6 Shows, and a whole lotta old people

Monday: We opened at the world famous Polk Theatre in Lakeland Florida, to a sold out show of 1400 kids. It was a great first show. Everything went off without a hitch, and the kids loved it. It was nice to do a show and hear the kids laugh....basically run around crazy, shake your butt, or say "guts" and they go crazy.
Tuesday:.....oh Tuesday.....I'm glad that Tuesday wasn't our opening show. It was so nice to have a great first show, it made Tuesday seem almost not as bad....I said almost....We played at a Convention Center in Fort Myers. Tuesday started with a nice rain shower, luckily we could pull the van into the loading area and didn't have to load-in in the rain. Our stage was a high platform with curtains, like the ones we used at the zoo to hold our backdrop. As the first scene change approaches it is clear to me that we didn't discuss where the flats would go, Michael and I learned very quickly that the set doesn't fit under the curtains, the top pole was knocked down and hit Michael in the face, there was nothing else to do but to get on a stool and put it back up, there was no way to be sly about it and make it unnoticeable, fast forward to the next scene change. It was time for Ryan to learn that the set doesn't fit under the curtains, unfortunately this time a rod didn't just fall down, the whole right side started to tip over, and off the stage. Lindsay and I quickly grabbed it, and started to wiggle the legs back over so it would stand up straight, while this was happening I was supposed to help Michael bring on the big Wizard head, but I couldn't leave because the curtain would've fallen so he was sadly forced to do it himself. After all that I think everyone just gave up on the show. The kids loved it, and didn't seem to mind that much, but it's nicer for everyone to just believe that that show never happened.
Wednesday: we played for some 450 kids, at a community college in Bradenton. The space was really nice, and it was nice to have a dressing room right backstage.
Thursday: We had our first evening show, at 7pm, which means we get to sleep in and relax right?!?! Wrong, we get to check out at 11am and try and kill 5 hours before we had to be at the site. I did however finally get my zebra....I mean white tiger stripped Snuggie, and the van has never been the same:) We ended up in a park down the street where we swung, climbed trees and tossed a Frisbee around. We had an interesting show. It was at a Lodge, well, basically it was a big open room, much like a cafeteria, but my dad came :) The kids were sitting right up to the speakers on sheets and eating popcorn and they loved every minute of the show. Even though the lights stayed on, and you could clearly see the Wicked Witch on the side moving set pieces, even with that, it was a great show.
Friday: Day off...woowhoo.....of course it would have been more enjoyable if Florida warmed up and we could've gone swimming.
Saturday....ohh Saturday. The show was good. It was a nice space, and the dressing rooms were right backstage again. Our load in time was the shortest it's been, with only taking up 30mins to set up.....and then the goodness stops. First the office sent the theatre the wrong contract, we're supposed to get food at the AFT shows, the contract they got said only water, tea, and coffee, which the happily supplied us. Lindsay our Stage Manager went out to get us food which was nice, but strike one. After load out we got in the van and headed to Georgia. I drove the first 3.5 hours and it was fine. I even got to see a pig on the side of the road. After we stopped for dinner Lia got behind the wheel, and Cordelia our GPS system thought it would be fun to waste 20mins having us drive in circles, oh strike 2, the 3rd strike came when Lindsay called to tell us that the Super 8 we we're supposed to be staying out gave away our reservations. That's always great news after a 6.5 hour drive, getting in at 12am. We sat in the van as they tried to find us a place to sleep, and then were sent down the street to a Holiday Inn Express, we were excited for the prospect of a nice warm breakfast, unfortunately they wouldn't let us in either. At 1am we finally were checked into an EconoLodge, a very nice hotel if I must say so.