February 2nd - 9th: On The Road!

Wow, I got lazy with this thing fast!  Much has happened since I last posted...namely, the show.  We opened to an amazing crowd in Missoula on January 24th, and have been received very well by audiences!  We nearly sold out (if not fully sold out) every performance at home, and so far have managed to break some old records in other venues in regards to numbers of tickets sold!  This show is off to an amazing start, and tour itself has been quite the experience as well.

A quick recap of the tour so far!

Plains, Montana - February 2nd, 2009

Leaving Missoula

When Greg Johnson woke up that day, he saw his shadow, thus ensuring 4 more months of tour!  We kicked off mini-tour week on Groundhog Day in Plains, MT -- Unfortunately, I was not too snap happy at the venue, so there aren't really any photos commemorating this day, just a few from the morning.  

Aspen and Jackson

Marie

Plains is one of those places that makes me really love Montana.  Small town folk have such a commitment to their community, and that feeling was palpable.  

Plains' hospitality was excellent and highly appreciated.  Much of the cast who are joining us from the East Coast/Midwest hadn't experienced huckleberries before, and were given a wonderful introduction with some homemade huckleberry pie.  

The show was performed in the high school gymnasium, and took a while to load in and out. We did it though, and considering the amount of equipment we brought (Plains tour motto: if you don't bring it, you don't have it) in proportion to the amount of experience we all had (FIRST out of Missoula show, folks!), we did pretty decently!  

Favorite moment of the day: the free coffees given to us at the local espresso stand.

Favorite show moment: the fact that the school's generator did not have nearly enough juice to power our lights, so we performed under a soft yellow glow reminiscent of candle light.  Many people in the cast commented that the lighting (in combination with lack of sleep and a full day of load in) made the show feel like a dream.

Helena, MT - February 3rd, 2009

Leaving Plains

Green Latrine (the green tour van) departed Plains at 8am I believe -- Jackson was kind enough to drive that day.  I can't recall too much of the trip, because I slept for most of it.  

Though frosty and foggy in the early morning, the weather so far on the trip has been a blessing -- sunshine and clear roads!

We arrived at the Myrna Loy in Helena in the early afternoon, and since we had a bit of time before load-in began, I managed to get some photos of this beautiful venue!

Myrna Loy, Helena MT

I'm going to attempt to get one of these at each venue: the pose is the "Helena Dance"

The Stage

Myrna Loy herself

Ghostly Myrna in the window

Helena has dinosaurs!

Favorite Moment of the Day: Seeing my cousin Mariah and her mom Linda after the show! Also riding the Sinclair Brontosauraus with Marie!

Favorite Show Moment: Being able to watch most of the show from the top of the stairs backstage.  I had a moment of complete contentment with my life and work.  This is really a dream come true.  That and Torg falling asleep ;)

Lewistown, MT - February 4th, 2009

Lewistown was my favorite show thus far.  The local crew consisted of volunteers from the local Kiwanis Club, and were the kindest gentlemen one could hope to work with.  Gentle hearted, leathery handed veterans with quintessential grandfather demeanors.  The load in was quite pleasant...

However, one of the yokes was loose on a light, and fell from the front of house onto a court chair -- I'm guessing one of those instruments weighs about 10-20 pounds, and it fell from about 50-70ft.  Needless to say, the chair and the light were smashed.  Thankfully no one was hurt.  Seriously.

After that momentary shock, the rest of load in was pretty nice.  I can't believe this place is a high school, the theatre is so cool to me -- you can see for yourself:

The show itself felt really strong, and the audience was amazing.  They were the most gracious audience we've had yet.  According to one of the local crew (a gentle man named Mike, who looked like a younger John McCain), the audience was the largest one they'd ever had for a Rep show.  He wasn't kidding, we sold around 700-750 seats in an 800 capacity house.  

Favorite moment of the day:  Seeing the Stansberrys for the first time in years!  Very dear friends of the family, I've known them since before I can remember.  Also testing out Skype for the first time with my darling Joey.  I highly recommend it to those of you in long distance relationships.

Favorite show moment:  Beginning to explore the morphine addicted side of my character -- please note I am not a method actor.  I've been so involved and focused on the age of the character, I'm beginning to explore the other things that make her so unique.

Great Falls, MT - February 5th, 2009

Great Falls, great day!  Local crew was very experienced, though I was not there for load in.  Lindsey (who plays Calpurnia) and I taught an Improvisation workshop at CMR (Charles M Russle) High School.  Lindsey was great with them and taught a bit of Suzuki -- which I'm sure scared a few of them out of a career in theatre :)  They were great and loved it, as did we.

The show itself was pretty good as far as I recall -- it was the largest audience we'd played to at that point, something over 800 people I think.

My dear Christina made it to the show with her mother Ida and auntie!  She brought me an absolutely beautiful bouquet that I wish I would have photographed!  It was so nice to have a good friend in the audience again!

Low point of the day: I left my brand new, totally awesome jeans at the theatre.  Torg's lovely mother Libby is house manager, though (Torg is our master technician, btw), so if they're still there I'm sure they'll find their way back to me!

Favorite moment of the day: Getting a big hug from Zeaker :)

Favorite show moment:  Unwittingly biding farewell to Dubose cane #1 (it got left behind with my jeans...).  Dubose cane #2 is much better, and now we'll have #1 as a back up when it gets sent back!

Missoula, MT - February 6th and 7th, 2009

THESPIANS!  This show was undoubtedly the highlight of the whole process.  They were the most enthusiastic audience we've had yet.  Browning high school was there, which held so much significance to me.  Laurie Tatsey (Browning's Speech and Debate coach) is an old friend of the family, and though I haven't seen her since before I had all my motor skills, she gave me a big hug and we talked like we've known each other for all of my cognitive years!  I got to watch Browning's shows, as well.  Haley (my boyfriend's little sister) and Andi (Haley and Joey's cousin) performed a beautiful piece they wrote together.  I was busting with pride and undone by their eloquence -- both in performance and writing.  The boys comedy duo was wonderful, as well.  Several folks commented on how impressed they were -- folks in the professional Missoula theatre scene, mind you.  I didn't see much of the other schools performances, but I do know that they didn't receive the standing ovation that Browning did.  I'm so proud.

The show was great, but the best part of the weekend for me was undoubtedly having so many Brown-towners there.  Many of the kids I hadn't met, but I knew their families -- their enthusiasm for the show gave me the jolt I needed to get through tour.  When it gets rough being away from home, that's what I'm going to think of.  It was the best possible farewell I could have asked for.  Serendipitously, home came to me before I left.

Favorite moment of the day: the 6th -- Joey giving me a rose after the show, and the whole of Browning speech and debate "Aawwwww"ing in unison.  Laurie telling me I looked like my auntie Nada!  (That made my life!)

The 7th -- Waking up.

Favorite show moment: 6th -- the sheer adrenaline kicked me up to my A game.

7th -- Taking our final bow in Missoula to a sold out audience.

Butte, MT - February 9th, 2009

Beautiful town, bad day.  I've never gotten to drive around Butte much before, only along the freeway side of town.  I love its character.  Really, there is no place in the world like Butte, Montana.  I was happy to be there, but grumpy as all hell.

I won't bore you with my bitchin'.  Instead, enjoy some photos!

A Chai at the Hummingbird Cafe

Heather (playing Dill) in the ladies' dressing room

Sara, our costumer, on the other side of the mirror

Lunch in the lobby of the Mother Lode

(Very good hospitality here!)

The House

Favorite moment of the day: the vain attempt to four wheel silver bullet up the icy mountain side to see the "M".

Favorite show moment: hearing Elmo go off on someone's cell phone in the audience during the court scene...as well as crickets in the courthouse.

December 30th and 31st: Initial Blocking, The Company and Tour Schedule

Hello everyone!  I'm already snap happy, so there are some photos from the day thus far!  I'll introduce company members as their pictures pop up :)  We're getting through the initial blocking for the first 1/3 of the script today, and I've finished mine for now.  Basically, I've got a little bit of time to kill until I have to run it again!  

It's nice to be in a professional setting.  Everyone is very focused and patient.  Students seem to complain more about all of the down time and waiting-- not the students on this tour, mind you.  

Waiting is just a part of the process, and I'm thankful to be here, so it bugs me when people complain.

  Luckily there is none of that so far.  Actually, down

 time is where a lot of good work happens!  I've been doing a bit of character work today, so part of my blog will focus on that.  I always enjoy reading into other another actor's process, so if it strikes your fancy please enjoy.  If not, I've put all that stuff towards the bottom :)

The picture to the left is me (duh) on Mrs. Dubose's front porch!  As you can see, the set is quite minimal and a bit abstract.  I love it, it makes load in and construction go super fast (we got it put together the first time in under two hours -- I hear the average is four).  The door is a suggestion of the setting, and I find it's quite beautiful.  It fits what I imagined to be Mrs. Dubose's aesthetic, I am enamored with it!  I think my glee is showing.  

Here's Martha and I!  Martha is brilliantly playing Miss Stephanie, the town gossip.  I'm so pleased to be working with so many of my close friends.  Not only are they wonderful people, they are some of the most talented actors I have ever known.  Martha has been a source of love and inspiration to me for the past four years now, and is one of my closest friends.  I think it is amazingly appropriate and a stroke of dumb luck that we are both ending our college educations on the same show!  

Martha, Jim and Aaron (who I will probably be calling "Bartz" for the remainder of this blog).

Bartz (see) made the comment that this looks like a manger scene.  That would make Jim the baby Jesus.  Anyone familiar with Jim will see the hilarity in this.  

Bartz is playing the Sheriff Heck Tate and is another one of my close friends from undergrad.  This is my millionth time working with this son-of-a-bitch, and I'm not tired of it yet.  

Jim is the hairy one in the middle, and one of the funniest, committed and talented people I know, and will probably ever know.  And he smells. He's playing Bob Ewell.  We're very lucky to have him.

Here's a little preview of our lives backstage...Martha is giving birth to Jackson. 

This is probably the kind of behavior that keeps so many people coming back to this schizophrenic career path.   Jackson is a gem as well, we've been working together since our very first semester -- four and a half years now.  I know I have said this about everyone so far, but Jackson has impressed me since the first day I saw him perform, and does so continually.  He's also the nicest guy you'll ever hope to meet.  He's playing Judge Taylor/Walter Cunningham and some other supplementary offstage voices...as well as the creature springing forth from Martha's "Jackson Hole" (It's a city in Wyoming. Holla to Hannah.)

This little cutie pie is Marie, and as you can probably guess from her charmingly impish form and quintessential tom-boy overalls, she's playing Jean-Louise "Scout" Finch.  This will be Marie's second national tour with the Rep, which means she is never going to graduate.  Marie is the sunniest person in the whole friggin' world and has a penchant for playing young children, primarily boys.  A big congratulations goes to her for finally getting cast within her gender!  

As far as I'm concerned she was born to play this role, and she's doing a beautiful job so far.

  

Marie, you look a little gangsta in this picture.  Martha says more like a little...um...we'll pretend she said butch.  

This begs the question...at what age does a young girl go from being a called a "tom-boy" to "butch"?  Scout is 9, and Marie is 22, so we'll take the median age of 15 and a half and call her a "softball player".  (Sorry Briana. All in good fun!)

Jackson and Martha are reviewing some of the things we learned in stage combat.  I like to pretend that they're preparing for the epic fight scene between Miss Stephanie and Judge Taylor.

Here's a tour schedule for those interested!  See if we'll be in a city near you!  (Also, let me know if you'd like to go and I'll try and get you a comp ticket!)

If you click on it you can see a readable version. 

My friend Briana and I figured out that after this tour, there are only going to be 5 or 6 states that I haven't been to!  This job is so friggin' awesome!

Here's Martha giving Marie crap about her coveralls.  I just think it's funny she's wearing a child's size.  

At this point, I think I'm going to save character blogging for another day.  This is sufficient for the day, I think.

I want to wish a warm Happy New Year to everyone, as well as a warm Happy 23rd birthday to Martha!  

Stay safe and warm, wherever you are!  Here's to a wonderful 2008, and the hopes for a wonderful 2009!  Keep sending me those addresses!  (My email is lilygladstone@gmail.com if you don't want it displayed!)

Lily

December 29th, 2008: Day One

So it begins.

The next year-ish of my professional life kicked off today.*  Actually, my professional life period.  I've had this job since May, and though I've been preparing for this role for a little while now, it didn't sink in until about an hour ago.  The full company assembled today, and I got a look at the people who will become my exclusive social circle for the next four months (and two and a half this fall).  I can see we all have many of the same thoughts written on our faces.  

I recognize the bittersweet happiness.  A whole group of people who know this wonderful opportunity will separate them from the ones they love for a little while.  I picture a giant web of families, friends and lovers of those going on tour, and I think of how many more people outside of this Theatre must be feeling the same thing.  

I see the tentative reservations that preempt friendliness; warm smiles at strangers you know will become your friends, though you couldn't remember all of their names at this point if your life depended on it.    

It'd be a cliché to say this feels like the first day of school.  It'd be a little too obvious to say it feels like the first day of a new job (because that's what it is).  It'd be a little too corny to say it feels like we're preparing our new ship for it's grand voyage.  It's something different.  I can't wait to see what lies ahead.

So in addition to the scrapbook I'm starting, the written journal I'm keeping, and the hundreds of photos I'll be taking on three different cameras (digital, film and polaroid), I'm creating this blog for my dear loved ones who wish to keep tabs on how tour is going.  I'll post photos and videos as often as I can from the road, as well as my thoughts on the diverse array of places I will be visiting.  You know, what people typically do when they blog.

Most of you reading this are people I love dearly.  This is a blanket statement, but I am still probably picturing your face as I write it: I will miss you all.  Please send me your addresses so that I may send you postcards from the road!

Stay safe, and I'll promise to do the same.

Lily