Day 7-10, Albuquerque, Phoenix & Anaheim, CA

Okay, so sorry for keeping you all on edge. I've had some issues with getting on the internet the past 2 or 3 nights. I think this post will be mostly pictures and little writing. So, here goes...

After Lubbock, we went to Albuquerque. We had one show there. It went great, the audience was nice. We couldn't use all of the set pieces again. I'm hoping I can remember all my tech (moving set on and off) when we do get to use it all again!! They had a big stage but they also had a bunch of band stuff set up on it with a curtain in front of it. We had to put our curtain up in front of theirs, making the stage pretty small. Any circles turned into oblongs...but it went okay. Here's some pictures:

After Albuquerque was Phoenix. That was the best stage (with carpet) ever. We don't really like carpet because it makes it harder to roll set on and off and the way some of the characters walk is hard to do on carpet. The audience was fantastic and it had TONS of kids in it. Some of them came up and sat in the floor in front of the stage. After every set change there were more kids at the front. Then they started creeping up the steps. We were a little afraid they would join us on the stage. It was hilarious.

We finally got our programs in Phoenix. We took a whole bunch of pictures to make a program before we left, and they couldn't get them printed in time, so they were mailing them to us. It is sooo cool. It is a 16 page, full color deal. I think they are selling them for $10. That's a little outrageous...but I'm not in charge of that. There is one pic of the front in the next string of pictures. The night of the Phoenix show we stayed in Food for the Hungry's "missions house". We are working with Food for the Hungry on the tour. I think they are helping sponsor us and we are doing a presentation at every show about sponsoring children through them. The missions house was just a house for whoever needs one. All 5 of us and Aaron, who plays the wolf, stayed there. It was pretty cool. I wish we had more time there. We got in really late and had to leave by 7:45 in the morning. There was a big cactus in the front yard.

We passed a whole bunch of cacti in Arizona...

Tomorrow (June 7th) we have our last of 3 shows here in Anaheim, which is near Los Angeles. The stage has carpet, and is small after we have the curtains up, but we can't help that. It is a pretty good size, but we have to have a backstage area to roll set off onto, and that means the curtains have to go up and there has to be about 5 or 6 feet between them and the wall, making the stage smaller. The first show here was so funny. there were so many mess-ups. It was still a good show, because it was almost all things we had no control over. At one point the wolf comes in with Edmund and throws him to the floor at the Witch's feet. Then the wolf goes over next to her throne and pants. At that point some tiny voice in the audience yells out "Is he a puppy?". All of us backstage just about died laughing. The big scary wolf, a puppy. Ha ha ha ha...it killed me. "Puppy" will probably be his new nickname. We had mic problems all though act I, so we cut them for act II. Mr. Tumnus's mic fell off when Lucy was at his house. Aaron's (the wolf) voice cracked twice when we was telling all of us how his queen's army would destroy Aslan and his cowardly crew in the blink of an eye. That's his best part. He comes out and scares all of us. He challenges Aslan to "test his strength" and Aslan says Peter will fight the wolf. It is a big scary part. He scares me, but I wanted to laugh when his voice cracked. It was really funny.

The people here are so nice. We have some people in the cast who have several allergies, and the lady providing meals has some of the same allergies so she has made them different food. The venues are giving us lunch and dinner everyday that we have a show there. The first night here it was lasagna with garlic bread and salad. Fantastic. For lunch yesterday we had In & Out burgers. That's a fast food chain we don't have in Tennessee. Those burgers were amazing. Today we had sandwiches for lunch and awesome Mexican food for dinner. I threw a picture of that in there for ya. The audience today was fabulous. Small, about 60 or 70, but really great. Krystin, the girl playing Lucy, has family here, and I think she's really enjoying getting to have her family see her in the show. It is funny that she is 23, playing the youngest of us four. We're all out of order... Jonathan is 14, I'm 17, Christopher is 11, and Krystin is 23. That's our character's age order.

Today was the best yet. The show was at 1:00, and we were out of there by 5. That's including moving everything off the stage so they can have church services tomorrow and hanging around for dinner. We went to the ocean today. We drove for about 35 or 40 minutes to get to Laguna Beach. It was amazing. I've rarely been so happy. We got to play in the Pacific ocean and watch the sun set in California. It was soooooooo beautiful. We thought it would be cold, but it really wasn't when you were in it. Now when you got out, that was cold, but the water was great. First we went out on some rocks just to walk around and get our feet wet, but I ended up soaked. I went out on the farthest rock and a big wave came and bowled me over. I almost went off the rock. I wasn't really planning to get wet then, but that did it. Katie, one of the cast, thought I was going to die. Ha ha. It wasn't that close. After that we walked over to a place that had a little sand. The rock place was a staircase ending in big rocks that were in the water. We stayed at the sandy place for awhile before going around a bend to another sandy place where there was more sun. The sun was just setting and it was unutterably beautiful. The water, the palm trees, the beautiful sunset of orange and blue...I still can't believe I was there.

I still can't believe we're even on this tour. It is all so incredible. It is such a dream come true, I can't even describe it. I've always wanted to be Susan in a play of LWW, ever since I can remember. I have dreamed about it for so many years. My siblings and I played so many games of Narnia when we were little. It was almost all we played. I was so disappointed when we didn't get into the show 2 years ago. I'd been Susan almost as long as I could remember, and I wasn't good enough. I couldn't believe it. And now I'm getting that dream in a bigger way then I ever imagined. I can't believe it. I've also wanted to travel for a long time. I longed to go and see the world, to see what the people of the world were like. I really wanted to go overseas, but anywhere would be just fabulous. Now I'm getting that dream in a way even more wonderful than I thought I'd ever get. I'm getting to see my country for free and being paid to do it. I'm getting to be in a traveling show that is so close to my heart. I am just speechless with delight. I don't even know how to describe what this means to me. I am so thankful to God and everyone responsible for getting me here.

Anyhow, I'll stop being all mushy now. I better get off to bed, or chair as it were. Tonight I'm sleeping in a big recliner. It's pretty comfy. Wow, I just looked back over what I wrote...so much for not writing very much. Ha ha. Hopefully I"ll be able to get online every night so I won't leave you all hanging... :)