Dallas Continued

Dallas Continued

Thursday, July 5th

Last week, Paula and Mitchell hosted a "hell" party at their rental house. Everyone was invited to dress up. The Spamily came up with all sorts of interesting ideas. (Graham and Darryl dressed as the Menendez brothers. Ryan sprouted horns out of his baseball cap. Mitchell looked like something out of "A Clockwork Orange". Lots of people took the opportunity to be exhibitionists.) Their house was ridiculous. It was a split level affair with lots of small outdoor porches. One of the porches was walled in from the neighbors one one side, faced the kitchen, the living room and the bathroom with big windows on the other three sides. You could stand in the kitchen and look into the bathroom - you can imagine the hi-jinks this lead to. The roll of film has gone off to Snapfish.

Friday night, Sheila Marie flew to Dallas! By the time her plane finally arrived and she drove from the airport to the hotel, it was early Saturday morning; but I was still overjoyed to see her, no matter the hour. Ken let me take off Saturday evening's show, so we went out the mall after the matinee. It was one of those days when every store seemed to have something you wanted, and there were lots of good sales going on. We both came home with some new stuff. I'm glad there was some extra room in Sheila's suitcase! All the shopping made us hungry, so we stopped off at Joe's Crab Shack and feasted on big plates of crab on their outdoor deck. Really relaxing.

Sunday, Spamalot only had a matinee performance (there were fireworks scheduled on the fairgrounds that evening), so Sheila Marie and I had a second evening together! We headed out to see "Sicko", the new Michael Moore film. While it's wrong to say that I enjoyed the film, I am glad we went to see it. I left wanting to do something about the health insurance system, though I'm not sure what, exactly, to do. It seems so obvious to me that the health care system in the US is broken and that the people making money from its dysfunction are determined to keep it from being fixed, that I don't know how we get out of this predicament without some really fearless leadership. (The sort of leadership that is always in short supply.) After the movie we went to Kirby's for steaks, wine and conversation. We both had delicious pieces of beef. We, as usual, confused the waiter: he tried to give me Sheila Marie's "Cowboy Cut Rib-Eye" and wanted to set my Roquefort Fillet in front of her. The meal was carnivore heaven all the way from the fried pickle chips to the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. We both slept contentedly, if fitfully.

Monday morning, we headed over to the Farmers' Market to pick up a house warming gift for Suzanne (one third of the Spamalot Hair Department). Suzanne lives 2 hours east of Dallas. Before I joined the tour, her home burned. No one was injured, but her home was a total loss. Since I've been on the show, she's been showing off pictures of the rebuilding process, pouring over blueprints and making decisions about cabinetry. On Monday the 2nd, she invited the Spamily to come to East Texas and see the progress. Her house is going to be lovely. The exterior is mostly done and the interior is taking shape - you can really get a sense of what it's going to be like when it's done. She catered in some tasty barbecue from the only restaurant in town and we had a fun afternoon. Mike Berg and Mark Vlahos kicked every one's butts at horseshoes, folks sat on the porch and shot the breeze, we got to meet Suzanne's family and Cuz lit up the night sky with fireworks. Sheila was right, though, when she said: "there sure is a lot of nature" around Suzanne's house; her neighbors are a long way off and it gets truly dark out there.

Tuesday, Casey and Sarah drove up from Austin for a visit. We met in Fort Worth for the afternoon. We toured the former Stok Yards and learned about the cowboy era in Texas. Fort Worth was the last "civilized" stop for cattle drives headed north to Kansas after the Civil War. Later, as the railroads came to town, Fort Worth became a major market for all sorts of animals (during World War I, the Europeans bought thousands of horses and donkeys at market in Fort Worth) and then meat processors came to town. In their heyday (the 1940's and 50's) the stock yards were such a giant operation, that a pig or sheep could be unloaded from an arriving train and dressed out in the processing plant in 25 minutes (a cow took 30 minutes). The two major slaughterhouse operations left in the 70's, but the city has preserved much of the Stock Yards. The livery building is still a working stable. The cow and hog handling building is fitted with all kinds of shops where the pens used to be. In the administration building, there's a museum as well as a modern, digital animal market. The city of Fort Worth keeps a herd of longhorn cattle as well as a staff of cowboys. Twice a day there's a "cattle drive" up Exchange Street. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the drive as the heaven's opened in a deluge just about the time it was scheduled. The rainy weather has followed us from Houston. It has rained nearly every day here as well. There have been all manner of flash-floods and crazy thunderstorms. We left Fort Worth in the rain and drove back to Dallas under black skies with sheets of rain keeping traffic on I-30 to a crawl.

The Fort Worth Herd on their daily cattle drive (on a sunnier day).

Wednesday, July 4th, Casey and Sarah elected that we visit the Dallas World Aquarium. I wasn't very enthusiastic about their choice, having been to two aquariums on the tour already. I was, however, very happily surprised by the experience. The World Aquarium was as much zoo and ecological display as it was aquarium. The exhibit was divided into two parts: Rainforest and Mayan with a small "Ocean's of the World" exhibit between the two. You entered at the top of the Rainforest and worked your way down to the underwater portion. On display were many kinds of monkeys (including Sheila's favorite: Pygmy Marmosets), birds, a three-toed sloth, alligators, spiders, bats, sharks, turtles and fish. Then, you saw examples of the sea life from all sorts of environments and stepped outside to see their penguins, before entering the Mayan exhibit at the bottom and working your way up. From South America there were rattlesnakes, crocodiles, more monkeys and a jaguar. It was a really awesome morning! Casey and Sarah headed back to Austin from the aquarium. Sheila Marie dropped me back at the hotel on her way to the airport. I spent the balance of my afternoon watching a Law & Order marathon, until it was showtime.

We had a great time with Casey and Sarah. It was really fun to spend time getting to know her. After the show on Tuesday, the four of us went out for a really casual drink and conversation. Though we met Sarah in September during our trip to Austin, this was our first opportunity to really talk to her. She seems really wonderful.

Sheila Marie's trip was also wonderful. It was so nice to have two evenings to spend together in addition to the day off on Monday. I know that the travelling is hard on her (her flight on Friday was delayed an hour and a half; and though her flight on Wednesday actually landed ahead of schedule, it took her almost 4 hours to get home from the airport), but it's so good to see her. I'm really enjoying the tour, but like it even more when we're able to spend time together.

This afternoon, after rehearsal Ken, Karl, Francesca and I visited Jaki. She's moved out of the hospital and into a rehab facility. Her brother and her boyfriend are both here with her, and when we visited, her room was overflowing with Spamily. She's doing really well. When we visited last week, she was on lots of pain medication and didn't seem herself. Today, she was funny, clever and much more the Jaki we know and love. She's still got several weeks of recovery and rehab to do before she can leave Dallas, but she's on her way back. Continued best wishes, Jak.

Sunday was Jamie Karen's last performance with Spamalot. There was lots of backstage silliness to mark her farewell performance. Somehow, her set of mace balls (in the Camelot number) were replaced with a pair of rubber chickens. Jamie swung those chickens and kept of dancing like a pro. She will be missed.

Jamie's replacement, Sabra Lewis, had a great debut on Tuesday and has slipped right into the company. We're also rehearsing a new Spammer; Andrew Fitch will be our new vacation swing. As Christopher Gurr and then Michael Siberry take vacations in the coming weeks, Andrew will cover various ensemble members as they step up into principal roles. Next week we also welcome Brian O'Brien who will learn Kevin Crewell's track before he leaves to join the Drowsy Chaperon tour. Lots more rehearsing to do.

As soon as I have photos from the last week, I'll post them!

JV