to do. We stopped in the lot of a small yard ornament shop. They had some nice things, but we didn’t have any room to put them. If I had really found a deal, I wonder if I could have talked one of my fellow travelers into holding a 50 concrete statue on their lap?

Again we go out to tie things down. I do mean tie things down. More straps came loose and broke. We actually had to tie them to the tarp and the truck.

Instead of taking the the roads with higher traffic, I took a less traveled road, hoping to get to a town or village. We did stop 1 or 2 more times before finding a place to get some more things to tie this menacing beast down. Audrey II was threatening to fly off with the tarp whenever our speed approached 50 mph. Not much could be done at this point. We were out of things to tie her down. If we kept losing straps, we would need to go less than 25 mph because there wouldn’t be much holding Audrey in place.

Finally making it to Oakwood, Ohio there was a little hardware store that did have what we needed to finish our transport. This place actually had a wood stove to supply its heat. This was common in a much earlier time period, but not so much in 2009 OHIO. When replacing the straps one of the old ones actually snapped in half removing it. Wow!! I think we just made it. If I can find the receipt for those straps, I may take them back. They were supposedly heavy duty bungies. I don’t think so.

With more straps and tie downs we were finally able to travel at 50+ Mph without fear of Audrey II taking flight. We made it through Defiance (and a bit of traffic) with out much more than a few strange looks. And finally made it to our prop’s final destination of Bryan OH.

The thing about this whole trip is not so much the trouble we had, or the frequent stops. I’m sure given the ‘wrong’ group of people, this could have been a nightmare experience. Anger and frustration could have reared its ugly head. But for some odd reason none of that happened. We joked about it during the trip. We were also saying it would make a good blog post. Who would write about it first. I’m still waiting for more pictures of Audrey bits on the road, or the each of the stops along the way. How about one of our Esteemed admin crawling under the truck to look for a place to tie something?

The trip became an adventure. At least on my part, I had a fun afternoon. The three of us on the trip are still talking to each other. 😉 No fights broke out that I am aware of. And I’m sure whenever the show is discussed, the first adventures of Audrey will be told. Will the story be ‘stretched’? (bad pun considering our bungies). You bet, this is for a theater group. We like good stories. Will there be little Audrey’s growing on the roads between Lima OH and Bryan OH? I wouldn’t bet against it. Will I volunteer for another road trip? If it is with the same people, you bet.

I’m not sure how the play itself will go, but if the first trip of Audrey is any indication, it should be fun. This is a musical, so due to my own idiosyncrasies, I will not be on stage for it. My role, as much or as little as it is will be in an off stage capacity. Theater will be taking a back seat for me. Family is taking over with graduations, weddings, babies and just plain visiting with the daughters, sons and grandkids I don’t see often enough. Theater is now taking a backseat.

Anyway, I did once write about me having a truck and actually using it, so I guess that I did it again. Have truck will deliver, maybe I should make a sign?

Yesterday I stopped at our local theater to pick up two barrels to take back to the theater we borrowed them from. When I got there, as stove was waiting to be delivered back to our theater. A lot of work to do the day of and day after a surgical procedure. Me, I scheduled all of this last week when I thought my visit to the hospital was next Monday.

I was feeling well enough to roll a couple of barrels, so that wasn’t a problem. The return trip with the stove, well that started out good. We were able to roll the barrels out and then load the stove. Two people with minimal effort. I like that kind of move.

Then I got to the final destination of the stove. No ramp, no steps to back up to, just brute strength and manpower to move the stove. Lucky for me, there were other there to do the work. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together. Really there was no plan, just luck and younger theater people there to do the heavy work. I like that kind of move too.

There were more things to move and I was lucky enough to get out of most of that too. I guess until the same things have to move again I am safe. There is a very good chance that my name will be in the mix if and when those items need to be moved again. Any volunteers?

Then a quick trip to a local establishment to share a drink or two with a couple of friends. They helped with the move and it was fun to talk without having a play to rehearse or perform. Nice time, even if I don’t care for the bar scene. Maybe I will volunteer for the next move. I think I owe a round or two.

In trying to get last minute additions to our set, I was trying to decorate some torch holders with the lion from the Crest of Henry II.   Very intricate lion for me to cut out.  I’ve never had good sissors skills.   To top it off, I’m trying to make it about  5.5 to 7 inches long.  Hmm that’s not going to work for me.

So what did I do?  I passed this project on to my youngest daughter.  She must have passed the scissors portion of art in Kindergarten.  Since I never went to Kindergarten, I missed that class entirely.

Final projects, line and character touch ups, clean up for the theather are all things we do the week before the play begins.   We need a few additions to our costumes (shoes).  Maybe an addtional knife or two (yes, sharp, pointy, dangerous things).  And of course a heavy helping of vitamins,  cold remedies and anything else you can think of so that the cast remains healthy and able for the entire production.

Chrunch week is here, and all I want to know is:  “Where are my lions?”

GO TO A SHOW!!!

Tonight was the first night that I have ever been the stage manager for any show. There are times when I really find it to be fun; but the idea of not being able to be part of either the on-stage activity or in the audience makes it difficult. I do enjoy the comradery you feel by being able to assist in getting the performers props, cues, etc or the challenge of making sure an 8-year old knows when to say his lines backstage or that he is not (unintentionally, of course) making a nuisance of himself; but in all honesty, I really think Alex is doing a fine job both with his character and learning what to do and (more importantly) what not to do when he is off-stage. A year ago he and two of my nieces were in School House Rock with me. The main difference was that the children’s chorus was on-stage the entire time. I can’t imagine dealing with 30 kids (some of whom were no older than 7) backstage.

The actress playing Titsy (or is it Tansy… so many names) payed me a huge compliment tonight by saying what a great backstage manager I am. Maybe with more experience I will come to enjoy it as much as I do being on-stage. But, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I am REAAAAALLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYY antsy and NEEED to be on-stage. It has been almost 3 months. But this cast is such a ball to work with. One of my best friends plays the title role. Another good friend is producing. Yet another frequent party goer is assisting backstage. Of course, visiting with our resident groupie and whichever child happens to be with her at the time is cool, too. Our first time director is doing an awesome job. All the cast and crew has made the first of 7 performances highly enjoyable.

Following tonight’s opening, a bunch of frequent game nighters converged along with an infrequent groupie. While the guys were handily humbling our female counterparts, the telephone rang. I just had the strangest feeling that I knew whom it would be. I suppose I should have been a little bit more thoughtful by phoning ahead and telling Alex’s parents that we would be late, but there is next time… (shame on me).

While surfing for stuff to put in our haunted house, I came across this site that has a lot of FX that we may be able to use. Fake hands, heads, zombies, and some other cool stuff.

I wasted a good bit of time just checking out the FX. Most can be done on our short budget too. We have the wood, but we would need some of the other items to make molds and finish off the projects.

So any of the people working on the haunted house, check this out. I will be adding different sites to this blog if I find anything else we can use.

Yes, tonight was our final rehearsal for Little Women before we have an audience and any audience expects to be entertained and tonight while still good also had a few pitfalls. Huge gaps where a character forgot her entrances, fumbling backstage to move sets and props into place. Just little things that can and frequently do cause an audience to become distracted and lose interest. But overall, these were only minor things (admittedly the person who forgot her entrances was not so minor but I am sure that her professionalism will return and will be fine).

Also missing tonight was our assistant lighting person. When I returned from practice, I had a message informing me that Carol was really sick so I immediately called and talked to her daughter. I was really concerned because Carol is always so dependable (as well as a fun member of our game night gang who played my mother in our recent Murder Mystery night) and I was hoping most of the evening that nothing was seriously wrong. Thankfully, she was feeling better by the time I had called. This was on her birthday of all things to boot. So Happy Birthday Carol and I hope you feel much better 😀 . And see you tomorrow night. I will also have to attend some of the Summer City Band concerts on Wednesday nights through the summer as Megan plays the trumpet in the band. She should have told me sooner. I started playing trumpet in 5th grade and by the time I was in high school moved to the tuba (many tales about Susie and I 😀 ) with some gentle nudging from a certain high school band director.

I almost forgot to mention that a certain well-admired writer from a newspaper was in attendance.  Not to review as some feared, just to flash his camera and leave.  Hopefully, he does not bring his book Friday night and have it out before the first scene is over.

Well with less than a week before opening night of Little Women, I must say it has come a very long way even in just the last two rehearsals. Thursday night’s practice did not go well at all (but I have been involved in worse. As our director stated today, it was indeed time for a wake up call. The cast is all wonderful and very professional, but in my opinion the time has come for the jitters to start in for everyone and just need to be reminded that the hard part is over and the fun can begin. We are all ready but it is not time to take that preparedness and have fun, relax, and just do it. This afternoon was actually the first time we had everything in place (cast, musicians, props, set placement, and everything else involved in a theatrical production… including lighting… THANKS justj and Carol). The first act took an hour-and-a-half to complete and the second act just under that. Although I have never seen a production of this show, from reading the script, sitting in rehearsals, etc. I do not see how it can possibly be much shorter. There is very little in set changing so nothing to be done there. But with repetition over the next 3 evenings (we do have an audience on Thursday night for final dress) it will all come together. My big faux pas occurred when Mr. B came and actually PUSHED me downstage to be where I was supposed to be during one of my brilliant scenes, but he did mention that he cracked up at my final stage position (but I will not give that away for those who do not know). I will not forget where I am supposed to be from now on. Nor will I comment on my costume for the show that is a return to some costuming I have undertaken in past productions (and it does need to be altered not the least for a draft I felt). But I do get to play an evil villain 😀 which everyone so loves to hate but am “so good at” (and the last three are NOT my words).
Little Women (Collector’s Edition)

Memory for remembering scripts that is.  We all know about my memory for names and faces by now.  Memorizing scripts used to be a breeze, but now I just can’t seem to get it right.  I had two weeks this time, and it was better, but I still changed a few of my lines because I couldn’t quite remember them.  I know part of this is actual rehearsal time- we seem to be able to run through it an average of 1.5 times before the performance- but even with this handicap I feel I had a better handle on the memorization at the beginning of the year.

Today we also had a crisis getting props together.  There was supposed to be a squirt gun, for example, but I had to improvise by using a flashlight instead (cool flashlight by the way, in the shape of a cordless drill so I think it worked).  Also I had to make a backpack have some semblance of a rocket jet pack using some printed graphics and rolled-up paper tubes.  Of course the tape on this and another prop failed.  I will have to bring duct tape for the two groups tomorrow.

And now, I have to study the lesson for tomorrow’s 4th/5th grade class- it is my turn to teach again, and this time I have more than a half-hour notice so it needs to sound like it. 🙂