February trip to Alaska

I know, I know, why the heck did I move to Minnesota? It seems like I'm always up in Alaska! Well, this trip up was for "business" in a sense. TBA Theatre brought me up to perform in a Folk's Tales show--the latest installment? Rail Tales! Songs and Stories of the American Railroad. Some of you may recall last year the show's theme was stories about the sea and pirates.

These shows are just so much fun. I'm friends with the whole cast, and the rehearsals for these shows end up being just as fun as the performances. This whole crew has the perfect mix of professionalism and goofy-ism to make the process enjoyable. What do I mean by that? We can definitely get off course with our sillyness, but we're able to ring ourselves back in to get things done. And we laugh a lot!

I touched down around midnight Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and then Thursday mid-morning I was recording a radio show with Wayne, one of the other Tales cast members. We were recording a show that airs on the local NPR station call Stage Talk. I think it went pretty well! I was worried that I would sound a little daft owing to jet lag, but we actually had a good time, and it didn't sound too stupid when listening to it.

From then on out we had rehearsals most evenings, as there was really only a week before we had an audience! The rest of the cast had already been rehearsing, and I had been working on Orange Blossom Special on the fiddle... let's just say that I wasn't performance ready yet when we first started. But everyone was patient with me, and we figured out where to place me in stuff they had already arranged, and then we also got to come up with some killer harmonies while I was there as well. And yes, I did end up playing Orange Blossom Special in the show... it wasn' t too painful for people :)

Another highlight to these rehearsals were that they were in the new TBA Theatre Studio. TBA Theatre has its own space! They are using it for offices, rehearsals and classes, and they are renting a theater for actual performances. It looks great, and they just continue to make it nicer. My last weekend there I got to participate in a big open house they had celebrating the new space. I had no idea so many people would show up! It truly was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to kick off having the space.

Hmm... other highlights from this trip? I actually had quite a bit of down time. That drives some people crazy, but I'm one of those people that actually thrives on down time, so it was really great to spend some time at home, chillin with the dogs.

My one regret, as always seems to be the case, is that I never get enough time with my extended family. I see my parents a lot, since I'm staying with them, but I don't get to see my brother or my cousin's family nearly enough. Most of my downtime was during the day, when people were at work. It's one of those things where you always think there will be time and then the time is up! I'm going to have to make an effort to actually schedule time ahead on my next visit, just to make sure I don't continue to have that regret.

This trip was particularly hard to come back to Minnesota from. I think because I just absolutely love all the people in my life in Alaska. Don't get me wrong, there are great things about living in Minnesota, and there are some great people here as well... but there's something to be said for family and for friends that have been your friends for years. I love you guys!

Here's some shots from the show that my brother, Colin, took:



Oh, and here are a couple shots that Tony Batres took, including the necessary Dr. Pepper ad photo: