Yesterday we left our residency week with Mukwonago, WI. This was a very busy, rewarding week.
After leaving Batesville, IN, on Sunday we stopped in Chicago to bum around Navy Pier for a couple of hours. We shopped, we took pictures, and we rode the Ferris wheel. After that, we made a quick stop at my apartment for some teaching supplies for our upcoming week. We ended our stop with Giordono's pizza. We made it to Mukwonago pretty late.
This week we were housed in a basement apartment at our sponsor's house. They made sure we had snacks, breakfast food, and that we were comfortable. It was nice to be in a home instead of another hotel room.
Monday we had sixty-eight kids audition, and ended up with a great cast. They were all very eager to learn and help us with anything we needed.
Tuesday we held our first workshop of tour. We taught them basic stage combat. There were approximately thirty kids that showed up. We taught them punches, slaps, chokes, drags, and hair pulls. We could have spent the entire day just with the workshop, and we would have had a blast. After the workshop, we had a great rehearsal with our cast, and they all left knowing the show. That evening, Joseph and I drove to the closest movie theater and had a double-feature night.
Wednesday we held our second workshop. We gave an introduction to professional audition situations. Even though this was more of an information based workshop, we had thirty kids show up, and most of them were very interested in learning as much as possible. After the workshop, we had our tech rehearsal. We had a mother/daughter team running our lights and sound this week. They've been doing this for ten years, so they made some nice lighting effects for us, and we concentrated on the kids. After rehearsal, the Optimist Club, our sponsoring orginization, invited us to a potluck dinner. We spent the evening with around ten of their members, most over the age of seventy. They regaled us with numerous stories, and provided us with great food and good company all evening.
Thursday brought our last workshop, stage makeup. The thirty-five kids that came learned about corrective basic stage makeup, age makeup, and injury makeup. We wish we could have had more time for them to design their own concept, and then Joseph could have painted them; but alas, all good thing must end. Our rehearsal went really well for the first full run. We fixed things, and then did our Double-Time-Over-Do-It run through. After that run, we had an extreme amount of time left over, and basically nothing left to fix. We assigned them their backstage positions for the next day, and played a little "Barricade".
Friday we had their final dress, and they did so well, that they got to have extra time for dinner break. At six we got them ready with the help of some amazing moms. Their first show was awesome, there were a couple of small hiccup; but they all covered really well, and I'm sure the audience didn't notice a thing.
Saturday we ended our run with a bang. The kids nailed it. The parents and audience for both shows had been very responsive and complimentary. The kids presented us with beef jerky (our fourth rule of the week) and a card signed by each of the cast members. We had numerous parents ask if we'd be back next year, not the company, but Joseph and myself specifically. It was nice knowing they enjoyed having us there as much as we enjoyed being there. After the show, Joseph and I ended our day at the lake in town where we took in the scenery and i got in a little swimming.
Yesterday morning we had to say goodbye to Ms. Edie and her husband Larry. They are two of the sweetest people I've ever met. We were so blessed that they offered their home to us this week. Thank you, guys! And a huge thank you to the rest of the Optimist Club for all their generosity and help this week. I'm sad to say farewell to this cast. They did a great job all week, and I was in awe of how helpful many of them were all week. We had a lot of them help us unload the van and set up, as well as tear down. A special shout out to my ladies who played our treasures, and a couple of other older kids that helped with lining the kids up backstage when Joseph and I were onstage. It was definitely one of my favorite stops on tour.
Join us for what I'm sure will be an adventurous week in River Falls, WI.
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