Ladysmith - definitely a 5-hour trip

You Look Like You Could Use Someone To Talk To On This 5-Hour Bus Ride

....here's a radio interview with Jimmy Kaplan to listen to if you're on a 5-hour car/truck/actor van ride.

In other news, we're officially in Ladysmith! Please note that, by 5 hours, I actually mean at least 6 once you throw in all those mandatory comfort stops and whatnot. Sigh. But the drive was wonderfully uneventful. Today Bill and Craig had the opportunity to point out to me many sites in Wisconsin that I had not yet seen. Now I'm going to have a moment that will be boring for everyone from Wisconsin, who already know all this. For instance, did you know:

-the Wisconsin Dells are the "Waterpark Capitol of the World"? Waterparks. Yes. They're really big in Wisconsin. Especially, strangely, in hotels.

-there are buffalo in Wisconsin?

-Wisconsin isn't completely flat? Actually, some of the slighty illy tree-filled areas remind me a lot of eastern PA. Then, of course, there are the cool bluffs.

According to Mill Bluff State Park's website, which we passed today, "The park's sandstone buttes were islands in Glacial Lake Wisconsin during the Ice Age, 12,000 and more years ago.
Mill Bluff State Park is one of nine units of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve."

As for the real details of what happened today, well, we arrived with no pull-over incidents, got to the high school, and began load-in. We decided to do 2 hours of it today and 2 hours tomorrow, after relaizing that some of the sound equipment we needed would not be available until tomorrow, so we were done working at 6:30 pm, just in time to have dinner with Kathi and the boys (Lee and Jimmy). We went to the only restaurant that seemed to still be open in town at 7:30 pm, El Rancho; I could tell some stories about that but it's probably better to hear about it in person. Kathi's got at least one picture...

Tomorrow I think we'll eat at McDonald's. Oh yeah, and finish load-in, do a show, and load-out. This is the theater where they originally sold tickest for January 18th by accident, so let's hope some people show up! Next up: Eagle River and Wausau.. Right now, time to go hit that hot tub!

I leave you with a random review from Vital Source Magazine: "Doug Mancheski as Marvin and Steven M. Koehler as Lloyd retain their on-stage camaraderie that feels fresh even after 500 performances... Even the lines about Vanna White and Brett Favre remain current. " (Then there's that line about Mel Gibson...!)

Cedarburg

We had an absolutely wonderful time in our visit to Cedarburg. We didn't encounter any policemen on our drive, the people we dealt with were wonderfully accomodating, and fun was had by all!
Craig was a bit thrown by the "fancy schmancy" sound board!

Apparently, the booth seemed to be about 700 miles away from the stage, to the point that Kathi felt like the audience was a laugh track!


No orange seats this time; a very classy eggplant shade. The theater seats about 580 people.

And check out the lobby display - you could enter a raffle to win all this cool ice fishing gear.

Next up - Ladysmith!

More Janesville Highlights

wheelchair
Originally uploaded by MrJSpoons.

It would me amiss of me not to add a few more thoughts on Janesville.

-For instance, the picture to the right is an example of some of the lovely furniture that we had in our green room/dressing room area!

-Karaoke, at the Hhffrrggh Inn, was a good time and is recommended!

-If you need some pheasants, Janesville is the place to be. We saw some the size of turkeys!

-Instead of a toaster oven, I propose that we put to Eggo in a roasting stick and hold it over a fire like a marshmallow! This will be more fun for everyone involved.

-More pictures of this leg of the tour can be found over at my Flickr site and on Kathi's blog. Enjoy!

Venue #1 - Janesville

I guess it's time to actually post something about this past week; the trials and tribulations and fun times that were had! Where to begin?

Bill, Craig and I were scheduled to arrive in Janesville on Wednesday, a day before Kathi and the actors, to load in the set, costumes, props, etc., and to focus lights. Our traditional schedule is to do a 4-hour load in, with the three of us, as well as a local TD, 4 stagehands, an audio guy, a lighting guy, and a costume guy. Or gal.

Before we went to Janesville, we had to pack the truck at The Rep, of course. So, at 9am that morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I wandered over to the theater to meet Bill and Craig. They, likewise, were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready to hit the road!

Our truck, a rental from Ryder, is a 26-foot truck, which does not require the driver to have a CDL license. It does, however, have to be stopped at any weigh station we pass on our journeys. The truck was waiting for us down in the basement, which, incidentally, was a part of the building I never knew existed before! I also didn't realize how much loading a truck requires; there's all sorts of loading bars and fun tethery thing to hold everything together. Luckily Bill, having been on tour before, is well versed in how this all works. In the truck, we all get to sit nice and cozily together in the front. I, of course, get to sit "bitch" between Bill and Craig. I was surprised at how much leg room I actually ended up having, and that I wasn't as squished as I thought I would be!

Once the truck was loaded, we set out for Ryder, to drop off Bill's vehicle and make a pit stop at Ace Hardware. At this point it became evident that it was too early in the morning for people's brains to function... Bill and I had WAY too much fun in the hardware store together (if you need a Little Mermaid design on your housekeys, this is where you should go!), and then Bill realized he had left his cell phone in his truck.... which was back at Ryder. So, back to Ryder we went. Good start, eh?

40 minutes on the road, Craig is driving. Now, I'm not sure exactly what town we were in at that moment, but it was pretty unexciting, and I think the cops were a bit bored. So, who do they pull over to enterain themselves? US, of course! We were going 9 mph over the speed limit (not much compared to the cars in front of and behind us!), but iwas pretty darn embarrasing. 9! Now, I truly wish I had taken pictures of this event, because it took at least 30 minutes, once our lovely cop, who had a nice trcuk inspection badge, led us through a FULL INSPECTION. Oh, the pictures of him doing air-traffic signals to make Craig turn the steering wheel and test the air brakes would have been brilliant. Alas.

We made it to the hotel in one piece after that, checked in, and went to the theater to meet our load-in crew and begin. Sadly, this was all done without having eaten anything.

Load-in went smoothly and was pretty unexciting, although we had the lovely and talented Monica with us for the day, which was MUCH appreciated!

The next day, the actors and Kathi arrived, we did a performance, we went karaokeing. On the following day, we checked out of the hotel, we checked back IN (decided to stay the extra night), we did another performance, Monica left us, and we loaded out. 57 minutes total on the load-out, by the way.

In no particular order, here are some things we learned the hard way in Janesville:

-We have to bring the beer with us from the Rep if we expect to use it as a prop in the show

-Sometimes, when you rent a light board, it liked to crash and freeze halfway through the show. This may cause all the stage light to slowly fade, so that you're left with a nice dark stage.

-There is nothing to do in Janesville aside from eat and sit in hotel rooms. If all you desire is to eat Olive Garden, you're all set. If you'd like to shop at a mall or go to the movies though, too bad!

-Toaster ovens are harder to use than toasters and may result in burnt waffles. These burnt waffles may produce a choking hazard to the actor eating it onstage.

-When I say that I will sing at karaoke, I am telling a big fat lie!

-Orange audience seats DO still exist!

-

Test Post

Load in at The Rep's Stiemke Theater.... here's how the set looked at home base.

We head out to Janesville to begin load in there tomorrow, with rehearsal and performance the following day.

And.... off we go! The World Tour shall now commence.