Dramatis Personae
The Company: My employer, owner of The Big White Van.
The Big White Van: My home for the next 9 months, my transportation, my lifeblood - after all, it does carry everything we need for two shows at a time (besides an audience, of course).
T: Fellow actress-on-tour. Miep, Margot, Edith, Mrs. Van Pels, Child, Goosey Loosey...
S: Fellow actor-on-tour. Otto, Foxy Loxy...
K: Fellow actor-on-tour. Julius, Dr. Pfeffer, Peter Van Pels, Silberbauer, Dad, Ducky Lucky...
The Kids: Preschool-High School aged kids who see our shows in school gyms, cafetoriums, theatres, community centers, libraries, etc.
We kicked off our jobs with 2 sets of 2-week rehearsal periods. Anne Frank rehearsals had us all scrambling to memorize lines for a show that was too long to fit into its time allotment to begin with, since we all thought Henny Penny rehearsals were coming first. As I created patterns for my monologues ("Dear Kitty, I never knew so many of my lines could start with the same two words..."), T and K had to finesse the ins-and-outs of the onstage schizophrenia associated with playing 4 different characters in the same 50-minute show. After a great office-staff preview (there were tears, so we considered it a success), we launched into rehearsals for Henny Penny, which could not be more different than Anne Frank if it tried. Henny Penny is half the script, twice the energy of Anne Frank, and begins with a little girl who's a little creepily obsessed with chickens (general consensus of best line in the play: "Chickens, Dad! I love chickens!"). After two weeks of "HennyPennyGooseyLooseyDucky...WHOEVER YOU ARE," we hit the road.
We were not to be introduced gently into the world of living out of The Big White Van. Our very first show was an overnight. We ventured west into Anderson, IN, where we spent the night at a Days Inn before opening Anne Frank to 680 middle schoolers early the next morning. We got a luxurious day off after driving back to Cincinnati after the show, and met at the office for our first ridiculously early call (van rolling at 6:40) to take Henny Penny to a couple of local schools. After a lot of children telling Foxy Loxy that he "is silly," a run-in with a parrot named Romeo that does not like strangers, and a couple of preschoolers way too overwhelmed by our energy, our first week of touring was officially over.
After a relaxing weekend, we met on Sunday for our drive to Portsmouth, OH, where we were met by the most fantastic president of the Portsmouth Area Arts Council. We were totally spoiled by her - she escorted us to most of our schools, helped us when we got horribly lost, and gave us some tips on places to go in town. We toured some gorgeous floodwall murals and ate ourselves silly at a restaurant owned by some of S's summerstock friends. We stayed in a Super8 that sported minifridges and microwaves but were inexplicably lacking in irons. Also inexplicable was the atmosphere of the lobby of the hotel, which seemed to border on local-coffee-shop-minus-the-coffee.
Yesterday we moved on from Portsmouth to Greenville, OH, where we are staying in a Holiday Inn Express with an iron, without a minifridge, and with the most comfortable beds ever. We're lucky to be performing 4 shows in the same community center - a real live theatre, at that - so we get to leave the set and props set up and at the theatre between shows. This is a luxury we will not often receive, so we're being grateful while we can. We're also grateful for the tech guy at the community center who's been experimenting with lighting for us. Gym lighting is fantastic and all, but it is nice to feel the heat of a stage lamp on my face, and see some blue gels backstage.
Observations so far:
a) There is a Bob Evans Restaurant near virtually every hotel in the tristate area.
b) I never knew there were so many schools in the middle of nowhere. I expect I will learn this even more as the months wear on.
c) There is no c) yet, because I am lazy and don't feel like thinking anymore.
So I will leave you with a quotation that left us giggling, especially after this week of all Holocaust, all the time:
(In discussing Julianna Margulies's resume, which includes both Snakes on a Plane and Hitler: The Rise of Evil)
S: "You know, I've never seen Hitlers on a Plane."
- C
