3 Shows - 1 Day - Wausau Wisconsin

This is my 1st art shot in a series I like to call "Dressing Room Lights"

Hi all. So, we surivived today...all 3 shows went off without a HUGE hitch, and we the show is packed and ready to head out. Tomorrow we head to Cedarburg, WI (just outside of Milwaukee) and it should be a pretty easy drive. 200 miles? Piece of CAKE!
Really, our shows today (2 school shows, 1 public performance) were pretty low key. Everything seemed to go pretty well - except little things here and there. A messed up line here and there, me almost dying from a bubble trying to stop my breathing during our mic-check, me also almost tipping the chocolate bin COMPLETELY over in our public show...and who could EVER forget Puppetmaster Chris standing in for Jackie during HER mic check? ('I only have one dream in life...something something...something....') It was brilliant.

This is my 2nd art shot in a series I like to call "Dressing Room Lights"

My favorite part of today was actually AFTER our 2nd school show. The woman who runs the Education Program at the Grand Theater had brought 2 copies of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator to our cast before the show started and asked us to autograph them. Her reasoning was that it was the FOLLOW UP to our show. The process would be as follows: following each of our shows, the woman (let's call her Janet) would come on stage, do a little "Wasn't that great?" speech - and then she would tell everyone that she has this copy of the book, autographed by the cast, and ONE school in attendance would be drawn to WIN the book. Simple enough, right? Good plan, Janet! Well, the first show, some normal school won the books, Janet asked the winning school to wave to her and send a teacher down to pick up the book, and after it's all done, she gives directions for the rest of the schools to head out to their busses. Second show...NOT so normal. I'm standing backstage, listening to Janet give her speech, and then she says that the winner of the book is "OUR SAVIOR." That's it. Not like Our Savior Elementary School of the Pines or anything. Janet just decides to refer to them as OUR SAVIOR. Automatically, I'm like...well, that's weird. So Janet gets into the reward-portion of the book giveaway, and she says, really loud into the mic, "Could OUR SAVIOR wave at me here on the stage?" (To which Andrew replied, "He can walk on water...so I'm PRETTY sure He can wave at you on the stage, Janet." VERY funny, Andrew.) But it doesn't stop there. Then Janet blares into the mic that she needs 'a teacher for OUR SAVIOR to come down and pick up the book.' Janet gets done with the book stuff, and then starts releasing everyone in order...and you will all be happy to know that Janet, thinking ahead about the ruckus it might cause, announced that 'OUR SAVIOR will exit out the doors to the right and down the back stairs.' Needless to say, it was an entertaining day, with Janet at the helm.
Tonight...after the show, Andrew, Chris and I headed to a local restaurant called Hereford and Hops for dinner and it was a delight. They had great steaks, ribs, CHEESE CURDS and other stuff - and you will be happy to know that I found ANOTHER new cheesecake! This one was called the Lemon Drop Cheesecake..and the picture and rating is listed below.

So - here it is. The Lemon Drop Cheesecake. It comes in at a high, solid 8 on the MASE. It doesn't LOOK all that appealing - they've got NOTHING on presentation...but it's light, creamy and carries a nice lemon flavor. Imagine the flavor of a Sunkist Lemon Bar in cheesecake form. I love it.

L: At the restaurant (the Brewery) tonight, Andrew decides to try the Gold Medal Winning beer from the American Beer Festival this past summer. It's name I do not recall. But Andrew loved it. R: Chris shows off his 13th place finish drink...and shows he is not SURPRISED it wasn't top 10.

After we all got back, our entire cast gathered in Tara's room and talked and laughed and unwound after our long day. We are at the tail end of our MAD DASH through Wisconsin...we can see the end and it looks sweet. And we are lucky that we are a group that find each other entertaining, and even after 3 months, we still are doing alright.
As always, I'm off to bed...but tomorrow brings the promise of more stories, more pictures and hopefully, if my stars align, more cheese curds or cheesecake. Or both.
Adios....
G

A COLLECTION OF PHOTOS FROM AN EVENING OF KILLING TIME

So today in Wausau, Eric and I had a dressing room, and between shows, I was snapping pictures of whatever. I caught Eric looking in the mirror, so we decided to do one of those reflective 'In The Mirror' things. I did 2 shots - one with a flash and one without a flash and a bit blurry. I like the FLASH one - it's clear and clean. Eric likes the NON-FLASH one - it's blurry and interesting. But since we're tied, I guess it's time to let the READERS decide? Let us know! Cast your vote TODAY! Vote for #1 (On the LEFT) or #2 (On the RIGHT).

So during our mic check today, Jackie let me give her an 80's do. And then, to show it off, we had a photo shoot in the dressing rooms. These were Jackie's 3 BEST pictures from her shoot. Which is YOUR favorite? Vote for them in order: Top Left #1, Top Right #2, Bottom #3.

And then, since we were doing some modeling, we decided to do an America's Next Top Model Natural Shot for Jackie - since it's her favorite show. These were her 2 best NATURAL shots. Simply stunning.