And Here We Have Idaho

As a note, that title is actually the Idaho State Anthem. Nice.

The long silence on this blog (6 days, comparatively long) was due to Puyallup being a psychotically busy residency. There was a lot to do, a huge cast, extra workshops, and the fact that the Seattle/Tacoma area has a ridiculous highway system that made every supply run an exercise in clock watching. It was kind of a shame, as there seemed to be a lot of stuff in the area worthy of interest, including a comic shop and a used book store in downtown Puyallup. Oh well. We ate pretty well, as the Puyallup area had a nice variety of restaurants, I got my requisite Thai food.

It is unlikely that life will ever take me back to Puyallup, but I can imagine far worse fates.

So, funny kid story. This actually happened. There is a piece of choreography in our show where all the kids are supposed to raise their hands towards a single actor in the middle. It's a nice image most of the time, and the actor in the middle is supposed to just soak it in. This time, however, the one in the middle sees everyone raising their arms and thinks he has to as well. And since he doesn't know which way to raise it, everyone to his right is raising their left arms towards him and everyone to his left is raising their right arms towards him, he sticks his right arm straight out.

Now, this is some complicated explanation, but I'll break down what it looked like: a kid standing on a box with an adoring crowd while he made a "zieg heil" salute. Whoops.

I have officially lost my sense of wonder regarding what these kids are capable of. I get reminded on show days, when parents tell me they had no idea their kids could pull off something like this. It's a twofold answer. First, no one gives kids enough credit, particularly regarding their ability to learn fast. Second, children with no experience in the theater have no conception that putting a full scale musical together in a week is impossible, so they just do it.

And that was Puyallup. I'm liking the Northwest so far. The people are quite kind, and it has a heck of a lot more scenery than the Midwest did. Not that I don't like corn, but one craves variety every so often. So now I'm in Marsing, Idaho. Having only seen it by dark, I can't say too much, but it seems to be a farming town. Actually, I think we're back to corn. This is fine, because it's October and I want to find a corn maze. Maybe a hay ride.

Idaho, by the way, was somewhere I'd always imagined as flat, with potatoes and maybe some hills. This is wildly inaccurate, as driving through the state seemed to consist entirely of hair-raising mountain passes till we got down (literally) to Marsing.

Now, I sleep. This was a looooong drive, particularly after the last few weeks spoiled us with short drives.