the last leg

Michigan brought us everything we needed- and how.

The day before, we had spent a long time driving to Hammond, Indiana, after the FoD. We had a sort of strange show. Chuck Malone (MD) had a lot of his family there, and that was nice. Most of the weirdness came with a rough tech where not a lot was in order, and had extremely low energy after a couple members lost a battle to a bad Arby’s. in tech – a period before the show where you run tops and bottoms of scenes, there was a buzzing sound that didn’t let up and continued nearly the whole time the show progressed, which drove Malone nuts. Meghan scrambled and did well with the space, but there was only so much she could do. we just went for it and sorta got through it. Interesting to see that even when you’re the Temple of Satire ™ that things don’t always line up exactly as you thought they may. made me feel a little better about the shitfires that other theatres i know and love have been through with riders and stipulations unmet.

the next day, the 15th, we drove to Alma College, MI. A few friends from a group called Mission:IMPROVABLE had told me this college was a fun place to play, and they were right (for once). (you heard me, dudes.) we met with a professor and his high school son at the bottom of tech, and that was nice to see someone so excited about the show, just from watching the tech part.

but the biggest reward came after the show: a stay at a bed and breakfast in the town. it was a beautiful place called Saravilla, a gorgeous renovated mansion of a house with a wrap around porch, private bathrooms with clawfoot jacuzzi baths, a ping pong table, a hot tub, and a homecooked delish breakfast. downside: the owners, who were batshit nuts, and had about 90 faceless angels in the living areas (we counted). i’m nervous that they’ll google my ass and see that, but it’s worth it. Sniffen took a major shine to doing impersonation of the female, a witch like voice that ended in a soul-sucking sound, which was startlingly accurate and terrifying. even though they were pretty strange, they were relatively lenient with the downstairs space; when we were done with our show, we retired to the B&B with a case of beer and lots of drinks. we played a homemade version of apples to apples which made us laugh so hard we cried, quite literally. Sniffs lit about a zillion candles, which only made the faceless angels all around us seem even more faceless.

back to Chicago the next day for a whopping two days off. it felt good to end this leg on such a high note… but really, besides the lack of sleep, none have been low.