Of Snow and Laundry

I know we've said it here, and elsewhere, and surely we will continue to say it over and over in other venues: touring is great fun. Our weekend in Bellingham, WA, hosted by the great students and faculty at Western Washington University, was fun for all the expected reasons and then a few unexpected ones as well. Namely: snow.



The car full of H2M actors arrived in Bellingham at 11:00am on Friday morning, having somehow managed to leave Portland at a bleary-eyed 6am. We went straight to our favorite co-op for a fuel-up before descending on the Old Main Theater. It was such a treat to return to the same theater where, in November 2008, we performed Repeat After Me (the experience of performing RAM with all of it's USA love/hate pathos was amazing in the high of the post-Obama election, but that is for another time). I love walking into the theater and seeing our little set waiting for us with open arms, the lights hung, and the tech crew reaching for their 4th coffee of the day.

We had the fastest and smoothest tech yet of this tour and then curled ourselves into blankets and sleeping bags for a pre-show nap. It is amazing how comfortable a theater floor can be. The Friday night audience was hyped up for sure, laughing and exclaiming at lines and moments I didn't even know existed. I thought we must have really been on fire to have elicited such a reaction and while I don't want to play down our excellent and energetic performance, it became clear as soon as we left the theater that the audience was hyped up by what was happening outside: huge beautiful snow flakes!

There were a few inches on the ground by the time we left the theater, and it took some kind souls pushing and hopping on the hood of our car to make it downtown for our post-show celebration. Liz and I were staying with a few WWU students who had the foresight to live part-way up a very steep hill. Thankfully, we also had the foresight to leave our car parked at the bottom of the hill and get a ride home. The next morning's walk, however, was a little tricky.

Saturday we taught a workshop for WWU students and alums and spent the afternoon resting in front of the fire and eating soup at the home of the amazing Rich and Kendall. Saturday's show was followed by the fastest stike ever thanks to the WWU students (is it clear yet how amazing they were) and the strangest quesadillas ever.

On Sunday, while the tech team drove home to Portland, the actors stayed in Seattle to visit our favorite NW presenters On the Boards, see Ralph Lemon's amazing How Can You Stay Inside the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?, and stay up until 5am dancing. There was so much love we made the snow fall again.

Now, back in Portland, the only thing left to do was wash the costumes. Nothing brings back those special tour moments more than this: