She's okay!

We got good news last night, our coworker, Sherida, is going to be okay. She's home and resting, though they have her on some heavy painkiller. It was the only good news we had last night. Everything else kind of sucked. Since it's the holidays, people want to bring their kids to show, but it's a no children under 5 policy. Guess how well they take that.

No news yet...

Last night one of my co-workers collapsed. She said her legs and arms had gone numb.
We called an ambulance. She stopped speaking. They whisked her out. We've heard nothing.

Venting time.

I want to be clear that I really don't care about meeting celebrities. Sure it's kind of interesting to see them when they come through, but if I don't, it's no big deal. There are, however, a few exceptions to that rule. Last night was one. Brian May. I know most of you probably don't know who that is, so I will clarify, Brian May is the lead guitarist of my favorite band, Queen. He came to see the first show last night. Came right through the lobby like anyone else. Didn't even call ahead or demand VIP seats.
I didn't have the slightest clue he was there.
After he had left, Skip was sitting by me at our meal break and casually leaned forward saying "Did you know we did have a VIP tonight. He was in Queen. Ryan May or something like that."
I'm guess my reaction was not what he expected. I'm sure he had anticipated the normally calm and cool Chad to reply, "Really? That's very interesting. No, I did not see him."
Instead he got Maniac Chad
"What!?!?!? And you didn't call me?!?!?! You dirty son of a... I should rip your mustache off!!!! Damnit!!! Off all the no account rotten... penguin eating... if I had a tank I'd..."
Allright not that bad. But I was a little angry and disappointed. Not that I would have asked for an autograph or any obnoxious crap like that. I just would have liked to have said hello.

Shot down...

Oh man did I have a rough night last night. We had gotten to work and preped evereything for the first show on what is my last night of the week. (The show is dark on Wed. and Thur.) Everything was going fine until about 15 minutes into the show. They had just finished the act and the last actress was off stage, but the musicians had begun looping and improvising. That continued while nothing else happened for a minute or so. Then the house lights came up.
"Ladies and gentlemen, due to an unexpecteted technical malfunction, we will be taking a short pause. Please remain in your seats. Thank you."
Hmmm. Not a good thing. I know from talking to the performers and technicians that Cirque plans into every show a number of contingincies for when things go wrong. But there's nothing they can do when the hydrolic system fails. So a few minutes later they announced a ten minute intermission. And after twenty minutes it was inevitable.
The show was canceled.
Now we all knew that cancelations are part of the game, especially in a production this technical, but since it was our first, we were in the position of having to put what before was just theoretical procedures into place. We told everyone to get a refund voucher in the lobby and they can either get a full refund or reschedule for another show. We wern't sure if the second show would happen, but we had our fingures crossed. Then we went out to the box office to help control the lines and give info to people. One lady almost bit my head off because I couldn't tell her if the next show was cancelled or not. Most people were very understanding though. It proved my faith in people's good nature.
Eventually everyone got settled and the second show went on without a hitch, save starting about ten minutes later than usual. But by the end of the night I was so mentally and physically exsausted, I wanted to just sleep in the theatre.

All in the family.

I was thinking last night how this will be my first Christmas away from my brother Bill. At some point I've spent a Christmas without other members of my immeadiate family, Mom, Dad, Troy, my nephews and niece, but Bill and I have always managed to stay together, if only for an hour or two. Until now. It's actually a bit odd that we have done so well when you think about. Bill is ten years older than I am and for my of my life he and I have lived in different homes. We can sometimes go months without talking, but we always managed to arrange ourselves to be together at Christmas. It's going to be hard without him, but unfortunatly I'm in no position to go back to Winnemucca or Reno this year. Hopefully next year...

Miserable Sick..

My first day off in over a week and I have a cold. Of course!! Paige has been sick for awhile now, so I suppose it was inevitable. But what's up?!? Fortunatly on Friday I will get to move back inside the theatre and, hopefully, interact with the patrons in a more theatrical way. So far I've been stuck on the exit door which limits me to "The restroom is right there." and "Please use this ticket to re-enter when you are ready." We've had a fair number of gripes regarding the fact that since we were hired as actors we should be doing some acting. I guess it got through though. My supervisor Desiree that we are still gearing towards a more entertainment and character driven position, but we have to start with the basics of customer service. It does make some sense.
I got to meet very briefly with Guy last night. He is the owner of Cirque and he expressed a very positive feeling towards what we are trying to do, so that was something.