Things I Learned On Tour

The picture isn't blurry, that's just what the sunrise looks like when you're up that early.

So Friday was my last day of touring for this season and I am very happy to be done that part of my job. It was rewarding but exhausting and I'm ready for a few days of rest and a trip to visit my Mom and Grandparents before tackling James And The Giant Peach. (Which I am super pumped for!!)
So I made this list and I thought I'd share with you some things I learned on tour.

SOME THINGS I LEARNED ON TOUR:

1. If a line in the play is "Y'all like stories?" a child sitting front and center WILL scream out at the top of his lungs, "I LIKE TRANSFORMERS!!!" and proceed to make you crack up for the next ten minutes while you are trying in vain to go on with your lines and stay in character.

2. Signing autographs will probably never get old. I was that kid when I was little and I remember how much it meant to me.

3. Finding a comfortable way to nap in a captains chair that does not recline in the van is a talent and a skill.

4. Throw pillows are wonderful travel companions.

5. A Styrofoam cooler might not be great for the environment, but it is a luxury in the van.

6. I will never perform for a tougher audience than middle school aged kids who were clearly too cool and too old to see these weird actor people dance around and sing like idiots. It felt like doing a play in front of my graduating class of high school. I'm talking nightmare material, people. But if I can confront those demons with as much grace as I can, then I can do anything.

7. The calories in Pop Tarts, Starbucks Frappe Drinks, and Doritos absolutely do not count while on tour.

8. Trying to maintain gas station etiquette when you are clearly in there just to pee. My tip is to just look like a hot damn mess and nobody will approach you. Check!

9. Some 11 year old boy might start a fight and cry in the audience (that's 3 feet away from you) because he wasn't picked to come on-stage and act like a chicken for about 30 seconds.

10. I've learned what NOT to send my child to school wearing. (Particularly, I would not dress up my obese daughter in a light purple Cookie Monster shirt with the word NOM emblazoned on it paired with sweatpants the color of said Muppet. Just SINFUL.)

11. As tough as this is, I still love it and want to do it again. And again. And again.