Groundhog Day

So I'm in this show at the Center for Puppetry Arts called Rainforest Adventure.
Right now we do 13 shows a week and we're going to do about 175 shows during the run (which runs through April 9). Yesterday we did show number 50. Sounds impressive. It is - 'cept there's 125 more to go.

I thought during our first show today that the whole thing is like the movie Groundhog Day. Each show, when done properly, should feel exactly the same to us. There are no lines, but lots of concentrating on moving the puppets. We need to be in the moment, but it also has to be so precise. It's like ballet, really. It's choreographed and set to music so there's not much that we can do to stray. Sure, we can look twice at something instead of once....if there's time. If the kids are laughing the monkey can poke the flower with the stick an extra time. But there's not a lot of "hold for laughter" time, you know?

Then at the exact same time during the second show I thought that it felt like Groundhog Day. Crazy. Then I thought about how every move we make in the show can affect the other 4 performers. For example, there's a part in the show where we are all reaching up high to move a puppet...then a couple of us let go and the head puppeteer of that particular part moves the puppet lower. Yesterday I kept my arms up in the air. The audience didn't see it because we're in the dark and dressed all in black. But then I realized that for a split second I didn't lower my arms and didn't know why. I quickly put them down to move around the head puppeteer and in doing so, elbowed Jeffrey in the head. I felt exactly what I did. Then he too had to move around Julie and we had to get in place to grab the same puppet again. Once we were in place, I did a "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for bonking you in the head" pat on Jeffrey's back. He moved in a way to indicate that he was OK and that the apology was accepted. (this happened in about 2 seconds time) then the frog which is supposed to jump in and startle our puppet was late. Clint couldn't get around us because we were standing back farther than normal during our little "conversation." He managed to squeeze past. That caused our puppet to react a couple beats late, which meant that Michael had just a little less time to get the next puppet in place. That worked out just fine, but isn't it funny how that little chain happened all because I kept my arms in the air a couple seconds longer than normal?

At least it made it a little less like Groundhog Day.

I'm adding a photo of the others in the cast and a shot of the monkey in the show. It's dark like that on purpose - but you can see it better in person.

*It's my mom's 61st birthday today. Last year I threw her a kickass surprise party and flew in to Wichita for it - even that was a surprise. This year she got a phone call. Oh well. I saw her a couple weeks ago and that was nice.

*The update from the last few days will have to wait until I get my homework done for tomorrow night's class. I wish I didn't have to work and could just enjoy this quarter. It's turning out to be a good one. I'm learning so much and I'll have some great projects to show for it...I think. Back to work!