Birthday Lobster

We are in Waterville ME. We had 2 shows this morning in Waterville Opera House. After the second show we surprised Ariel and Andrew by having the entire audience sing "Happy Birthday." Ariel's birthday is today and Andrew's birthday is tomorrow.

Tonite for dinner, because it's a birthday night AND because we are in Maine we went out for lobster. We were the only ones in the restaurant the entire time. It was Anthony's first time for lobster and everyone had a good time with the mess and the bibs.



The Waterville Opera House



Our Birthday Boy and Girl



The Group After the Lobster Massacre

Jungle Book Tour- New Blood

Greetings!

My name is Andrew Heinrich and if you've seen the show, I am the tall guy that plays Shere Khan.

On of the things I love about live theate is that it really keeps you on your toes as an actor. In live theatre, anything can happen and the show really must go on. As an actor you have to be able to qwuickly adapt to everything from crying kids to prop or set issues.

A great deal of work goes into mitigating those issues on the front end of production. Sets and props are built to endure, lines music and blocking are rehearsed and every aspect of the show is highly organized. Everything has its place.

This weekend is an excellent example of how a show reaps the benfits of hard work. Kelly Petlin had a wedding to attend in Alabama and so we had to bring in a replacement for two shows in Glendora CA at the Citrus College PAC.

Abby Hankins is an old friend of Kelly's,a San Antonio native and a fantastic actor, singer and dancer. Happily she also attends school in California and was avaliable to step in. Abby got a script, a DVD of our performance and an audio CD well before we arrived in California. The script had to highlight more than just her lines. Kelly did a great job of outlining all of her complicated blocking, costume changes, exits and enterances and backstage responsibilites. Kelly and Shelley made sure that Abby would have everything she needed to do her job.

When Abby arrived to rehearse she has already memorized her lines, her music and and her blocking. However we still needed rehearse as a group. Sadly, we don't carry a nice portable space in which to practice. Enter the Comfort Inn parking lot.

It must have been odd for the other guests to see people singing and dancing in their parking lot, but that's theatre. I was terribly impressed with Abby's command of the script. It was a lots of fun to run through the show like that. Many laughs were had.

The next day we arrived at Citrus College early and had another parking lot rehearsal. Then it was time to do our thing. Abby had never run the show in costume. She has several quick changes during the show. However, because of Kelly and Shelley's hard work and organization we didn't miss a beat. She made every change and did a great job.

When you mix talented people with excellent organizers and hard work you can tackle anything. And... it definitely keeps you on your toes.

Jungle Book Tour- Kids Say the Darndest Things!

While on tour we have performed for over 20,000 kids and adults and each audience has had its own personality and quirks. We have performed to inner city NYC high school students, to senior citizen groups, to families and to an entire audience of 1,000 first graders. We have had audiences that laughed out loud throughout the ENTIRE show, we have had audiences that showed their appreciation with only a few claps but raved about the performance in the lobby afterwards and we have had audiences that talked back to the stage on a consistent basis throughout the show.

We probably have to say we like the talkers the best. Mostly because kids say the DARNEST things and possibly because the talkers give us something new to talk about in the car for the next 10 hour drive day.

A few of our favorites-

At the top of the show, Akela asks his wolf brothers to accept Mowgli into the family. He instructs them to show their support by howling. The kids usually will howl their support during this scene. Sometimes we then get howling whenever Mowgli is threatened or whenever the kids want to show that they are behind Mowgli and against Shere Kahn. During one show we even got howling when Mowgli chases off the bad guys at the end of the show.

Towards the end of the show Mowgli is given the fire by the Village Woman and spends some time inspecting it. He touches the fire with his fingers and then with his tongue. At one performance, just as he was putting his tongue to the fire a kid yelled, "It's hot dude!"

This moment often invokes some advice such as "Don't touch it!", "NO" or during one show kids just started yelling "Fire!" in the crowded theatre. (Sorry, I had to go there)

During a scene between Shere Khan and Akela, Shere Khan says that Akela's pack will not protect him forever. We have had a couple kids respond to that line with howling or with supportive yells but during one show a kid yelled "Oh yes we will!"

And just the other day when Mowgli fights off the bad guys and falls into tears we had a young man yell "Be a man!"

These little nuggets of truth and support are just some of the amazing feedback we have been getting on this tour. No matter how long we drive, how exhausted we are, or how much fast food we are eating, seeing the kids faces and excitement can always create the energy needed to perform extra hard just for them. Because even if it is the umpteenth time WE have done the show, it's the first time for them and the children deserve all that we can give.

Jungle Book Tour- Brawley CA

We are currently in California. We will have a few shows in the area including shows in La Mirada, Brawley, Lancaster and Glendora. Yesterday we had a show in Brawley CA which is fairly close to the border with Mexico. Most of the population of Brawley CA falls into 3 groups. You have the wealthy farm owners, the poor farm labourers and then the middle class; police, teachers, ect.

We were a little bit nervous since I had not been able to get in touch with the Technical Director. After speaking with the Executive Director I had been able to decipher that we were at the High School and that we were in a gym but that was about it.

We haven't done the show that often without a tech crew, a stage and proper theatrical lighting and this time we were doing the show without all of those things. We had to make a few changes to accommodate the venue.

However the show was good and the kids LOVED it. The actors certainly went the extra mile in terms of physicality and facial expressions.





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