Home of the B-2 Bomber

8/5/05
10pm
Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri

Well, I survived my first week on a military base. I have spent the past six days at the Whiteman Inn on the base that is known as the “Home of the B-2 Bomber”. It’s a crazy coincidence that I am only 20 miles from my good high school friend, Amanda’s hometown of Sedalia, MO ( I’m planning on checking out their State Fair tomorrow on our day off).

It has been a difficult week, but as usual, I feel great at the end of our show day! Unfortunately, I was feeling burnout early in the week, and our circumstances (rehearsing in a noisy gym w/ kids not used to structure and lack of energy from partner) were not encouraging. We hold our dress rehearsals before the first show, and it was TERRIBLE…. No exaggerations…. After many prayers, and personal pep talks, I felt like I almost single-handedly pulled the show off… Cues were missed left and right, kids talked backstage, but the friends and families of the kids seemed to enjoy in spite of or maybe because of its imperfections. During the first show, the whole group of wolves (a large group in “The Jungle Book”) left the stage prematurely, leaving it to me and three child actors to improve… It worked… These kids are smart! At another point, our little elephant never came onstage, and the assistant directors and my partner, not paying attention, didn’t notice, so I left stage to bring him on to join me… Fun, fun! Our second performance was much improved, but not without bloopers like one of our rocks (set pieces) flipping over during the wolf musical # “Leader of the Pack”, and the skipping of two scenes because, yet again, no one told our little elephant when to come on…poor little guy!

A single mom, Denise, and her two daughters Tynedria and Tyshana had so much fun… The girls have lived in New York, England, and Oklahoma before moving to Missouri… Our crazy contact, Connie who raises snakes… Her intro to the show was awesome and so fitting for our production, she was dressed as "The Crocodile Hunter" and brought her ball python onto stage with her, psyching the crowd up for the show… "Danja, Danja, Danja.." Wish I had a picture!