viva las vegas!

Surfin U. S. A. is more like it! We had the longest travel section of our tour this past week, from Arkensas to Oregon! 40 hours of travel over 3 days was absolutely brutal. The first day we traveled from Alma, AR to New Mexico through the Texas panhandle. We stopped in Amarillo (shout out to my favorite Webb's who are from there!) and I had a delicious steak at "The Big Texan."

Day two we moved on to Las Vegas, Nevada. Boy was that an adventure! I went with several of the boys to the Bellagio for dinner (at 9pm when we got there) to a magical all-you-can-eat gourmet buffet! Yes, it was expensive, but man was it worth it! I ate roast pork, tortellini in a walnut pesto sauce, soft pretzel rolls, pineapple fried rice, pizza, gourmet cheeses, cheesecake, fruit torts, and my favorite: the raspberry sorbet! It was probably about a billion calories, but don't worry, we certainly walked it off! I think we covered between 4 and 5 miles going up and down the strip, seeing all the beautiful hotels, all the lights, the giant fountain display, and New York, New York! Who knew home was so close by! I didn't gamble (I spent enough money on food, certainly worth the entertainment value of gambling), but we had a lot of fun exploring until 2am. It's certainly not somewhere I'd ever want to live, and it all started to look the same after only a few hours, but I'm glad we went and I had a great time.

Day three was Valentine's Day! We spent just about all of it on the bus, but everyone did "Clueless Cupid," a Valentine's version of Secret Santa. I of course, drew Carl's name (if you don't know who he is, read previous posts). With a $10 limit, I could only do so much, but I ended up getting him a manicure multi-tool (as he is known to the entire cast as the "tool") inside a spider-man lunch box. If you read last week's post, you know how perfect that gift is. He absolutely loved it, and has since started using the lunch pail to put his knitting projects in. Yes he started knitting. Carl the tool. When we finally got off the bus, Stracko, Angelica and I went to the diner by the hotel and had a lovely ladies dinner and milkshakes to celebrate our survival of the longest bus trip ever.

The next day we traveled to Medford, Oregon for our first show in days, which was a little rusty at that point. Medford is absolutely beautiful, and a place I would consider moving to when I'm ancient with a million grandkids. We had dinner in a train-depot-turned-restaurant/bar, full of character, DELICIOUS food, and ridiculously low prices. All in all a successful journey to the west coast!

Tomorrow morning we're headed to a 5 show weekend in Reno, Nevada. Our first sit-down (three whole days in the same city!) since Newport News, VA a month ago. I'm scheduled for some serious understudy rehearsals during our downtime, so that should be a ton of fun!

Cheerio all, I'm off to bed to get some rest before heading out on the road again...

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Okay, I never was in Kansas. We just left Florida for good, and are currently in Mississippi. It's been so long since I've updated! We have done a LOT of one-nighters in a row, which doesn't leave a lot of time to sit and write, as I'm always either on a bus, doing a show, or discovering a new Catfish place miles from the hotel.

One thing I have thought about a few times that had never occurred to me that I might miss is driving. We are always on a bus, and I never have the freedom to really travel anywhere on my own other than walking. I miss my little stick-shift!

As Robbie (our conductor) was saying last night to me, and he's right, that the novelty of tour is wearing off and now we actually have to live it. I am still amazed at all the new places I see, all the traveling we do, and how well we all get along. But it's true. The moving into a new hotel every night, packing, unpacking, reorganizing, it's beginning to take it's toll. I have found a nice little routine I like, and I think tour life suits me well, though. The toughest part is food. There isn't a Whole Foods in middle-America for days, so sometimes fast food is all we have as an option. Bleh. We're all already sick of Denny's and Waffle House, which seem to be the only places to eat between here and Nevada. Keeping on the healthy bandwagon is difficult, but (aside from the cookies Dad sent), I'm doing alright.

During our three day trek to Oregon next week, we'll be doing an overnight in Vegas at the Hooter's Hotel. Yep. Just a warning, as I'm SURE that will come up in a future blog.

If you remember, last time I featured Carl in my blog. Well, he's up to crazy adventures again. The other night in Avon Park, FL we were staying in a gorgeous and quaint historic hotel with homemade quilts and settees and railroad bathrooms (my favorite so far, except for the gecko in my suite!), and he comes a-knockin on our door in a Spiderman unitard that he packed with him. Goodness knows why he thought it'd be useful, but it did give us a great laugh. Last night he stopped on our way to the Catfish place to pick up food, ate it on the way, had the buffet at Fat Baby's, and then went off to Wendy's. My stomach hurts just thinking about what he ate.

Alright, well we're near a Wal-mart today, so I think I'll take a trip over there to get some shampoo and lunch.

Also I wanted to add: thank you to those who do read this, it does mean a lot that you want to keep up with me on my adventures! However, it is lonely out on the road sometimes on those 10 hour bus rides, so any kind of email, text, whatever is always greatly appreciated! I miss y'all back home, don't forget about me :-P

Southern hospitality y'all!

Hey there y'all! It has been a while, and we have been super busy! Since Ohio we have been to western PA, Virginia, Florida, Alabama, and we're currently on our way back to Florida now for a show in Niceville tonight.

Sarasota was our best day so far. We got there early in the afternoon and walked in the downtown area by the beach until 3, and went to our hotel on the beach and swam in the warm pool until the show and walked around on the beach after the show as well. It was perfect!

I've decided the majority of this blog update should be dedicated to telling the world about someone on this tour with me, a boy named Carl.

Carl is 20 years old and this show was his first audition in NYC. He took off a semester at George Washington university studying mechanical engineering to take the tour. And he is a total tool. When he can't think of anything to ad lib on stage, he yells gibberish. On a lunch break he got his eyebrows waxed. At the pool in Sarasota he tried to give his swim trunks to someone else because he had a speedo underneath just incase. And most recently he bought two meals at a Chinese restaurant because they were only $4. He also is going to buy Rosetta stone so he can learn Swedish, mandarin, and Russian. I'm pretty sure he was a cheerleader at one point. And he makes a mean general tso's chicken when he's at home. Nevertheless, he makes all of us laugh and after we went to mcdonalds and got a sundae, mcflurry, AND a mocha frap for free today because of mistakes, I decided Carl should be a feature in the blog.

He's certainly an odd duck, but we all love him and his never ending ability to make us laugh.

On another note, it is lonely out on the road sometimes, and mail is always appreciated! Please ask for my address on the road if you are interested in sending me some love.

Alright, I guess I should get my act together, I'm in Niceville after all...

From NY to OH

I am currently posting from a hotel in Elyria Ohio in the laundry room (gotta do it when you can). Things are going well overall. The bus trips are really long, I'm going to need to find another outlet of activity besides reading, words with friends, and angry birds. But I have a few funny stories to share.

I had a dream the other night that one of the boys I the casts's brother was trying to kill me, and in the dream I was trying to tell him that his bro had it in for me, it I couldn't ever talk to him because he was out playing kickball with everyone in the snowy landscape overlooking the river to Canada. So when I awoke, I thought it was real, and right at that time I heard the guy's voice outside my room as he was walking by, I ran out to tell him that his brother was a soon-to-be murderer, and as I watched his face contort in confusion, I finally realized it was a dream. Needless to say I freaked the poor fellow out a little bit. But have no fear everyone, I am still alive and well!

Also, one of the band members has started up something called "secret mijo". The mijo is a little Mexican leprechaun (Yep.) who gives little gifts to random people as he sees fit. So you buy little gifts for someone and sing the secret mijo song (yes there's a song) and give them the gift. A cute way to keep things fresh on long bus rides.

There are also a few of us who have started a bible study, which I think I am going to really enjoy.

Anyway, tomorrow we're off to western PA before we head to VA and beyond!

Mucho secret mijo love,
G

Another opening...

Tomorrow is finally opening day! It has been quite the whirlwind adventure. The show will be awesome, although in the grand scheme of things, I think I'm in four scenes, so I'm feeling a bit useless and insignificant... But as a whole I really like the whole thing. I'm having some issues with some people, but I'm just trying to love on them more. We've been having mostly 13 hour days this week, which has run us down a lot, but that's given me a lot of opportunity to bond with everybody.

I'm rambling because it's midnight of our last day of tech... I'll update more later...

Love you all, my faithful three.

tech-no!

My dearest three faithful followers,

Yesterday was my last day in NYC, for a while anyway. We finished up rehearsals there, and tomorrow we start tech in NJ for a week with our first performance on Saturday afternoon. Wee!

As things have progressed, I have really enjoyed getting to know the cast. I have a roommate and a bus buddy, both whom I adore, and I'm starting to develop my little bits in the show. I have two whole lines! And when I say "here's one of the players!" I'll be so believable that you'll really think he's approaching. And he does, which proves my believability. Bam. Also, I've decided that I will play all of the roles of the characters who are referenced to in the show but aren't actually onstage (ie: Clementine, Applegate's other "homewrecker" employee; the witness from Mexico city who knew Shifty McCoy; Mrs. Peeper; and so many more!)

Tomorrow, the director says will be "one of those days," and I believe him. Tech is sometimes the most stressful part of a theatrical journey, but since everyone seems to know what they're doing, I think we'll be okay. I get to try on wigs tomorrow anyway, so that'll be fun. 

Fondly,

Clementine

Rehearsals in NYC!

Hello folks (my faithful three...)! I just completed my first full week of rehearsals in Manhattan for the national tour of Damn Yankees. I had a day off today to go to church at home and spend some time with my mom, but I suppose you might be wondering how my week went.

I stayed primarily in New Jersey with my Dad and step-mom and commuted into the city every day. I have about an hour train ride (unless it was a holiday schedule, which this week was ALL holiday schedule, in which case it's more like an hour and 20 minutes, ick!), but the studio where I'm rehearsing is only a couple of blocks from the train station, so that's perfect. And a Starbucks is on the way, so double bonus!

The first day wasn't so hot, I didn't know anyone and I felt really alone, but as we went on, I started asking people questions about themselves (no actor hates to talk about him/herself), which opened a lot of doors. There are more guys than girls in the cast, but everyone seems pleasant, and might I add, TALENTED. Everyone also seems to be health nuts, so it's keeping me accountable to not eat junk food all day, which is fantastic.

The gal who I'm understudying couldn't be there for some of the rehearsals this week, so I stood in to learn the opening number for her, which is a big "Meg" number, so the cast got to hear a little of my singing. It was kind of a way to prove myself as a professional, and I got a few comments on how well I was doing (including a really nice comment from Denis Jones...if you don't know him, google him, he's our choreographer and he ROCKS MY WORLD), which was a huge ego boost considering how green I am in the "industry."

Sidenote: I also really love Skip Brevis, our music director. He's obsessed with balloons and that they help your lung capacity and breathing strength (he's right). Check him out, too.

Aside from learning the role of "Meg," I have my ensemble role as well. I do just about nothing, but the few things I am doing are super fun, and then I go away for a while. I am getting paid a lot of money to do a tiny amount of work, plus a free tour of the country, so I'll take it. There are a ton of talented people in the cast, so I plan to take full advantage of picking their brains and learning from their experiences. So far we've just about finished the first act, and this week we're working primarily on the second.

I love the city, despite the holiday hubbub and hoopla from New Year's (yes, I did work on NYE). Working makes me want to live there. We'll see!

Perhaps this week I'll take some pictures to post. One more week of rehearsal in the city, and then we do a week of tech in NJ, and we're off!