Goodbye Elves and the Shoemaker

 “Elves and the Shoemaker” made it to Fresno again. I had been told Fresno audiences are some of the best. I completely agree because, let's be honest, Fresno isn't exactly Disneyland. The laughter and applaud in the Tower Theater was some of the best we ever received. Last time I was there I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the house; I only got a picture of the tower outside. This is what the interior looks like. I think it has a similar tacky 70's charm Bimbo's in San Francisco has. If anyone has been there before, you'd see what I mean.

And oh yeah, here is a picture of the Crest in Sacramento. As beautiful of a space it is, performing there is rather challenging. There are no wings, there's an underground crossover, and you have to climb up stairs to walk on stage. This made entrances with props difficult. But, once again, the kids made it worth it. This was a 1000-seater house and both our shows were sold out! It warms my heart so much to know budget cuts haven't completely wiped out school field trips! I think its such a special event for young students to experience live theatre!  

 The week ended with a day at San Mateo's city college. Their space is fantastically unique to the other spaces we've been to so far this season! The dressing rooms and greenroom are all above the stage on the second floor. To get to them, actors have to climb a narrow, spiral staircase! Walking up it wasn't too bad … going down on the other hand was a tad bit, um, terrifying!

Below is a view of the house.

 

Our final destination was the theater at Santa Clara University. I liked the color scheme of this space a lot. It looked like my hair in a way—there were brown chairs, a fraction of the seats were this faded blondish color, and a good portion of them were purple. I thought it was oddly beautiful. Saucy Stefan was telling me someone shared with him the reason why they colored the chairs that way was so if the actors looked out into the audience during the performance, they'd be thrown off on which seats were full versus empty. No actor likes seeing empty seats during a performance! How clever of them....

Anyway, on the last day, 12/18/12, I gave the cast and our lovely stage manager Christmas goodies! I baked a pie for Sleeping Beauty's closing day, so I wanted to something equally sentimental, but with holiday flare for the Elves crew! I gave them decorated goodie bags with cranberry-coconut bars, apple cake pops, and a slice of cranberry-orange pound cake. YUM! :) I hope everyone enjoyed them!

My next show is going to open the second week of January. Its called “Just So Stories” based on the short stories of Kipling. He wrote the Jungle Book, and won the 1907 Nobel Literature Prize. The language is unique, odd, but beautiful in our play. This show won't tour nearly as much. In fact, I think we only do home performances in Sunnyvale and day tours around the bay. I'm actually thankful for that because, as much as I love being on the road, I miss seeing my dog every day! I also miss hanging out with my friends, of course! And best of all.... I am going to be the Director of CTC's Great Spring Musical, “Guys and Dolls JR!” I am so excited and ready to sit in the director's chair again! I will make sure to keep everyone posted on how that is going! I LOVE Guys and Dolls, so this is going to be fun to be apart of. I'm honored CTC is entrusting me with this responsibility so early into my first season with them. I hope I make them proud!

Merry Christmas, everyone! And have a blessed and prosperous New Year! Congratulations to the world for surviving the Apocalypse on Friday! Take that, Mayans!!!!  

Elves on the Road

I truly believe this tour is much more exhausting than my last tour was. We have worked longer hours, performed more, and have had our spirits and patience tested daily.... However, I do have to say this show, "Elves and the Shoemaker" has to be the cutest, most darling show I've ever been apart of. On bad days, when I'm questioning my life, all I have to do is listen to those giggles, gasps, and chuckles from the audience...and that reminds me what a wonderful thing we're bringing to children.

ANYWAY, let's get to business! The show opened last month in Sunnyvale, but we started touring a little over a week ago.Our first stop was in Pacific Grove, CA. Since this is a mere 2 hours away from Sunnyvale (grumble) it was deemed a day tour. We had to get up at the crack of dawn to get there in time for our 9:30am show. Above is a picture of Saucy Stefan and Killer Kelly as we  take the van to our Venue. The venue was at another school and seats about 400. There were no dressing rooms and crossing over backstage involved running into a lot of chairs in a dark room... but other than that, it was a fine experience. 

As you can see, this time around I am not the evil character. I play Claudia! She is the Shoemaker's wife. And as you can see, I didn't let my purple hair show at all! Thanks to my lovely friend Melissa, who has been my makeup/hair designer in past shows, suggested a brand of hair temporary hair dye. My purple hair remains hidden from the children in the audience. I did have the option to wear a wig....but I have to admit: I am a bit of a control freak. I would rather stay in control of my own hair and its good for me to know how to style my own hair for different time periods. I think I came up with a cute and appropriate look....


I have to announce everyone's Road Name too!!! OK, here is the Time Elves Company, from left to right. Killer Kelly kept her Road name because, let's face it, her name kind of rocks! Mama Bupp has turned into Baby Bupp! To the right of her is Lizzy Babe and following her is Saucy Stefan. I brought champagne for our first night away on tour. We were in Whittier, CA. We had a champagne toast and ended the night with some juggling lessons from Saucy Stefan.... he used to work in the circus! :)
Also, below there's a picture of all 6 of us in our Elf ears, courtesy of Baby Bupp! :)

 The Whittier Center for the Performing Arts is one of the most beautiful spaces I've ever seen! Again, I feel so honored to perform on stages like this in houses like this! I mean, look at that picture above!!! It was beautiful! And to the right, Lizzy Baby is pointing out our name on the marquis! The theater seats 800 and we had 2 days worth of shows there. The first day was a family series show and we even had a book signing in the lobby after the show! What book? Oh, just "Elves and the Shoemaker" :)

 Santa Ana. Santa Ana, Santa Ana. Well... There's not much I can say about Santa Ana, so I'll stick to facts: We stayed at the Red Roof Inn. I did laundry that night. We performed at the Ebell Theater of Santa Ana. It seats 450 and I believe both shows were sold out.







OMG! The California Center for the Arts in Escondido, CA is probably my favorite of all the spaces I've ever performed in or even been in yet!! It seats 1500, has beautiful red velvet seats and accents of gold around the house! The acoustics were amazing, and the tech team working there were a dream-team! Rob, if you ever read this, man you rock! :) I wish we could have had more time there!!!! And since we always arrive to a city the night before a performance, I was able once again to hang out with family and have dinner with familiar, loving faces! My Tia and Tio took me shopping and to Red Robin! I hope I go back to Escondido again, and soon!!!!!!!!!!

The following morning we had to wake up, again, at the crack of dawn to get to San Bruno's Skyline College Theatre. Yes, another day tour. Compared to Escondido's 1500 seater the day before, 500 seats seemed to be almost a let-down, but at least we sold out this venue. I don't know if I already mentioned I'm in charge of sound for this tour, but I had been told ahead of time we may have feedback issues here. This meant I had to carefully choose where I put the floor mics and even though they were further upstage then they've ever been, the show sounded fine! Phew! :)

On Friday, we went to the Dougherty Valley Performing Arts Center in San Ramon, which is located in yet another high school. Yes, again, that means another day tour. I couldn't get a good photo of the space (look at all those orbs!!!!!), but the space was nice enough. It sat about 600 people, and would you believe I went to school with some of the techies there? San Francisco State, baby, yeah! It was a pleasant surprise and a joy to lovingly mock faculty members of the University, just like the old days! That night, we had a third show, but in our own theater in Sunnyvale. Three-show days are brutal, but at least we had a few hours in between....

On Saturday, 12/8/12, I had my first day off in 13 days. Yep, you read that right. We had been driving and performing for 13 days straight. So, how did I spend my day off? I went back to the school I used to teach at to see my students' school play. I had thought I would sneak in and sneak out... Boy was I wrong! I was given VIP treatment with a front row seat, received recognition for starting the Drama Program "from scratch," and was awed like a celebrity after the show when I was bombarded with hugs from my babies! They even gave me flowers, when I had nothing to do with this show at all! Those are my darlings to the right. I'm so unbelievably proud of them and was touched and moved to tears by their gesture. I miss all of them so much, but it was wonderful to receive the reassurance from them there's no hard feelings. They are proud of me too and are so happy for me to by fulfilling my own dreams. Also, I don't know if you can see, but the fella on the far left side of the picture has a purple streak in his hair.... hm.... wonder where he got that idea from.... :')

For the last few days, we've been in Folsom. I have no pictures because we have already been to Three Stages before. The only new theater for the rest of the tour was the one today: The Crest Theater in Sacramento. The Crest seats 1000 and has an old school charm to it, similar to that of Fresno's Tower Theater. The Crest, which I will have to download pictures for on another day, was beautiful...but a bit impractical too. There were no wings at all... any actor can understand the amount of frustration we felt during that show! Especially since I found out the hard way that all of my cues in the show are visual cues and we had to hide behind a curtain backstage and listen for our cues.... :/

 Now, its back to Fresno and then Arroyo Grande, and then back to Sunnyvale. We end our tour at Santa Clara University for two days.... I have a feeling those will be day tour days... just a hunch....

 Oh yeah, finally, I have been juggling for about a month now. Saucy Stefan is an excellent teacher and is certain that with enough practice I will be able to juggle for longer than 10 seconds in no time...! I'm not going to lie, I'm really excited to learn how to juggle!!! Something else to add to my list of skills, lol.