Meth Capitol, U.S.A

With a population of 1560, Mill City, Oregon is famous for two things:
1. A freakishly high teen pregnancy rate. (Most girls have lost their virginity by the 8th grade)
2. Crystal meth.
If there was ever a town who needed Missoula Children's Theatre, it was this one.

It was my last week touring The Jungle Book, and at our audition on Monday 50% of the kids were already complaining about their parts.
In my job we get 5 days to put the show together because we are in a new town every week and after 4 solid days of kicking, screaming and temper-tantrums our little Mill Citians were in serious trouble because for the first time all summer, no one had their lines memorized and the show was 7pm the next day...
"By a show of hands, who promises to learn their lines tonight so you can sleep in tomorrow?"
2 of the 45 kids raised their hands.
"So....you guys don't want to learn your lines, don't want to rehearse and just have a bad show in front of everyone in your town tomorrow right?" I said irately.
"W-w-well Chris..." one girl bravely stammered, "we want to come in early tomorrow because we really need the practice."
With all of the ridiculousness that had taken place this week these kids really did care...
I had unfairly judged them and Friday morning they hustled in and by that night we had a pretty darn good show with the loudest, most enthusiastic audience we've ever had!

Shere Kahn, Shere Kahn!

No matter how bad a week may seem, there is always at least one kid who makes it all worth while. This week it was our Shere Kahn (the scary tiger). We have never cast a girl Shere Kahn before but there was a girl who was so perfect for the role that we couldn't resist...and she didn't disappoint.
Every single day this girl would bring in something that reminded every one else in the cast that she was indeed a terrifying tiger; Tuesday it was a Cincinnati Bengals Hat, Wednesday it was fuzzy black tiger ears and not only that but every time a character said "Shere Kahn" during the rehearsals she would flex her muscles back stage in a state of sheer bliss. If only we could take her every where!

Wolf Pack 12, Pythons 6

Teaching wealthy, somewhat spoiled and wildly underrated kids has had it's obvious challenges this week but today I came up with a pretty damn good system for rehearsals. Every animal in our show was broken up and put into groups (The wolf pack, the monkeys, the pythons etc.) and every time they had their individual scene or song we would award points based on their acting, loudness and be quiet back stage. We put up all the teams on a huge dry erase board and lemme tell you.... I have never had a more animated, excited and well behaved Thursday rehearsal in my life. Even the 3 little Japanese girl who had been virtually inaudible all week shouted their lines with all the fierceness the lines demanded!

Helloooo Bellevue, WA!

Katie and I walked into the audition on Monday and looked around at hoards of kids that lined the huge gym floor....I looked up at a sign that read, "Day Camp for ages 5-11".
"We a going to cast 11 year olds in 16 year old parts?" I said incredulously to Katie. Katie looked at me equally terrified as we approached the center of the vast circle.
"Allllll right, hey guys! Katie and I are so glad to be here in Bellevue this week! Does anyone know what show we are doing on Saturday?" I asked the kids.
"JUNGLE BOOK!" roared the kids giggling with glee.
"YEEAAAAYYY that's right boys and girls! Now if you are 11 years old please stand up and line up over in the corner..."I ordered, praying that half of them would stand.
Four kids stood up and shuffled to the corner.

Two hours later though we had the entire show cast and the youngest Jungle Book show ever was on it's merry way!

Abundance!

As I listen to those around me worry about money and things of that nature I kind of came to an interesting revelation today... we will always have enough to do whatever it is we need to do.
The earth is an incredibly abundant place and what I need to start to doing more is genuinely believe and trust that I am entitled to some of that (unfortunately I don’t think it’s something you can fake). Albert Einstein said, "The universe is conspiring for us..." and I sort of realized today that if I do what my heart and intuition are telling me to do, not only will I be successful but I will receive all the abundance this earth has to offer me...easier said than done!

The show MUST GO ON!

The most difficult and frustrating week of my life came to a close today after two very interesting shows...It was wierd because during the 1st show, kids were breaking out of their characters and poking each other and monkeys were taking off their ears and one little 7 ywear old kept saying "They hate us, they hate us!" during the performance! After the first the show Katie and I were pretty down in the dumps because of what happened but then it hit us....These kids had no idea how to behave in front of an audience! That kid had heard the audience laughing and thought they were making fun of him! We had forgotten that this was the first time this town had ever brought in our company and when we got back for the second show we told the kids how to behave in front of an audience and the second show was worlds better.

Reeaalllly workin against us

Forget monkey behaviour problems, an elephant with apparent short term memory loss and kids who don't like the dance breaks in the show, (which has NEVER happened) this space we have this week is essentially a glorified closet. Katie and I are cutting them a lot of slack because this town so desperately needs this program but this week has been a true test of our patience and with a show tomorrow you can bet we lit a fire under their little jungle book buns today...

If you build it, they will come....

I was about 55% confident today that kids would show up for the audition, and when we arrived nobody was there. Granted this was an hour early but usually the over achieveing families and stage moms would be there by now. A half hour till the audition rolled around and not one single child had arrived and Kaite and I , along with the staff of adults who were there began pacing frantically, checking through the windows every four and half seconds like mad men. 15 minutes till 10 rolled around and now I pretty much figured it was a time for me to call the home office who informed me that if only 10 kids come we could do a "showcase" style show with solos and such....The lady who had worked so hard to publicize this event had now taken to a chair, defeated.
It wasn't until about 6 minutes before we were to start that kids began rolling in, in massive groups and a few moments later, 47 kids had signed up all wanting to be a part of the Jungle Book...The head staff woman rose from her chair, with tears forming in her eyes and gave a giant hug to all the others on the staff, who also shed tears of relief and gratitude.