Lightning!! Crashhhh!!!

Greetings!

This week has been a busy one.... as of yesterday we are a full house, since everyone has arrived on site here at Sweet Briar College and things are steamrolling along. As you saw in the report yesterday we had a successful turnout this past weekend for our Broadway in the Blue Ridge Benefit Concert, and everyone had a wonderful time. Assassins and Twelfth Night have begun rehearsals and Good Good Trouble on Bad Bad Island began it's local elementary/middle school run.  There is an excitement in the air, and everyone is focusing on the tasks ahead as we continue to prepare.

The Good Good cast met early on Monday to go over some items and then headed out for our first performance at an elementary school. We were pretty excited as this would be the first time we were performing in front of an audience, and the fact that the majority of the audience were kids was even better! We loaded up the cars with our props, costumes, gear and headed off.

One of the interesting/exciting challenges for us as a cast is having to adapt to each new location we perform in. Since we have been rehearsing for the past several weeks in the same spot we are used to a specific format, so we definitely are on our toes as we enter each new school. Angie (Endstation Education Director), and Geoff (Artistic Director) have done an excellent job in preparing us ahead of time on what to expect.

We arrived at the first school on Monday and took an assessment of our surroundings, then set to work unloading and setting up for the audience of children and teachers that would soon join us. We discussed a couple of adjustments that we would need to make, and before we knew it Kelly (our fabulous stage manager) was calling "places" to all of the cast. The curtain was closed and the cast waited with anticipation backstage as we could hear everyone entering. We smiled at each other as we heard these tiny, excited voices settling in, and then cracked up as we heard the instruction of "all tooshies must be on the ground" communicated to the classes entering. A hush soon fell as Angie addressed the masses, welcomed everyone, and let them know how excited we were to be there. She then slipped backstage gave us the cue and we were off!

From the moment the first actors headed out to perform, the audience was very responsive, they were incredibly excited that we were there. Did you know that when you tell little ones to make as much noise as possible.......they really will do it? It was so much fun to interact with them and feed off of their energy throughout the entire performance that day. I think it is safe to say we were pretty exhausted by the time we were done, but glad that the crowd enjoyed themselves.

We learned a lot that day and were able to make even more adjustments for the performances to come. We performed at a local middle school the next day, and had just as much fun as the day before. Today was a day off from performances and we will head back out on the road tomorrow morning and Friday for additional school performances. We will soon be heading into our "tech" which is where we will put all the final elements together as we prepare to welcome audiences that will join us for the performance run right here at Sweet Briar (June 1-5, get tickets here). I do hope that we will see you there...believe me you won't want to miss this.....

Till next time~
Cheers!
MAH
Company Manager