Well, this past week was a lot of fun because we had some shows get cancelled in Birmingham, Alabama so they rerouted us straight to Charleston which is where our next performance was to be. So it worked out that we were going to have about five straight days off in Charleston fully paid. We also ended up being really lucky because we were staying at a Hampton Inn (which is Hilton affiliated and therefore has REALLY comfortable beds). There was also a 24-hour Waffle House next to the hotel, where we made friends with two of the waitresses (one of whom came to see the show on Saturday with her kids!)
Since we had so many days off, we had a good time looking up activities to entertain ourselves in Charleston. We also rented a van so we could get around more easily without having to take cabs everywhere. Everyone just chipped in for the van so it ended up being much cheaper than cabs for the whole week would have been.
We went through a corn maze our first day in town and we got through the whole maze in 19 minutes and 52 seconds, which the woman who was working there told us was a new record! Apparently 22 minutes had been the fastest time before us. We even wasted some extra time in the “pirates treasure” area which turned out to be a whole lot of NOTHING! That night, we headed downtown with the whole crew to have a great meal at a seafood place called A.W. Shuck’s. I got the crabcake and stuffed shrimp dinner and it was delicious. Afterwards, we all went to see a campy show called “The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom” which is a play by Charles Busch. It was pretty bad, but almost to the point that it was so bad that it was funny and enjoyable. It was performed by a local improv troupe and some of them were really excellent, but most of them were kinda terrible. It was in a fun little theatre that reminded me of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in NYC and you could buy beer and wine and bring it into the theatre (where there were cupholders to put it in).
The next night was Halloween and the whole Discover Theater crew dressed up as the Peanuts Gang! I was Charlie Brown (because I had saved my Charlie Brown shirt from when I played the role in “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” in high school). Several of our crew worked very hard on their costumes and had to put them together from scratch so they weren’t pleased that my costume was essentially done before I even started!!) Although, I did need yellow socks and could not find any in the wal-mart so I bought yellow fabric dye and dyed a pair of my white ones. When everyone was ready, we headed out on the town and went to the Mellow Mushroom, which was having a “Halloween in Hollywood” party. You had to be dressed as a Hollywood character or figure to get in the door, and we qualified as The Peanuts Gang! It was a good time and it was fun to see all of the other costumes in the place!!!
We spent many days in downtown Charleston which is a really great little town. There is an outdoor market where vendors come every day to sell their stuff that lasts for several blocks. The types of shops and restaurants reminded me a lot of a beach town. It was a really charming little place. We had some GREAT meals and I did a little bit of shopping too. We also took a haunted ghost tour of The Old City Jail, which is hundreds of years old. It was built on top of an old cemetary and none of the bodies were dug up so legend has it that the jail is haunted. It was a really interesting tour!!
Our time in Charleston ended with us going back to work. The rest of the cast had an understudy rehearsal on Friday night, but since I don’t understudy any other character I got to sit out in the audience and watch and videotape the rehearsal to send to our producer. It was SO bizarre to watch the show and see everyone else playing a different role (and someone else playing my role!) BUT, it was a lot of fun to see and they did a really fantastic job! Everyone thought it was going to be more of a disaster than it was! The next day we did two performances at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center. At the night show, our production manager and lighting designer were there because they live close by. It was great to see them again, and during the week the crew had worked in the production manager’s studio (which is in Charleston) to fix some things with the props and set. We were also very pleased to hear that our waitress friend (who we called “J") came to the night show with her children and told our company manager afterwards that she LOVED the show!
We are now in Florida, and it is WARM!!! I also love seeing the palm trees. Even though they are everywhere and commonplace down here it still makes me feel like i’m on vacation just seeing them since I don’t see them often! We pulled into Jacksonville today and we have two shows here tomorrow. Tonight though, we went to Dave And Buster’s (which for those of you who don’t know is like a Chuck E. Cheese for adults!!) It is games and such with food and alcohol involved!! It was a lot of fun, and as a result of my ticket winnings I am now the proud owner of a stuffed tweety bird in a cage and two chinese finger traps!! All in all a productive evening I think!!!
Going to sleep soon sincce we have two shows tomorrow. Lots of pictures to come soon!!!
