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Fall training in Missoula, MT

The Premiere Week 'Beauty Lou & the Country Beast"

Well, I'm back 'home' in Missoula. It's nice to be back. Many of the TADs are here so it kind of reminds me of what college was like...having people your own age around. We've done lots of fun things, including a karaoke night, a hike up to the 'M' that overlooks the city, and countless meals together. The sense of community with this group is really strong. Nobody is left alone or ignored...that is especially true for the new people. Just as was done for me, I've seen my fellow 'veteran' TADs reach out and connect with the 5 new actor/directors.

The person I think I've grown closest to during this stay has been Susie. I didn't know her at all before I got back into town, and now we've gone out and done several things together including that hike up to the 'M'. She has become a trusted friend in whom I can confide. She's really sweet, has a great voice, and promises me that we're going to sing a duet together. Maybe "Suddenly Seymore"?

The view from the 'M' is incredible...that's Missoula behind me

9.14.03: I checked out of the hotel today. After almost a week at the Creekside, it will be nice to get back into a homestay situation, where I don't have to plop down my own hard-earned cash. We're staying in this great house up in the hills outside Missoula. I saw (and almost hit) about half a dozen deer on the way here tonight. (I went to the local theater to see "Matchstick Men"...a good movie, if slightly disturbing.) I'm staying here with my new tour partner, Nathan, and Justin, with whom I will be performing during the upcoming 'Premiere Week'.

One of the many deer I spotted at night

Training has actually been pretty easy. It's amazing how much faster you can pick up one of these shows when you already know how they work, and you don't have to worry about all that other training stuff. We had so much free time that Nathan, who trained Justin and I, basically let us work entirely on our own on Friday and Saturday. I spent half the day Saturday curled up on a couch at the local chic coffee place, Liquid Planet, eating crepe and drinking hot cocoa. Tough life!

Tomorrow the work really starts. We cast for a show right here at one of the local schools in Missoula. (Rattlesnake) Justin and I are then basically responsible for teaching our new show and performing it on Friday. It's a little harder here, though, because there's some extra publicity stuff that goes on. It will be a good challenge, but I'm not worried...well, OK, I'm a little worried because now I have to work with the 5 to 7 year olds, which Gina always took care of before, but I've gotten a lot of good advice and I think things will work out once I've jumped in and done it. And the best part is that we will have our own SWAT teams...groups of veteran tour actors and staff specifically assigned to each Premiere Week show to make sure things run smoothly. They'll help build sets, arrange costumes, keep order backstage, etc.

Justin squats to observe...	...during Monday casting.

9.20.03: Well, we made it through Premiere Week...barely. My voice started going out Wednesday night, so I was pretty much on complete vocal rest Thursday and Friday. Then on Friday Justin's voice started going too, so neither of us could talk. Luckily we had Sean and Nathan there to sing our parts for us.

Premiere Week is quite an experience...it's pretty stressful trying to learn a show and perform it all in a week, while having all of your bosses watching your every move. I really tried not to stress out too much about it, though, since it's just generally accepted at the theatre that the week is tough for everyone. I'm just glad I wasn't a new TAD. They had to learn shows AND learn all the business stuff all at the same time. But the staff and the veterans were all really supportive and we all made it through without any major mishaps.

Justin sneaks a nap	While Bill Studies his scripts	Beth helps Michelle sort through her script box
several girls strategize wherever they can find space

My evenings were spent as socially as possible, considering I had to be at the theater at 9am for process sessions and didn't end our rehearsals until after 8pm every night. I went to a local pub several times to meet up with the other actors and have my traditional Roy Rogers. I also spent several nights one-on-one with people. One night I stopped at Creekside to see if anyone was there and ended up talking with Tia for almost 3 hours. And Thursday night I was out looking for something to do so I drove the streets until I saw another tour truck and followed it. It turned out to be Suzanne, a new TAD, on her way to get supplies at Walmart. I helped her find what she needed and generally just encouraged her because she was feeling pretty overwhelmed. We decided randomly during shopping that we were going to pretend to be a newly married couple. We came up with this whole backstory and made it our goal to annoy just about every person in the store with how cute we were. It was a lot of fun! Then we ended up talking in the parking lot for almost an hour. Yet another cool TAD.

a TAD meal at the local pizza place	Finnigans, a TAD favorite

OK, so this next picture requires an explanation of its own. Before we went on break, I was teasing DeAndre (aka Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr DeAndre Smith) about how he should grow and afro during break. (All 2 weeks of it.) Well, guess what he comes tromping off the plane in? Yep, afro and all. I don't know where he got it from, but I rolled on the ground I was laughing so hard. And the looks he got from the Home Office Staff were priceless. Of course, I was absolutely honored that he went to such great lengths just to crack me up. He's a great friend and I love hanging out with him, big hair and all.

The entire town anticipates DeAndre's arrival

I really love this group. I really look forward to being in Missoula because of moments like this. The group is just such a great group of people and it makes me feel really happy when everyone is in town. I love to look out in the parking lot and see the two rows of trucks out there, knowing that all my friends are back.

All the Little Red Trucks are home for a visit

Our homestay was comfortable, though we didn't have a lot of contact with them. They had a large house up in the woods on the northwest side of the Missoula Valley. It was definitely a new experience for me: we saw a moose one morning running along side the truck as we drove in. There were deer everywhere. I was terrified of hitting one because they would stand right at the side of the road and didn't really care what was going on. Oh, and one morning I was late to work because I got stuck behind a pack of wild turkeys. Yeah, I'm serious. Like a herd of them on the roadway and they wouldn't move. I'm so glad they didn't ask me why I was late when I got into morning meeting, because I know I would have gotten some strange looks for that one.

At the MCT Premiere Week party	Rick with new hero Michael McGill

As I said, we had help during the week, which was good...for the most part. There was a little adjustment necessary as we learned not to step on each other's toes. That's a hard enough task with two TADs...it gets kind of crazy when 4 or more of us are working on the same project. Luckily we had a sharp cast. Most of the kids had been in MCT shows 6+ times so they were probably more experienced than we were. That's one of the privileges of living in Missoula...you get a free chance to be in a show every year. I somehow made it through teaching, though neither Justin nor I had much of a clue what we were doing. But Sean and Nathan were patient. By the time the shows came around everything was pretty well polished.

Sean coaches the daughters for volume	Sean helps our adorable moo-cow with her oversized headpiece	Rick's in the 'hot seat'
Rick poses with 'Clyde' after the show

After the shows were finished on Friday we all converged back at the home office. But first everyone had to be torn down and reloaded. So once we had Beauty Lou all packed up, we raced off to help Bill and Kylie pack up Frog Prince. Too bad I didn't get to see the show! But many hands make light work, especially when everyone knows exactly how the sets pack. Back at MCT we had a party and all the TADs got free Premiere Week t-shirts. It was a good time to destress and have fun...well, after we were through getting notes from Michael McGill. Then we said our 'goodbye's and everyone was off to the 4 corners of the world.

At the MCT Premiere Week party	Rick with new hero Michael McGill

So now Nathan and I are on the road to Cave Creek, AZ. We have two full days of driving before we get there, so hopefully I can catch up on the journal.

9.21.03: We spent the night in Fly City USA. Or at least, that's what I like to call it. Our hotel room was equipped with a flyswatter. And we had to use it several times. Then the next morning in the cafe I could barely eat because the window ledge next to our booth was covered with dead bugs. Gross! But we're back on the road, somewhere just north of the Grand Canyon. It's really pretty out here.

one of Nathan's hourly pee breaks	Our Little Red Chariot waits patiently	"I think the Grand Canyon is *this* big."
Inside the Grand Canyon	I got a chance to dip my toes in the Colorado River

I'm terribly excited...we stopped in Salt Lake City yesterday. (Which is a story in itself...rather than giving street addresses, everyone gives directions based on a coordinate system relative to the Mormon Tabernacle. So we had to find something like "1830 South, 520 West". Once we figured out the system, it wasn't so hard and I can see the advantages, but it took some adjustment.) Anyway, we stopped at CompUSA and I got a car adapter for my laptop and a wireless optical portable mouse. It's really small so I can put it in my laptop bag, but still very usable. It will make playing video games easier on the road! ;-) And the power adapter will be nice because it appears Nathan is going to do a greater share of the driving, and I will now have full use of my laptop on long roadtrips. (Previously, my battery life limited me to about 5 hours.)