Baraboo Addendum

Jimmy has posted some photos of Baraboo that show some nice details of the theater and it's "rustic" dressing rooms. Take a look!

GUYS! in Manitowoc

Some important quotes from the posters below:
"Does a case of reincarnation weigh the same as a case of beer?"
"Capitol Civic Centre presents GUYS! the Bachelors"


We had a VERY successful show here in Manty, with some of the quickest load-ins and load-outs we've had to date. Although this was sadly the venue we only had one show in this week, we made the most of it!

After the show, William subbed in for Jimmy as one of the MRT 8, joining us for a few pitchers at Kathie's Stage Door Pub. As Stephen Colbert noted below, "Great Beer. Great Hostess!"





Once again I seem to have forgotten to get picture for my "Katherine in the Dressing Room" series, so instead here's a pic of her and Steve serenading us after the show.

Thank you, Manitowoc!

2 shows in Baraboo

Welcome back to the Al. Ringling Theater! Here's Steve showing off our favorite dressing room hallway...aka our Green Room.

Here are some shots of the theater itself, with our lovely set of course.


We wanted to go to the Circus World Museum, but since it was closed he morning we had free, we brought some circus to the Al. Ringling! (Katherine is to blame for the traffic jams we caused outside the theater, but the noses benefit cancer patients!) It was very sunny out.


More fun in the dressing rooms... we had way too much fun with the urinal in the men's room.. and we've lost count of dressing rooms numbers! (11)

Dressing room number? I dunno... Isn't it pretty?

2 shows in Eau Claire

The State Theater in Eau Claire is another huge house of about 1100 seats. As you can see, it's very LONG - it reminds me of a church I went to when I was in elementary school. It's also hands-down the DARKEST house we play in - it's extremely hard to take pictures of! The pictures you see here have been drastically lightened.


Here's Jimmy during sound check. The actors and Kathi, when showing up for sound check, met up with a crew (Bill, Craig, and myself) who had already been together for 11 hours!
Here's Kathi and Katherine back at the hotel bar our first night in town. A nice night, but these hotel bars close EARLY!

Despite the multiple performances, I failed to get a dressing room pic of Katherine at this venue. Here's one of her and Steve to stand in for the missing picture:

MATC Mitby Theater

Although Cyrano has been to this venue, it was new to me!





Dressing room #10 (she was saying "Hodag")

Oshkosh

The second new venue on our tour, Oshkosh's Grand Opera House. The theater is the oldest operating theater in the state of Wisconsin. It seats about 660 people, so hopefully all those people enjoyed their Valentine's Day with us!

Here are two shots of the stage: one from the orchestra and one from the balcony.



These are some shots of the House, as well as the Lobby and ceiling decor.


And finally, Katherine in dressing room #9. The dressing rooms are down in the basement, like in some of the other historical theaters we visit, but are a bit less rustic than some of those places!

Wausau - I think it was a Hodag!

Eagle River

A return trip to Eagle River...


No, Katherine's dressing room was NOT just this cage; she actually had a rather nice dressing room here! This year we used the "make-up room" that surrounds the dressing rooms as our green room - the counter space and lighted mirrors are a new addition this year. It was a bit tight as a green room, but a bit more self-contained.

Ladysmith on the Scenic Flambeau River

It's scenic, I tell you.

Okay, so snowpocalypse rehash. While in Milwaukee the Powerhouse had 13 audience members and the National Guard was out on snowmobiles....

While Madison had, well, this...

In Ladysmith, we had:
Sunshine! No arguments here.

Ladysmith continues to be one of our more interesting venues, being a true high school auditorium. Remember these yellow seats?


Here up north, we use the band room as a dressing room (an upgrade from the band director's office last year!) for de guys, and a choir room nearby as the green room. The seats all have musical notes on them; it's very cute. And we get up to some fun, too. Here's an "action" shot of Steve in our green room:

Meanwhile, Katherine's dressing room here was perhaps the true highlight:
(This is a closet. Those are band uniforms hanging up behind her!)

Ladysmith boasts one of our favorite hotels, which is comfy and cozy, complete with fireplace in the lobby. Our final picture today shows just that, with Kathi and Katherine enjoying a game of cribbage in front of afore-mentioned fireplace.

We survived the snow! Can we be done with weather, please? :)

Even more belated - Cedarburg

I'm not sure how I forgot to post about Cedarburg... strange! Well, here's what I can say even if I forgot to write about it: we love Cedarburg. They take good care of us here. And Katherine was pleased to find an entire bowl of batteries in her dressing room... and apparently decided to eat them! That's all I got. Shrug.

That belated Stoughton post

Ahh, Stoughton, where to begin? Well, as you can see here at the end of load-in, things went pretty smoothly with the hand of our first "small" light plot. We will be using this is a few venues: Baraboo and Oshkosh to name a few. It's much quicker to focus, that's for sure, so we were done with load-in early and for once Bill and Craig were waiting on ME to finish up MY stuff!

Like last year, we could not use our show deck because that would have involved carrying it up lots of stairs (no freight elevator here). As it is, all the walls had to be removed from their scenic carts and carried up separately. Then we held them up with braces and sandbags. Unfortunately, the walls still moved pretty easily when they were opened on-stage to reveal the Madison apartment. You can also see in this picture the black spike tape I usd to outline where the edge of the deck would be. Fancy.

The backstage area was TIGHT, and we used some non-traditional items as prop tables, simply because there was nowhere else to move them.

Due to the super-small stage, Jimmy was practically in the audience again, and his angle in relation to the deck was much differet than usual. You may also notice that in addition to the usual monitor he has sitting upstage of the piano on the floor, he also had a house monitor playing directly in his ear.

Fart machines and bats have been covered elsewhere. I will simply assure you that yes, I heard the fart machine go off several times when no one was actually near it, and no, we never did see the bat once he flew backstage. I was comforted by his presence though.


And finally, Katherine in Dressing Room #5. I stole this from Kathi's blog, since my camera batteries died at this point. Next up - more on Ladysmith, less on weather! (maybe..)