Life Change Mondays

In the theatre, Mondays are considered the artist's day of rest. After eight shows a week, matinees and evening shows, rehearsals, and living your life away from home, I welcome Mondays with open arms! When we first opened in San Fran, I rarely left my studio apartment on our "Golden Days." My sore muscles, tired voice and sleepy eyes would rule the day, but then a little big thing called "Life Change Mondays" started banging down my door. A small group of us from the show decided to enjoy the great city of San Francisco in all its glory.

After I got Jarrod, Danni (his amazing girlfriend) and Nato to promise the day started no earlier than high noon, I was in! We began calling our adventures, "Life Change Mondays"

Our first adventure was to Muir Woods located twenty minutes out of the city in Marin County. Lots of big trees. We hiked for 5.2 miles. They made fun of my pink outfit, but to my credit the bright colors scared away all the bears and wolves. (No bear is gonna eat a stylish brunette.) We saw little deer with short legs, six of them, just chomping on greens. What a life. They looked at us like we were crazy. It was so nice to get out of the "tenderloin district." The air was crisp, the views were amazing and the company was fabulous. After hiking for two hours the trail sign said "Keep Away, Not Safe, Trail Closed." (Note to self and all other amateur hikers: park rangers know more about hiking and safety than you do... it's in your best interest to follow official warning signs!)

Um what can I say?...I made the group continue hiking on a closed trail and we were stopped abruptly by a forty yard revine. A mud slide had whooshed away the entire side of the mountain. I'm talking trees, top soil, the actual trail...basically it looked as bare as the moon. Nato, "the brave" went first, then the girls, then Jarrod. It was a very steep incline. There was also a huge black flood pipe the size of a double bed about twenty yards in. It was quite the adventure (no joke see the pictures.) After the boys found a rope and threw it down sixty feet, Danni and I hoisted our selves up the side of the mountain. It was so great.

We stopped off at Scomo's in Saulsilito and ate the famous clam chowder. We were starving. Two of the waiters had seen the show so the restaurant staff was unbelievably nice to us. We signed "Scomo's" post cards! They excused our dust and we indulged in the creamiest homemade cheesecake you've ever tasted... (you know the kind with the crumbly homemade graham cracker crust.)

After recouping, a couple of Monday's later we went to Alacatraz. Awesome. Granted it was pouring rain on the boat ride over, "Mr. Sun" came out when we hit the prison. In addition to the Fab 4, "Ingerwing" (Michael: "Nick Massi") came with us. We all took the audio tour. Well done; bravo, I say. Hearing the voices of the actual wardens, prisoners and guards created a life like ambience. At the gift shop I bought some playing cards that have the rules and regulations of the prison listed on the individual cards. My favorite: "You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter and medical attention. Anything else you get is a privilege." I think my dad said that to me when I was driving his car and got into a car accident. (Always have a disposable camera in your glove compartment to take pictures of the accident: it proved it wasn't my fault!) After our Alacatraz adventure we ate breadbowl soup on the wharf and went to the Ghiradelli Ice Cream Shop and had hot fudge sundaes.



The final "Life Change Monday" adventure consisted of traveling to Berkeley and touring the Sharffanberger Chocolate Factory. I love chocolate so this was the perfect field trip for me. Real dark chocolate made straight from the cocoa bean. Scrumptious. I eat chocolate everyday and am obsessed with taste tasting. They were shoveling samples down our throat. It's a lot like growing, cultivating and processing coffee. "Can you taste the earth in this bean? How about the flowery essence in this sample? Can you smell the South American dirt flavors in this bit of chocolate?" I wanted to say, "Lady, all I taste is chocolate, 79% cacao bean: pure dark chocolate and I love it!" But I just nodded my head, smiled and acted like I was a connoisseur choco taster. A girl can dream can't she? We had to wear ear protectors, hair caps and aprons when we entered the factory. The building was constructed in 1909 and survived all the earthquakes! (It's so obvious that God loves chocolate.)
Huge machines the size of tractors refine, compress, melt and make the chocolate. At the end there was a very long conveyor belt and all the perfect little brown squares of decadence rolled by right in front of my eyes. (Nato's camera ran out of memory so we don't have any pictures.) I blame him him for killing a perfect picture opportunity!



I regretfully inform you that "Life Change Monday's" will be postponed in honor of Jarrod Spector leaving the 1st national tour to play the full time Frankie in the 2nd national tour. I will greatly miss Jarrod and his girl Danni. Mondays on tour will never be the same without them. Therefore, Nato and I will be recruiting two or more lucky new members. Stay tuned for more adventures. Enjoy perusing the pictures.

MSS, Over and Out

Alive Theatre

Okay this week of "live" theatre tops any I've ever experienced. "Jersey Boys" continues to sell out and the crowd roars, but man some crazy things happened in front of sixteen hundred people! Thursday night the opening number began four minutes after 8pm. The gals hold 3 counts of eight before we appear as French rappers from stage right.

This performance marked Jen Evan's (swing) first go as the "Lorraine" track. I like when 'swinging' occurs because everyone has to be on there toes and adapt. Things were off to a great start! The cast was rapidly manuevering through the scenes of the first act. I did a double take of Jen as the church lady in the "Sunday Kind of Love" scene. "I told you it was no vision," got a great laugh. She did a great job this weekend filling in.

And then came "I Cried For You."

You know when the Four Season's sing around the piano for the first time and Jackie, Miles and I are working at the bar grooving to the music? We finished the song and dance and settled on the bar stools listening to "Tommy" and "Frankie" duke it out.

AND THEN- BASH, BANG. I thought one of the curtains or "Brill Building Doors" was falling too early and had crashed on stage. Cast, crew and audience all felt the big shake. The audience heard it too. First, they gasped. Then they laughed. That was followed by talking (sixteen hundred people talking is really loud when you are trying to talk over them!) The audience got so loud during the scene that finally Erich gestured to the audience, someone said "we'll be right back" and pretty soon we were all walking off the stage. All the actors walking off the stage in the middle of a performance...WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Ladies and gentleman, it was an earthquake. A 4.2 level earthquake. Immediately, Patty, the stage manager calling the show, made an announcement telling the audience to remain in there seats while "Jersey Boys" checked props and the building and made sure we were all safe. A minute later the cast was walking back on stage and was greeted with applause, cheers and laughter. It took us two tries to start up the scene again. I think everybody in that theater had the giggles (me included.) And that was that: on with the show!

During the same performance during the "Who Loves You" finale we had an extra "prop" make an appearance in the show. A PINK LEOPARD THONG landed on the stage apron in front of Chris Kale Jone's feet. I didn't even notice the panties until after we cleared the stage and started bows. After the final bow, "Frankie" delicately picked up the panties and placed them in his front breast pocket. The audience roared and clapped and then on with the "Oh, What a Night" reprise. Jackie and I were cracking up during the dance trying desparately to keep our balance in 3 1/2 inch heels.

What a show! Swings, earthquakes, panties: all in a night's work. This currently just might be one of the best jobs in America.

PS: The week began with assistant stage manager Michelle's cupcakes, Eric Gutman's shipment of famous peanut butter squares which he always shares (thanks Gutty) and ended with Brandon's Sunday crispy cream donut suprise. Three dozen. I'm stuffed.