Day Forty-Eight: Oklahoma

This is it. It’s over and done. I have one more night to spend in the dorm and my lovely twin bed. One more night of drunken revelry. And then it’s no more. Tomorrow I load my two VERY large suitcases into my friend Pete’s car and we leave the lovely state of Oklahoma. Can this really be true? Have seven weeks passed so quickly and now my wonderful time is done? Who would have believed it.

I thank all of you for coming on this little journey with me. We’ve had our ups and downs but through it all we prevailed. And before you know it, it will be time for us to do it again.

Next year’s season has been announced. And then re-announced. And then announced again. Right now it stands at “Into the Woods”, “Candide” and “Pirates of Penzance”. Two days ago instead of “Candide” we were doing “The Boyfriend.” Who knows what it will end up being. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime I just need to find work to tide me over till next year’s summer season.

Not much else to report today. I drove 2 hours each way to deliver costumes back to the rental place. It wasn’t much fun but wasn’t too bad. I was able to catch up on some phone calls and do some singing in the car. I was there and back in about 5 hours. After that I went by my favorite little theatre to see if I could get into any trouble, but there was none to be had. I thought maybe one or two boys would like to send me off with a smile but it was not to be. Then it was back to the dorm to freshen up for dinner. The director wanted us to have dinner before I left so said “of course.” I did tell him it would need to be cheap since I have about 100 dollars to get me home. I have my past four paychecks sitting in my computer bag. So I have money. Just not on me. He agreed to pay for dinner and I didn’t argue. We went to the little restaurant we had gone to before because it had a patio and he could take his dog which has been at the sitter since the summer began. It was a very nice evening. We returned back to the dorm to find it deserted so we watched TV for about an hour. Slowly the crew started returning and suddenly the place was a madhouse. There was an insane amount of energy abounding. Everyone was joking and in a good mood. The one girl on the tech crew, the Indian girl I mention a few posts ago was supposed to leave today to fly back to NYC, but her flight was cancelled. So she was back and our group was complete. We had several beers watched some more TV and then headed over to our redneck bar to do one last shot. It ended up being Jagermeister. I hate licorice but I was told I had to do one. About ten minutes later I was done. The bar was smoky and loud and I was tired. A couple of us wandered back over to the dorm to find that Hello Dolly was being watched in the lobby. Being absolutely the gay man that I am, I plopped myself down in front of the TV and watched until they sang the show’s title number.

Now I am here getting ready for bed. Tomorrow morning I have to pack, clean my room and load the car. We are supposed to be on our way at 11:00 is tomorrow. But we have a number of things to do before we leave, like get the oil changed and go the bank. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not more like 1:00 or 2:00 before we hit the road. It’s about 12 hours to Kentucky where we are staying tomorrow night. I don’t know if I mentioned it yesterday but we are driving to my mom’s house tomorrow. That way I get to see her, even if it’s only for 12 seconds and we save money on the hotel. It’s a win/win situation. From there we drive north into Ohio and then across into NYC. When it’s all said and done it’s a 24 hour drive. For about 10 minutes today I was regretting not flying home. I’d be there by 9:00 tomorrow night, snuggled into my queen sized bed. Yum.

So once again thanks for joining me on my journey. Stay tuned because next week I go to Maine for a month.

Day Forty-Seven: Oklahoma

At 8:34 last night the curtain came down on the last show of the season. At 9:37 the scenery had been struck, the truck loaded. We exited the theatre and were on our way. The 2007 summer theatre season for me in Oklahoma was done. I still can’t believe it’s been almost seven weeks since I got here. For the most part I’ve had a great time. Yes, it was stressful at times, and I know you guys have heard me complain about one or two things since I got here. But I am genuinely glad that I did this. I met some amazing people and I’m going to miss them a lot. Luckily there hasn’t been a lot of discussion of staying in touch etc. etc. We all seem to realize that it probably won’t happen. It was a brief moment in time that our lives came together and we shared a very magical event. And then it was over and that was that.

Okay, enough with the melodrama.

There’s not much to report from the last show. It was an out of town show in a little city about 3 hours away. We left yesterday morning at 7:00 after our customary stop at QT, and got there at 10:30. The theatre was built in 1955 and had all the features of architecture of the time period. The house was sort of a turquoise blue. I’m sure you can imagine what I’m talking about. The stage itself was okay, sort of. The lighting equipment looked as though it hadn’t been new since Kennedy was president. And there was very little of it. I did the show with about 40 lights, but none of them really what I needed. It was also sort of an interesting space because the theatre was run by a union crew. They were much more competent than the crew here but we aren’t really sure why they are union since I don’t think the space is used much. The problem with the union crew is that we have to wait for them to do things for us. At the other tour spaces, we went in made ourselves at home and did our thing. Yesterday we had to wait for them to do our thing. Which is fine, it just made it hard to get the lighting looks that I wanted.

For the most part the show went off well. I was a little stressed about it because I was stage managing last night. The stage manager for that show had a wedding to attend and so was out of town over the weekend. Since I was the only person who really knew the show it was decided that I would call the show. That basically means I call the light cues. So at the beginning of a scene I say light cue “GO” and the board op makes it happen. To make matters worse yesterday, since we were on tour and I am the designer I was also re-designing the show for the new space. So I was having to communicate to the board op not only to “GO”, but prepping him as to what it should exactly look like. I tried doing this during the rehearsal yesterday afternoon and was driving myself and everyone else crazy. After the rehearsal I talked to the incompetent ME who was also the board op and told him he was going to have to figure out the looks for the show. I’d talk him through it as much as possible but it was going to be on his shoulders because I couldn’t do both. He agreed.

And that is what we did. For the most part the show went off without a hitch. The actor’s were really on and the show was great. As for the lighting, the ME made some choices I wouldn’t have made but for the most part it was fine. It’s clear that he’s not a lighting designer either. But he did his best and pulled through and for that I was grateful. After the season we’ve had together it was nice to end on a good note.

The one and only other thing to mention about last nights show was that there were about 200 military boys in attendance. And I should probably mention that they were HOT. And looked as if they’d come straight from home room. But did I mention they were HOT. They were all in uniform and were marched into the space like they had drilled for it. They were on the best behavior. But trust me when I say a Victor Herbert operetta is probably not their idea of a fun night. But they were gracious and laughed a lot and gave a standing ovation at the end. And once again…did I mention they were HOT!

After the show last night. WE DRANK! and I mean a lot. I was not hung over this morning because I stuck to beer and we’ve all discovered that in Oklahoma there’s VERY little alcohol in beer. About half of what’s in it in the rest of the country. We started after strike (in case you don’t know it’s where the set of the show is taken apart and hauled away) by going to a Chinese restaurant buffet that was being provided to us by the theatre. It was very good. But most of us were tired and ready for beer. After a quick bite, we headed to the hotel and got settled it. They had all of us scattered all over the hotel, which made partying a little more difficult but we managed. We finally settled in the east wing in the prop master’s room and there we stayed. I went to bed at 3:00 and there were people still going at it. For the first time since being here I had to share a room last night. But everyone who stayed had too, so no one got special privileges. I bunked with Tim. The 18 year old carpenter. He’s cute as a button. After the room assignments came out I kept joking with him that I had requested ONE king size bed for us to share, and that he better not steal the blankets. It was actually fine. I was out like a light the minute I got in bed and didn’t wake up until he alarm went off. And I was a perfect gentleman and did not molest the little boy.

And so now I’m back in the dorm. It’s late and I’m off to bed. I have been selected to drive the costumes back to the university where they were rented from tomorrow. So I have to be up early and then drive an hour and a half each way to get there. I’m not looking forward to it. I’d like to just sleep in and have a nice, easy day. Ah, but there’s work to be done.

Have a great week everyone.