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. :)
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
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