Bozeman, Montana

"DON'T BACKTALK THE SPARKLY FAIRY"

"AAAAAHHHH YES MA'AM *sob* PLEASE DON'T HIT ME ANYMORE"

Salt Lake City! (And St. Louis MO, and some Erie PA, too)

I've been quite negligent with posting, but I've got some pictures!

First off, this was from Erie, a harbor city right on Lake Erie.

Boats!

We performed at the Warner Theater, which was cute. The outside was really pretty!
And my awesome friend Ali Upton came to see me :)

Then we went to St. Louis
Which was really nice, and my parents came, and that was splendiferous.

(This entry is rushed because I have bus call in half an hour for our next matinee, and I have to pincurl my hair, which takes quite a while)

Anyway, now we are in SALT LAKE CITY which is a really, really cool place. The environment is a tad religious, which is great if you are-- but as I am not in the church of LDS, I couldn't go inside the Temple (which is ok, because I hear they have a cool visitor's center which my roommate Sarah went to) and I got to wander around all morning looking at super awesome stuff.

For one thing, the graffiti and street art is BALLIN'

It's really awesome to see all the street art, because you won't ever see any other like it anywhere else. It's completely unique.
This doesn't do any justice to the incredible Christmas lights around town, but let me tell you-- they're beautiful. It's such a cool city.

Here you can see my ruby slipper Toms peeking underneath the glass table. Hee hee.

This morning I went wandering alone and found an amazing locally owned used bookstore/coffee shop combo, which is possibly one of the greatest things on earth that you can find on a cold wintry morning walk. I got a mocha and a marzipan almond croissant and read my book and enjoyed the snowy chill and atmosphere. Salt Lake City, I heartily approve of you.

Kansas!

We're driving through Kansas, and although we aren't playing any cities here (en route to Pueblo, Colorado) it's interesting to visit towns that have things like the "Oz Museum" and "Toto's Tacos".

We pass a lot of windmills and prairie.
My friend Jesse (who plays the lion) got a bunch of us books for an early Christmas gift on Black Friday. Me and Stacey (our brilliant female swing/ensemble goddess) got A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I'm not a big fan of fantasy, but let me just say, I am so happy that I ventured outside my comfortable genres (mainly classics, beatniks, and Vonnegut) for this book. It is amazing.
I love nothing more than getting completely wrapped up in a book, so much that I look forward to finishing lunch or hopping back on the bus just so I can get another chapter in. It's a lot of Kings and Queens and direwolves and thieves and princes. Actually, it feels like one of those books that I would get really into if I were living in the time of Little Women (the other book I'm rereading) and stayed up in an attic all day with my own personal dusty library.

I've only read a few other fantasy books (excluding Harry Potter) and they mainly focused on animals. Yeah, I'm a real big nerd for that kind of stuff. One of my favorite childhood books is called The Sight and it's about a wolf pack and has a whole bunch of magical elements and a prophecy and AHSOCOOL. (/neeerrrrrrrd)

But anyway.

I think I just saw the beginnings of snow outside the bus window!

This is really exciting.

On Lake Erie

This morning, for me, was spent in my pajamas, eating dried mangoes, and watching the food network in a beautiful, luxurious Sheraton hotel on the waterfront of Lake Erie overlooking the Canadian border. I felt like a star, or a millionaire socialite on a Northeastern vacation.

Now I'm down in the lobby doing homework, but thought I'd update!

I've yet to figure out how to attach my camera and have it be actually read by my computer, but until then, I'll rely on the photos of friends who are actually skilled cameramen :)

Here are the famed slippers themselves, which are actually relatively uncomfortable heels. Haha. The gems are apparently really expensive, and they fall off a lot when I dance. Here you can see they are hidden behind a set piece, which the crew has personalized with band stickers. As crews are wont to do.
This is the backstage of the York Penn State campus theater, and ALL those boxes belong to our tour. We have about five huge 18-wheelers carrying all of our sets, props, and costumes every night, and it's overwhelming the amount of time and effort they put into this show.
Also, our lighting is the BOMB. Here they were doing a test for some of the Munchkinland lighting effects
...but just a few.

And everyone's favorite actor in the show is always Toto. Here is Loki, the Toto understudy who, dying to get a tiny bit of fame, posed elegantly for the camera while the jaded starlet Dusty (the usual Toto) hid in the background.
That's all for now folks. Will get back.

Day 2: Munchkins, dressing rooms, and Target

Hello all!

Today I awoke rather late and rushed to put on some jeans and a heavy coat, and headed out to meet the rehearsal van. The van takes everyone in the hotel to the rehearsal hall a few miles away. There we worked on cover stuff (understudies) for most of the day, and after lunch break, added the local kids who play the munchkins.

To answer some questions: yes, the creative team (director and choreographer, Nigel and Leigh, respectively, who are British and lovely) do come with us to tech week. They rode with us on the bus, which Nigel jokingly said was an "absolute nightmare and I shan't ever do it again." The creative team (and, I think, crew and musicians also) stay in a separate hotel than the cast, as we are in the old fashioned downtown hotel.

I'm not sure if we're actually showing here, but we're rehearsing on the Penn State, York campus stage. Their dressing rooms are pretty cool, but the coolest part is this: I get my own dressing room. I had no idea I would get that! I asked Andrew (scarecrow) where our dressing rooms were, and he said mine was behind the dumpsters and if I needed a mirror I could use a metal spoon. Nevertheless, I have a real actual little room with my costumes in it, and a mirror with lights and it's all so exciting and I feel so darn happy about it. I'll post pictures tomorrow!

The munchkins are really, really cute. Actually, they're like puppies: well trained puppies, but not quite dogs so they're still learning.

Tonight the big thing is a Target run-- our stage manager is driving a van of whoever wants to go to Target. I think I'm gonna get some kind of fleece jacket and maybe some new socks and something healthy to snack on in the hotel. Oh, and something to boost my immune system. Seeing as my roommate is the first one sick, I have to keep on my toes and stay healthy...

Cheers!
-Kate

Day 1: York, PA

Hola... as you can see I've temporarily transformed Sunflower Existence into a sort of tour documentation. It's mostly just so I can remember everything that happens, in a strange sort of way.

I've taken pictures but as they're on my big camera I haven't yet hooked it up to the computer. So here's what happened today.

I got Winston to take me (and my big ol' blue luggage, plus a purse, a makeup kit, and a backpack full of books) to midtown via gypsy cab and we arrived at the rehearsal studio where we'd been rehearsing for the past two weeks. The bus was loaded, sad farewells were bid, and we shipped off from New York on a big ol' bus. I read Sophie's World instead of doing homework. But that's typical.

Anyhow, there isn't much to write, but a little after we arrived at our hotel, which is a beautiful old fashioned sort of place, we took a cast trip to Wal Mart for anything we needed. Since we're doing a week long tech here in York, most people bought groceries; mine, of course, consisted of ramen and french bread (among other things.)

I really don't have much to write currently, other than tomorrow we've got a full day of tech, including a rehearsal with the local kids. My roommate for this adventure is Sarah, who plays Glinda/Aunt Em-- she's currently a little under the weather, which she's sleeping off so I have to be quiet as I shower and do homework... wow, this is a boring blog. In other news, I have lots of papers to write.

Love and peace,
-"Dot"

The very excellent happy good day

Hello everyone. Today, I didn't really learn anything new about life or myself. It was just a really awesome day and I wanted to talk about it.

Firstly, I had to sing at a luncheon for donors of my university. It was an extremely formal, country-club-esque setting and we got to eat super rich fancy food with hard-to-pronounce cheeses and garnishes, and we were served coffee in porcelain tea cups and stuff. One of those white tablecloth places with five sets of silverware kind of places. I felt like that guy in Titanic when he goes up from the third teir to the first to eat with all the well-to-do socialites.

But it was pretty cool.

And the weather-- god, I hate to be influenced so by external circumstances, but when a day is as beautiful as today was-- a quintessential New York autumn day. Brilliantly sunny, cold, breezy. I finally got to wear a scarf without sweating.

Walking back from the luncheon, I passed my mom's favorite NY scultpure...


...so every time I pass it I take a picture of me there and send it to her.

(I'm not showing you the version with my face in it, because it is hideous. Haha.)


After I got back to school, I sat outside in lovely city hall park for a while and read a book. Then I checked my email, and got super absurdly excited about upcoming events that I had to run to my school's computer lab and furiously type out some response emails. This was when I officially signed the tour contract. So, that's cool.

Afterward, I met up with the boyfriend, and we spent a while lazing about the park in the sunshine...


...and then I went to dance, which was just okay, since it's dance and I kind of hate dancing. But I did make a killer bun. That's big for me. (I suck at doing hair.)



But the day was still mucho happiness.


And yes, this was a completely pointless post. It's self indulgent, dull, and entirely useless to anyone passing along my blog and reading it. But I don't care. 'Cause I had a really good day.