We made it. All 10 public showings of Tuna Does Vegas have been completed and the Ellensburg Theater Company is tearing down the set, and starting new auditions for their next work. (Willy Wonka I've been told). I won't be part of this next production as our time here in Gold Beach is wrapping up as well.

I have completely enjoyed my little adventure into theater, and would not be adverse to trying it again someday. But it does take time, dedication, and a willingness to let yourself get totally absorbed into the project for the duration. Many of the things that are not possible while on the road traveling from place to place.

Still, it has me thinking of things I can do.  Not sure what, but maybe if we stop again in a town for another six month stay I'll look into the local scene and see what I can do. Or, with the possibility of playing several characters, I could find a one actor play I can produce myself, ...  see, look at the crazy thoughts this has brought me.

Stay tuned, because the next adventure is literally around the corner. Look out Vulcan, Alberta, a crazed Klingon is coming your way!

We have started the second week-end of shows. The action now is all live, there is no calling for "lines", no "go-backs" and try it again. What comes out of our mouths stays there in the air until our character counter-part picks it up and runs with it. If the line is spot on, it comes back you and it is your turn again to volley the dialog back. And it feels like that too, like a Tennis match, some lops are soft, some fast, some coming from out the of the blue, and we each have to make the best of it and keep the show running. Back stage where we have the official script, we panic, and/or just scratch our heads, but hopefully, most of the well played, ah, ad-lips are never noticed by the audience unless it's their second or third times seeing the show. (as my wife and daughter can now say they hear a different play each time.)
There is joke about seeing a movie several times and waiting for the villain to win the next time, that could happen in live theater. While there may be some costume ma-functions as we change back stage, the only mis-steps I've experienced thus far is wearing sandals instead of loafers. or a crooked wig, of course, the show's not over yet.

I had a very nice write-up in the local paper this past week, I was interviewed by phone and this the result of that conversation. "Will the Real Mike Daley please stand up."   I found only a couple of minor glitches, I attended Biola University, not Viola. I worked the State Prison system for 20 years before retiring, but did also have a couple of years working in a county jail.

From the beginning I knew this would be a tough challenge for me as far as memory work, I've never considered that to be my strong point, but the constant repetition of lines did finally sink in, and I am hoping that, as some researchers claim, exercising the brain by this type of memory work strengthens the mind for longer term. Which would be a good thing, because maybe then I can finally remember where I am always setting my sunglasses.

After months of rehearsals and memory drills, we are finally releasing this show to the public. We held a premier for the local media last night, and they seemed to enjoy it, so hopefully everyone else will as well.

I've talked about some of the characters I portray, and I have one more to introduce you to. This is Leonard Childers the owner of radio station OKKK in Tuna

One week until opening night of "Tuna Does Vegas", and the show is almost ready to unleash. Gold Beach fans of theater are in for wonderful treat.

The past week included full dress rehearsals, lighting and technical work, last minute costume adjustments, and full changes. Sometimes the sound effects are not working, sometime our memorized lines of dialogue blink out, and sometimes we wonder just what the "What the Hell we were thinking when we first ran down to the theater to audition."

As a newcomer to theater work, I am continually amazed at the amount of work that goes into a full play production. The costumes, the lighting adjustments, the publicity work, and the hard grinding work of going over lines, over and over and over again.

I compared the memory work to the "Whack-a-mole" game. We just get one set of dialogue down, and we blow another line. Get that one down pat, and another gives us trouble. The other veteran actors agree, it is just part of the  process the brain goes through and it catalogs everything into the grey mass between our ears.  It gets frustrating, but I think each time we go through it script it gets better.

At some point, and hopefully just before opening night, it all clicks, and we look around the stage and say this is just PFM.

All my prior public performance experience has really been in radio, or public speaking before groups, classes, or church meetings. Adding the new elements of costuming and emanating character body language is really very fun.

On radio you use only your voice and inflections add to the written word. Good writing can create the mental pictures for a good story. Public speaking is often presented with the use of good outlines in front of you. Some thought is given to the symbolic nature of what you are wearing, but only in a limited sense.

Theater takes all this to a different level. Costumes create the character more solidly in the viewers mind.  The stage action and actors body language bring the script to life in ways not possible in other methods. And it's not as easy as it seems. Take one of the characters I portray, Little old lady, Aunt Pearl. I'm 6'2", so giving the impression of an aging fragile lady of small town Texas takes some work. "Bend that back", "bend those knees", "Turn those feet out a little more, NO NO, not that much!" "There, that's it, no, wait, little more bow-legged, like you've been riding a horse all day"  My director is as demanding as he is helpful.  I'm telling you, if you like the way this play turns out, it will be all him, I'm putty in his hands, putty, PUTTY.

The other big factor, besides the costumes in the "Tuna Does Vegas", is the speed in which these costumes are changed. Within the spaced of few lines on on stage dialogue, we need to change out from one character into another. Something that simply can not be done solo. Backstage we each have our personal dressers standing by with our next outfit, and ready to help us into them. The pace is high speed back there, but they have our changes ready, and in the right order so we know "who" are are when we return back to the lights.

Outside the theater, others like my wife are busy promoting the play to the community.  Pam has set up a web-site for  where you can buy packaged dinner and show tickets. Check it out here.

Our opening night is only 2 weeks away, and there is still a lot to be accomplished before then. Lines still are not down pat, and I keep messing up the flamboyant swagger of Joe Bob Lipsey, the preggo waddle, and the bow-legged walk of our sweet Aunt Pearl, but we'll get there, we'll get there.

Inita. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this rehearsing

Helen. We have to get to work. We've gotta have that paycheck to get home on.

Inita. I can't do that dance step, Helen.

Helen.  Okay, okay, just do the ta-dah.

Inita. I'll do the ta-dah.

Helen. Just do the ta-dah.

Inita. TA-DAH





And so it is for the team of "Tuna Does Vegas"   We run through lines, walk out the blocking and stage actions, meet with costumers and our dressers. The director sweats blood, and we all hope it will all come together in only 3 more weeks.  Three weeks for the three of us to finish committing the 76 pages of script to memory. Three weeks for the set designer to finish off the details. Three weeks for the costumes and accessories to arrive, and three weeks of rehearsals to figure out a way to get in and out of them within a few lines of dialogue before we step back out and do the Ta-dah!

Will we make it, will it all come together in time. Of course it will. How, I have no idea. It's theater, and it's magic.  Or in the words of my character, Shot, "You have to see it to believe it"

Opening night May 4 and running for the first three week-ends of May in Gold Beach, Oregon.

What do you see when you look at an old discarded cardboard box? Something you should pick up for moving day, a perfect size for something you've been meaning to ship to kids, or is it time to flatten that old thing and stuff it in the recycle bin. But have you noticed how a small kid looks that the same box. It becomes a boat to sail away in, to explore new lands. It's a house for your doll, or it's the evil lords castle for your armies to rage against.




Funny I should remember this after so many years, but when I was around 4 yrs old my parents shot some home movies of my sister and I playing in a cargo trailer sitting in the yard. I remember it being a lifeboat, and my sister and I would fight against the tall waves washing over the boat, with the occasional kid overboard scene that required one of us to reach out and pull the other to safety. The imagination creates fun in an otherwise mundane day.




The props we are using for “Tuna Does Vegas” are just about as simple as an old cardboard box. Sitting alone on the stage they say little about the story, but as we move around them, sit on them, and tell our stories, you'll see their transformation. A simple chair will whisk two ladies to the bright lights of Vegas aboard the ill-fated Budget Bird airline. Or it is the front seat of a car that took three unlikely folk all the the way from Tuna, Tx to Las Vegas. (if only it came with a pot to pee in). In the home of Arles and Bertha, a place to relax and reflect on the past days mis-adventures, if you can relax with a rattlesnake under your feet, GOTCHA!)




More stuff. As the opening week-end gets closer, more and more people are showing up to help. This week we brought in a wonderful team of back stage “dressers”. These fine people will help us make the rapid costume changes as we move out one stage door and back onto the stage in another character. Like 15 second your an old lady, to your Elvis, kind of fast. As the Shot character says, “I'd like to watch that.”, but nope some of the magic of theater happens behind the dark walls as well.