Rocky Mountain Hiiiiiiiiigh Part 2

In great discomfort but armed with prescriptions we left Arkansas for our stopover in Colby, Kansas. Luckily Clare made our lunch stop by a Wal Mart so I could get my prescriptions filled. I now had Oxyconton and promptly went to sleep when we headed back out. By the time we got to our hotel I was already feeling much better thanks to the pain meds and the ER doc giving me some antibiotics to start at the hospital (some really really strong ones). Erin and I grabbed some dinner and I found some bad souvenirs for Bryden and Becky as well as a t-shirt for myself ("The bad witch as all the fun"). I also found a ridiculous "High School Musical" knit hat with rhinestone-studded red lettering and a pic of the kids from the movie. I HAD to have it. I picked up a couple of goodies for my "walrus" (what we called the person we had for Secret Santa, don't ask) and headed back to the hotel. Jen and Alaggio hosted a game night that turned into hide and seek around the hotel but I begged off to rest after my ordeal.

The next morning we headed on to Fort Collins, Colorado. With just a lunch stop in Denver and then only another hour to go we arrived nice and early and happily didn't have a show that night either. It was snowing pretty hard, little tiny this-is-gonna-be-a-big-snowfall flakes, and it continued for 48 hours straight. We had a low of 8 one night! Ack! I was missing the Texas warmth.

Fort Collins is the home of Colorado State University so there was a lot to do. It's a cute town and the downtown area has lots of fun shops and bars. We had a great time exploring the town. Also we stayed at the Best Western - University Inn and the beds were among the best we've had so we were thrilled to be staying there for five nights. There was much drinking, of course, and partying. One day me, Erin, Ashley and Michelle (the four Taurus') spent the day at the salon getting pedicures and manicures. We desperately needed some pampering!

We played six shows at Lincoln Center. Not nearly as grand as the one in NYC but nice nonetheless and good crowds. The only thing is the first show was an unequivocal disaster! Jen's pants split, lights blew (at one point our T.D. was at the fuse box backstage with a flashlight), my spoons fell several times in my first scene, Jen fell on her tailbone from five feet in the air, the stairs got stuck in the wrong position and the T.D. had to sneak onstage in a makeshift costume to fix them, the obelisk set piece for "Consider Yourself" broke and we couldn't get it offstage. It was a nightmare night. Jen was taken to the hospital during Act 2 and discovered she bruised her coccyx. There are other things that I don't recall anymore and this was by far our worst show ever and the funny thing is it was all things that were completely beyond our control. So we were relieved that nothing was our fault but eager to move onwards and upwards. My Secret Santa did make me work for my next gift. I was presented with a pink and purple plastic, reverberating microphone toy and the script for a rap I had to perform about being Widow Corney, in the men's dressing room at intermission. Erin and Ashley, all three of us in Victorian garb, were my backup girls/beatboxers. Hilarious! My prize was a pink, fleece New York Yankees pillowcase for the bus. I love my Secret Santa!

The shows got much better from there but Jen was out for a couple of shows and the audiences were all very quietly appreciative. Our General Manager, Paul, came in and luckily missed the first show. We figured he was coming in to see James as our new Mr. Brownlow. Well the second night we learned the sad truth: that our married musicians, Ira and Elizabeth, were bring laid off and our Saturday matinee would be their last show. This came as a depressing blow to the company. We were assured that we would have no further layoffs and the tour was still on but costs had to be cut and this was the solution they arrived at. The missing instruments were added into the Notion machine. The Notion is like tracks but the tempo is controlled by the operator so the pace is at the whim of the conductor rather than being stuck with a set tempo. A lot of tours are sadly relying on Notions to cut costs. It sounds ok but I really miss hearing real instruments. We're now down to a violin, two flutes, drums and keyboards/Notion . We felt awful for the Bermans but had been assured they were receiving a compensation package and were being assisted in finding new gigs as soon as possible. Last I heard Ira would be going out on the Drowsy Chaperone tour.

One cool thing that happened was I booked my next job while we were there! Back in May I was at an audition at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster, PA. This was the third time I had auditioned for the company (Prather Entertainment Group which owns 3 theatres and a touring company) and had never gotten anywhere with them. I was happy they were having a local call so I could get a little more one on one time with Brian Enzman, the Artistic Director. I knew my director for Fiddler had vouched for me previously. When Brian walked in he recognized me right away and came to say hello. When I went in to sing he asked me what I would be singing. I said, and I quote, "Well you tell me Brian. What can I sing for you that can show you what you are looking for since you've never given me a job". He was very amused by this and after I sang he came over to me and said he loved me and wanted to work with me but when I've come in he hasn't had anything for for me. So in November I was looking at websites to see who had what planned for their seasons that I may want to audition for when I get off tour and saw that Prather was doing Disney's High School Musical. I remembered watching the movie on TV when it came out and thinking I'd love to ply Mrs. Darbus, the theatre teacher if the thing ever moved to the stage. I promptly e-mailed Brian and said "You said you wanted to work with me but never had a part available. Well, here's your chance" and told him I was interested the part and we should work together. A ballsy move, granted, but I go after what I want and since he responded so well to my bravado before I figured why not? He responded a few days later with the dates of the contract asking if it worked for me. He and I traded a few e-mails then one morning in Fort Collins he made the offer. I quickly negotiated the contract and accepted! This made the purchase of the HSM hat in Kansas that much more amusing. So kids, never be afraid to ask for what you want. You may just get it. I never auditioned for this role or even read for Brian. So I start March 26th and play for two months at the Dutch Apple then fly out to Mesa, AZ to play for another two months at the Broadway Palm West. I come home August 2nd. I'm thrilled to not only have a gig lined up but to get to be home AND working for two and half months before I have to go anywhere again. It's ideal!

We closed out the sit-down with a going away party for the Bermans where much Jack Daniels was ingested. We said goodbye to them the next morning at breakfast then loaded the bus to head on to South Dakota.