Last week was Little Falls, MN. It was a nice town. The population was around 8000 and it felt like Winfield, KS where I went to college. The kids that week were amazing which was great because we needed a pick me up. The kids had a lot of energy and most had experience with Prairie Fire so they knew how the week would go. Personally, I worked with some really talented kids. My Tinman and Lion were some of the best I had. Good voices and willing to trust me when I gave them stuff to do. The Lion is a great part and I am constantly peeved that I can't be it. The Tin Man is not the best part. I wasn't a fan of what it was doing so I changed and few things and added some stuff in during the solo to make it funnier for the audience and more fun for the kids. So far it has worked but I was always worried about if my changes were cool with the people in charge.
This week one of our managers came to see the show along with some other people who had a week off and spent it in Barrett. My changes were given approval which was a big relief. We only had one performance this week on Friday night so the next day we went to a small river for a tubing experience. We did not plan well. I don't have a swimsuit with me because I can't remember the last time I went swimming so I wore a t-shirt and shorts. Then the tubing rubbed off on my shirt so it has black marks all over it that didn't come out with a wash and the water was so low in some parts that I ran my ass into a tree and it ripped my favorite shorts. We also didn't understand the tethering together part as well as bringing beer so we just floated along till we found a rope swing in a deep part so that was awesome. Besides the awkward parts it was a lot of fun. The rest of the time we just hung out, had dinner, and had some drinks in our room.
Speaking of rooms we thought we might have had bedbugs at the Super 8 we were staying in but they we realized it was just dirty.
The other thing we did in Little Falls was go to a cool zoo. It was much nicer than the Paul Bunyan Animal Land. That place was just depressing. Two big black bears in a concrete cage the size of a single car garage. The rest looked dirty and neglected to an extent. I seriously want to call PETA and have them do what they are good at. Thank goodness for the zoo in Little Falls. It was much nicer. The animals had more space and seemed happier. They had two black bears who had a ton of space and Liz and I watched them for 20 minutes while they played together.
We also went to see Charles Lindbergh's childhood home. It was really nice. Charles Lindbergh was alive when they were putting they whole thing together so everything in the house originally belonged to him and his family so there was so much history. We were very lucky because the day we went to see the house was the day before the government shut down. The next day the museum was going to close because it is on state park land. The other thing that is a problem is it was during travel season so no one can go to the state parks for vacation, rest stops are closed, everything...a lot of people are out of a job. It is crazy.
Then we went to Greenbush which is super north and about 30 minutes from Canada. We were there for the 4th of July. We did a parade with the kids to help advertise and then Liz went to a Rodeo. After we went to the only place in town to eat and got burgers when a severe thunderstorm came through. The teenage girls running the place ran out of the restaurant to the gas station next door. We had already gotten our food but they left everything on. The power had gone out but gas was still coming out for the flat top. I actually turned all the equipment off, Liz and I finished out food and left. It really was not that bad, just heavy rain and it was over in 10 minutes. I basically made sure they didn't die when they came back. The kids were really good and excited to be there because this was only their second year doing PFCT. Th families were very nice and we got invited over for food which is always a positive.
This was a good week to finish because we knew we were coming up against a pretty rough week in Duluth. We had a double booking which means we had two sets of kids. It was pretty good throughout the week till we hit Thursday and we were just about to crash. We worked and stayed on the College of St. Scholastica campus and it was nice because we had an actually kitchen although I was generally too tired to use it. I went to bed between 9 and 10 each night and got up at 6. We had some pretty good cast members but I did have some issues with my Lion. He was a really good kid and had really good comic timing and ideas for the character but he basically had a breakdown every time he had to sing or put on his costume. I was worried he wasn't going to show on the second day of rehearsal. It was an issue you all week till the show when he did amazing. Duluth is a nice city and has a lot of hippies. We had kids with names like Roshi, Forestasia, and Tirzah. But overall good kids with lots of energy.
Now we are in Mankato. That is another story. It isn't that we have bad kids or anything like that. They do PFCT a lot, like 5 times and summer and it isn't new to all of them so there are some issues with attitude and enthusiasm. I had one of my leads start to get really frustrated and started to swear. This kid is like 12 so I had to lay some things on the line and that hasn't happened again...only jut some attitude. I think this is going to be a basic week, nothing too bad and nothing extraordinary but I kind of like that because then those smaller towns and other kids seem that much more enthusiastic and excited so all in all a nice balance.
Then we are off to Maple Grove outside the cities and then all the way up to Silver Bay which is north of Duluth and is right on Lake Superior which btw...is awesome.
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