No one ever knows the life and full circus that goes on behind the curtains, or backstage. They are always just amazed at the spectacle that we present to them, never knowing how hard it is to make it look magical. This show is of course no different. And we would be no where without our crew.

There are 7 integral elements that come together to make our show happen, and there all headed as followed: Master Carpenter, Master Electrician,Props Master, Lead Spot/asst lights, Head Fly rail/asst carpenter, Wig supervisor, Wardrobe Supervisor.

Andrew is our Master Carpenter. He is in charge of the mechanisms that we have on the stage, and basically every thing that comes on the stage that is a set piece, Like stair cases, and moving units with revolving doors, and set pieces that get moved on by the local crews we hire.

The Other person who is on the stage with us and has direct contact with the cast and the crew on stage at the same time is the Props Master, Melissa. She is in charge of every single thing that we take on stage. All those little things, like cigarettes, and hankies, and billy clubs, and signs, and candles and torches, and my big rope, and so on and so forth, you pick up what I'm throwin down. She also helps with the moving set pieces on stage, but she deals with the ones that are stage right, while Andrew is stage left. She also makes sure the beds are made right, and has the proper items on them, and on us. we have 2 huge prop boxes on stage, in the wings on both sides that hold everything we need, so that when it's that scene, we just go grab what we need right before we get on stage and can just drop it off when we're done.

Now this show has alot of things that are flown in, which means that they come down from the ceiling. Alot of banners, for different scenes, and one of the most important entities of the show, our video screen. Most of the show is accompanied by video of Evita's actual life, or pictures of the era, or people we're portraying. So we Have Mikey, our fly guy who is in charge of these features, and oversees the local crews during the shows, tells them when to fly things in, which in tales pulling lots of rope. They have to know exactly where to stop, and follow there marks cause if not things fall on stage on us the actors. Mikey has already hurt himself running and stopping a rail that was coming to far in on stage from an aware crew guy. We love Mikey( he's also the big physical flirt).

The person who is in charge of the video projections and pictures that show on the screen is Ryan the Master electrician. He is also in charge of pushing all the buttons that make every single light clue happen on stage, and this show has I think over 300 hundred different light clues. so without him we're sunk. Most times He is out in the house, but if the signals aren't working from there he has to be on stage in some dark corner somewhere. He's our Big Teddy Bear.

One of the best things about our show, is our Head spot operator Trish, She is only 22 or 3, and she takes charge of all these big ole gruff and ugly tech guys and tells them where to hang lights, and totally cracks the whip, and shes like 5'5" or something. She's cute as all get out, and looks like this little girlie girl, and shocks all the local crewman.

EVita has I think 5 different wigs in this show, and changes costumes for every single scene, even if she is on stage for the next scene, some times she just changes right on stage as choreography for the song she's singing. Because of this she has her own dresser, who also is the wig master of course, who is played by the lovely Sara.

Now everybody plays like 5 or 14 different people in this show, and just like Eva, we all have different costumes for every scene. I alone have 7 different costumes. And there is only one scene that I don't where a hat. So because of all the clothes we all have to wear, we get Scott, head of wardrobe, and fixer of split pants( I don't think I told you that I totally split my pants one night right down the middle of my butt, I was landing after doing some turns, and it ripped straight up my but, I mean the whole thing was just showing to everybody on stage, I had to run off, not finish the number and change pants, hahahaha, it was awesome) but I digress. Scotty is also in charge of training our dressers for us at each venue. He does not have it easy cause some times and I quote from my director we have dressers" who aren't worth the space they take up". And I have to admit I have had some bad dressers, and I have a super easy track.

We Love our crew, but we don't get to spend much quality time with them, for they schedule is as follows, get to the Venue, 745am set up load in, train locals, all day have maybe a dinner break, do the show with us, take down and load out the show, get on there sleeper bus, drive to the next venue, and... 745am set up....etc.ect.ect. Only on days where we have 2 shows at one place do they get to be in the hotel with us for one night, and we can hang out with them. Like tomorrow in CO Springs. I love the crew, they're awesome!!

A little life

As I sit here in my hotel room in Ft Smith Arkansas, pondering over the events of the day, I can only Thank God for how he has kept me in his care thruout my life. Just thinking about how we're all just ordinary people, with real problems, and difficult situations. We're all vulnerable, hurting, needing validation, broken, wanting love, fragile people.

There's been alot of people emoting, and human connection going on for me today.

IT all started when Andrew and I had lunch. I made a comment that Rocketed Him into a really angry state defense mode. I felt like it came from no where, cause what I was saying had no intensity behind it, We ended up in a real heated conversation about how we felt. My first inclination was to just leave, felt like I didn;t deserve what he was giving me, but God is helping me to learn patience, and strength, so I was able to apologize for offending him, and here himm out. Now let me say it was sooo hard. I felt unwrongfully accussed, but I had to admit to him I offended, and hurt him, which was just so heart wrenching for me. The most important thing I had to do, was not get angry back, not rise to his level, but to stay calm, and rationally talk it out, to be passionate, but direct, and think and use the right words. OH! it was just so hard, and so intense, I guess I felt it hurt to take all of it, like a bashing, but not aloud to defend, or retaliate myself. But we got thru it, together, awesome right. We actually diffused the situation, figured out where the emotion was coming from, and hear the heart of the issue. We left feeling closer to each other, and knowing more about each other. Though we both felt like there was this funky tight knot in our stomachs, we knew our relationship was stronger.

So there was anger, hurt, confusion, frustration, and we were in a restaraunt so there was embarassment.

Then we arrived at our hotel here, and saw that there was another bus like ours parked out front, hmm must be another tour we thought. We had a meeting right when we settled in, We got a new bus driver, and new bus, and the old bus driver was being terminated as the meeting was happening. ughh!, Now My stomach was turning again. My room is overlooking the parking lot where both buses were, and just seeing the bus driver preparing the bus to leave was heart wrenching to the pit of my gut. Even worse we had a time frame of when we had to switch our stuff from the old to the new bus. So now my pains of grief, were followed by more feelings of embarassment, and some fear of facing him, and just weird uneasiness, and sadness, with sympathy and compassion.

This of course is all being accompanied by the weather which greeted us here in Arkansas, or dreay gray clouds, and constant rain. The earth itself knew what the day held for me. The only good things about the day was the theatre is actually connected to the hotel so we didn't have to walk outside at all, and we were able to eat the crew's left over dinner. But after that I found out some news that is so detrimental that I can't even talk about it. So again feeling bad, uninformed, hurt from the lack of communication, and worried about what's going to happen.

Well the show was fine, standing o yadah yadah,

We decided to go out, it's been a rough day for alot of us, so we found this alternative bar that we could all go to. I ended up talking this 40yr old man, who has 2 sons, is not married, and the only people who knew he was gay were the people in the bar. He's from some small town in texas, and was passing thru on business, and has once or twice before. He didn't even know he had his eldest son til the kid was 18, and had his own son. Gees louise, this poor man had not even one close friend who knew him so intimately that he could freely talk about the issues he has to deal with, and the emotions, and lonliness, and pain he feels. He was telling me about the fear he had about his family and people in his life finding out this about him, and how so many people in these small towns live this life of hidden truth, and false relationships, uh it just killed me. Then there was this male/female couple who had both broken up with their same sex partners to be with each other, but how they both had 3 kids, well the woman has 3, and the man has 2 that are definite and 2 he's not sure about. I asked them if they were involved in their lives, and it was a kind of yes and no answer, but they both admitted how sad they were about the situation.

PHEEEWWWWW, what a day! Ok everybody, we've all got some pretty hard things going on in our lives, some crazy things that we can't control, weird things that are consequences of others, relationships gone awry, and just different life situations. Since we're all humans and have to face this stuff, let's just love....please?

overlapping circles

Well today was a pretty rough day.

We had a 630am eastern call and we didn't get to our hotel until 5pm central time, here in Tupelo Misssissippi,( the birth place of Elvis Preseley). So we were expecting a real long day. These kind of travel days, we don't plan on doing much but sleeping the day away. The way it works is, we have to stop every 2hrs for 15 mins, and every 4 hrs for an hour, (union rules for the band). Not too many people on the bus are happy with the driver, they feel he is brake happy, and loves the noise of the brumble patches on the sides of the roads, cause we sure do do both of those alot. It really shows who has patience, and who doesn't, it's amazing what little things become little tests in a situatiion like tour, to show what kind of character you have. We all have things to work on, but I'm surprised how many of the cast still have to work on patience, consideration, and self control, and maybe an edit or even as far as a mute button for their mouths. (little side note we left a person at a rest stop and had to go back and get him, wasn't long, but poor BJ has to pay overtime to the band, since they're union)

So as that being my opening statement, you can probably tell that this is going to be more of an emotional letter to ya. The past 2 nites for me have been rough. You get to that point where you just aren't going to compromise who you are anymore, and not put up with all the negative crap that goes on. I knew we were going to have a bad show last night, cause the attitude, and yelling that was going on in our dressing room was hurrendous. I had to just put my Ipod on and listen to my gospel music to combat their voices, and what they were saying. So the bad energy given off from everyone put me in a mood, and my energy level was definitely down. whatever we still got a standing o, but you could tell the didn't want to give it to us, and we just wanted to get out of there. Anyway, As I've said before Chris and I have the very humble pleasure of having the absolute back seat of the bus, yup right next to the bathroom. So that makes my bed space the floor area right infront of the bathroom. I don't usually get good sleep, why, well you remember how I said people need to learn consideration, well since I have to lay on the floor infront of the bathroom to stretch out, I feel when people want to go to the bathroom, by the slamming of the door on my thigh. It's an absolute wonderful way to be woken up, especially when you finally get to a deep sleep. I'm am not complaining, I have figured out a way to remedythe situation. none the less I did not get off the bus in a wonderful to be here, la de dah, happy go lucky cinderella mood.

but, whatever, I'm on tour....right??

Well the plan was to take some time, work out, or do whatever, and meet about 7ish to go eat at OutBack Steakhouse, way over everyone's budget but hey, we have to treat ourselves every now and then, especially after long days like these. So I ended up missing the train over, which at first made me want to feel sad and lonely, but I found some of the crew to walk with, and let me just say These folks who live an even rougher life, and who I only see in all black clothes, backstage( the next blog about them), Looked good and Hot tonight!, So I was happy to walk in with them. We got there and were greeted with great elation, always good to walk in with a hot lookin Mama. Well the mood was great and got better, there was a whole bunch of us there, and we were loud and rambunctious, and our waiter was this handsome young guy, who decided to join in on the fun, joked with us, showed us some magic tricks, really encouraged us to have the best time we could. The funny thing is we were loud and roudy like we were drunk, but it's sunday in the south, even outback wasn't serving alcohol!! So it was good clean fun. The waiter's name was Kevin, aka Turbo, and He was full of fun stories, accept for the little info he gave us about how this town we're in had a KKK meeting just last night. Thank God we leave early tomorrow morning.

SO I'm alright, oh probably the biggest thing that helped make it all better, is the fact that before I got ready to go out tonight, I bought the ACROSS THE UNIVERSE SOUNDTRACK. And have been listening to it since, including right now! It's wonderful, go see this movie, and feel better, remember love is all you need, and you know what, I do have real people who love me.

GO see it

So today we actually had free for ourselves, which was absolutely fantastik!!

A bunch of us decided that we were going to see a movie. We have been dying to do something normal like that. It's amazing what kind of connections to the real world you yearn for.

Anyway, we've wanted to see this movie for so long!!

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Oh my gosh this movie is awesome!!

Nothing to exciting to report,

We're performing in Gainesville right now, one more show here.

Last night we were in West Palm Beach, and we performed at an Opera house. It was huge, and beautiful. We knew it was an opera house by the number of chorus dressing rooms they had, and by the massive backsatge and wing space they needed for their large sets. It was the first venue in a while where we actually had a full show, because it had all this space. We were also informed that this big 2100 seater was also sold out, entirely. now this place had like 3 or 4 balconies, so we were shocked, people said it was like singing at the Met. Well the only dissappointing thing about this night was we did not get a standing Ovation, well guess it had to happen sometime.

Our director came to see the show tonight to clean it up, and make sure we are doing ok, and Praise God he is not making us rehearse. We're going try and go to the movies tomorrow, see across the universe.

Florida Baby!!!

We are now in lovely Florida!!

Yesterday we played Tallahassee, home of FSU, which I didn't know. We actually played in their arena, you know where they hold there basketball games and hold graduations and such. It was our first Arena, and it was freaking huge!! You know how they do it, totally cut off half of the arena with a black curtain, set up the stage in the middle of the floor with the seating on the one side all the way up. We still packed it out. We kind of felt like rock stars singing in this big place.It was great for Elizabeth cause it was her school, she pointed out to us where she sat for her graduation, very cool for her, Just waitin til April when we hit PENN STATE BABY( by the way did you see our homecoming romp over Wisconsin!!(it was Wisconsin right)).

Now we are in Daytona, Beach, and of course God blessed us by having a hotel that is right on the waterfront. And a balcony that over looks the beautiful blue water pool. We also have a full kitchen, large fridge, full stove, stocked cabinets with kitchenware, microwave and everything! Of course we're only here for one night though, GEESH. Oh and by the way, it is BIKETOBERFEST! So every hotel and shack is packed with motorcylcles and some of the most scariest looking people in all the country, are all over this city. Apparently this is the precursor to bike week, which is even bigger, Lord have mercy.

Oh yes! I am such a water baby, I love the ocean and the beach. So as soon as we got off the bus, in minutes we were changed and frolicking in the water. It was strange though that as soon as we got off the bus, and especially went towards the beach, We could feel that it was harder to breathe, that our throats were getting scratchy, and something was tickling them and making us cough, and making our noses run(didn't stop us from acting like 5 yr olds in the water though). We found out that this phenomena is what is called RED TiDE. It has something to do with fish eating poisonous algae, emitting this poisonous gas, that is also the ruined insides from the fish,dieing and washing up on shore. Yeah beautiful isn't it, and we had a full operetta to do in this mess, so tonight we're advised to stay inside with the air condition on.

Tomorrow we hit West Palm Beach, which I am excited about cause I have never been there. And then off to Gainesville where we have been pro-warned that Our Director will be in the audience watching us and taking notes, so We're all on edge waiting for friday, cause saturday we might have a rehearsal from 1-5pm ugh!

We had a good show tonight, we had the largest audience so far 2,000 seats sold, almost an absolute full house. And we had them all the way thru, they were cheering all thru it, and of course we got a great standing ovation. It was kind of fantastik, though the thing that sucked about it was our changing area's were like a mile away from the stage, and all this show is is quick changing after every scene, so that kind of was frustrating having to worry about running back in forth. We also had one of the biggest mess ups in the military number tonight, but it was so wrong it was funny.( oh and it wasn't my fault!)

the grand opera house

A really neat thing about being on this kind of tour that hits a whole bunch of really old small towns, is that we're in a lot of old theatres with some crazy history behind them. Right now we're in Macon Georgia, and this theatre might be the most historic so far.

Back in the 70's which I know is not that long ago, the owner of this theatre committed suicide in an upstairs room in front of a fire place, so of course we went searching for the room and the fireplace. Of course we found it and took pictures there.He apparently over dosed on some pills, but there was also a revolver found on the scene I think, maybe he was trying to drug himself into shooting himself as a precaution.

One thing we like to do is run around these old theatres, trying to find secret passage ways, and tunnels and closed doors in basements to find "things of the unknown!" And of course be scared out of our wits. (some way more easily than others)

Now this theatre, the Grand Opera house, is very old, and beautiful, very ornate, and has a high and steep balcony. The interesting thing about the balcony was that it was all wood, very stiff high wood, with not very big seating space. How interesting, of course I knew exactly why, and when someone pointed it out It was the first thing I said, "that's where the black people sat" point blank there you have it, no surprise to me. Now that section isn't used at all. But it was interesting how offended others were, (especially since I am one of 2 people of color in this show) It's like they didn't believe what happened in history in the south. Hank asked me if it affected me, nope, I know the history of these places, I said, and look where the black person is now.

On our explore tour we went behind the balcony and found a trap door, well of course me being the only one with courage I took the flashlight and went down, and in, and around. Of course I had to have fun, so I turned off the flashlight, and went dead silent. HAHAHAHA they were so goofy, some ran away, then they started screaming, and then I let out a screeching yelp! Man it was fun.

Of course we're going strong with the standing O's. and last nite the leads got flowers thrown on the stage, yeah...any way, Hank and I also went to this incredible Italian restaurant, oh I love great food!!