The Road Goes Ever On...

(Me as Golde)
So Fiddler on the Roof is over. Sadness. :( It was so much fun and definitely one of the best shows I've ever been in. What made is so great was that everyone really wanted to be there and wanted to make it the best that they could. Everyone did so well with their parts (many of which were type cast, I think!), and everyone worked together to make wonderful memories that we can all treasure. What I love about theatre is that it brings people together. Everyone in the cast and crew have to work together and know each other well enough to make the show run smoothly...set changes and all. All during rehearsals people do all sorts of crazy things, on prupose and by mistake. You laugh together and, in this show, cry together. Fiddler is one of the best shows ever for really touching the audience. The themes of love, family, tradition...life, remind us that though life is hard, it is "less hard if we live it together". There are so many songs that make you think, "yep, that's it. That's what love is and what life's about."
Tradition--everyone has their place in the story of life.
Matchmaker--be careful what you wish for. The person you marry is more than what they look like. Care about who they really are more than what the look like.
Rich Man--rich people aren't just the ones with lots of money. Treasure what you have.
To Life--celebrate life! It is a joy just to live and breathe!
Sunrise, Sunset--time flies; live in the moment. Don't get too caught up in yesterday and tomorrow, but take time to enjoy the people in your life, especially the young ones who will be grown before you know it!
Now I Have Everything--God can have something for you right around the corner that is better than you ever imagined. Always be willing to go wherever and do whatever He has planned for you...there may be something wonderful in store.
Do You Love Me?--"for 25 years I've lived with him, fought with him, starved with him. 25 years my bed is his, if that's not love, what is?" Love is everyday. Living together, working together, surviving together.
Far From the Home I Love--life is full of choices, even those between two good things. Sometimes things in your life change and you have to choose between the old good thing and the new good thing.

Anyhow, there's more to it, but I have to get ready to leave the house...and I'm being boring and philosophical. =S
(My family who were in the show)
"It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime, but let me say before we part: You'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart.
And now whatever ways our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend."

"I've got my memories, always inside of me, but I can't go back, back to how it was."

"You'll be in my heart, from this day on, now and forever more."

(Curtain call...the fiddler)

Something New

So I felt like doing something new with my blog (it used to be brown). I am a blue girl. LOVE blue. Off to do homework...Christmas update soon! We redid the bathroom, which sounds boring, but it really needed it and I have wanted to redo some room of the house for a long time...and now its blue! I got to pick it out. :) Sneak peak:

Time Flies!

Wow. just figured out how to get pictures on here again!!!!!!!! It only showed them as a big link while I'm writing it, but it really is a picture when I publish it!!!!! I'm so silly. =S

Here are a few of my favorite pictures I've taken recently, at a friend's house. I wish I lived somewhere so beautiful:





So. I need to catch up on the outcome of all the things in the last post, but that will have to be another day. :( We're in Fiddler on the Roof right now, which is so fun. I'm Golde, the big mama that runs the house, so I get to yell at everybody. The show is the last weekend of Jan./first weekend in Feb. Drop me a comment for more info...

I went to get my driver's license on Tuesday (being 18 and all, it is about time!), and I failed for expired tags. I didn't even get to drive. We waited FOREVER and as soon as we got outside the lady said to go back in, that I had expired tags. Major bummer. But, I'm going again on Tuesday (if we can move the braces apt).

Anyhow, quick update for anyone who actually reads this anymore. I'm going to try and update more often, now that I can have pictures again!! WOO HOO!! Next update on Christmas...with more great pictures!

~~A

I'm taking the plunge...

I wrote this a week ago but am just now posting it, so it is from a week ago's perspective. This is freeing me up to post more often, since I'm finally getting past tour. (Just blog-wise, I'm still having a really hard time letting it go...)

October 4th, 2009

Well, I guess it’s about time to actually write this down: The Lion Tour 2009 is Officially Over. Of course, it was over on August 30, but I’m just now getting up the guts to say so. We dove right into school and I’m working on my third production since then (I’ll tell about that later on), and I really have not had any time to write this. But I’ve thought about it for so many days, and it won’t get easier, so I’m going ahead and just doing it.
It was incredible. The chance of a lifetime (for me, at least). A huge answer to prayers and years of wishing and wanting so badly. To finally really be Susan, who I’ve been as long as I can remember, on stage, playing my dream role, was more that I ever expected. And more, to travel all over the country, to see so many places I’d only heard about, so really be there and experience travel and life on the road, was more than I ever hoped for. To get to be in a touring stage play, another dream in and of itself, to know what it is like to go and do the same show nearly every day for a whole summer, was something so far off that I hardly dared to wish for it. To get to do all these things together, to play my dream role all over the country, and to have most of my family with me, seeing what I saw and feeling what I felt, was more than I ever imagined I could have. God has given me above and beyond my greatest dreams, and I can never express what it means to me.
I made new friends, new pieces in the puzzle of my life, people that I truly treasure and am so blessed to know. I really love everyone of them, and count them as my family now. There’s a song that usually makes me cry when I hear it, but it just says everything I feel toward my tour family. It’s “For Good”, from Wicked, which I have not seen, but I heard this song and loved it. (So, I thought I had a recording of it, but it's not working, and I'll get it on here when I can. Or you can look it up... (: )
Faith, Thad, KP, Aaron, Katie, Krystin, Gee, Raya, and Mr. Payne, I have been changed for the better, because I knew you. Though we may never meet again in this lifetime, you’ll be with me like a handprint on my heart. I’m who I am today because I knew you. I love you all. You are all very dear to me, and I miss you every day. I wish you all the very best in everything you do.
What else can I say? I could write more that anyone wants to read about how wonderful this tour was, what it meant to me, and how it has changed me, but I don’t want to write too much. I’ll go back and fill in all those days when I didn’t write anything. I really need to close that big gap between August 6th and 30th. A lot happened, and I do want to tell you, so I’ll try to write that out when I get a minute (or, a lot of minutes!!).
Since August 30, we started school at the Teen Learning Center tutorial, which meets on Mondays. (Actually, it started on August 17, when we still had 2 more weekends of Lion shows.) We’re taking some classes there, as well as a few things just at home (we’re homeschooled, by the way, and always have been). It is going well. It’s been interesting to actually have homework!! :) Jonathan and I auditioned for, and made it into, And Then There Were None, the school play this fall. It’s an Agatha Christie murder mystery (long way from LWW!!) He is Rogers and I am Dr. Armstrong. Yes, I’m playing a boy role, but we changed it so I’m not acting like a boy. It is going to be really great. It’s Nov. 5, 6, & 7, and my 18th birthday is the 8th, so It’ll be fun.
I also played flute for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown last weekend (Sept. 24-26). The director is also directing the school play, so that was fun. It was new for me (and very interesting) to be in the pit rather that on stage. It was a good show.
This week, I am working with the Nashville Opera in Tosca. My mom and little brother (William) are in it. The lady in charge of wigs/makeup is letting me intern, and I get to do wigs for the chorus. It is going to be so cool!!!! It’s at TPAC, which I love. I’ve been around there backstage a few times, with siblings in operas and I sang there once in a choir for the Nashville Ballet. I think that place is so cool, and I love just being there. PLUS, this time I get to actually work there. I’m a little nervous about having to make sure all the adults look just right, when they’re doing their own makeup and putting their hair up for the wigs. Our job is to make sure they all do it right (it’s really specific) and they are NOT allowed to touch the wigs (but I am, though the first time I got within 10 feet of one was today…hmm). So, I kind of have to tell the adults what to do, which is always hard for me, since they are the adults, and I’m still a kid.
Anyhow, I think that’s about it.

Allison
“Susan”

August 6th

August 6th

This was the *craziest* day we’ve had in a LONG time. We were supposed to be at the college (where we meet every time before leaving from there) at 8:45 to leave at 9. When we got there Mr. Payne told us not to load anything in yet because there was a problem with the trailer. It was something about the bearing in a wheel -- I am totally car problem inept, so I don’t know exactly -- but there was black greasy stuff all on the outside of the hub cap. Mr. Payne said we couldn’t drive with it that way or it might fall of and there was no way to get it fixed on the road. (we passed by a trailer almost just like ours on the way and it had a wheel off. Mr. P said that could have been us!!) My dad was there (who is awesome at fixing cars!!) and a couple of other guys who were trying to fix it. There was talk about us just heading on to Conway (where the show was) all in the silver van with our costumes, which would have been extremely tight and crazy, and Mr. Payne would bring the trailer, when it got fixed, with the blue van. Then we realized that we couldn’t go without Mr. Payne because he is Aslan.

Anyhow, it was a big deal and all crazy, but dad took whatever part it was and he and Mr. Payne went somewhere and another guy came and it all got fixed. Sorry for being kind of vague about all those details, but we didn’t know them. We just had to hang out for an hour. Jesse (Faith’s boyfriend) took Faith and me to bagel/coffee place and they got some bagels. I didn’t get anything because I had had my braces tightened the day before and my teeth were hurting like crazy. I was really hungry, but I couldn’t chew anything!! When we came back Aaron and Jonathan were playing Frisbee and Jesse joined in. This little cat showed up and played around until we left. It was crazy and ran after the Frisbee and sticks and anything you threw past him. It was pretty funny.

So, we headed out at 10:00. About 10 minutes later we hit almost not moving traffic for about 10-15 minutes or so. We ran into traffic a couple of times. 2 short stops and 6 hours later, we pulled into the church. It was 4:00, the latest we’ve ever gotten to a place the day of a show. We ran in and had lunch really fast because it was so late (and we were all REALLY hungry) and they had it ready for us. It was really good sandwiches and wraps and salad with chips and salsa on the tables. I got a wrap so I wouldn’t have to bite it with my front teeth (which hurt the most), and I ended up picking it to pieces with a fork and eating it that way. It had grilled chicken pieces and lots of lettuce and a few little tomato cubes. It would have been really good if I could have eaten it the right way.

After lunch we…you guessed it…unloaded the trailer. The blue van still hadn’t gotten there yet, but they did get there while we were unloading and they went to lunch. It was a great stage. It was an all wood floor and it was a good size. It was a little slippery, but not bad. We used everything except the beaver dam. We got everything together and set up…and it was 5:40. It was a 7:00 show. We had to rework tech because Katie D (Mrs. Beaver) has to work this week and couldn’t come. Dr. Harris, AnnaGee’s mom, is playing Mrs. Beaver for these 5 shows. Katie does a lot of tech, so we had to move things around to make sure it all got done.

So, it was pretty much crazy. We had to run a careful tech, which was a little insane, but got done eventually. Then it was after 6 and time for mic checks. Several of the mics were having issues, so it was taking a long time. It was positively insane. We were on stage trying to do mic checks and looking at our watches creep along. It was about 6:20 when they let us go and Aaron stayed to work with the mics. I don’t know what the problem was, but they called us back in about 10 minutes and said it was fixed. So we all checked them again. They were working, but we had mic issues all through the show, so I have no idea what was going on.

We were not going to make it at 7:00, so they said they could push back the starting time until 7:15. I don’t know what time we started, but it was close to that. It was a good show, with a pretty good audience. Dr. Harris did wonderfully, even though she had never actually run the show with us. I think her makeup looked amazing and really animal like. I’d get a picture on here, but for some reason I still can’t get pictures to look like pictures instead of a big jumble of letters.

After the show and load out we took the Subway they had gotten us and headed to the hotel. They had given us menus for Quizno’s earlier, and we chose what we wanted. Apparently they got to Quizno’s about 10 minutes before closing and couldn’t get them to give them any food. So, they tried to match our orders at Subway. I had to pick mine all apart to be able to eat it again. Blech.

So, it was pretty much a crazy, insane, long day, but I fun one. We are in the van as I am writing this (I write these in the van on the way to the next place…that’s why I do yesterday), and we are almost there. So, I guess that’s all for yesterday!!

Quick note:

Just a quick note to say we are leaving at 9:00 tomorrow morning. We're heading to Conway, AR for a show tomorrow night. After that it's Sringfield & St. Louis, MO, then Earlham, IA. We don't know if we'll drive all the way back on Monday or take it in 2 trips and get back Tuesday. Anyhow, that's it. :)

August 2nd

We left Tallahassee and drove to Brunswick, GA. We got to Brunswick and the GPS lead us into a kind of neighborhood…which was obviously NOT where we were supposed to be. Mr. Payne called the people at the church and we got there alright, but it was kind of funny. We had lunch (sandwiches) and loaded in.

Aaron told us about a dream he had had about other people trying to set up our set and doing it all wrong. They were trying to hang the curtains on a pole of lights, and something happened and the whole big row of lights fell. One of the other people’s toe was broken, and Katie D said “a toe is broken!”. Ha ha. Also Katie P (who was, for some reason, already in her unicorn costume) had blood all over her from the lights apparently falling on her. Aaron said he was really mad and woke up fuming…and then realized he was just dreaming. Gee said she couldn’t imagine why he would have a dream like that. Ha ha.

So, after getting everything set up and running a crazy long tech, we started mic checks. It was about 4:45 when we started, and the show was at 6, and it is really best for us to have a full hour to get ready. There was some big issue with feedback (probably because of the huge speakers that were right on the stage), and it took a long time. He said he just needed someone to talk for a while so he could fix something, and somehow I ended up being the one. I talked for at least 10 minutes. I was racking my brain to think of things to say. I think I said the abc’s all wrong. First I was pretending I couldn’t remember them so it would take longer to say, and then I got all mixed up and couldn’t remember what I had just said. Everyone was laughing at me, so I think I did say them wrong. After I finished saying them wrong I said them backwards (correctly), so everyone wouldn’t think I was completely stupid. ;)

So, it was about 5:15 and they said we could go and we just wouldn’t use mics (other than Gee, who HAS to have one) and they would keep working on it. About 2 minutes later Mr. Payne called us all back again. He said they couldn’t get us loud without getting feedback, so they were going to run the mics really low. Okay, great. We ran back to get ready, and some of us (Faith and me) just barely got ready in time.

It was a good show. We signed a ton of autographs after the show. There were 3 little boys (about 8 years old) who went around hugging everyone. It was funny because they kept on coming back. The first time they asked me if they could have a hug. I said sure, and they hugged me and left. A few minutes later they came back and didn’t ask. Then they came back again and were standing about 3 feet away…and one just dived into me, followed by the rest. It was pretty funny.

Thad and Katie’s parents came to that show, since they live in Macon, GA, which it relatively close. So, they went back home with their family. Katie P. went to the other van for the trip home, and it was strangely quiet in our van. :( But we pretty much slept all the way home, so it was okay. :)

We got to the college yesterday at 4:00, and got home about 4:45. Nothing else eventful to report. We’re just home. Something interesting happened this morning. I was supposed to babysit, but when I got there there was already an Allison there. The lady who called me is out of town, so it was just her husband there, and he said apparently she had booked us both. It was hilarious. None of us had been in that situation before, so we had no idea what to do. The other girl (who goes to our church, so I knew her) had gotten there first, but I was the one he had sent directions the night before. Both of us didn’t really care who stayed and who left, so I just left. It was really weird/embarrassing/funny. I was highly amused.

Anyhow, that’s it. :)