Bring out the Tarp Tour

Bring out the Tarp Tour
Thursday, May 10th

First, a correction: The Murat Centre is not a former Masonic Temple. It is, in fact, a Shrine formerly belonging to the Shriners (“Having Fun and Helping Kids”). They still hold their meetings and maintain a lounge in the North end of the building. Glad we cleared that up.

So, a quick change booth in a truck; what a genius idea! That is, until it rains. During the intermission on Tuesday night, the heavens opened in a deluge of rain. While the truck had one of those loading dock seal flaps around the opening, this proved not to be water-tight (probably fine for a load-in, not when there are thousands of dollars worth of costumes open to the elements). A mad scramble to stop the leaks ensued. It was nearly the end of a very long and very tense load-in (everyone had been haggling over the little available space all day) and tempers flared a bit. Hats off to Ken and our whole crew though, as they pulled together, stopped the leaking, and got the show back up on time. The rest of opening night in Indianapolis was pretty smooth and there was a work call on Wednesday to spread a tarp over the truck.

Wednesday was set to be our second try at Spamalot goes to the ballgame. More than 20 people signed up to see the Indianapolis Indians take on the Syracuse Chiefs Wednesday at 2 PM. The weather forecast was less than reassuring on Tuesday, so I did not pre-purchase the tickets. Thank heaven I didn’t. About 11 AM it began to rain. About 12:30 it began to pour and thunder. At 1:30 it was still raining right along. Four of us showed up (in the rain) to see the game. However, around 2 PM the rain lessened and the grounds crew pulled back the tarp. At 2:30 the first pitch was thrown under gray, but dry, skies. By 3 PM the sun was out and it was 80 degrees. It turned out to be a beautiful day for baseball! Mike Berg, Matt Allen, Erik Hayden and I enjoyed the sunshine, company and some classic baseball fare. While the home team wasn’t able to overcome the Syracuse starting pitcher’s complete game (5 hits and 1 run), we had a blast. Early in the game, Mike shagged a fowl ball and was roundly booed by the whole stadium as there was a little boy headed for the same ball. He tossed the kid the ball and was rewarded with a round of applause. (To be fair, the ball was clearly Mike’s. Later in the game the same kid caught another ball tossed into the stands by a player and then won an autographed ball in a raffle. Lucky brat.) The “Atlas Gym Flex-Cam” was panning the crowd encouraging men to flex on the jumbo-tron when Mat suggested that perhaps it should alight on him (he’s a pretty buff guy). Sure enough, the camera settled on us! Matt jumped up and tore off his jersey and t-shirt. Before he could even get the t-shirt over his head, the camera cut away. We all had a laugh about the control room screaming: “Take camera two! That guy’s getting naked! Take camera two!” Much fun.

I’m enjoying being back in the Midwest. All of my favorite fast-food comforts are close at hand. There’s a White Castle, Arby’s, Johnny Rockets and Steak and Shake all within 2 blocks of our hotel. (Yay for chili five way!) I’m also happy to find Squirt everywhere and pleased to be reacquainted with free refills. While none of these things are good for my waistline, they are a sure signs of home.

Mom and Dad arrived this evening. They picked me up from this afternoon’s understudy rehearsal and took me out for a quick bite at Agio (an Italian/Mediterranean joint) just up the street from the theatre. Massachusetts Avenue runs past the theatre and is the up and coming artsy strip in Indy. There are lots of cute looking places to choose from, but we made a great choice. I enjoyed my pesto very much. Mom and Dad both enjoyed their entrees as well.

I’m looking forward to a family weekend with Sheila arriving on Friday evening and Donn and Rhoda arriving in time for brunch on Saturday. Before everyone’s here, though, there’s time for one more night of Spamily fun with a party at Mitchell’s (our hair supervisor) real-life home tonight.

Should be a fun weekend!

JV