Playmill Week 6, or "Things are beginning to feel familiar now"

I don't have many specific stories about life at the Playmill from week 6. It's been a good week, a rough week, a crazy week, a beautiful week, a slow week, a fast week, etc. I also have no real sense of time while up here. But there are certain sights that are becoming familiar as we continue to perform Beauty & the Beast...Mason ripping his pants (which he's done like, 3 times this summer), Joe Galati ringing the desk bell in the box office every time he passes by, baby Charlie growing up faster than we can notice, Jacob C's shoes/wig/mic coming off at some point in the show. Putting on Jacob S's wig at call every night. Me eating a small Dole Whip after every intermission.

There was one highlight this week worth writing about specifically: variety show auditions. So good. Before each actual performance at the Playmill, there's a brief variety show--skits, songs, dances, jokes, etc. We don't have one for "Beauty" because there isn't time, but we are planning one for "Fiddler." Everyone put together ideas, and on Thursday night after the show, we all stayed late and auditioned them. Normally, variety show auditions can get a little awkward...not every idea is well-developed, and not every idea is funny. But Thursday night's auditions were BRILLIANT. There really wasn't a single act that was no good.

This has also been a week when I've been really grateful for nature. I discovered a hiking trail less than 100 steps from our front door, and with the weather getting nicer, that little trail has filled me with so much peace during the last few days.

The last few weeks of rehearsal can be tough...you're at the theatre all day and all night, and you have been for a month and a half. You do shows at night and rehearse during the day. All of it is fulfilling, but it can also be hard. You don't really get a day off except Sunday (if you don't have to get groceries), and sometimes it's hard to choose sleep over having fun with the cast.  It's a pretty taxing schedule. But for this flower-child, trees and sky can do wonders in healing the taxed soul. My mom once said, "I am so grateful for the Earth! I feel like I dump so much stress and negative crap on Her during my walks, and in return I get peace and joy. I like to think that gravity is Her telling me, 'I got you, dear! I won't let you go!'" I kept thinking of that statement this last week. I feel closest to my Heavenly Father when I'm out in nature, and whether you believe in Mother Goddess Earth or a Heavenly Father (or a little bit of both), there's peace to be had out in the woods. I'm glad this little theatre is near some.