Week 8:
Goodbyes, Hellos, and Chipmunks

July 11, 2016

With every passing week here, the tiny town of Creede feels more like home. I can’t believe I only have 4 weeks left!

The beginning of this week was tough. My wonderful girlfriend Hana came to visit last week, and sadly had to head back to Iowa on Wednesday. We spent every minute we could together and it was an amazing time.

Thankfully, I didn’t have too much time to be sad about saying goodbye because of how busy I am at work. We are still in rehearsal for The KID Show, Rodeo and Juliet. This week we started doing full runs of the show. It has been really great to watch the kids grow and improve as little actors.

I’ve been hard at work building a run sheet for the show. I have never made a run sheet before, but I have used them on run crews. Basically, a run sheet tracks everything that happens in the show. It tracks where actors and crew members enter and exit from, what set pieces move and who moves them, where props enter and exit, and any quick changes that happen during the show. We have a few kids playing more than one character, so there are some quick changes that our dresser, EJ, will have to work backstage.

My main duty during the show is going to be flying the trapeze in and out. It will be interesting to see how this ends up being rigged in the Ruth theatre. It won’t be like at the main stage, where I fly things in and out from above the stage, because there isn’t really an above the stage at the Ruth. Instead, there will be some sort of pulley system that I can control from the ground.

I will also be tracking props backstage to make sure everything is where it needs to be before an actor needs to bring it on stage. In addition to this, I have to take into account that I will be backstage with 12 children. Their safety always has to be a top priority.

In addition to rehearsing daily for Rodeo and Juliet, I of course had performances and changeovers. We had 3 performances of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels this week, and if I recall correctly, all 3 were sold out! We had some great audiences that really loved the show. I’ve run the show enough times now that I have it in my body. I’m confident with my transitions and don’t have to depend so much on the run sheet, though it’s always nice to have it there just in case.

There were a lot of changeovers happening in the Ruth this week, because now in addition to Reading! And Other Super Powers, The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence, and History Room, performances of Boomtown have started. Boomtown is a comedy improv show that has been a tradition here for 10 years. Improv is a type of theatre where everything is made up on the spot, so the shows are different each night.

Boomtown features 8 company members, including our artistic director Jess. There was a preview performance on Thursday night. I had a performance of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that night, but as with most comedy shows, Boomtown doesn’t start until 10:30 PM, so I  managed to make it to the theatre just in time to see it! It was extremely funny and a great way to relieve some stress after a long day of work.

I had two performances of Watson this week as well, including a matinee yesterday. My mom has been planning a trip out here for a while, and I had reserved a ticket for her for the Watson matinee. I realized on Saturday that I didn’t know how she was going to make it from Utah to Colorado in time for the performance at 1:30 PM. Sure enough, I texted her my concerns, and she had thought the performance was in the evening!

But my amazing mother has always been dedicated to seeing my performances, so she made it work. She left the house in the dark at 4:30 in the morning to embark on what turned out to be a 9 hour drive. She missed the very first scene of the play, but was let into the theatre during the second scene and was able to watch the rest of it. Despite her missing the first scene, I am so glad she got to see the show. Watson is one of my favorite shows I’ve ever done. It is an amazing script and the play has grown to mean a lot to me.

After the matinee, I had a changeover, which my mom sat in on and watched. The next show in the Ruth was Rodeo and Juliet, so changeover ended up being really easy. Watson is performed in the round (audience on all four sides) and so is Rodeo and Juliet, so unlike most changeovers, we didn’t have to move the seating platforms. We just had to get the Watson set down and stored, and then the scene shop employees came in to take care of loading in the Rodeo and Juliet set. I’m excited to get into the space tomorrow and see our set!

After my changeover, I had the evening off, which was a nice change for me. My mom and I went out to dinner and then decided to see a show! There was a performance in the evening of Kind of Red and because I’m not running that show, I was available to see it. I got tickets for me and my mom to sit in the balcony. It was really nice to sit and watch a show at the end of a long week, and I think my mom really enjoyed it.

For my day off today, my mom and I walked around Creede. We ended up at the mining museum, which I had heard of, but hadn’t yet visited. There were some really cool things in the gift shop, but by far my favorite part was the chipmunks. The place is surrounded by them and you can buy a handful of seeds to feed them for a quarter.

I felt like a little kid again. My mom gave me quarters so I could play with chipmunks. They ate right out of my hands! I felt like a Disney princess. After our walk around Creede, I wrapped up a lot of paperwork for Rodeo and Juliet–finishing the run sheet, making a costume breakdown for our dresser EJ, and making a preset list for myself to use once we get into the space tomorrow to tech the show. Here’s to another great week at CRT!