Lincoln City NEEDS us!

Tomorrow is wildly important for this small town on the coast of Oregon because theatre is dying and they thought that bringing in our company might be a way to get the town excited about theatre again... We were told that newspaper articles, radio interviews and flyers were all done in order to publicize this event but every one is terrifed that no one will show up for the audition...I too am worried that we won't have enough kids to pull this thing off, but I guess right now all I can do is just know that the best publicity we got right now is G-O-D.
Your prayers will be greatly appreciated...

FAILURE?!?!

I have always prided myself in knowing that I can talk a kid into overcoming pretty much anything they can dish at me.
Well, Joey was a 7 year old who had been a difficult monkey to control all week but I figured after he had done the show and felt the sense of accomplishment every kid does, he would straighten right out. 2 hours before our show today though, Joey decided he wasn't going to do the show.

"I just wanna be a watcher." he explained.

"What? C'mon buddy you're the loudest monkey we got up there, we need ya!" I retorted.

"I can't ok? I had a bad dream about Dementors last night and I can't go on-stage!"

How this kid managed to link the dark, creepy villains in the Harry Potter books with not wanting to put on a monkey suit, I'll never know.

After about 30 minutes of trying everything from phoning home, to setting up scenarios in which all the female wolves (11-16 year olds) pleaded with me in front of him to be monkeys, to telling him that monkey's can scare away Dementors, I gave up.
I can’t recall one single time in 22 years when I couldn’t talk a kid into doing something. It was especially painful because I knew that if he just got up there on stage and did the show he would feel amazing afterwards and probably remember it the rest of his life. Our good friend Joey though, did not perform today and left me confused, annoyed and dis-heartened….thanks for nothing Harry Potter.

Dealing with the mentally handicapped

This is the first week where Katie and I have had to deal with a truly mentally handicapped kid. At the audition we weren't entirely sure if there was something wrong with her because she seemed pleasant enough and didn't have any physical handicap or anything so Katie and I gave her a pretty big role because she is 18 (the oldest by far at the audition). Well tomorrow is the big show and although there has been marked improvement throughout the week I am a bit nervous because she had an outburst yesterday during lunch that took a lot of reasoning on our part to work through...She was wearing a shirt today that said something about Down-Syndrome even though she doesn't look like a downs child which threw me off a bit. I was trying to talk to her mother after, to get ANYTHING out of her as far as what we might be dealing with but she just smiled and kept saying, "This is so good for her!"
At any rate all I can do is just be super prepared for tomorrow and put it all in God's hands...

Bellingham, WA

Another week, another show...This is town is gorgeous located right on the Pacific Ocean! As for the kids this week, it was another 60 person cast-all and we had 3 kids at the audition who everytime we asked them to say a line would bust out crying until eventually they just sat out...I approached one of them after and told him how cool his part would be if he was in the show and he told me he was too scared. Well today our young friend approached me first thing in the morning and informed me that he was going to play Mowgli (our lead role) because, "Mowgli is supposed to be a young boy (we cast a girl) and I am a young boy!" Now normally I would've smiled and given him a little pat of encouragement on the back but this kid was truly a brat so instead I said, "Nope!" and walked away....too bad, so sad.

Pictures of the last few weeks

Here are some pics from our Sunday's off while in Washington...

Coming from places where mountains don't exist, Katie and I decided
"RattleSnake Ledge" was about our speed...

The 1.5 mile hike up was pretty sweet even though my native garb was not readily accepted by the somewhat unruly Washington hikers in their fortified boots and tight jeans.

This is the top where we decided it appropriate to something awkward so as to continue the stereotype of Thespians.

The stunning lake we swam in at the bottom...It was FIERCLY cold.
This field was littered with rattle snakes and I can't remember ever being so afraid as I ran through these fields clapping like a buffoon to scare them away.
"I like white water rafting!" proclaimed Chris.
Some sage advice from the Middle School at Ellensburg where we had rehearsals.
This was taken tonight in Ellensburg...It is the highest spot in the farm town and people in the town drive up to it, park, chill with their families and watch the sunset.
That's me...Chris...Chris Harbur

Show time!

This week I returned to the stage in all my furry glory and it was everything I hoped it would be; confused monkeys, sweaty lights and best of all, a big fat bloody nose from our Mowgli about 10 seconds before the overture started.
I was taking a few calming breath while Katie was giving the opening speech when all of a sudden I felt a frantic tug on my bear suit. I opened my eyes and turned around to find our Mowgli with the most fearful eyes I have ever seen and rightly so....blood was dripping out of her nose at an alarming rate and everyone around her began "backstage screaming" which consists of wild physical movement with no sound. I ran as fast as I could to a huge pile of junk which lay back stage in hopes of finding ANYTHING that could stop the raging flow...By some grace of God, a small pile of napkins sat underneath an old dusty chair and I grabbed them and shoved them on her nose. I had already missed my cue to come and stage so I jumped from behind the curtain and shouted my first line, somewhat incoherently but audibly nonetheless. I knew that in 2 more lines Mowgli was to make her entrance and I wondered what Baloo the Bear would say if his young man cub had a bloody nose...

"BAGHEERA, STOP BEATING UP ON MOWGLI AND GET OUT HERE!"
I mean it seemed pretty legit to me and out came Mowgli, napkin drenched in blood and all, with Bagheera the Panther right behind her.
All in all the show was a success and our little man cub's nose bleed stopped about 15 minutes later...just in time for her solo!

Realization about teaching kids...

Yesterday Katie I were pretty tough on the kids...If they didn't know their lines we let them struggle and feel embarrased, if they missed a cue, we just stared at the empty stage. After rehearsal I was feeling like I had been a little too harsh on them and maybe there was a better way to teach them....
Well, today very few lines were forgotten and almost no cues were missed and I came to the realization that all the kids are going to remember is their own performance when it comes to the show. If they do poorly on show day, they aren't going to reflect back on the week and say, "Well at least Chris was a fun director!"
Now obviously this doesn't mean that I'm going to be a slave driver but I think it might be o.k to light a fire under their little buns if they need it...

A thought...

A kid at the audition this week who really caught my attention was this 12 year old, wildly talented full of smiles girl who I couldn't wait to make the head of Kaa, (one of the most difficult roles in the show.)
Today she didn't show at up rehearsal and when I called home the mother picked up and quite irately told me that she would not be doing the show because they never gave her permission to audition...This little girl snuck out of the house because she so desperately wanted to be in a show and her parents are now severally punishing her for it and would clearly rather see her puffing the magic freakin dragon than using her imagination and making friends...Survey says?!?!
BOOOOOOOOOOO

Farm Town...

Ahhh the little town of Ellensburg, Washington...The first thing we saw upon entering the town was signs for a rodeo followed by a 300 year old man carrying a saddle.
We only had 50 or so at the audition so everyone was cast and no one is much over 12 and with a Friday show ahead of us, it should prove a challenging week.
This is a strange feeling I have had of late, but in the last week or so I have had 3 different serious circumstances in which my intuition has subtly told me to do something and I have sub-consciously shrugged it off only to have the instance turn into a complete disaster. (One was my wallet and one was locking both sets of keys into the car about an hour ago.) SERIOUSLY, I don't know if I've just been distracted lately or plain stupid but I can't seem to snap out of it.

Show #4 (KENT, WA)

Both of our shows went great and as I was selling T-shirts after the show, the parents stormed the stage, tore down the set and packed our car so by the time I was done selling shirts, there was nothing to be done! There was one mother in particular who is a lumber jack and carried the insanely heavy led poles BY HERSELF...It was truly something to behold and I thanked God that I had casted her child.
The after party was a Dairy Queen and the entire city of Kent was there and applauded as Katie and I walked in. The funny part is the fact that some of our leads told us that they will be coming to the next town to audition again...Uhhhh I think they were serious.

Not being able to perform tomorrow has kinda made this week very strange for me...All this preparation has gone into this show for tomorrow and I will be back stage helping kids with cues and changing scenes. Katie and I actually talked about this today and she decided that she prefers doing back stage stuff which is GREAT! So I guess I'll be performing most of the summer...cooooool beans.
Today was a super-duper day because not only was it sunny and beautiful the entire day, but my debit, credit and driver's liscence arrived so I am a real person again!

How you know you're growing up...

1) You have to figure out all aspects of how to go about getting health insurance. (scary)

2)What the heck you're supposed to do with a 401k. (terrifying)

3)11 year olds are showing you cool things on your cell phone you NEVER knew you had. (unbelievable)

4)You are asked to be a groomsman at your close friend's wedding!!! (P.S. I was so honored I got goosebumps when he asked me)

I seriously never thought I'd see that day any of these things would be a consideration...

Kids...

I came to a realization today that has kinda inspired me... Kids have the unbelievable ability to just commit to something 100% without any kind of resistance or judgement. Katie and I were doing a workshop today for 5-8 year olds in which we set up a fantasy jungle and the kids navigate there way through it. When we learned this workshop in training I thought it was going to be so stupid and the kids would never buy it, but they LOVE IT! It made me realize that I have this problem of resisting and half-assing (pardon the expression) WAY to many things in my life and that I need to inhibit more of that child like "spirit".

Whooooof

Allright so that week off reaaaalllly got the best of me today as I was all over the map teaching these kids. We ended up with about 150 kids at the audition which was fine and these kids even had little business cards they tried to hand me during the audition as a gimmick...HA!

Gettin back into it...

After our week off I am actually pretty nervous about tomorrow because we are expecting around 170 for tomorrow's audition. Plus Katie and I are switching around everything and she is going to be Baloo and I am going to be directing more and teaching new things which scares me a bit...Oh yea, we're in Washington now by the way.

Ohhhh that week off

Katie and I have been about as lazy and gluttonous as they come this last week. Here are a few pics of the adventure:

"I am quite frightened of this new city because they have trolleys, cable cars, buses and cars all on the same street."

But the fear soon faded and I was riding the trolley like a pro.

They have buildings in San Fran.

Ahh yes, my first touch of the Pacific...it was delectable

We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for a day and went on about 10,000 rides

Ohhhhh that Pacific Ocean, you devil of a good time...

At Washington Square Park, a man from the far east does Tai-Chi.

Oh yea, we were there...

The park was preeeeety

Snapshot of the city

Inspired by the man in the park, I give Tai-Chi a try.

After release of this photo, PLEASE do not call me with modeling offers....no, seriously, don't.

These monkeys were clearly disturbed about something.

Perhaps it as because they saw our production of the Jungle Book and were dismayed/terrified/confused by the monkeys in the show

I mean.... this kid was money as "Wolfy" in last week's show.

Our drive into Half-Moon Bay was foiled by masses of traffic but that didn't stop me from getting a quick picture out the window...

It had been about 15 years since my last bubble bath so I was due...

Wierd day...

Today was show-day. We weren't called till 1pm which was great cause I slept in but when I woke up I felt a little weird about the day and sort of tried to brush it off figuring it was nothing.
We had SO MUCH TIME to kill before the show, and it was tough to keep the kids in line after we finished the dress and make-up. It was an almost eerie energy...the set had fallen down AGAIN, (this time on me) and the kids didn't seem to understand that in a few hours we were going to have to perform in front of an audience.
At any rate the show happened and it was better than I thought even though I had to improv about 10 different times to cover for kids which was fine because the parents were dying of laughter anyway. Our monkeys this week were seriously from an alternate universe because 90% of them literally dawdled around the stage in their little costumes as I made up lines as to why they were so lost. Hannah, Jennifer and Caroline (our leads) of course came through in the biggest way and more or less kept the show afloat as Katie and I chased wolves, elephants and mongooses on-stage for their cues.
I felt pretty darn good after the show and then a couple of us went out for food after and as I was washing my Baloo make-up off my face I placed my phone and wallet on top of the sink and left it in there by accident...When the check came I realized I had left it in the bathroom and sprinted back to get it...It was too late. My cell phone and wallet which had $250 (all my hard earned t-shirt money) along with multiple credit cards, driver license and tons of other stuff had been stolen.
I don't think I have ever lost a wallet in my entire life and know I am typing this blog feeling pretty depressed, beat up and robbed...