Little Women Show Blog

Dallas

So on this tour we've taken to having a monthly paintball day, and it is something that we all look forward to and take very seriously.  Its the day that we leave "Little Women" behind and become "SWAT".  This past Thursday, the usual cadre (Billy, Squeege, Fluff, Patty, Me, Dan, Minarik, the new guy Matty, John Mark) were joined by GIRLS!  Julie Foldesi and Autumn joined the men in our ritual of sweat, fury, and pain.
If you've never been to paintball, you're biggest worry is the pain.  A nickel-sized sphere travelling at 300 fps can leave a nasty welt.  That's part of the charm.  After any day of paintball, there is the obligatory "comparison of the wounds".  Everyone lifting their shirts to show the rainbow of colors that surround the telltale white welt.  Autumn and Julie handled themselves well and even proved invaluable to their teams. Julie appears rather unscathed while Autumn has a bruise on her leg that looks like a purple fried egg.  Patty, who turns out to be a killing machine, took home the men's trophy bruises, the one on his back is particularly gruesome.
A great time was had by all.  I was thinking of posting some of the bruise photos, but Susan advised against it.

Last night was a party hosted by Julie and Cary Michelle, the theme of which was tacky clothes.  The entire company thought about this for weeks since the announcement and the parade of costumes did not dissappoint.  Big hair, blue eyeshadow, tattoos, and trucker hats everywhere.  Ann Kannengeiser's striking red hair was handsomely coiffed into something of a cross between Opie and Darth Vader.  Billy and Autumn came as Dog the bounty hunter and his wife, with Billy as the wife.  Duda was a hillbilly and concertmistress Susie was a pregnant smoker.
Maureen graciously catered the whole affair, even as many of us brought our own favorite trashy foods, including a chili dip that I dispatched almost singlehandedly. 

Katie Fisher will be joining us this week and performing this weekend's matinees and resuming her regular schedule next week in Louisville, KY.  It will be good to have her back.

Julie Foldesi's last performance will be the Thursday matinee.  We will miss her. Meet her and you'll understand why.

The Games People Play

Someone asked what sorts of things we do to each other to mess around.  I have to explain that there is a fine line on those sorts of things.  If you intend to mess around with someone, you have to be reasonably certain that that person will be able to continue with whatever stage business they have to do, that means you can't do something that will affect the flow of the performance.
Sadly there are some of us who, regardless of how subtle the particular trick being played is, will have a hard time keeping it together.  I am, unfortunately, that sort of person.  I get tickled even thinking that something is being done.  Susan is better at it than me, but we really don't mess with her because she's ususally the focus of every scene she's in and that's off limits.
Steve Patterson once appeared in the wings, directly in my view, carrying a coil of rope, and started acting like he was a mountain climber.  Now, you may wonder why that's funny but I was facing offstage directly at him and I had to bite the inside of my cheek.  I am the worst.  Patterson also is the king of the zinger snuck in during general hubbub.  Susan is always telling me the things he's saying when there is the upset in the March home over Amy's fall thru the ice.  "Jo, go on forgive her.  Have you been drinking?"  Stuff like that.  You can always tell when he gets her with one because when Jo tells everyone to be quiet, Susan yells it furiously, trying to get it under control.

Congrats to Sutton Foster on her Tony nomination! Haven't seen the show but heard she's incredible.

Cleveland

The audiences in Cleveland have been pretty fantastic!  I'm in the first scene in the show and since there are a some laughs in the scene, when I come offstage Maureen asks me, "How are they?" Well, Cleveland has consistently been a great audience.  Always laughing and always a big, fat standing ovation at bows.
Backstage stuff: when I come offstage from that first scene, I see Maureen, who is waiting to go on, and she asks how the audience is, I tell her, and then I say to her, "Share your gifts" as I walk off to my dressing room.  This little exchange is one of those backstage traditions that makes our night complete.
Last night, during the scene where Amy comes back from Europe, the March home had no couch.  There was a tech problem so the sofa was unable to run onstage and they all had to do the scene standing.  Susan told me that she was worried that Stephen would do something to make her laugh so she tried to look at him as little as possible.  He's done it to me so she made the right choice.
We thought we had lost our camera.  We were frantically looking for 3 days and finally I found the house manager here who put me in touch with the head of security.  We left it in the house during sound check and someone had turned it in.  A big shoutout to Tom, head of security, and whoever turned our camera in: Thanks!