(25) Back to DC

Saturday, November 22nd: We left Brooklyn around 9:00am for our 228 mile(4409 total miles) drive back to Washington, DC. Caroline, Jill and I were in the van and we listened and sang to musicals most of the way home. Once back at the Kennedy Center, we unpacked the truck and took everything to storage. We then went back to the office and had a short post mortem for the first leg. Even though everyone was exhausted, we went back to the hotel and Jill made a fantastic lasagna dinner with some bread and salad and Caroline made some pumpkin bread for dessert. We drank and ate and relaxed and had a great evening to finish up a long day of work.

Sunday, November 23rd: Caroline, Rudy and I woke up really early and left around 7:00am to get in line at the Washington Monument to get tickets. We stood in line for about 45 minutes in the FREEZING cold waiting for the booth to open. We got tickets for the 9:30am tour group and went over to the nearest Starbucks to have some coffee and warm up. Eric also met up with us at Starbucks. We went back down the Monument just before 9:30am and were soon riding the elevator to the top observation deck. It’s pretty awesome to be able to see that far around the entire Washington, DC area. I could have stood there for quite a while just looking if we had had the time. Eric was leaving for the airport early that morning, so we went back to the hotel. Caroline and I went down to the Kennedy Center in the afternoon to take the vehicles back with David Paige. It was some nice closure for this leg of the trip. That afternoon and evening was just some lounging around, watching tv, packing and relaxing.

Monday, November 24th: I checked out of the hotel and took my luggage down to the Kennedy Center. Caroline and I had breakfast with David Kilpatrick and then I went out to do some holiday shopping. I went back to a few places I had already been in DC(where I won’t tell you because you may be getting a present from there!) and went to a few more fun souvenir shops. After a couple hours, I made my way back to the Kennedy Center where I finished up a couple of things and then headed to the airport! My first flight was to Dallas and left around 5:40pm ET. The flight pulled out of the gate and taxied towards the run way before stopping. The pilot came on and said that they were now experiencing some troubles that they didn’t have at the gate and we would be returning to the gate so the ground crew could fix them. Everyone on the plane was a little annoyed but knew there was nothing they could do about it. We got back to the gate, they opened the door to the plane and 2 police officers came on and escorted a gentleman off the plane. Everyone was very calm and nobody paid a lot of attention even though everyone knew what was going on. After that, we taxied back out and took off. Once in the air, the pilot came back on and told us that the gentleman who was escorted off had been arguing with the gate and flight attendants and they had decided that he wasn’t worth dealing with. The plane landed safely in Dallas and my second flight took off without any problems. I landed safely in San Jose just after 11:00pm PT and Michelle was there to pick me up.

FINALLY, I made it back home to San Jose to start my “winter break.” Hopefully everyone has enjoyed this leg of the tour. I fly back to DC on January 1st to start the second leg of the tour and will start writing again once we get back on the road. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is planning a nice Holiday Season and a safe New Years!

(24) The Last Week of the First Leg

Tuesday, November 18th: We woke up and had a little bit of extra time before we left for Flushing, NY, which is in Queens. Jill and I drove the truck 40 miles(4106 total miles) down there and arrived just before the vans. We were supposed to park in this pay to park lot about a block from the hotel. Jill and I drove around the block once just to see what was around and figure out really quickly that there was no other choice. This part of Queens is packed REALLY tight with builds, cars and people. Some of the cast was saying that this area was called “Korea Town.” We ended up at the parking lot trying to find a place to park. The attendant came up to us and I told him we only needed to park for a couple of hours. We would be leaving then to go to load in at the venue. He said that it would be $30 for us to park there for a couple of hours. I said “What? It’s only a couple of hours, what about $15?” He thought about it and said “How long?” I said “We’ll be leaving at 1:30.” He thought about it again before agreeing. Jill and I parked the truck and sat there for a minute. We thought, yah know what, why pay when we could probably just drive over to the venue and leave the truck there! We started to pull back out of the lot when Caroline and Eric came in with the vans, which were also being parked in that lot. The attendant was dealing with them and asked where we were going. I said “Where not gonna pay, we’ll just take the truck over to where we’re going.” He thought for a minute and said “What about $10?” I said “$10 to park for an hour?” He said “Yeah.” I said “Sure, for $10 I guess it’s worth it.” So we parked the truck again and went up to the hotel. It had a small cramped lobby and all of our luggage was packed in the entrance way and the cast was waiting patiently. We left a short time later for load in at the Kupferberg Center. This was our hardest venue that we have worked in so far. We performed in a concert hall with no rigging at all what-so-ever except for the lighting equipment. Not only was there no rigging(which I use to put up most of my scenery) but the venue had a full ceiling, which makes it almost impossible to even mock up something to hold up the scenery. We learned that we would not be able to use most of our scenery which was very upsetting. It made for a long load in and not because there was a lot of work to do. That night, Caroline, Jeffrey and I went to a really great Chinese restaurant that everyone was suggesting called Joe’s Shanghai. It was really fantastic food and reminded me of Chinatown in San Francisco.

Wednesday, November 19th: We had one show today at 10:30am(38). After the show, our strike went faster than ever, mostly because such a small portion of our scenery had been used, and we had a bit of extra time before the cast was called back to grab some food. Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I walked across the street to an AMAZING New York pizza restaurant called Gino’s. It’s was like Sabarro’s but WAY better. We stuffed our food down and went back to the vehicles to make the 29 mile(4135 total miles) drive to South Orange, NJ. We had an hour or so at the hotel and I took the time to Google Map our drive to the venue. My contact in South Orange said that there is one 11’-11” bridge near his venue that we would not fit under. We ended up driving a long way to get around the bridge, but it was a simple route. As we neared the venue, we were very confused because the South Orange Performing Arts Center(SOPAC) also has a movie theatre in it. For a second I thought I had plugged in the incorrect address or found the wrong venue. Luckily, we found out that both the theater and movie theater share the same building. Load in went pretty well and we were back at our hotel by around 10:00pm.

Thursday, November 20th: We had one show at 10:00am(39) at SOPAC and then packed up the show for the third time in three days. We had time to grab some lunch at a local bagel store, which was really, really good. I was concerned about the drive today because we were going into Brooklyn and had not figured out a route that we could take. We were running into the problem of driving on either parkways or on city streets. Caroline had been to the venue and the hotel in Brooklyn with the tour she was on last year. She sent a message to her tech crew asking if anyone remembered how to get to either place. After lunch, I had a chance to call Elif, who was the Props/Costume Supervisor for the show Caroline worked on last year. She said they had taken some side streets that were ok for trucks and ran parallel to the parkways. It was very calming to know that there was a way to get to the hotel. Jill and I started the 46 miles(4181 total miles) drive and made it all the way to Brooklyn without any problems. We then got off the highway and started our city street drive. At this point, we turned on the GPS and hoped that it would help us get to the hotel. As we were driving around, the GPS took us away from the parkway and towards the center of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, this was a bad idea and we ended up running into a subway bridge and having to turn around in the street. We drove down the street parallel to the subway line and stopped at every cross street to see if we could pass under the bridge. Most of the bridges were 12’-6” tall. Finally we made it to 65th Street and crossed under the bridge. We drove on, thinking that we had found the way, when we hit another subway bridge and the game continued. We drove all the way down the parallel street until it dead ended and we had to go around the block. We backtracked to Coney Island Ave which took us over the parkway and closer to our destination. We slowly made our way over to Neptune Street and then back under the Parkway to Voorhies and finally ended up at the hotel! It was quite the journey and very tiring. We had a little over an hour before we went to the venue and I took most of the time to Google Map my directions there. We left at 5:15pm for our 6:00pm load in. The drive to the venue was uneventful, but finding the loading dock was very difficult. We did one lap around Brooklyn College(which was where the theater was located) before we stopped to call and ask. We had driven just past the entrance we wanted so we then had to do another lap around the surrounding streets to make it to the loading dock. We started about 15 minutes late, but no one seemed upset. We had a large crew for this venue and a large stage. It made load in go fairly easily and we were done just after 10:00pm and headed back to the hotel.

Friday, November 21st: We had one show at 10:15am(40). On the way to the venue, we drove through a largely Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. There were a lot of signs in both Hebrew and English. WE also found a Duncan Donuts that was Kosher! Before the show, I went around and said goodbye to the cast because they were driving back to DC right after the show and we would be in the middle of load out. The show went well and load out was pretty easy. The crew went to lunch at the Corn Bread Diner, a little Southern Restaurant near the venue. The food was amazing and we were all stuffed when we headed back to the venue to take the vehicles back to the hotel. Here is where the fun started. I started pulling away from the loading dock and had to make a little bit of a sharp turn past a Public Safety hut. I was being very careful not to hit the yellow pylon next to the hut that I didn’t realize that the roof of the hut extended further over the pylon. I was at the gate when I realized that the truck was rubbing on something. I searched in all my mirrors and realized that I had caught the corner of the Public Safety hut and put a nice big gash in the side of the truck. It was so frustrating knowing that I had driven all the way through the Northeast, through some pretty tight spaces and sharp turns, and on the last time I was going to drive the truck I got in an accident. The Public Safety Officer took my information and another Public Safety Officer told me that I was definitely not the first to do it. Eric and I got in the truck and made our way back to the hotel. That was our third day in a row of morning shows and load outs and LUCKILY we didn’t have to drive anywhere today. That afternoon was given over to resting. That evening, Caroline, Rudy and I went to a really nice Italian Restaurant that also had off track betting(how New York is that!) After dinner, Eric, Rudy and I played a little Wii Golf before going to bed.

(23) SUNY-Purchase

Sunday, November 16th: We woke up early yet again for another 8:00am load in at SUNY-Purchase’s Performing Arts Center. On the way to the venue, we ran into another small problem of the directions being a little confusing. This venue was very large and pretty nice. Load in went smoothly and the cast showed up at 1:30pm for our 3:00pm(35) show. After the show, we went back to the hotel. That afternoon, I wanted to go over to Wal-Mart to get some things for the last week of the trip. A small group of us left around 5:30pm with me driving. We searched for a Wal-Mart on the GPS and started to follow the directions. About 20 minutes later, we found ourselves driving down a two lane road, almost completely lost even though the GPS said we were already there. Kevin, one of the cast members that did not come with us, had already been to Wal-Mart and said it had been hard to find. We found the next closest Wal-Mart and started driving in that direction. Again, we ended up on a residential street with no Wal-Mart in sight. Caroline got on her phone and called the Wal-Mart we were trying to find to get directions. I pulled back onto the main street in the town we were in and started to drive when I noticed a Wal-Mart sign over an entrance to a parking garage. We pulled down that street, but wouldn’t fit in the parking garage so we went further down the street looking for a parking spot. I parallel parked the van and we went over to the Wal-Mart. This was by far the most packed, ghetto, crazy Wal-Mart I have been in. There were people EVERYWHERE and really long lines at the check outs. I also needed to get quarters so I could do my last bit of laundry. I got up to the check out counter and paid for my stuff. I then asked the cashier if she could break $3 into quarters. She said “I don’t even have a dollar in quarters.” And sure enough, when she opened the change drawer, there were only three lonely quarters inside. We made our way back to the hotel without any problems and I had left overs for dinner.

Monday, November 17th: We had two shows this morning at 10:00am(36) and 12:00noon(37). After shows we had an uneventful load out and then headed back to our hotel. That afternoon, Caroline and I decided it would be fun to go jump in the big pile of leaves that was outside the hotel. After that we drove over to Mt. Kisco, the next small town over, and had a really good dinner at a small Mexican Restaurant called the Mango Café. It was a semi-relaxing day knowing that the next four days were going to be very painful.

(22) New York City

Friday, November 14th: DAY OFF! Caroline, Jeffrey, Jill and I took the train from Newark Penn Station to New York Penn Station for a day of walking around the city. We walked from Penn Station up to Port Authority and then over to Dallas BBQ for lunch. We were meeting up with Cory, who went to college with Caroline and Jill. Lunch was quite an experience to say the least. I got ½ a chicken(way too much food) with yellow rice and a huge chunk of really good cornbread. I also had some vegetable soup with carrot slices that were about as big as a large watch face. We walked over to TKTS, where you can buy cheap/discount tickets to Broadway Shows, because Caroline use to work there and one of her old co-workers had gotten us some tickets to see Pal Joey at Studio 54. Patty told us to go to Studio 54 sometime before 6pm to pick up our tickets. We walked over to Rockefeller Plaza to watch them put up the Christmas Tree and then made our way over to Studio 54. When we got there, the box office told us that we had to come back just after 6pm. At this point we said goodbye to Cory and made our way downtown to 4th Street on the Subway. We got out and started walking back up 6th street. Eventually Jill left us to go see her Sister and Jeffrey left us to meet up with a friend of his. Caroline and I continued to walk up 6th street until we realized that we were almost halfway back to 54th street, where Studio 54 is located. We decided to just keep walking. We walked past the Empire State building, which you couldn’t see the top of because it was too foggy. Up and up we counted the streets until we made it to 54th street. We walked 2 blocks West and found ourselves back at Studio 54. Caroline picked up our general admission tickets. With these tickets, we didn’t have actual seats. We were given cards with numbers on them(we were #1 and #2) and we were told to come back at 7:50. We would then be lined up by number and seated in any open seats left in the theatre. We had an hour and half to spare, so we walked down a couple of blocks to Cosi, a little coffee house/restaurant, to wake ourselves up after all the walking. We came back, got in our line, and were seated just minutes before the show started in the 4th row just right of center. They were AMAZING seats and they were FREE! Unfortunately, the show was only ok. The story and script were not so great(it was rewritten from the original production) which killed the show. All of the designs were fantastic and the choreography was great as well. The orchestrations were good as well. Christopher Hoff(who was in the original Jersey Boys) was ok but didn’t have a good voice for the role. Stockard Channing was also not so good because she really couldn’t sing her role. Overall, it was worth a free ticket. Caroline and I jutted out of Studio 54 after the show and power walked our way back down to New York Penn Station, where we were meeting up with Jill to go back to New Jersey. There was lots of fun confusion about which train to get on and where we were finding Jill, but it all worked out and we made our way back to Newark Penn Station and back to the hotel.

Saturday, November 15th: We started the day off with an 8:00am load in at the Wilkins Theater at Kean(pronounced Kane) University in Union, New Jersey. The drive from the hotel to the venue was a little bit painful. We were following Google maps directions and started down a street that had a 12’ tall bridge for the Subway. Our truck has a 13’ tall vertical clearance. So we took the detour for trucks down another street and still couldn’t figure how to get around the subway bridges. We drove around a bit more and finally found a bridge tall enough for us to drive under. Load in went without any problems. The theater was a little warm during the show and Margo, who plays one of the main characters, felt like she was going to pass out. We spent most of the show trying to get fans pointed on stage and getting water into Margo’s hands. After our 3:00pm(34) show, we loaded out and drove a couple of hours to Purchase, NY. Caroline, Jeffrey, Jill and I had dinner at the Marc Charles Steakhouse, which was attached to the hotel. By the end of dinner, we were all exhausted and ready for bed.

(21) Lebanon, Pittsfield

Tuesday, November 11th: We had a 1:00pm load in at the Lebanon Opera House today. It’s located in the same building as the Lebanon City Hall. The building is set up very interestingly because different parts are used by the City Hall and other parts have been renovated from it former use. The bottom floor of the building use to be the civic gymnasium. In the 40’s and 50’s, when new high schools were being built with gyms, the civic gymnasium became obsolete. Sometime between then and now they renovated those parts of the building to make more offices for City Hall and more storage for the Opera House. They had two loading doors, one at street level and one 11’ or so above the street level. They had a 5’x9’ elevator that most of our scenery and boxes fit into. The larger pieces that we were using had to be lifted into the 11’ door or carried around the front of the building. Their stage also has a 2 degree rake. This is VERY strange for an inside theatre. There was also a lot of concern about our scenic pieces wanting to roll down the rake. Fortunately, it wasn’t that bad and we didn’t have any major issues. Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I went over to a fantastic little Irish pub call the Salt Hill Pub for dinner and live Irish/Celtic music as well. We had a rehearsal for about an hour just to make sure that all of our changes would work and that the scenery was not going to fall off the front of the stage.

Wednesday, November 12th: We had two shows 9:00am(30) and 11:00am(31). They went very well and load out was quick as well. We had a couple of people work for us who had worked on our show when we were in Burlington, Vermont. We also had a woman on our load out who is the Lighting Director for “Blue’s Journey” which is the other tour that the Kennedy Center is doing this year. In addition to this, everyone we had for our local crew in Lebanon was really amazing. This was easily one of the best local crews we have worked with so far. Everyone was extremely helpful, easy to talk to and very smart technicians. After load out, we drove 175 miles(3824 total miles) to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. I want to note again at this point that we have now performed three shows in Massachusetts, two shows in New Hampshire and one show in Vermont in this order: Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. We were actually staying in a very small town called Lenox, MA next to Pittsfield. We got off the high way and had to drive a couple of miles through a small town and out into what felt like the country. As the GPS told us we were nearing the Apple Tree Inn, we started to get nervous because we were out in the middle of nowhere. We took a slight right and saw the sign for the Apple Tree Inn. We took another right and went up a winding, steep drive way to our resort on the hill. We were the only people at the Inn(except for the person who checked us in) and all of our rooms were in the same hallway. It felt like college again with everyone walking around the hallway with their doors open. It was also really creepy and felt kind of like “The Shining” because it was so vacant! The crew dropped off our bags and left for the load in at The Colonial Theatre. Load in turned into a fix it session for me. We had a bolt break at the last load out and then we had a caster fall off during the truck unload at this venue. I spent most of the four hours of load in fixing scenery and was still working on some pieces when we left at 10:00pm.

Thursday, November 13th: We arrived at 8:00am and I immediately continued my work on the broken pieces of scenery. We had two shows at 9:30am(32) and 12:30pm(33) with a production meeting in between the two. Norton Juster, who wrote the book that this show is based off of, came to see the 9:30am show with Ruth Black, who is widow of Arnold Black the composer of the show. They came backstage before the show and mingled with the cast. After the shows, we loaded up the truck and drove 195 miles(4019 total miles) to Union, New Jersey. This was the most exciting drive to a hotel that we have had so far. Rudy and I were driving along, no problems, until we hit a toll booth, which wasn’t an issue either. We pull up to pay for the toll and the guy working the booth tells us we shouldn’t be driving on that road, the Garden State Parkway. Trucks are generally not suppose to drive on parkways. Rudy and I had just missed the signs that we were driving onto the parkway. The toll booth guy also told us that we could get a $200 ticket for the offense and charged us $.70 for the toll. We immediately got off the parkway and stopped on a side street to figure out how to get to the hotel. After a number of phone calls to Caroline and David Paige, we figured out a route and finally made it to the hotel, after adding an extra hour to the trip.

(20) New Bedford, Massachusetts

Saturday, November 8th: DAY OFF! Today was another day off and I did just about nothing. In the morning I drove a couple of cast members to the train station so they could go into Boston. Then I went back to the hotel and sat in the lobby working on my computer for a couple of hours. I was updating my blog and looking at pictures and looking after my finances. In the afternoon, Caroline, Jill and I went to do laundry. When we came back Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I went to Unos for dinner. Finally, I ended my night with a compy date with Michelle.

Sunday, November 9th: Today we had an 8:00am load in. This was the first time that we loaded in the show on the same day that we had performances. We had a little bit of trouble navigating this small New England city and got lost twice trying to find the venue. The loading door for the venue is a door in the side of the building that faces a street. I had to park the truck so we were completely blocking the street for us to unload. The street was also on a hill so the whole truck was leaning towards the passenger side. After the loading door, they had a steep 3’ ramp that went up to stage level. This was easily one of the more interesting loading docks we have been in. The load in went well and lunch hospitality was fantastic. They had cold cuts, barbeque chicken and pumpkin soup. We normally don’t get lunch, or anything more than snacks, so this was great. The performers showed up at 1:30pm for mic check and we had one show at 3:00pm(28). It was a good show and we were done for the day. That night, Dave, Eric, Jonny, Rudy and I went bowling. We played a couple of pretty serious games with a lot of strikes thrown. I bowled a 168 in the first game and a 191 in the second game. That score was the best I’ve bowled since the summer Quentin and I bowled every Saturday morning at Madison Bowl. I had 2 strikes, 5 spares, 2 more strikes and then a 9 in the 10th frame.

Monday, November 10th: We had one show at 10:00am(29) a load out and then drive a 190 mile (3649 total miles) to Lebanon, New Hampshire. These New England states are very strange. It seems like everywhere we stay is right on the border between two states; Lowell, Massachusetts was next to New Hampshire; Burlington, Vermont was next to Canada; New Bedford, Massachusetts was next to Rhode Island. And this stop is the kicker. Not only are we performing in Lebanon, New Hampshire, which is on the border with Vermont, but we’re actually staying in White River Junction, VERMONT! I don’t think I’ve crossed this many state lines in this short a time ever in my life! When we got to the hotel, I dropped off my bags and took Caroline to the local hospital. She’d been having problem with her right ear and had to get it flushed. It was kind of disgusting to watch but made Caroline feel so much better. We went to Jake’s Deli, which was in a mobile, got a couple of good sandwiches and some Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and went back to the hotel.

(19) Burlington, Concord

Tuesday, November 4th: ELECTION DAY! Besides listening to MSNBC talk all morning about almost nothing important, I tried to do some work for the last few venues that we’ll be going to before our holiday break. We started our load in at 2:00pm. The crew was phenomenal and the load in went extremely fast. I even had time to do some paint touch ups. We were mostly done by 6:00pm and Caroline, Jill, Rudy and I went to Wal-Mart to do some show shopping. Eric stuck around for an extra half hour to work on some lighting cues. We were back at the hotel just after 7:00pm. Caroline and I went to T Bones, the restaurant right next to the hotel, and got some food to take back to hotel. We sat in the lobby at the hotel, eating our dinner and watching the polls close. Jeffrey met up with us in the lobby and when we were done with dinner we all went up to Caroline’s room to watch the rest of the results. I was pretty excited when Ohio and Pennsylvania were projected for Obama. Around 10:30pm, I went back to my own room because I was already falling asleep. I woke up around 11:00pm when they projected California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii for Obama. I fell back asleep and woke up again to hear the beginning of McCain’s concession speech. I fell back asleep again and woke up to hear Obama’s acceptance speech. Finally, I fell back asleep with a new President!

Wednesday, November 5th: We had 2 shows at 9:30am(24) and 12:00noon(25). In between the shows we had a backstage tour for a small group of about 20 kids from Lake Champlain Elementary. They had lots of very good questions and seemed to be interested in our answers. Load out went without any problems and we headed back to the hotel for the afternoon. Caroline had been looking into going over the border to Canada(which is about 45 miles away) because she had never been there. We found out that we couldn’t drive one of the vans over the border because it was being rented by a government organization. So Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I rented a car and started the drive. We got to the border and had a wonderful time explaining to the border agent that we were just going to Montreal for a couple of hours. The road from the Canadian border to Montreal was mostly province routes(like state routes) through small villages (or whatever they call them in Canada.) We made it almost to Montreal before hitting traffic and turning off to find post cards and t-shirts. Luckily, at the exit we got off at, there was a mall which we walked around. We found a hallmark store with post cards and had a good time speed walking around the mall. We got back in the rental car and drove over to a Wal-Mart to look for t-shirts. We found everything we were looking for and took off on the drive back to Burlington, Vermont. We were only in Canada for a couple of hours but it was fun regardless.

Thursday, November 6th: I made a number of phone calls and did a lot of final paperwork this morning for our last couple of venues. We drove 158 miles (3327 total miles) to Concord, New Hampshire. That evening we loaded in at the Capitol Center for the Arts. It was a pretty simple and we were home by 10:00pm after getting dinner.

Friday, November 7th: We had two shows 10:00am(26) and 12:00noon(27). The performers did a talk back after the second show before going to lunch. This meant that we finished load out before they were back, giving us enough time to go get lunch before we left town. This normally doesn’t happen. Usually, as soon as the truck door is closed the vans and trucks immediately leave for the hotel or the next city. This means that the tech crew usually doesn’t eat until we stop on the road somewhere. Unfortunately, we haven’t quite figured out a way around this yet, but I feel like we will on the next leg of the tour. Since today was different, the tech crew went down to a Chinese/Japanese restaurant and had lunch before we drove 132 miles (3459 total miles) to New Bedford, Massachusetts. About an hour after we arrived, the Tech crew left again for a production meeting at The Olive Garden. It was probably the best idea we had had in a really long time. We relaxed and had a nice long dinner while discussing the upcoming venues.

(18) Lowell, Massachusetts

Saturday, November 1st: We woke up and drove 428 miles(2808 miles total) to Milford, CT. It was a long drive because we weren’t on real highways as we drove up the Eastern Shores of Virginia and Maryland and then all the way across Delaware. Once we hit the New Jersey Turnpike things were much better and the ride went well. A group of people went to Uno’s for dinner which was great after the long day.

Sunday, November 2nd. We drove another 163 miles(2971 total miles) to Lowell, Massachusetts. Caroline and I went to the mall in the afternoon. It was humorous because we drove about 10 miles and went to the Pheasant Mall in Nashua, New Hampshire. We hadn’t even crossed the state line of the highway when we turned off into New Hampshire. I walked around a bit to stretch my legs and almost bought a zip up hoodie at target but didn’t. That night we loaded in at UMass Lowell. It was a very interesting venue because it was our first all student crew. They were music students, mostly performance and music business majors. It brought back strong memories of college when I’d get to work with the musical theatre and drama students in the shop. Unfortunately, it made everything take a little bit longer than expected. We started at 7:00pm and most people were cut at 11:00pm. Eric and the Production Manager decided to stay an extra house to finish up some lighting work so I took the rest of the crew home and came back for Eric. We left the theatre just after midnight and were in the hotel by 12:30am. The house for this theatre was not square which was causing Rudy some issues with the mix for the show. So Rudy and I planned on coming back in at 7:00am so that he could listen to the show with no other work going on. That night when I got back to my room, it was very cold. I tried to meet with the thermostat but it wasn’t working. I called the hotel front desk and they said I had to wait about 15 minutes for the radiator to kick on. I turned the thermostat up higher and waited and nothing happened. Finally, I went to the front desk and asked for a new room. After moving all my stuff I kind of fell asleep by around 3:00am.

Monday, November 3rd: I woke up at 6:00am to put my stuff in the vans and head to the venue with Rudy. We had 2 shows at 9:30am and 11:30am and then a load out all of which seemed to take forever. This was mostly because I was tired and was having trouble focusing. Eric and Rudy were drove the truck to Burlington, Vermont, 198 miles(3169 total miles), while I rode in the white van. It gave me a chance to relax, sleep, read and enjoy some time with other people in the company.

(17) Virginia Beach, Virginia

Wednesday, October 29th: We drove 262 miles(2380 miles total) to Virginia Beach, Virginia, the hometown of Wesley H. Pendarvis, my college roommate and best friend. The drive was easy and we arrived with plenty of time before our 5:00pm load in. When we got to the venue, we quickly realized that they had received our most updated paperwork. It turned out ok because everything was very close to correct and they were very accommodating with the changes we wanted to make. The Production Manager for the venue was also extremely nice and helpful.

Thursday, October 30th: We had 2 shows today at 10:30am(20) and 7:30pm(21). They had an ETC Congo lighting board which didn’t quite work with the show files that we had. Eric and the Master Electrician worked through some of the problems before the morning show but didn’t catch them all. Because of that, the lights didn’t always do what they were supposed to and we had quite a light show during some portions of the show. In the afternoon I did some more work and rested a bit. At 6:00pm I took Eric back to the venue to do some more work on the lighting and I jumped over to the Pembrooke Mall, which was across the street. I picked up some presents for people and also postcards. The second show went very well and load out was a piece of cake.

Friday, October, 31st: Today was another day off which I used to do a little bit of work but mostly to try to rest. Things have felt a little strange this week and we’ve seemed to have a lot of time off but it’s not like real time off. Caroline and I went out for coffee and to get touch up paint as well in the early afternoon. I came back read in the lobby for a bit before falling asleep on the couch and napping for an hour or so. That evening a large group of people went out to partake in Halloween festivities but I did not join them. Caroline, Jeffrey, Jill and I ended up going to The Cheesecake Factory for some food and relaxation. We had a hilarious, witty waiter who was bantering with Jeffrey the entire night. We ended with some really good cheesecake and then headed home for bed.

(16) Baltimore, Maryland

Saturday, October 25th: I wanted to go into downtown Baltimore today, but it was wet and dreary so I cancelled those plans. I dropped Caroline and Jeffrey off at the hair salon, so Jeffrey could get a haircut, and went over to Whole Foods. I was looking around just for granola bars, apples and bananas and also found non-refrigerated milk. Milk is a hard thing to drink when you’re on the road. But cereal is a great snack to have and also nice to have when we stay at hotels that don’t have free breakfasts. But this is ultra-high temperature processed so that it stays fresh at room temperature. All you have to do is chill it before using it, which is pretty easy in the ice box at the hotel. It has a slightly vanilla taste, almost like vanilla soy milk, but has all the same nutritional facts of 2% milk. And on top of all that, it comes in juice box size, for kids to take to school! This may be the best thing I’ve found since being on the road. Because if was wet and kind of gross out, Caroline asked if people were interested in ice skating. I don’t remember the last time I went ice skating, but it was a lot of fun! Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I went to one of the local ice rinks and paid $6, that’s right $6, for admission and skates! It was the cheapest entertainment that we’ve had so far! After ice skating, we went back and Caroline showed us some pictures from the tour that she was on last year and told us more stories from the road.

Sunday, October 26th: Today we went into downtown Baltimore! Eric, Rudy and I caught the light rail from Mt. Washington around 11:30am and took it downtown. We were joined by the hundreds of Baltimore Ravens fans who were on their way to the 1:00pm football game. We were on the light rail all the way down to Camden Yards(which is where the baseball and football stadiums are) and got off the train like we were also going to the game. The Ravens were playing the Oakland Raiders(who are the football team that I root for) and luckily I was wearing my SF Giants hat so I didn’t get any slack from the crowds. We went over to Orioles Park at Camden Yards and I got caught in the ruckus of the football crowds and found myself down closer to the football stadium near the pep band! I finally found Eric and Rudy and we started to walk into Federal Hill when we got a call from Jeffrey(who is from Baltimore) and Caroline. We met up with them and walked into the Inner Harbor and Fells Point. Rudy left to meet up with Janine and they both met us for lunch later. There is a really cute area called the Broadway Market in Fells Point that we looked around before we headed out to Canton. There we had lunch at Nacho Mama’s a fun Mexican restaurant with huge quesadillas and a statue of Elvis out front. After lunch, we walked back towards the Inner Harbor, past the Flag house, where Betsy Ross made the original flag, past the Holocaust Memorial, which is pretty moving, to the Washington Memorial on the top of Mt. Vernon. Jeffrey was a fantastic tour guide and gave us hundreds of fact such as the Washington Memorial has 178 steps to the top of it and was used by ships to guide them into the harbor. He also shows us places he had lived and lots of history of the area. We got back on the train around 4:30pm which was perfect time to catch all the people leaving the Baltimore Ravens game. Unfortunately, they had beaten the Oakland Raiders… who I usually root for, but who generally suck!

Monday, October 27th: The morning was filled with phone calls. The afternoon was filled with a load in at the Lyric Theatre. We got off to a rough start because it was a little difficult to find the loading dock, but everything went well from there. They have a traditional hemp house which means that their rigging system is all hemp rope. Most theatres have steel cables for their rigging systems. It was very neat for me to watch all of this happen because it’s so rare to find an entire hemp house these days.

Tuesday, October 28th: We had one show this morning at 10:15am(19). After the show we loaded out and headed back to the hotel. Caroline, Eric, Jill, Rudy and I went out to Wal-Mart to pick up so stuff, including pumpkin carving kits. That night, Carolyn, who is also from Baltimore, had a bunch of people over for dinner and Halloween fun. We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with asparagus as well. On the way there, Dave, Eric and I tried to pick up some pumpkins to carve and we could only find 2 pumpkins left at the grocery store. It was a little sad, but very exciting to carve tag team on some really cool pumpkin designs! We also picked out all of the pumpkin seeds and oven toasted them with different spices and herbs. And finally, my favorite, we watched “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on Carolyn’s HUGE TV. Carolyn made some great Halloween cookies and also had chex mix in Chinese take out boxes for us to take.

(15) Back to Back to Back...

Wednesday, October 22nd: Today is the first of three REALLY long days! We were up at 8:00am for another 10:00am(16) show and then strike, immediately following, which went pretty well. Then we had a 121 mile(1801 total miles) drive to Wilmington, DE. Eric and I arrived there in the truck around 4:00pm and had just 1 hour until we were suppose to start our load in at The Grand Opera House. We checked into the hotel and then ran out with Rudy to try to find food. I had just enough time to eat ½ of my sandwich before we started unpacking our truck. The load in was very interesting because this was the first venue, since our trial venue, that didn’t have a loading dock. We brought all of the pieces down on the truck’s liftgate and then rolled it onto an 8’x14’ hydraulic lift that went up to stage level. The lift is right at the back of the Opera House which has really tall loading doors. The couple of pieces that were longer than 14’ stuck out onto the side walk as the lift took them up to stage level. Overall the crew was really good and load in went without any problems. Finally around 10:00pm, I was back in my hotel room that I would be checking out of just a few hours later.

Thursday, October 23rd: We were up at 8:00am and had one show at 10:00am(17) in the beautiful Grand Opera House. It had natural wood floors and a magnificently ornate ceiling that I took a bunch of pictures of. There was a smaller theatre in the venue that was call the Baby Grand, which everyone thought was a really cute name. It was also a really quaint little space. The show went well and strike went pretty quickly as well. I crushed my hand pretty good during the truck pack. Bad enough that I put an ice pack on my hand during the drive, but not bad enough that it bruised or even hurt the next day. We started on our 125 miles drive(1926 total miles) to Staten Island, NY. In each van and the truck we have these books called “The Next Exit.” It has every highway in the country, separated by state, and tells you what is at each exit and on each side. Eric and I wanted to stop for gas, so we got off the New Jersey Turnpike at an exit that had a large Pilot truck stop with a Wendy’s. We got off and started driving and didn’t see anything. The road continued on and then turned into a highway that put us back on the New Jersey Turnpike. We were a little pissed but kept on driving until we got to the next Service Station. In New Jersey, you can’t pump your own gas. So when we pulled up to the diesel pumps, one of the pumpers came over and filled us up. We parked the truck and went inside for some lunch/dinner(since it was already 3:00pm or so.) We arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm and didn’t even have time to go inside. Caroline, Jill and Rudy were in one of the vans ready to leave. We headed over to the venue, which was a pretty slow trip through the hills and streets of Staten Island to our venue, the St. George Theatre. We parked the truck on a pretty steep hill(with the nose of the truck downhill) and got ready to start load in. The inside of the venue was a little run down but had some amazing architecture and paintings. It’s mostly used for rock concerts, so their accommodations for us weren’t great. Caroline suggested that we use the map drop again instead of the truss and grudgingly I agreed. It was a great decision because we didn’t have as many local crew members as we are use to and they only had 1 large ladder to focus, which takes more people than usual to help with the lighting focus. By using the map drop, we freed up people and had the time to complete focus better. By the time we were back at the hotel it was almost 10:30pm and we had completed our second straight 14 hour day. Eric and I were in the elevator on the way up and He hit the 6th floor button. When we got to that floor, we realized it was the wrong one. The elevator started back to the lobby and when we got there, we hit the 7th floor button, which is the floor we were actually staying on. Eric said “I can’t remember what floor we’re on anymore.” I said “We were on the 6th floor last night. There are only two things I do remember, what room number I’m in and what channel MSNBC is on.” Since we had missed dinner, Caroline ordered us some pizza and Eric, Rudy and I went to her room to relax for a bit. It was a long day to say the least.

Friday, October 24th: Another early morning starting at 7:45am. We had to leave the hotel a little earlier than normal because we weren’t sure how Staten Island traffic would be in the morning. We got to the venue with plenty of time before our 10:00am(18) show. The show was ok, but not our best performance, and we only had about 150 students in this rather large venue. We packed up the truck as quickly as possible after the show and got off the Island with lots of speed. We drove a quick 192 miles (2118 total miles) to Baltimore, MD. We have the next two days off in Baltimore, so most of the cast traveled away from the group for the weekend. Caroline, Eric, Jeffrey, Rudy, Rudy’s friend Janine and I had dinner at the Mt. Washington Tavern, which was fantastic. Then we came back to the hotel and played a little Wii in Caroline’s suite. As a side note, Caroline’s the one who checks us in at every hotel and she often is upgraded to a suite because they think she is personally paying for everything! This ended our first 4 days in a row of shows. It was a good start, but we’ve got a few more of these before the end of the first leg of this tour.

(14) Back to Work

Monday, October 20th: I went into work at the Kennedy Center this morning. It was a little funny to be back after only being on the road for 2 weeks but it gave me some good desk time to get work done. I left early in the afternoon and took the metro out to the West Falls Station and then took a taxi to the hotel we were staying at. In McLean, we stayed at a Westin. It was REALLY nice! The vans and truck showed up shortly after I got there. That evening we had a load in at The Alden Theatre. They are a test facility for JR Clancy Rigging, which is one of the largest theatrical rigging companies in the country. This means that they have a lot of high end equipment including automated linesets. Instead of a stagehand pulling a rope to move the flying pieces, each lineset has a motor that runs the flying pieces. The load in went well with only one major bump. We were unable to hang our largest and most exciting piece because we didn’t have enough room in the theatre. We were about ½ way done hanging it when we figured out that the rest of the piece wouldn’t fit. Luckily we have a painted drop(which is much smaller) that we can hang in place of our larger piece. This was also the first time that we had a chance to use our painted drop since we just received it in the mail that day! The stage at The Alden is significantly smaller than at any other theatre that we have been too. Caroline and I talked through a number of changes that would need to happen with the flow of the show because of the difficulty of the space.

Tuesday, October 21st: We had 1 show at 10:00am(15). The Alden Theater is part of the McLean Community Center which is funded by the residents of McLean. McLean is very close to the CIA Langley Headquarters so the people living around there are mostly government employees in high level positions. We had a fantastic hospitality spread and they also gave us sandwiches for lunch after the show was over. It was by far the best hospitality we’ve had on the road. The Tech Crew had a meeting with David Paige and David Kilpatrick who had seen the show that morning. We talked about the good and bad things that had happened on the road. We had the rest of the afternoon off which I used to do more desk work. That night, I went to do my laundry and stopped by a Barnes & Nobles.

(13) Fall Hike Weekend

Saturday, October 18th: I packed up all my stuff and was taken to the airport to fly to Cleveland for my Mom’s family reunion, called Fall Hike. It was a very last minute decision. Today was actually our day off for the week and tomorrow the company is starting the drive back to McLean, VA for our next show. I made plans with my boss to travel away from the company and meet up with them in McLean, which is a suburb of Washington, DC. My flights got me in to Cleveland just after 5:00pm and Carrie, my sister, and Brian, her husband, picked me up from the airport. We went to the hotel to drop off my bags, got some food, and left to go play Whirlyball with a large group of my cousins. Whirlyball is a combination of bumper cars and lacross. You play 5 on 5. Each player drives their own bumper car and has a scoop, like at the top of a lacross stick. You play with 1 large wiffel ball that you have to throw against a backboard that is about 8’ off the ground with a net in the center of it. If you hit the backboard, your team gets 2 points and if you hit the net your team gets 4 points. The games are 15 minutes long and are a whole bunch of fun! I played in two games and was on the losing team both times. The Barcus side of the family ganged up on the Liss side on the family in the last game and totally destroyed them!

Sunday, October 19th: Carrie and I had Panera for breakfast and then Casey and Celeste met us at the hotel. They had brought Celeste’s dogs with them and a crate of Casey’s old t-shirts. I took a couple of his t-shirts(which I then forgot in Carrie’s rental car) and a long sleeve shirt. The temperature outside was FREEZING cold! It was about 30 degrees when I woke up in the morning. I definitely have not seen temperatures anywhere near that since I moved to California, so it was quite a wake up call! We packed up the cars and made our way to Strawberry Lane, which is where we start our hike from. On the way we passed my Great Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel on the highway. When we got off the highway, we almost turned the wrong way, but saw Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel and followed them. After getting in behind them, they slowed to a stop in the middle of the street to look as a family of deer who were in the field near the road. Now, up until a year or so ago, everyone who came to the family reunion would meet at my Grandma’s house on Claver Street and caravan(usually 10-15 cars) over to Strawberry Lane with Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel leading. It was always a stressful and hilarious even trying to follow in the caravan. This episode was a great reminder of why we should never do the caravan again! When we got to Strawberry lane, everyone gathered around to take the family picture. There were 46 people and 3 dogs at the hike as counted in the annual picture. We always end up suckering someone at the park to take pictures with everyone’s camera. We walked across the street to the area where the hiking path starts and Bob Barcus(my Mom’s cousin) gave a quick speech. Then off we went on the hike, and not on the path like most people would, but strait into the woods. We went up a down a couple of really good ravines and about 2 hours later ended up at Squire’s Castle on the other side of the park. The people who hadn’t hiked had set up our typical lunch of corned beef sandwiches, noodle kugel, macaroni and cheese, apple sauce, beans, coconut bars, and Ant Cathy cookies. After lunch, we had a egg toss, which is always a big deal because it give you bragging rights for the whole year. Brian Vogel and I teamed up, which ended up being a great idea! Let me preface this with saying I don’t ever remember coming in higher than 3rd. Brian and I were up against Kenny and Mike(more of my Mom’s cousins) who had won a number of times. It came down to these two teams, who then had to do a double egg toss(where each person gets an egg and you have to throw both at once.) On the first toss, both teams broke one egg. On the next toss, both teams broke the OTHER egg! For the first time in Fall Hike history, there was a tie in the egg toss!

My Mom took me to the airport and I flew back to DC to meet up with the rest of the company who was starting the driving back to McLean, VA. I met up with David Paige, my boss, whose house I was staying at that night. I met him at a metro station and we drove back to the restaurant where he and his wife, Liz, were having a birthday dinner for Liz’s Step-Mom and her friends. It was a little strange because everyone else was really dressed up and I was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Fortunately everyone was really nice and they invited me to join them for dessert. It was a long weekend, but worth seeing everyone on my mom’s side of the family.

(12) Coral Springs & Jupiter, Florida

Check out the Slide Show! It's New again!

Wednesday, October 15th: We started today with a 177 mile drive(1616 total miles) to our hotel in Coral Springs, Florida. We had a 3:00pm load in, which made it a little difficult getting to the hotel, dropping off our stuff, and having lunch before we had to leave for the venue. When we got to the Coral Springs City Center, we realized that this would be our first problem venue. It was significantly smaller than our show can comfortably fit it and caused us to change how the show flows a bit. This is my favorite part of my job. Caroline and I talked about all the issues we might have and how to fix them so that the show runs as smoothly as possible. We knew that there would need to be a spacing rehearsal before the first show to make sure nobody would be pushed off the front of the stage! Load in finished without too much trouble and on the way home we stopped at a Subway to get dinner. We all walked in and they started making Rudy’s food before telling us that they could only take cash. We were a little pissed they didn’t say something at first, but we turned around and went over to the CVS to get cash. When I got back to the Subway the guy behind the counter obviously didn’t care much about making my pizza. He just piled the toppings on and then pushed them all off when he sliced it into 4 pieces. I was really annoyed! Talk about bad customer service! That night, Dave, Lindsay, Eric and Rudy came over to my room to watch the last presidential debate.

Thursday, October 16th: Today is when all the fun begins! We had a 10:00am(10) and 11:45am(11) shows which both went very well. Just minutes before the second show, we were told that we’d have a person doing American Sign Language for the show. This is one of the questions that I ask when I advance the show and this venue said that we would not have one. The woman who was the signer was very mean about needing a chair and a light on her and ear plugs(since she’s be sitting right in front of the speakers!) Eric and Caroline rushed around getting her accommodated(except for the ear plugs) and had everything ready by the time the show started. After the shows, we loaded out the show and immediately hopped on the road to drive to 64 miles(1680 total miles) to Jupiter, Florida. Eric and I took the truck and drove right to the venue, stopping briefly to pick up some sandwiches. We got to the venue just minutes before load in was suppose to start and had only enough time to eat half of our sandwiches. Luckily, the Technical Director at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre was also the flyman for our shows in Coral Springs! He had driven up as well after the load out at the City Center. It was good to have another person familiar with the show because, again, the theater was a little too small for our show! We loaded the show in and finished around 10:00pm. It was the first of many days where we have shows, a load out, a drive and a load in all in one day. It was a solid 14 hours of work!

Friday, October 17th: We had three shows today: 9:30am(12), 1:00pm(13), and 7:00pm(14). The first show was packed and was a really good audience. We had a tech meeting in between the first and second shows. The second show only had 32 people in the audience because one of the schools pulled out at the last second. It was a little disappointing but everyone put on a good show anyways! After the show, Jill and I stuck around to do some paint touch ups and carpentry fixes. The last show of the day was also really small, around 20 people. After strike, we went back to the hotel and some people got in the hot tub for a bit to relax. It was a good way to end the week.

(11) Melbourne, Florida

Saturday, October 11th: We left Orange Park and drove 182 miles(1439 total miles) to Melbourne, FL. Eric and I left well before everyone else because we had to take the truck to a Ryder Shop to have it looked at. We were having problems with the fan for our A/C. Can you imagine driving around Florida without A/C? It had been a hot couple of drives with the windows down. We got to the shop and the repair guy couldn’t figure out what the problem was. He kept asking how we were going to get to our hotel and I said we’d call a cab if we needed to. After about 20 minutes of work, the repair guy pulled open the air circulation panel and pulled out a completely dirty air filter. The filter looked like it had never been changed and this truck has 93,000 miles on it! He replaced the air filter and the A/C worked great. We made it to the Hilton Hotel and were happy to see that it was on the beach. You read that correctly, our hotel was on the beach. We had a 30ft wooden walkway from the pool side to the beach. We were staying on one of the skinny Islands just over the intracostal waterway from Melbourne. After we made it to the hotel, Eric and I walked over to a little dive bar near the hotel call Lou’s Blues. We had a fantastic lunch and the great conversation with the bartender. We told her that we would definitely be back for another meal. The rest of the cast and crew showed up and everyone ended up going for a swim in the Atlantic Ocean. It was really warm and the waves were pretty big upwards of 5-8ft tall. I rode a couple of waves in and scraped up my knees on the rough sand. It felt great and was a lot of fun. People were looking for food and we convinced everyone to go to Lou’s Blues for dinner. Eric and I had no problems eating there twice in the same day. It was much more crowded when we returned and they had karaoke as well. We went back to the hotel and everyone wanted to go swimming in the pool. There were a bunch of young kids running around the pool and playing in the hot tub so nobody wanted to get in. Finally, we went over to the hot tub and just got in with all the kids. They eventually left and I only stuck around for a bit then headed back to my room for the night.

Sunday, October 12th: Our first official DAY OFF! In the morning, Caroline, Eric and I went to the laudromat. We got lost on the way because the Laundromat that the GPS wanted to take us to didn’t exist(yet another GPS problem!) We were near a shopping center and stopped outside a Starbucks to ask for the nearest Laundromat. It was a quick find from there and we were back at the hotel by 12:30pm. I wanted to go into downtown Melbourne, so most of the cast and crew piled into one van and we drove into and all the way through downtown Melbourne without even knowing it! Apparently most of Melbourne shuts down on Sundays. We found an open Pasta restaurant for lunch and crowded all 11 of us around the bar to eat. It was a really good Pasta/Jamaican place and I had cheese tortellini in alfredo sauce with red grapes and bananas. It was really really good! We walked around a little bit and I found a neat little antique store. The gentleman who own the store also serviced broken phonographs and record players. He had an amazing collection of records and said we could take 10 or so with the purchase of a record player. Carolyn had followed me into the store and I’m pretty sure she would have bought a record player if she had somewhere to carry it on the road! After the short tour of downtown, we went over to Manatee Park, where you’re suppose to find Manatees. All we found was a bunch of catfish and a couple of turtles. We knew this before we went to Manatee Park. The woman at the front desk of the hotel said that we’d have to come back when the Manatees are mating. I took everyone back to the hotel and went out again to drive around the island we were staying on and the city of Melbourne. I found my way to the mall and just walked around a bit. When I went to leave, there was a torrential downpour outside. I sat just inside the doors for a couple of minutes and decided that it wasn’t raining hard enough not to run to the van and slowly make my way back to the hotel. It rained pretty good the whole way and most of the rest of the evening.

Monday, October 13th: I tried to do some work this morning before our load in and failed miserably! This was mostly because it was Columbus Day and no one else was working! We loaded in our show at the King Center in the afternoon. When we got there, we learned that they had a major event going on that Friday in the same theatre. As the load in went on, we learned that John McCain’s campaign had called and he was going to speak there! Through the rest of our time there, we heard all about what they would need to do for the Presidential nominee to come visit. This included taking out 300 seats from their orchestra for the press and also pouring a new concrete slab for the main camera!

Tuesday, October 14th: We had a 10:00am(8) and 11:45am(9) shows. Both went very well and load out followed without any major problems. The loading dock here was on an incline, with the cab of the truck higher than the end of the truck. This made it a little difficult to load up our truck and took a little more sweat and blood to make it all fit. In the early evening, I went down the beach and found Rudy walking around. I am so glad that he was down there because it was like Oceanography 101 with Rudy! We found a baby turtle who was trying to get out to the ocean. It was really awesome to watch this tiny creature get thrown around the waves. We also found a couple of washed up jelly fishes that were still alive and a tiny bullfish which Rudy threw back into the ocean. That night, Eric, Rudy, Carolyn, Johnny and I went to play pool at a local pool hall. Johnny and I were destroying Eric and Carolyn until Johnny sunk the cue ball while trying to sink the 8 ball. I was on the winning team for the next two games and then Carolyn and I played Eric and Johnny. This was the only game that Carolyn and I were on the same team for and the only game that I actually lost! It was so nice to go out and just relax over a game of pool. Almost felt like I was back in Mountain View!

(10) Orange Park, Florida

Thursday, October 9th: We started today with a 257 mile drive(1257 miles total) to Orange Park, Florida which is up near Jacksonville. The drive went well and we were at our Country Inn and Suites by early afternoon. After a lunch at Panera, Caroline, Jill, Eric, Rudy and I (collectively called the Tech Crew) made our way to the Thrasher-Horne Center for the Arts. On the way there we were following the directions on our GPS which took us down a wrong street. We were very confused and ended up calling the Technical Director for the venue and asking for directions. We got there just before our 5:00pm load in was suppose to start. Unfortunately, this was just the first bump we ran into. When we got there, we also learned that they did not have the lighting cues written for the show! Our lighting cues were written for and ETC Expression Console, which is the kind of computer that controls the lights. This venue had a Strand Console, which can’t read the same files as an ETC Expression. We had sent them a print out of the lighting cues with the understanding that they could be written in before we got there. Eric had left his computer at the hotel but I had brought mine and had a copy of the lighting cues as well. While they were focusing the lights, one of the venue staff was also writing in the light cues. He got about half way done before my computer ran out of batteries and I had left my power cord at the hotel. We finished the load in by around 10pm at which point I drove Caroline, Rudy and Jill back to the hotel, got my power cord and came back to the venue. Eric and the venue staff worked for another hour, until 11:30pm writing light cues. It was a long night and we still had work to finish in the morning.

Friday, October 10th: We had a 10:30am(6) and 7:00pm(7) shows. Eric and the venue staff worked right up until the show started writing light cues and still wasn’t quite finished. We had about ¾ of the show finished and had a few different light cues we could jump too when the show was finished. When we started the first show, the house crew hadn’t turned off the work lights in the house! This means we couldn’t go completely black. It was fixed halfway through the first song, but it didn’t start the day well. After the first show we had a Tech Crew meeting to discuss future venues. Then I went out and spend the afternoon driving around trying to purchase some hardware for the show which I couldn’t find anywhere. The second show had a bad start as well. Somehow is all the cue writing an extra cue had been added near the beginning of the show. We spent half of the first scene in a black out because we were in the wrong light cue! Load out went much quicker than I could have expected. We were out in just under 2 hours again and made our way back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

(9) First Venue, Sarasota, Florida

Check out the slide show! I updated it with some new pictures!

Sunday, October 5th: On the road… FOR THE FIRST DAY! The US Amry had a Ten Mile run that Jen Howard(who is the Program Assistant for the Tour) and David Kilpatrick(we call him DK because of all the Davids) were going to run in. The run went down Virginia which is in between my apartment and the Kennedy Center. Dave McLellan(one of the cast members) went down to cheer on DK and Jen. I met him down there and we searched the crowd of runners. I think we missed DK, but Jen saw us and we gave her a good cheer as she ran by. After that we went back to the apartment and with bags packed we made our way down to the vans and truck parked outside the Kennedy Center. The company met there and had bagels, donuts and coffee before departing. Eric and I got in the truck, blasted “Roll Out” by Ludacris, and pulled away from the Kennedy Center. We drove 521 miles to our stay at a Holiday Inn Express in Walterboro, South Carolina. We saw a lot of signs for Bojangles Chicken and Biscuts. It looks kinda disgusting, but hey it’s a southern thing. We also saw a sign for “F’real Milkshakes” at a truck stop. I wondered what’s in a f’real milkshake but we didn’t have time to stop and get one. There is a large stop on the North Carolina/South Carolina border that has a ferriswheel and a bunch of shops and what not called South of the Border. It looked a little intimidating but the vans stopped there. We just barreled on through. As the sun started to go down, the screen on our Magellan GPS turned dark like it was night time. That’s when Eric and I both took of our sunglasses. When the Magellan says it’s night, it must be night!

Monday, October 6th: We woke up, had a free continental breakfast at the hotel and then got back on the road. We drove 479 miles(1000 total miles) to our stay at a La Quinta Inn in Sarasota, FL. Along the way, we hit rain in Jacksonville, just after Orlando and then again right before Tampa. I haven’t been in a thunderstorm in close to 3 years(since I left Cincinnati) and it was just great! The GPS took us this really bad way once we got off the high way. We drove a 26’ box truck through this slightly run down neighborhood that we probably should not have and it spit us out a couple of blocks away from the hotel and told us that we were there! My Aunt Cathy met me at the hotel and we had dinner, which was very nice. We talked about everything that was going on in the family and she kind of convinced me that I should go our family reunion in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday, October 7th: The morning was taken up with a bunch of phone calls and paperwork. As you can see, I rarely have any real time off. Any free time is taken up by advancing the show to the future venues. I got a phone call in the early afternoon from the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center(where we were loading in today) saying that they didn’t have some of the gel colors for the lights. Eric and I hopped in the van and drove down to the venue to meet the local crew and drop off some gel color. We only stayed for a few minutes, but we could tell that the local crew was going to be good. Around 2:30pm Caroline, Jill, Eric, Rudy and I loaded into one van and the truck and drove over to the venue. The Van Wezel Performing Arts Center is this large purple building right on the Gulf of Mexico. They have a beautiful view from the loading dock in the back of the building. The load in went very well with no major problems. As I said before, the local crew at the Van Wezel is really good and was a huge help. It was nice having skilled people to help us get used to loading the show in and out. We finished around 8pm and had to go run some errands and get dinner. Eric, Rudy, Carolyn(one of the performers) and I drove over to Wal-Mart to get a fan and could find the kind we wanted. We didn’t really want to keep running around because we wanted to watch the Presidential Debate at 9pm, but knew we had to try the Target as well. We found the target, found the fan and ran home as quick as possible! Everyone was gathered in Dave’s (another performer) room watching the debate so we joined them for the fun.

Wednesday, October 8th: Our first two shows on the road! We had a 10:00am(4 total shows) and 11:45am(5) shows. The first show went great and the cast took a picture in front of the curtain after the first show. Right before the second show started, the woman making the preshow announcements tried to walk onstage before Caroline was ready to start the show! The venue’s Technical Director really wanted to get the show started because we had to take an hour lunch break after the show before starting strike. The show ran without any problems. During our hour lunch break Eric and I ran out to get ratchets and lunch and had to rush back to make it there in time to start load out. It took just about 2 hours to load out, which was really exciting because we were expecting it to take closer to 3 hours. The local crew did a fantastic job and we were back at our hotel before 5pm. That night, I took one of the vans and drove down to Siesta Key. There were some restaurants and shops on the “downtown” street(which was about 3 blocks long). I got some post cards from the Beach Bazaar and food from The Broken Egg, which was really good. It was really nice to have the first venue under our belts!

(8) Last Weekend in DC

Thursday, October 2nd: Back in the Office for some more paperwork. Now that we’ve run the show a few times and things have been worked out, it’s time to update all the paperwork. I am responsible for paperwork concerning each venue as well as our production as well. For each venue, I have to call the Technical Director or Production Manager and talk to them about how large their venue is and how our show will fit into their theatre. I also get to play 20 questions with them. Those questions range from what their loading dock is like to what type of lighting and sound systems they have to whether any of our shows will be signed, American Sign Language, to making sure our load in and show times are set and that they will have the correct number of crew members for our show. As you can see, it’s a good 30-45 minutes on the phone hashing out all the details. Often times, they don’t have enough lights to hang our entire light plot. At that point I normally hand off some information to Eric, the Lighting Director, and he calls their head electrician to figure out all the details. That night Eric, Rudy (the Sound Supervisor) and I went over to David Paige’s for a chili dinner and to watch the VP debate. Boy was that an interesting debate to say the least. It was nice to have a home cooked meal before we really hit the road.

Friday, October 3rd: Eric and I went out to do more site seeing. We went immediately to the Capitol to get passes for the Capitol tour. After we got our passes for the 11:10 tour, we walked around the corner to the Supreme Court building. It was pretty awesome! Unfortunately, they do seminars in the court chambers when they aren’t hearing cases so we couldn’t go inside. The seminars were about an hour long and we didn’t want to wait for the next one. They have some great historical information about the differences in the Supreme Court as compared to who the Chief Justice was at the time. After we had our fill there we went back and tried to go into the Library of Congress, which is right next door. As we walked up the steps we notice the enormous line that stretched down the other side. We didn’t have time to wait so we went right to the Capitol tour. The capitol tour was a little disappointing. We were hoping to inside the actual Senate and Representative Chambers but they were debating the Bail Out Legislation so both houses were in session. You can go to your Senators or Representative and ask for a gallery pass but we didn’t have time. We are going to try to go when we are back in April at the end of the tour. I was wearing my SF Giants hat and was really hoping to “run into” Nancy Pelosi so I could say, “HEY NANCY! I’m from San Francisco! Can I have a Gallery Pass for today?” Boy that would have really made my day! Inside the Capitol is also the original Supreme Court Chambers which we walked through as well. After that we left and walked past the Newseum which is a new museum dedicated to the history of Journalism and also where “This Week with George Stephanopolis” is filmed. “This Week…” is my favorite Sunday morning news show. Outside the Newseum they have the front page of one major news paper from each state for that day. They also have a couple of international newpapers as well. We’re also planning on going into the Newseum in April when the tour is over. Finally, Eric and I walked up to Chinatown and had lunch. Then we headed back to the Kennedy Center to do yet another afternoons worth of work.

Saturday, October 4th: Today was similar to yesterday but without the tourist stuff. I got everything packed up and planned what I was would not be taking on tour with me. The afternoon was a lot of printing off paperwork so that I could work from the road without an internet connection. And tomorrow… WE’RE OFF ON THE ROAD!

(7) Tech Rehearsals and Performances

Sunday, September 29th- Wednesday, October 1st: Technical rehearsals, technical rehearsal and more technical rehearsals! All day, every day, from 9am-10pm (more or less) we’ve been spending in the Atlas Theatre perfecting the show to take it on the road. It’s been a long few days, but things are coming together well and there haven’t been any major bumps. We also had an invited dress rehearsal and three performances. They all went over very well with no issues. After our last performance, we had a champagne toast with Norton Juster and Sheldon Harnick. Norton Juster wrote the book that this show is based off of and Sheldon Harnick wrote the music. Sheldon Harnick also wrote the music to “Fiddler on the Roof” the popular musical. I got a chance to meet both of them. The whole cast, crew and design staff got a party bag of gifts including a copy of the book “The Phantom Tollbooth”, a Kennedy Center t-shirt and some other small toys for us to play with on the road. A lot of the cast and crew (including myself) got our books signed by Norton and Sheldon. Now that’s something to hold on to! Darrell Ayers, Vice President of Education for the Kennedy Center, was there and gave a short speech. In it he said we’d be visiting “29 states, 58 cities, 128 performances.” Norton asked “Aren’t there 50 states?” Darrell responded “ Yes. We’re working on Alaska.” Norton said “Yah know, you can see the Kennedy Center from Alaska!” If you don’t get the joke, you obviously haven’t been following national politics! I just about fell over from laughing. I should also note that the other show that is touring from the Kennedy Center this season, “Blues Journey” is going to Hawaii for a week!

Hope all is well!

Brian

Tech Rehearsals

Thursday, September 25th: Today we dropped the set off at our trial venue, The Atlas. It’s not in the best neighborhood but the theater is pretty nice. Unfortunately, you can’t back a 26’ box truck up to the loading door, which is at truck height(the height of the bed of the truck). Some of our boxes we had to take around the alley, in a different loading door, through another theater and up an elevator to get the theater we were using. The rest of our boxes we had to lift from our truck over a small gap and into their loading dock. Overall it was a really painful process and probably the worst situation we would have to deal with. Fortunately, we were only dropping off the scenery. We headed back to the offices to work for the rest of the afternoon.

Friday, September 26th: Today started off about a bad as possible for a load in day. I woke up at 6:30am and found an email message from one of the Atlas Staff saying that our house crew was called at 9am, not 8am as we had planned. I called my boss to let him know and then called the rest of our crew to say that we’d be leaving at 8:00am instead of the original 7:15am. We left the Kennedy Center just after 8:00am and on the way got a phone call from the Production Manager at the Atlas saying that the house crew had actually been called at 8:00am as originally scheduled. By this point there was nothing we could do about it and ended up starting on a very slow note. The rest of the day was spent figuring out how the set actually fits together, which was very exciting since no one who had done the original production was there to help. It actually went together very easily and with only a few runs to the hardware store.

Saturday, September 27th - Sunday, September 28th: We finished up the set and then started actual tech rehearsals. It was a slow process, but we made it through the show in the afternoon. Most of the time was taken up by working out the technical issues in the show and generating our run crew sheets (the paperwork that tells us what scenery to move and when to move it!) It was another long day but a lot was accomplished. On a funny note, I learned that you can’t eat 6 salteen crackers in a minute without drinking any water. We were sitting eating dinner and Diana, the Costume Coordinator, came up and asked if we could eat 6 salteen crackers in a minute. Most of us were like “No thanks” but my boss just couldn’t pass up the try. We all set our watches and looked on as David P. and Diana tried to eat the 6 salteen crackers. If you’re curious how it ended up just try it.

Hope all is well!
Brian

Almost time for Tech Rehearsal!

Sunday, September 21st: Today was a much less exciting day. Eric and I went to another Nationals Baseball game, where they ended up losing to the Padres. We sat next to a very nice older couple and talked to them a bit. The gentileman was like a baseball almanac. He was spouting off fact after fact about players and franchises and records. I was wearing my San Francisco Giants jersey and green Washington Nationals hat(mostly because I forgot my SF Giants hat at Brekky’s house in Cincinnati: Thanks Brekky for sending it me!) I decided that I wanted to get another Nationals hat, but one with the DC logo instead. They were selling for $30 in the stadium, but when we left the game we stopped at one of the street dealers. She had a different SF Giants hat with a picture of Barry Bonds on it, but I told her I wasn’t interested. I was interested one of her DC hats which she told me was $25. I told her no thanks and she immediately asked how much I wanted for it. I told her $15 and she said sure. I was pretty excited so I bought it and ended up giving my green Washington Nationals hat to my boss.

Monday, September 22nd-Tuesday, September 23rd: These two days all run together. Most of my time was spent in the office calling venues and working on paperwork for load in, tech and load out at our trial venue here in DC. Eric and I took our 26’ box truck to the scene shop to pick up the set. On the way back, we got lost because of some bad directions. We realized we could take the route we wanted to because we were in a truck and didn’t want to make any illegal left turns. Unfortunately, it took us to some places we REALLY shouldn’t have been. Made a right turn onto Constitution where we couldn’t make the left turn we needed to. We figured we go down a few block, make a few legal left turns and get back on Constitution going the right direction. We made one left turn, then a second left turn and immediately realized that we were on Pennsylvania Ave headed right toward the White House. (Don’t forget we’re in a white unmarked 26’ box truck). We started to frantically looking for another left turn, so we didn’t get too close to the White House, but couldn’t find any. All of a sudden we found ourselves at Pennsylvania Ave and 15th Ave, right across the intersection from the Capitol Police barricade to the White House. There was a police car behind the barricade that backed up about a foot and looked like it might come around the barricade. Eric and I were going crazy worrying about what would happen if we were pulled over! Luckily, the light turned green, I slowly made the left turn, and gently drove off back towards the Kennedy Center. It was a little hectic, but very funny since nothing actually happened.

Wednesday, September 24th: Today we packed the truck for the first time and boy is it tight. There is not one square inch that is wasted in the pack of this truck. I took a bunch of pictures, but really there is no other way possible to make everything fit. We were missing a few small pieces and had to guess where those pieces will end up in the real pack of the truck. It took a bit of time, but I’m pretty sure that we’re really close to the perfect pack.

Work with a little play

Monday, September 15th: When I got back to work on Monday afternoon, two more of the technicians for the show had arrived: Eric Behnke, the Lighting Director, and Jill Tarr, the Costume/Props Supervisor. Eric and I have been working all prepping for the show. There is a lot of paperwork that we are sending to each venue. I have to take our show and make it fit into each venue, which means crunching and stretching our set to match the venue. It’s a tough process and very time consuming.

Tuesday, September 16th: Eric and I took a walk around Georgetown, which is a 10 minute walk or so from where we are staying. We walked down the main street, with dozens of restaurants and shops, then up around the University, which is gorgeous. We passed the French Embassy and came back down Wisconsin Street, which also has a bunch of restaurants and shops. Finally we passed the Embassy of Qatar and headed back to the apartments.

Wednesday, September 17th: Eric and I went to the Washington Nationals Game. It was a really nice night and they were giving away green Washington National’s hats for a Half-Way to St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. After coming in, we walked all the way around the ballpark, which is really nice. My boss here is a big Nationals Fan and he had suggested we go to the game that night. So when we got back to the main gate I tried to get him a green hat. I walked back into the area where they were handing out the green hats and pretended I was looking for a friend. I got right up to where they were handing them out and was caught by a security guard who came up and said “He already got one!” I was so close too! The Nationals ended up losing to the New York Mets 9-7 and it was only a mediocre game, but it was really nice to get out and do something.

Friday, September 19th: Eric, Jill and I had to go get physicals so we’d be approved by the Department of Transportation to drive our 26’ truck. We got to work around 7:30am so we could get the place early enough. After this, I went with David Paige to pick up one of our two 15 passenger vans. I took the van and went out to TSA which is the shop doing some of the refurb on our set. I got to TSA and found them working on one of our pieces which was suppose to get rigged to fly. The guys working on it didn’t know what I was talking about. When Mike, the manager/owner, came around he said they didn’t have time and we probably didn’t have the money. Then he took me though a bunch of stuff detailing how one of the set pieces goes together and works. This was great because the drawing that I had were completely different from how the pieces were actually built. Mike sent me away with a bunch of drawings from the original production and much better idea of what the set actually looks like. It was a good thing too cause we load in the set next Friday!

Saturday, September 20th: Eric and I walked all the way down to the National Mall and back. I got pictures of The White House, the Washington Monument, The Capitol Building, Most of the Cabinet Department Buildings, The National Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. I’ll post a slide show of this later. It was pretty awesome and a lot of walking. We’re making plans to get a tour of the Capitol Building and see the Supreme Court Building as well.

Hope all is well!

Brian

Fun with Airplanes

Sunday, September 14th – Monday, September 15th: Carrie and Brian V. picked me up at Susan’s around 2:30pm to go to the airport. There were some high winds and we were pushed around a bit on the way there. The computers were down at Enterprise Car Rental and the employees were watching the shingles being blow off some of the other buildings in the area. It was strange because there was no rain or storm, it was just high winds. We got over to the airport and checked in for our flights. When I got to my terminal, most of the stores and restaurants were closed because they had no electricity. A lot of the afternoon flights had been cancelled and those later in the day were delayed, including mine. Around 3:30pm, they had to shut down the FAA tower because they were getting 65mph winds, which meant that no flights could go in or out of Cincinnati. Around 4:00pm, just 30 minutes before my flight was originally suppose to take off, I got a message from Orbitz saying my flight was cancelled! So I went up to the counter where everyone else was standing in line and got a ticket for the 7:30pm flight. I went over to where Carrie and Brian V. were waiting for their flight, which was delayed. On the way, I checked one of the departure boards and noticed that my 7:30pm flight had also been cancelled! At the check in booth near Carrie’s gate, they told me first that I had to go to gate 14 and second that there was a 2 hour line there and I should probably go back out to the front of the terminal. By the time I got out there, there was a huge line and I ended up waiting about an hour and a half before getting to the counter. The woman put me on stand-by for the Monday at 10:30am flight to DC and got me a regular ticket for the 7:30pm flight. I called Susan who came to pick me up. On the way home, we went by Surrey Square in Norwood and Hyde Park Plaza, looking for food and movies, and neither had power. Luckily, Rookwood Pavilion had power. There were also long lines at the gas stations that were open. Brekky picked me up from Susan’s and we went back to his place, which had no power. He then took me to my Dad’s who also had no power. I woke up early and we left my Dad’s around 8am, still without power. We stopped in Norwood to get gas at a gas station that was almost completely packed with cars. They dropped me off at the airport and I luckily got on my 10:30am stand-by flight back to DC!
The wedding weekend went well. I will post a link soon for the pictures.

Hope all is well!

Brian

Desk Work Again

Tuesday, September 9th - Friday, September 12th: Work is going well. It’s mostly paperwork at this point. I’ve been looking up contact information on all of the Technical Director for all the venues we’ll be visiting. I also have to find, or ask for, Technical Specifications for all the venues so that I can plan out how our show will fit in their space. There is a lot of running around The Kennedy Center looking for props or other things that would be helpful in rehearsal. I watched a video of the original production when it was performed here at The Kennedy Center. The show is about an hour long and is really cute and funny. My boss, David Paige, found a copy of the book “The Phantom Tollbooth” so I’ve started to read it as well. The book is about 250 pages and goes into much more detail than the Musical. Apparently, Delaware Opera wanted to do an opera version of the book, but I doubt that would have gone over very well.

On Thursday, 9/11, there was a lot of traffic around the area and there was a really beautiful memorial service at the Pentagon. They took this day to open a new memorial at the Pentagon. They are these really interesting benches that slope from one side to a flat surface and have a small pool of water underneath. On each bench is the name of one person who was killed on 9/11. Here is a link to some pictures from the Memorial: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/11/pentagon.memorial/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto

I’ve met most of the cast and they are all very nice. The Stage Manager and I seem to get along great and my boss is pretty nice. A lot of the technicians who go on these tours come back for multiple years. My boss went out for 3 tours and two of our technicians are going out for their second tour. I spend most of my time right now sitting at my desk, staring at my computer. Next week looks to be similar, but I’ll actually get to talk to some venues on the phone. And the week after that is when we start tech rehearsals.

Hope all is well!

The Work Begins!

I’ve finally made it to DC! I’m more or less settled in my studio apartment(provided by The Kennedy Center) and have worked a couple of days.

Sunday, September 7th: I got to the airport on Sunday night and the first thing I learned was that my flight had been delayed. Unfortunately, it was delayed enough that I would have missed my connection flight to DC. So, JetBlue put me on a different flight, from San Jose to New York and New York to DC. It was kind of a rough flight because my stomach was a little upset, possibly because I’ve been waiting so long to start this new job. I only slept for about an hour and a half. The plane landed in New York and I took a shuttle to my next boarding gate. I sat down and went to take my book out(The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien) and realized that it wasn’t in my bag. I immediately knew that I had left it on the plan and bolted back to the gate I had just came out of. There was a security woman who helped me track down someone who could go back onto the plane and get my book. As we were standing there, the gate supervisor came out with a couple of books and a magazine. He asked me what my book was called and I said “The Hobbit” and there it was on the top of his stack! The flight from New York to DC was pretty uneventful. It was only about 45 min in the air and my stomach was feeling better so I slept for most of it.

Monday, September 8th: I flew into Dulles Airport which is just west of Washington, DC. I took a shuttle to the light rail(which is called the Metro) and took it to the Foggy Bottom-George Washington University stop. The Metro here is exactly like the BART in the Bay Area. Same turnstiles, same tickets, same trains except for the brown/orange/yellow colors that look like they’re from the 70’s. Even the Foggy Bottom-GWU stop looks like one of the Berkeley stops! It’s about a 2 ½ block walk from the station to the apartment. I dropped off my stuff and walked 3 blocks north to the Trader Joes to get some food. After that I called my boss, David Paige, and walked the 3 blocks south The Kennedy Center. David and I took the 26’ box truck and drove to the warehouse to pick up the set. It’s funny to drive a truck in DC because there are so many road restrictions that it takes a long time to get to a highway. Mostly this is because they don’t want you driving past some important buildings. So we picked up the set and took it to the shop that is going to do a little refurb on it then headed back to The Kennedy Center and finished off the day.

Tuesday, September 9th: The performers arrived today and we had a small meet and greet. Then the performers started rehearsal and I got down to work. Right now it’s a bunch of paper work and contacting people. Nothing too exciting for this first week, that’s for sure.

Overall things are going well. I’ve just about adjusted to Eastern Time mostly because of my red eye flight.

Hope all is well! Take care!