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| Leaving Acme |
The next day was Audition day. On Audition day, we have to get there an hour before the audition time so we can walk around, find out where everything is, and print parent letters. We had actually just got this new parent letter format so that we only have to print one for the kids that week with the full week's schedule rather than two which turned out to work out PERFECTLY for this week. The highschool office wouldn't let me use their computer/copier. This at first caught me off guard esp. after I was told that I could and then come to find out I can't. This had never been an issue before with past schools either so that was reason two. The third reason why printing letters was so weird was because I had to do it at a homeless shelter. Yep. Our contact for our week in Wapato works as a college professor and owns a homless shelter. Now keep in mind that yes I have been in contact with this guy for about two weeks finding out information about the upcoming week but this was the first time I had actually met him. When he said we could go to the shelter and print off the letters I thought that he meant some other building that was apart of the school but then when he started walking in the parking lot I quickly realized that something was slightly askew . There was no turning back now. I didn't want to seem rude and more importantly how else where we going to print off the letters for the kids? I pictured some lifetime movie being made about this. Now when I mentioned in my "I see Stars" blog about being in movies, I didn't mean THAT WAY! I knew if I didn't go then I would have a plethora of people mad at me, Loretta, the home office, PARENTS! Thankfully nothing happend. Whew! Even better I didn't have to go through that again since we only had to print off ONE letter. YES!
The kids in Wapato were awesome! We actually had a really hard time casting these kids because they were so talented and we couldn't make up our minds. Once we decided, we got started with rehearsal. Remember when I mentioned my "Serious Actor" face so I won't laugh onstage and to seem professional? Out the window! These kids made me laugh all the time and I found myself at every rehearsal thinking THIS is why I love my job! I think that often anyways but with this week I was constantly reminded of how blessed I am and how much these kids impact MY life. I may impact their life in some ways but I find that they bring so much joy to my everyday life. Thankfully Loretta performed this week so she was the one that had to struggle not to laugh onstage. During our week in Wapato, I had to take the truck to get some work done: an oil change and a new brake light bulb. Nothing too out of the oridinary with the oil change. For the brake light our homestay suggested I go see this man down the hill named Dugen who fixed cars. I find him; he wasn't but 5 minutes from the house. I walk in and state my issue with the truck.
His response, "Yea I should be able to fix that but before I do I just want to tell you that you are gorgeous!"
My response: (places hand over heart and with genuine surprise/flattery) "Thank you so much!" Hahah! We chatted while he fixed my car about where I was from and my job the usual. Before I knew it he wa done. Sweet! I go to pull out my wallet and asked how much I owed him. He then opened the truck door for me (real Gentleman like) and said "Don't worry about it. Merry Christmas." (Insert sweet elderly man smile) I was in shock. What!?! He then told me IF he wasn't married and younger he would have asked me out the moment I walked in the door and continued with such flatter. Ooooooh Dugen!!! Sweetest mechanic EVER! So I saved MCT couple bucks because of my good looks apparently.
Your welcome Gordon!
The next day Loretta and I did costume laundry and rewarded ourselves by going to the Soda Fountain! We had a week in Granger, Wa earlier this fall tour and stopped here one day for lunch and we both agree that it has been our favorite place to eat so far. It's nothing fancy, just burgers really. We just like the atmosphere and the fact that its an old soda fountain. We meandered in town for a bit buying Christmas gifts for fellow TADs before heading to rehearsal.
Now if you look to your right of this blog you will see some tour goals Loretta and I have made. One of them was to see something haunted but Loretta has kind of been scared to explore "haunted places" for fear that it might actually BE haunted. Ok I can't really blame her, I wasn't really looking forward to meeting this goal either but it had to be done in my mind. We found out during one of our rehearsals that the stage was indeed haunted. SURPRISE LORETTA! We met our gooOooal. The story goes that a janitor in the 70's was working there and fell in love with a student who did theatre. He would always watch her from this little banister in the wings and one day he caught her with a boy. He became very upset and hung himself from the very banister he watched her from. They saaaay that he haunts the theatre during performances, things like moving shadows when no one is there, things falling off the stage into the audience and so on and so forth. He didn't show himself for us though, probably because he knew I was lookin for him or maybe it was because he knew my knight in shining armor Dugen the mechanic would come after him. We did notice how the area where he hung himself was always way colder than the rest of the stage. . . . .The day of the shows went well. A performance day always seems to go well when a girl Mini doesn't cry because we have to draw a mustache on her face. Also no activity from the ghost, all good signs. Saturday's show wasn't as smooth. Two of the Minis were missing. Their parents decided to not have them show up. Great. These two Minis had big parts too! They were Mini Guinevere and Mini Merlin. Even more great! The Mini scenes lasted about 3 minutes but somehow it worked? What was awesome was that the big cast adjusted so well to the last minute change, for example Big Merlin said "I WOULD'VE turned him into a duck!". Nice thinkin Merlin!
But what made this show interesting was what happend afterwards when we were doing costume check in. Loretta has a very rare heart condition and she hasn't run into any problems with it on tour until that day. We had just finished photo sessions with the cast and Loretta was just about to sell some t-shirts when she looked at me and said she had to step outside. All she said was "Heart". I knew something was up when about 10 minutes went by and she hadn't returned. I had parents and kids coming at me from both sides worrying about costumes and t-shirts and by this point I had enough. I needed to go see Loretta. I politely explained that I needed to go see my tour partner that she was more important to me at that moment. I went on a mad search and found her outside with Jamie our other contact for the week. Loretta told me that her pulse was about 200 and that it had never happend that long. We got her some ice and anything else we could that she needed but it seemed like the best option was to take her to the ER.
I had to stay and deal with all the parents, take down the set, do costumes, sell t-shirts, double check rooms, and load the truck without Loretta. Holy. Crap. I did the best I could but all I kept thinking about was whats going on with my friend????? I finally just stopped and asked those that were around me to pray with me. Yep MCT, I don't care. It says in the Bible that the Lord is there and listens when more than one gather and pray to Him. Thankfully for me the ones that I asked to pray told me that they just so happend to be Christian. Coincidence? I think not. Once everything was done, you could not have gotten me to the hospital fast enough. When we got there, praise the Lord she was fine! They gave her two different kinds of shots to calm her down and she was feeling much better. They caught her pulse at like 239 or something like that when a normal one is about 70. Loretta said that these spells last about 5-10 minutes, this went on for an HOUR. I was so glad to see that she was ok, I couldn't contain myself. I gave her the biggest hug I could without hurting her.
By this point we were both starving so we found an Outback and got some dinner. We originally planned on doing costume laundry after the show so we wouldn't have to worry about it for Check In next week. Yea I'm not looking forward to it. :( However due to the circumstance, laundry did not happen. We both decided to just do it tomorrow when we get to Montana. So I better get some sleep. It's late and our homestay is making us breakfast in the morning (home-made oatmeal and bacon)before we leave for Check In. Hopefully this Check In will go a lot better than the last one.
-Jen
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