Our Day With The Rajun' Cajuns

So we made it BACK to Lafayette and we got ourselves set up at the Jameson Inn. (ERIC! We all thought of you fondly....CHEERS, friend!) We had 3 shows scheduled -on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette - and upon our arrival at the theater, we were welcomed with a LOUISIANA GIFT BAG! It came complete with: Mardi Gras beads, a bottle of cajun spices and seasonings, a box of red beans and rice mix, and some Louisiana note cards. For what the venue we were at lacked in asthetics, it more than made up for in pure Southern hospitality! Today, for breakfast, they even left a King Cake for us! (No King was located at the time of print.)

Our 3 shows were....interesting...to say the least. We just had little things here and there and everywhere that made the shows more "UNIQUE" than some of our other ones! Some examples? Well sure. I'd love to.

-The theater we were at was set up so that the audience started about 10 yards back from the edge of the stage. Couple that with the fact that there was a good 10-12 FEET of stage in front of the curtain line that we didn't use - so it seemed to us the entire time that the audience was VERY far away...and we couldn't really tell if they were into the show at all.

-Evidently, the girls dressing room area flooded....recently...so we all shared one big dressing room...and the bathroom was next door to the dressing room...in the room that they kept all the marching band uniforms in. MAN there were lots of uniforms. And since the stall door in the band uniform room was missing, you got to stare at the uniforms while you took care of your business.

-During our third show, at the end of the opening number, we had a classic 'CRICKET! CRICKET!' moment....when we all POP into our place, framing Wonka in all his glory - and the audience is DEAD silent. (NORMALLY - there would be some level of applause.....) And as we wait for SOMETHING, we hear crickets down by the bayou. And finally, as we all start to move off stage to go into the next scene, you hear one or two random claps from the audience. But by this time it's too late...we've all got the giggles.

-We had some definite OBSTACLES backstage...like cables and wires running in areas we wouldn't normally have them....and a REALLY long space to cross from one side of the stage to the other. This caused a little extra running....AND...the cables made for a good story when Roe tripped OVER the cables and slid ACROSS the backstage area into one of the cases that holds our costumes. And when I say 'tripped and slid', I mean sit back, relax and imagine watching Roe playing in a baseball game...and in this game, she's running for home base and the ONLY way to make it in was to SLIDE, hands first, into home. THAT was the kind of slide Roe made backstage...as Felicia and I were getting ready to move the bed on. People, it was funny. REALLY funny. And it hurt her a little bit...but she's better now. And she was a VERY good sport about it all. PLUS - did I mention it was funny?

-During one of the school shows, when I turned to hurl myself into the chocolate bin, something happened with my balance, and when I went IN to the bin, I didn't actually TUCK enough like I normally do. So I went STRAIGHT down on my head (which didn't hurt....never you fear....) But once I was in the bin on my head, for some reason, I couldn't SLIDE further down like I normally sit....so my butt and legs stuck WAY out of the bin at this point. And like the professional I am, I started to giggle in the bin....because I thought of how I must've looked AND how Roe looked when she slid into home.

So there you go. Just a few examples. We SURVIVED Lafayette...the girls ate close to 1,300 lbs of sushi...and we made it back into Texas for 3 weeks of crazy BIG Texas fun!

Have a good day!
G

Elisa, Katie and Jodi show off their Mardi Gras beads.

Jeffrey was happy to have the beads AND to find out the flowers they decorated our room with were real.

Everyone got into the flowers!

Rachel shows off her beads, microphone AND flower!

And then, during mic check in an effort to get rid of some of her beads, she shouted at me loudly, "MATT! I SAID SHOW ME YOUR BOOBS!"

While Roe quietly asks herself, "OHHHHHH! Is THAT how this bead thing works?"

L: Jodi gets caught deep in tought before the show. R: Me and Jodi show off our haul of beads.

Everyone gets in the action of showing off the beads. So yeah...we have LOTS of beads.

Oh yeah. And today....it was like 30 degrees. WHAAAAAT!? IT WAS 75 DEGREES 2 DAYS AGO!!