Not Tour Related...

But I think it is worthy of a blog post!

3 weeks ago The Kennedy Center launched a new initiative called "Arts In Crisis". Through this new program, non-profit performing arts organizations from around the country can sign up to receive counseling on everything from how to make budget cuts, to fundraising, to marketing helping arts organizations keep their doors open and their staff employed through this troubled economy.

The Washington Post Article named some staggering statistics on the suffering of arts companies around the nation.

In recent weeks, organizations from almost every part of the country have reported belt-tightening measures, or worse. The Baltimore Opera Company filed for bankruptcy. The Seattle Repertory Theatre asked its staff of 55 to take two weeks of unpaid leave. The Orlando Ballet cut live music for "The Nutcracker" so the dance troupe wouldn't be reduced. The Santa Clarita Symphony in California canceled its season.

Michael Kaiser, President of The Kennedy Center, has stated this program as an answer to President Obama's call to arms. The Kennedy Center is the Nation's leading Performing Arts center with programs ranging from Dance, Opera, and Theatre to Education and Outreach including two national touring family productions yearly.

This is not the first time The Kennedy Center has leant a hand during crisis. After Hurricane Katrina, they stepped into help the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra set plans in motion to keep their doors open. When The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors due to financial difficulties, Kaiser stepped in and helped them reorganize to open again just 6 weeks later.

In this time of economic crisis around the Nation, few people realize that the entertainment industry is being affected as deeply as everyone else, as made apparent by the outrage at money set aside for Arts in President Obama's financial reform package. Over 9 Broadway shows closed this past January including blockbusters like Hairspray, Spring Awakening, and Spamalot and this year The Actor's Equity Association announced there are the least available weeks of contracts as have been seen in a long time. Millions of people are out of work across the nation, and since the arts are seen as expendible they have been hit twice as hard.

It is so great in all this darkness to see a place like the Kennedy Center take it upon themselves to help others in crisis and keep arts alive in this country. I could not be prouder than I am now to have The Kennedy Center on my resume.

I also cross posted a more indepth version of this on my Daily Kos Blog so check that out as well!

Southern Cross

I am currently sitting in the charlotte airport with a few hours to spare and couldn't think of a better time to get up to date on my blog!

Meridian, MS

We arrived in Meridian, MS Wednesday January 21st. It was WARM! It's been a while since I have traveled to the DEEP south and I forgot just how different it is down there. Not bad different, just different...

The first day we didn't really do much of anything aside from go to a laundry mat, at least that I recall over a week later!

I do remember the second day! We had two shows in the morning, then in the afternoon I decided I wanted to go on a little hike/picnic/outdoorsy time since it was 72 degrees out! So I looked up things to do in Meridian and found Dunn's Falls Waterpark, a historic waterfall and park. Sounds great right? If anyone ever looked after it it would be a pretty cool place, but it is in desperate need of a historical society. I was still glad to get out for a bit though.


Climbing the Falls


The rest of the group!

Everyone wasn't too keen on hiking the not so clear hiking trails so we headed back home and then I ventured out on my own to an old historic park in downtown meridian. It was a fun peaceful time.
That night, Jonny, Eric, and I went to go to dinner at Bridget's Restaurant behind the hotel but it had a sign saying it had closed due to economic reasons (ouch) but right across the street it was the grand opening of a new texmex place with 11 dollar pitcher margaritas, so it was all good for us!

Next up... MEMPHIS

I have been very excited for Memphis since we got the schedule so I was happy to finally be there. Margo left me :( but my mommie came out and we had fun exploring all that Memphis has to offer!

The first night we just went to dinner then she headed to bed and Jonny and I joined Rudy and Eric on Beale St downtown for a night out! It was Saturday night and the place was hoppin, sadly so were the cover charges. We checked out a few cool places and danced a little before settling in a karaoke bar. (my love!) anyone who knows me knows my love of Karaoke! Sadly, the DJ was a jerk and I (aka I handed it to Eric and he gave it to her) had to keep slipping her 20s to let me sing. UGH.

The next day a group of us headed to Graceland. Sadly, I forgot to charge my camera and have no pictures of it :( but it was pretty neat. The house itself is a lot smaller than I expected but the grounds are huge and there are a lot of different buildings with different things.

That night, My mom and I traveled to Tunica, MS to gamble! It was my first official casino (other than the sun cruz in Orlando) and it was overwhelming! Apparently I am a good luck charm though because my mom got 340 dollars off her first stay at a craps table, more than she has ever won! After that we proceeded to blow most of it losing on blackjack and video slots! At least neither of us lost money in the end!

The next day we went to the Gibson Guitar Factory in downtown. THAT was cool. It was like being inside an episode of how its made! Nothing was behind glass or anything, we were just walking through watching people make guitars! I really learned a lot.



After that we went to the famous Sun Studios and heard all about the history of the beginnings of Rock and Roll! We stood in the same room and touched the mics and equipment used by the million dollar quartet! Also, very cool.

That night, Eric, Jonny, and I went out again, a little less successfully, not a lot going on on a Monday night in the winter in downtown Memphis, but we ended up back in our Karaoke bar with a much better DJ and without having to pay to sing! It was a fun night.

The next day Mom and I went to breakfast before she left then I went to pick up Margo and Kevin. We went to dinner that night and Margo and Kevin learned the beauty of smoking in bars and restaurants that still exsists in the south. BOO!!! It started pouring down rain so the rest of the night was a night in.

The next morning we awoke to a cancelled show in Memphis and a cancelled trip to Paducah, KY because of the ice storm that had ravaged the southern US. 4 of us had flights out of Paducah on Saturday to make it home for the Equity Liaison Auditions on Monday. I had purchased flight insurance so I figured GREAT no problem I will just fly home earlier from Memphis (where I was supposed to fly through anyway). WRONG. After people telling me it would cost me thousands of dollars any which way I did it and 4 hours on the phone I ended up just eating the price of my original ticket and buying a whole new flight for that night.

Home was GREAT. I did NOTHING. Michael and I hung out and watched movies and the Super Bowl and Kevin, Jonny, and Paul came over for a bit to work on audition stuff. It was a great trip home.

Today I had my audition which went very well! The auditors laughed audibly through my entire monologue which is a good sign. The space was pretty acoustically dead for singing but I think I made a good showing all the same. Public transit and me did NOT get a long today, at all. Needless to say I was supposed to arrive in Cincinnati over an hour ago but I am still sitting here in the Charlotte airport where I arrived at 5pm. LOVE IT.

Malls and Drives and Boring Dives...

SO!

In my last entry I forgot to talk about one of my favorite things from this leg of tour so far! On a lovely freezing (-10 was the high I think?) day in Eau Claire a group of us went to tour the Lienkugel Brewery in Chippewa Falls. It was really cool! Upon arrival we were given two free coupons for 7 oz beer tastings. We indulged in one prior to the tour and saved the second one till after. We had to walk over from the lodge to the actual brewery which was sooo cold! But the tour was very cool, it was like being inside an episode of How It's Made! We learned all about the history of the brewery, how beer is made, the different kinds of beer and what goes into them, and saw the bottling process. Very informative and very free! Here is the group on the way back to the lodge.



Anyway... on to Minnesota!

The Mall of America was fun! It ended up being Lindsay, Brian, Dave, Eric, and I. Dave was meeting a friend for dinner and upon walking into the mall Lindsay and Brian were attracted to a soap store whilst Eric and I leaned more towards the Sports Memorabilia store, so that ended up being the night! Eric and I immediately found the underwater aquarium to go to. I spun the wheel and got us 5 dollars of admission, only one tick away from an extra spin and 50% off, damn!

The Aquarium was pretty cool (number 2 of the tour! lets see what that number ends up as at the end). It had one of those big tunnels you can walk through and see all the fish! it was crazy.


The rays were very friendly! We got to touch them at the end which was cool. Overall 15 dollars well spent.

We then walked over to the amusement park to check it out. It seemed pretty cool but a little kiddish. BUT then we saw LEGO land and both made a BEE LINE. Ha we are losers. We played with some legos and tried to build things but it didn't go very well! Then we both realized we were hungry and went upstairs to the food court and had sbarros and swapped bad show stories. Then we just walked around the mall a bit, went into a western store where the woman was determined to get me to buy 400 dollar cowboy boots. She told me all the guys who came in for the Republican National Convention stopped by to buy boots... that was my sign to walk out the door! We also found this awesome store called Ragstock! It's like a salvation army but with non-used clothes as well, and nothing we saw over 10 bucks! We found this rack we lovingly labeled "death to the awful christmas sweater"



The next day we drove to Galesburg, IL. It was a HELLISH drive. We drove through the middle of nowhere!!! There were ground blizzards and cars flipped over on the side of the road every 2 miles. We stopped at State Line Pizza in Iowa... it looked like it was in the back of someone's house and it was also the home of a convenience store with expired food, and general store with fireman boots. It was interesting to say the least but we did eventually make it to Galesburg! We had a day off there, in the middle of nowhere, and nothing is open sunday's in the midwest, except Crappy's Pub! Where Eric, Rudy, and I spent the entire day watching football. Margo came and joined at one point and then Brian, Lindsay, Jonny, and Kevin came later but since my team lost and the Ravens were in the process of losing I didn't really talk to anyone. Eric got food poising so Dave took him home then came back to get Rudy and I. It was a sad day but I am glad I saw the games. That night we continued LOST watching in Margo and I's room, we are slowly moving through season 1 and everyone seems pretty into it!

The next day we drove to Springfield, IL and then a group of us went to give blood as our Call To Service from Obama for MLK day. Well Kevin and Jonny got turned down because of the archaic rule that gay men can't give blood. I somehow had enough Iron in my blood for them to take it but I didn't weigh enough for a full pint. So Margo, Dave, Lindsay, and I all ended up giving blood and Margo Dave and I didn't do so well with it. It made me a little feverish and the double shows the next day were ROUGH!!

Then we were off to Arnold, MO for a night. We were staying in Suites so we each had like a single studio apartment with kitchen and couches and such. So that night I made dinner for a group of us and then we watched some more LOST.

Yesterday we drove here to Meridian, MS. It is warm... that's about all the good I can say about it. I am not a fan of the south in general. We have two shows tomorrow then the next day it's off to Memphis.

Thanks for reading!!

and I thought -1 was bad!

How would you like to enjoy 3 straight days where the temperature never breaks above 0 and the windchill dips as low as -52 degrees?

WELCOME to The Phantom Tollbooth tours the Midwest.

Who would have known we would be walking into the coldest winter the midwest has seen in well over 13 years? Let me tell you, It's something else! The snot in your nose turns to ice after less than minutes of being outdoors, your hands and toes freeze through 3 or more layers, and people die 100 yards from their home from sleep walking.

What makes it worse? having lis LOVELY condition... http://www.jaoa.org/cgi/reprint/101/5_suppl/1S.pdf Yes folks, there it is, read all about it, that is the condition I have been blessed with. Cold Induced Urticaria and it means being allergic to the cold. I wish it was a joke, as people frequently think it is, but the more time I spend in this weather the more I realize how much of a painful thing it really is.

This morning, we performed in Eau Claire, WI where schools were closed due to the cold, but some faithful fans braved the cold and still came to the show so we performed. It was -22 with a windchill of -48 when we left the Hotel this morning and the venue s heating system was less-than-adequate. it was FREEZING. During mic check my hands swelled to the point where I was having a hard time moving them, during the show my arms turned red and starting burning so painfully I cried. Everytime I step outside my face swells up like a tomato and burns, my eyes even start to swell. I cant take a breath of air without breaking into a coughing fit and my tongue and throat itching. It is HORRID. I take my medicine but it doesn't do any good. I am trying everything in my power to play it off with a smile but at the end of the day I have never hated anything more in my life than this condition.

ANYWAY. Enough complaining. Aside from the blistering cold the midwest is not so bad. The people are very nice and the snow is pretty. I have never seen snow that looked like this. The flakes are HUGE and puffy and it looks like glitter falling from the sky. Whoever invented snowglobes must have seen snow like this.

I haven't been keeping up as well as I would like because I was very sick. I started tour with a bad head cold which progressed, despite my best efforts, into a bad chest cold that caused me to lose my voice. I went to an ENT in Madison, WI who prescribed me a z-pack and prednisone. Well all the drugs did not sit well in my stomach the next morning and I vomited my way through a two show day. It was MARVELOUS. But I am feeling much better now.

I have seen three movies since we left two weeks ago. The First was Marley and Me which was cute enough. A touch long for my tastes, there is only so long you can tug at my heart strings before I become immune to it. The second was Synecdoche, NY which was BIZZARE. Maybe I am just not artsy enough but I loved it for the first hour and then as the plot ran further and further away from me I lost more and more interest until, by the end, I felt as though I had been sitting there for 4 hours when it was really only 2. The acting was great but the story was just crazy. The third was Doubt which I LOVED. I saw it at National Theatre when it came on tour two years ago maybe? and loved it then and I loved it just as much this time. I was concerned at first because I felt one of the reasons the show was so powerful was that there were only four actors in it but little was lost in the full-cast screen version, likely because it was written and directed by John Patrick Shanley! Meryl Streep does some of her best work. Just fantastic.

Anyway I am off to bed before doing a double show tomorrow and then going to The Mall Of America. Thanks for reading and goodnight!

On The Road Again...

It is -1 degrees outside!

What a great way to start a blog entry right?!

So we ventured off again yesterday to the great midwest! We stopped in Montpelier, OH last night and made it to Wausau today at about 530 Central Time. So far, so good, except a few days before we left I got this nasty cold courtesy of the baby I was nannying for and being in a car for 10 hours when you have a really bad head cold isn't the most pleasant of things.
Speaking of things that aren't so pleasant, unfortunately we had to get a new van and they didn't have any 15 passenger vans left so we had to get a 12 passenger and take the back seat out for luggage so there are only two benches instead of three so two people have to share the back bench. It's not SO bad but we got spoiled by having our own benches to stretch out on for the first leg so we now are having a very difficult time learning how to get comfortable sleeping sitting up but hopefully we will get there. Or maybe we will get a new van?! A girl can dream...

So tonight we went to the Wausau Mining Company for dinner... it's a cute little local restaurant that looks like a mine, both inside and out! The food was pretty good and most everyone came so it was a fun welcome back to tour dinner!

Tomorrow we have a day off and we are trying to figure out what to do. There is a Ski mountain 2.5 miles from our hotel that a few of us looked into going to but I don't know if we feel like forking up the money, so we shall see! But regardless we are back in action. Phantom Tollbooth takes over the midwest!!