"Goodbye" Tour

Hi Friends!
Yesterday we drove all day and saw some really cool sights before crashing for the night at the Dude Rancher Lodge in Billings, Montana. I was then awakened by the sweet sounds of a little baby being made in the room next door and couldn't fall asleep again.
>:(
Our second day of driving back wasn't nearly as exciting as the first day but we tried to make the most of it. We kept trying to make some music videos but something kept going wrong with either the memory space or whatever but we had fun. It also helped make the time go by. When we finally pulled into the now familiar Missoula we headed straight to the mall. We're girls, what can we say?

The REAL reason was because we had a TAD date with Hannah and Laura who were also going to be our roomates for a night at the Ruby's Hotel. We've actually been blessed to have had several dates with these lovely ladies and hey it kinda makes it a full circle. Hannah and Laura were the first Tour Actor/Directors we met for a TAD date way back when we were in Texas for our first week on the job. I guess it only seems appropriate to end the way we started out. :) We all met up at this little Asian restaurant at the mall called the Mustard Seed and it was so good to see these girls and catch up. Afterwards we headed to the hotel to unpack and get ready for a night out with a few other TAD's. I really wasn't feeling it that night. I guess I was tired from driving and was full of dread for the next few days and what they entailed. Thankfully, Loretta and the girls talked me out of it and we all went out for some Karaoke. I must say I feel as if I'm getting pretty good at it.:)

A Love Letter from Jordan

The next morning was the first day of Check in and honestly Check in went by in such a chaotic blur that I really don't remember it. I remember it happening and certain aspects of those two days but other than that? I've got nothing. We had some meetings to go to with Dylan and later Victoria (the two main honchos) in between unloading the truck/getting a bunch of stuff signed off and by the second day Loretta and I were both a little fed up. Thanks to tour, we know how the other one ticks and if one of us is annoyed we know how to handle it.
Note: 50lb bags + several flights of stairs= NO FUN!

One aspect of Check in was nice though. At the end of tour the home office was going to throw a big bash for us TAD's but unfortunately we would be unable to attend. The party was happening the week after our Check in because that was when the majority of everyone was Checking in. Loretta, Hannah, Laura and I were the only ones Checking in early so Dylan wanted to take us all out for dinner which I thought was a really nice gesture. Thaaaaaaaaaanks Dylan! :)

Although I did not like Check in, I have to admit it was nice to see the everyone at the home office. I feel like everyone there is so nice which made saying "Goodbye" kind of hard. I didn't get to say "Goodbye" to everyone because they were all busy preparing for next week with all the TAD's coming in. Again, Check in was a big blur and if I had been thinking straight I would've taken the time to really say "Goodbye" to everyone after I got them to sign off on the check list. I do kind of regret not being able to say bye to a few people. I did however get to get a quick pic and a final hug with some of the home staff. I'm really glad I got one with Michelle. I feel like Michelle really helped me along this whole time. She was there at my audition and helped me get the job and while I had the job, was pretty helpful when it came to things on the road. I just loved her.

Loretta and I said our "Goodbye's" in the TAD lounge before some fellow TADs took me to the airport and before she left to go back home. We hugged and took one last photo together before we said our final "Goodbye's". She truly was an awesome Tour Partner and I know she is going to continue doing great things. I'm just thankfully that we both got to experience this chapter of our lives together and I honestly couldn't have imagined sharing it with anybody else. Love you Lo. :)

I was then wisked away to the Missoula airport where I got on a plane that took me to Seattle-Raleigh-Lynchburg. It was a long night but well worth it because the next morning I was home eating breakfast at Chic-fila. Now I bet you're wondering what's next for this Gill. Well friends, you'll just have to wait and see. . . .
-Jen

Badlands Badlands whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when THEY come for you..

Hi Friends!

Loretta :)

On the road again! Loretta and I were headed back to Missoula for our last Check in. This was one "Last" that I wasn't sad about at all. I mean maybe a little sad but not the sad you'd think, more like the "UGH! . . . Check in.".  >:( Loretta and I have been really lucky when it came to past Check ins. Yea they were no fun but we didn't have to do nearly as much as other teams who were switching shows or partners but now it was our turn to unload everything out of the truck, lug them all over tarnation, and "Check it" all in the prospective places. Grrr! Thankfully we had a long drive to numb the dread. ha! We drove straight from Hendricks, Minnesota to Billings, Montanna which made a very long drive but we  found fun things along the way.

We knew we would be driving through North Dakota where there were some really cool things to see. One of the first things we saw was this praire dog farm where we saw and fed a bunch of those little critters. We drove through the National Park of the Badlands which was soooo cool. It felt like we were in another world and the view went on for miles. We took lots of photos and ventured the land whilst trying not to step on a rattlesnake. I can take on spiders and any other kind of creepy crawler if I have to but NOT snakes. They scare me.

We also got to go to the famous Wall Drug. This was something that was apparently every TAD thought was a "Must See" when on tour. I think this place is just a hodge-podge of stuff. They have really cheap homemade donuts, souveniers, clothes, fudge, and little playgrounds for kids (aka ME) to crawl on/climb. What I think it's most known for are all it's signs on the highway 90. All the signs are different and all have catchy phrases on it with a random object or animal.  You'll see signs like "Catch ya at Wall Drug only 215 miles away" with a big fisherman on it. By the time you get somewhat near, you start thinking, "Well NOW I'm curious. What ISSS Wall Drug?". We now know and honestly it's kind of cool but I don't feel the need to go again. Been there. Done that. :)

The last place we stopped was a place that I had been HOPING to see all tour but never really thought I'd get to go. I feel like there are certain places that every American should go see, places like the Grand Canyon, the White House, and Niagra Falls which technically is in Canada too but STILL! Where we last stopped on the way to Billings, Mt falls under this list. . . . . Mount Rushmore. I was seriously stoked all day to see it and see it we did! I never realized how big it actually was but at the same time it seemed small. Of course its big it is a mountain but it seemed so far away which made it appear small. We later found out that we could've taken a trail to get up closer but we were on a tight schedule and couldn't stay long. However, we did get roam around the town and even considered staying there for the night instead of Billings because it seemed so cool. After much discussion we agreed to keep on going but not without buying a souvenir or two. We went in this one store and this elderly man who worked there stopped us and filled our brains with all this information about Mount Rushmore and the architect/his family line. He was a very nice man and I did learn a thing or two but we had to get going.

Once back on the road, I got this burst of energy that I could drive all the way to Missoula. We were only 5 hours away and I was wide awake. One of Missoula's driving rules for long trips are for each of us to drive in no more than 8 hour segments and together no more than 16 hours a day. TECHNICALLY I would be breaking that rule but I just kept thinking by the time they find out we'll already be there and what are they gonna do? Nada. Loretta wasn't on the same page with me but that was ok we made it to Billings safely and had a good night's rest which was what we needed. Well I did wake up at 5am at the sounds of the couple next door. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . for over an hour. . . . thats all I will say. . . .
Haha OHHHH cheap hotel rooms!

I guess I was starting off the next day of driving on an interesting note. :)
I'm almost home!
-Jen

Last Week of Tour

Hi Friends!
After a year of life on the road with multipule locations, performances, workshops, tiffs, laughter, and starbucks giftcards it all came down to this: our final week. My final performance week was in Hunter, Nd but I still had one more week as a Tour Actor/Director in Hendricks, Mn. I think in all we couldn't have ended tour on a better note. In Hunter we had a wonderful cast and in Hendricks we had an AMAZING Contact. Our Contact found out that this was our last week on tour and she and her family went out of their way to make sure we had an awesome week.

We pull into Hendricks, Mn, a small town with a population of 713, and headed to the school to meet our Contact. She was there with two of her girls and one of their friends and instantly we knew this was going to be a good week. The youngest of her kids was there and she was SO excited for us to be there because this year she was finally old enough to be in the show. That's what we do, bring joy to little children everywhere. We're kind of a big deal. ha! We got a tour of the school and discussed the details of the week and then our Contact showed us where we would be staying that week and boy were we surprised.

The town is super small and consisted of one main strip that had a restaurant, the post office, a knick knack store for gifts/ pharmacy and then the place where we stayed. Now this town doesn't have any hotels because well it's just so small but this one man (who happend to be friends with our Contact) travels to and from Hendricks for work and we stayed at his home away from home. It was this fully furnished MODERN apartment and it was SO cool. My room had two twin beds and what kind of way would it be for the end of tour if I didn't put them together? A NO FUN way thats what! We got settled in and then we met up with our Contact and the rest of her family for dinner. They took us out for pizza and ice-cream and we had so much fun. At dinner we swapped all kinds of stories of life on tour whilst Loretta convinced the youngest daughter that she could "time travel" and then afterwards the family gave us a bit of a tour of the town. Remember this was a very small town so needless to say the tour was very short. We then headed back to our place and rested up for our last Monday.

Our Mondays usually ran the same; we have an audition and maybe even a workshop, not this week. This week Loretta and I did something a little different, we had to speak at a Kiwanis meeting. Now I had never been to one of these much less ever heard of one. The closest thing I could associate it with was like a Boosters or a Moose Lodge Club like what we have here in Lynchburg. From what I understand these people have meetings and donate money to things in the community to help imrove things like the local playground or whatever. Well since they were bringing in Missoula Children's Theatre our Contact asked us to prepare a little skit or something to encourage them to keep supporting "The Arts". So we got up there and performed the beginning part of our Actor's Tools workshop and I think it went over well. :)

That afternoon we noticed a lot of little wooden trolls and golf carts all over the place. The trolls was apparently a Norweigen thing and most of the town was made of Norweigens so that makes sense. The golf carts was because the people of Hendricks had a little golf club not too far away and because the town was so small everyone just drove their golf carts everywhere instead of their cars. Ha go figure. We later held auditions which to be honest didn't go as smooth as we would have liked but I think we handle the situation pretty well and cast the kids in the right roles. After that we finished up our last Monday on a good note because the rehearsals went really well. YEA! Tuesday we got to sleep in a little and then headed to the school for our last Tuesday rehearsal. Monday and Tuesday? Check! No more Knights/Squire and Fab Four/Terrific Ten rehearsals for this Gill. I knew Wednesday would be the killer for me...

Wednesday we had all three of our workshops which meant we finished up tour with our favorite/most performed workshops which were Creative Dramatics and Improv. They both went... relatively well so thats good but what I wasn't looking forward to was that day's rehearsal. Wednesday is the day when I teach the Minis the show and I'll admit I was a little sad to say "Goodbye". I LOVE the Minis and I LOVE teaching the 5-7 year olds. Every week something they do makes me laugh. On this particular Wednesday we found out 5 minutes before that some of the kids had dropped out and that one had an "eye appointment" and couldn't come to rehearsal today. Well poo. Now I have to be the bad guy and tell the parent the next day, if the kid shows up, that little so and so can't be in the show anymore because it would be unfair to the other kids who showed up everyday for rehearsal and maybe if we had known this earlier we could've worked around it and blah blah blah. That speech is never fun but the parent usually understands because we mention this at the audition and in the parent letter we send home on Monday. Something told me that this week would be different and booooooy was I right.

Anyway, I've learned to work with what I got and what kids were there did such a great job! They picked up on the songs and lines really well. I did feel a little terrible/thought it was funny because there was this one little girl who kept crying at EVERYTHING! She cried because she had to stand next to a boy, she was nervous to be infront of other people, the music was too loud, she had to pee, the dragon sound scared her etc. Bless her heart. I've dealt with cryers before but usually you let them get a drink of water and sit and watch how much fun the other kids are having and then they wanna jump right in. Not this little girl! I was convinced that I was gonna cry that day but that didn't happen because I was laughing at how extreme this little girl was. Hahaha! Like I said I felt terrible that she was so upset but at the same time there was no win so it made me laugh in my heart. I'm teyyible.

Loretta really wanted to go for a drive to Iowa so she could cross it off her list of states visited and I'm always up for an adventure. The problem was we only could really go to the border and get lunch and head back before rehearsal, not much time for gallavanting. However, on the border of Iowa was a Casino. Wooohooo! It was decided, we were going and I wanted to live dangerously. How dangerously? Three dollars worth at the Slots hahaha! We ate lunch and then found Loretta a T-shirt to prove that she was there. It made a fun afternoon indeed. We then went to rehearsal and this was the day the kids were supposed to be off off book so rehearsal was a little bit rough with lines but what made it worse was the Mom I had to give the whole speech too about her son not being in the show. It did NOT go over well. This lady went NUTS and I learned the true definition of a "Stage Mom". All I will say is that she and her 7 year old made the rest of the week interesting. If you want the FULL story just ask me and I'll be glad to fill you in. :)


Friday started off well, our Contact let Loretta and I drive around town in their golf cart. I've never driven a golf cart before so I was REALLY excited. After we toured the town in a matter of 15 minutes we wanted to see how many golf carts we could find parked in town or in people's driveways. Our final count was 27 and I don't think we counted ours soooo 28. HA! Rehearsal went better than Thursday's and Stage Mom sat queitly on the gym bleachers. Some of the kids had really been struggling with their lines and on this day we saw a HUGE improvement which was really awesome since the show was the next day.

The day of the show our Contact worked out for us to go horseback riding but because it was raining that morning we couldn't go. :( Although it made us feel like our Contact really cared because she went out of her way once again for us. :) We head to the school and start setting up lights before anyone showed up for the day and what happens? The power goes out and there is no emergency lights which meant we were in complete darkness. Oh dear. Just like a lot of things that week we just HAD to laugh it off. What would be a week of tour without SOME kind of disaster? A boring week. Haha! Thankfully the power came back on and we had our shows. The kids were a bit nervous so a few lines were dropped but Loretta covered really well and after the final show we packed everything in the truck.

SO recap: Final rehearsals, Final, workshops, Final makeup, Final disasters, Final Set and light put up and take down, Final passing out and check in of costumes and Final "Goodbye's" to wonderful kids. After the show and after everything was packed up some of the cast members hung out in the gym and we had a mini little basketball game. It was a lot of fun and I think our "Goodbye's" were prolonged for as long as possible. Our Contact was so kind and gave Loretta and I these wonderful souvenirs of t-shirts and sweat pants. She was just too kind and then they took us out for dinner. We went to this really nice restaurant called Cedrics with our Contact's family and then that storm hit again. The building was really old and so we had to evacuate and go to a safer building which made the night really interesting. We ended up going over to our Contact's brother's house and played Wii with the kids and ate our food to go.

The next morning we had to start our long trek back to Missoula for our Final Check-in. Our Contact and her family got up at 7:30 in the morning just so we could eat breakfast together and say a final Goodbye. You know you are loved when someone is willing to wake up that early for you and their still wearing their makeup from last night's show. It was a fun breakfast but sad at the same time. While on tour I've run across some very nice people and the some not so very nice but I feel its the not so nice people that make the kind hearted ones seem that much more wonderful. I honestly felt like our Contact and her family in Hendricks will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you for taking us in and for treating us so kindly.
-Jen

Friends ...and Mr. Cluck Cluck

Hi Friends!
It was a bright and sunny day in North Dakota and all seemed to be going well. I had my Starbucks in hand, sunny skies above and we were headed to Hunter, Nd for my final week to perform with King Arthur's Quest. Ok so that last one kind of made me sad but I never like to focus on the downside of things. :)

Loretta and I had a homestay this week which I was really excited about. The people seemed (and were) so nice and their house was literally across the street from the school. This was very convenient and we took advantage of this by walking instead of driving all the time. Nothing like a good walk. A day or two I even walked over just to swing on the swing set. I also liked this homestay because we were on a barn that had plenty of chickens and friends. Not gonna lie, one of my favorite things that week was chasing the chickens. hahaha! This was fun for me because since Loretta made a friend in Fargo I felt it was my turn. My friend just so happend to be a chicken who I named Mr. Cluck Cluck. I don't count the barn cats because I ALWAYS make friends with the cats. THEY'RE SO CUTE AND FLUFFY!!!!!

One day I decided to go explore. I got tired of just hanging out in my room and even if that meant just going for a drive, I was ok with that esp since we were saving so much on gas by walking all the time. HA!-not really Anyway, I went for a drive and I can honestly say we were in the middle of NOWHERE in Hunter, Nd. I drove by some of the "towns" that were down the road and the town was as big as a Panera Bread, real small. The GPS took me on a bunch of country roads which was fun until we opened the truck later that day and the inside was covered in dirt. Whoopsie! Now I know. Still I had fun just getting out and doing something.

During this week we had workshops which isn't out of the ordinary but we had to do If The Forest Could Talk one again. UGH! We had only done this one once before and all I'm gonna say is that this isn't one of our favorites but we made it work....somehow. Ha! The school actually had this trail that went through "the woods" there so we spent most of the workshop just walking through it. Good decision. :) It was fun for me because I was leading the line and doing a terrible Australian accent with the kids. I would pick up a stick that was in the middle of the trail and toss it aside and scream "SURVIVAL!" and before I knew it everyone was doing it too. Haha too fun. :)

Now being on tour, Loretta and I pretty much have dealt with it all. We've had kids who were bipolar, had various forms of autism, kids who would come to rehearsal with strange bruises on their arms or necks but this week was a special and truthfully a scary week. We had our first muscular distrophy kid. This little girl words honestly can not express how much she meant to us. She is the type of kid that Missoula bases itself around. Parents (and sometimes teachers) place kids like her in this little box thinking that they can't do theatre or sports and hold them back. However, we come in and give the kid a chance to shine and then that kid's confidence grows which makes the adults see them in a new perspective. Everytime this little girl walked out onstage I'll admit I focused on her not falling more than I did of "being in the moment" because I didn't want to her to suddenly fall while standing. She did this several times at a rehearsal and each time she fell to the ground my heart froze. I would do everything I possible could to help her and yea the rule of "Not touching the kids" went out the door this week. I wasn't about to let her fall to the ground like a ragdoll. I'm gonna catch her so she'll have one less injury in the morning. The kid's safety comes first.

Was I scared every moment she walked out onstage? Yes. Did I think she was gonna take down the set and a few other kids too? Yes. Come show day did ANY of this happen? No. Truthfully I was scared but I knew that she was fully capable of pulling this off and she did! What was so great was she proved this to her family, her counselor, and the entire school. She was phenomenal and I couldn't have been more proud of her.

The kids in Hunter wereall awesome! These kids were well behaved and soooo cool! They were also fun to work off of onstage and I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids to do my final performance with. The Lord truly blessed me every moment while I was onstage with them and He helped me cherish every second of it. The performances were flawless. These kids ALL grew as performers within the course of a week and it was obvious to everyone how much fun they were having which is what its all about. This was my last performance but next week in Hendricks, Mn would be a week full of lasts for both of us. It'll be our Last Audition, Last Mini Rehearsal, Last Workshops, Last Makeup, Last Set and Costume take down and the Last "Goodbyes". Oh dear. It's coming to an end so fast! I don't think I like this very much. I can already tell that I'm going to miss this job so very much.

Now since, Hunter was only 30 minutes away from Fargo, Loretta got to hang out with her friend Drew alot while Mr. Cluck Cluck and the cats were my companions for the week. You can imagine my excitement when I found out that another team would be coming through Fargo on Sunday which meant another wonderful TAD date! Well a TAD date for me since Loretta was on a REAL date with Drew which was fine, no big. I had actually known Anne for awhile but she had gotten a new tour partner whom I had not met yet. I was excited, she kind of reminded me of me friend Rachel Rodgers back home. Plus I like making new friends and hanging out with some old ones. :) We went to this very cool coffee place that was based off of Pikes Place in Seattle. I thought that was pretty cool and I LOVE local restaurants! My friend Allison always says that she doesn't feel like she's really experienced a place unless she's eaten there. Needless to say, I adopted that theory on tour and I love it cuz it's SO true. It was a wonderful coffee date with two lovely ladies and then once Loretta and I met back up we were headed to Hendricks, Mn for our week full of lasts. Hopefully that won't be my LAST TAD date. If so I don't think I'll like that very much. > : (
-Jen

love them

Productive and Fun

Hi Friends,
Loretta and I had a very uplifting week in Lisbon where we took some challenges and made the best of it. Challenges such as having a really small cast and other little things that you get used to while on the road like no cellphone service. I'd say it was a successful week. We were both looking forward to our next week in Fargo, Nd where we were going to be staying in a hotel. During the summer we got really used to staying in hotels esp when they had pools for us to relax and work on our tans at. However, since the fall tour we've had a lot of homestays which are always fun and I have A LOT of funny stories about them but we were looking forward to our own space. Plus Fargo is a big city which means CELLPHONE SERVICE.

Once we were all checked in and relaxed in our hotel rooms, we got ready for dinner. We had a TAD date with two of our friends that were on the road too and we were going to our favorite place: Olive Garden. It was so nice to catch up and share tour stories with another team who goes through a lot of the things we go through with life on tour. Loretta actually made "friends" with our waitor which between you and me Adam (one of the tour actors we were eating with) didn't like very much. Ha!

I loved our week in Fargo. Our Contact was on top of the game and took on a lot of responsibilites that most Contacts wouldn't do. He did a lot of little things that add up to big things for us like making lists of the kids names, making sure that there was a parent around just incase a kid was forgot to get picked up or didn't have a snack. He had been a contact for Missoula for awhile and he took it seriously which we liked. :) We also had 3 Creative Dramatic workshops and I love this workshop!

No date for this Gill.

We teach the kids that they can put on a play anywhere using their bodies and imagination and then we tell stories with them using mime as well as warming up their bodies. At the very end of the workshop we all act out The Troublesome Dragon; I play the Dragon and various other characters and the kids play the funny townspeople.  The teachers always like us doing workshops because for 45 minutes they just get to watch and not have to worry about the kids. What made it better was that the kids in Fargo were really wellbehaved. Truthfully a lot of the places we went on tour the kids were really well behaved but this week was pretty awesome. Our performance space that week was so great. We were so used to having small spaces and we just had to make the set work somehow which usually meant only using two walls instead of the four. When we put up the four walls and still had loads of space for backstage and wings we were pretty happy.

When we weren't in rehearsals or doing a show Loretta and I spent our time very differently. Loretta went on several dates with the waitor from Olive Garden and I always loved breakfast with her the next morning to hear all about it. :) I however spent my time a little differently. I went to the gym just about everyday and worked on gymnastics and dance. I loved it. I feel like I haven't danced in so long and this week really showed me how much I miss it. I even went and saw The Vow by myself and then afterwards I danced in the parking lot in the rain. Why? Because I could! Haha! Later on that week Loretta and I went out to see what Drew (the waitor) did for his second job.  It wasn't really my scene but I had fun.

For our next week on tour we were supposed to be in Hunter, Nd which was only 30 minutes away from Fargo so since Loretta and I didn't have far to go we used our spare time wisely and went shopping. haha! Loretta even got to go on another date with Drew while I caught up with our Contact and my Dad on the phone. I felt really productive. Recap: Fargo was a fun, relaxing and a productive week. Now off to Hunter!
-Jen