La Crosse

La Crosse is our third new venue on this year's tour. We LOVE La Crosse. It's a beautiful space on the campus of Viturbo University. Except for the mask class in our dressing room area, it didn't really have the feel of a college theater. The stage and equipment were very nice.



In this 1100 seat house, we had around 750 people, and they were very responsive. Our contact appologized that there would have been more but the weather kept people away.

After all of our weather drama this tour, we barely noticed the dusting of snow that La Crosse received around the dinner hour.





The booth was brand-new and the crew was very helpful and attentive.








Though it was almost a two minute walk from the dressing room to the booth (and more for Craig - we never saw him after sound check!) it was a comfortable area and we had a special treat; cookies from Sam! and Cheese Curds from Steve! THANKS Guys!

Manitowoc

Last year we had a great time in Manitowoc and this year was no different. Although this year's audience was a little smaller (just over 400 rather than the 1000 people that came to see Guys, but they made up for their smaller numbers by being very responsive. Unfortunately it's another big dark house, so hard to get good pictures, but the Capitol Civic Center, like Oshkosh's Grand and the Al Ringling, has some beautiful features. We also enjoyed the poster out front that said "Capitol Civic Center Presents GUYS! The Bachelors" and the saying on the front of their programs and posters that asked "Does a case of reincarnation weigh the same as a case of beer" Very cute!


After the show we went to Kathie's Stage Door pub, a small Irish bar behind the theater. We had a lovely time, Steve, Katherine and Becca even took to the Piano to serenade the bar. We would love to continue to return to Manty!

Baraboo Part II

We had a lot of fun in Baraboo this year, Katherine treated us to some foam clown noses, and we had a lot more fun than we probably should have had with them!







For some reason both last year and even more so this year we were fascinated by what we considered a circus size urinal. Maybe we've been on the road too long. Hmmmm.


Bill, Craig and I 'clowning around' in our booth. We are separated from the audience by the counter that holds the sound and light board.

We took the noses off before the show started...

Baraboo Part I

We're back at the Al Ringling in Baraboo. They have continued their renovations, but it's a slow process.



Like Eau Claire, this is a big, dark house, hard to get a clear picture of the size of the house, but it has some beautiful features.

Our Friday night audience was the best responding audience we've had the whole run. They laughed at anything and everything! Including an unprecedented shot by Kate with the Tuna bowl!

Eau Claire Part II

Another night in Eau Claire - They have a cute display in their front window for the show and a banner that is about ready to fall down. But we had another nice show to a small audience. We me several people in the hotel bar after the show, one group, having a late dinner came over to us and offered us their left over tuna fish salad! We also met two very nice ladies who had seen the show and had now decided to donate to the Arts in Eau Claire instead of traveling to Minneapolis for their theater!

Eau Claire Part I

We're back in Eau Claire this year. As last year, it's still a big, dark barn! It's even hard to get pictures of the whole theater because it's so dark.

It was a small audience (150 people in an 1100 seat house) but they really enjoyed the show, lots of laughs and applause. 'Those Darn Zambian Rebels' even got applause tonight!



Here is the veiw from the booth. I love the 'candy cane' lights at the front!











The lightest shot that I was able to get! Unfortunately it's a limited chunk of the house. I'll try again tomorrow!

Madison

Although Guys on Ice didn't play this venue last year (the Mitby theater at Madison Area Technical College), Cyrano played here in 2004. It's a nice venue with nice people.

There were no blizzards driving in, but we're expecting and ice storm and 6-12" of snow driving out! We'll leave ahead of the storm!




Sound check took some time while we chased down some annoying feed-back. This gave us the opportunity to get a little punch and crazy. More Hodag references became the order of the day. What Are Little Hodags Made Of etc.












This is why we were so punchy - we adjusted our call so that we could accept an invitation to dinner:

Yummmmmmm



PRE SHOW DINNER BUFFET
Friscee Basil Caramel Vinaigrette Salad
Couscous Salad w/Dried Fruit
Olive Tapenade
Pan Seared Chicken Supreme
w/ Horseradish Mashed Potatoes
Vegetarian Napoleon
7-Grain Whole Wheat Bread
Chocolate Mousse and Cheesecake
Coffee & Water

Oshkosh

The Oshkosh Grand is a new theater for the Rep tour. We headed out early to have plenty of time to get through yet another Blizzard. And as soon as we crossed into Fond du Lac county we were back in white-out conditions. The theater is very nice, like Manitowoc, they spent more money on the aesthetics of the house than backstage, but it's still a lovely place. It was kind of a quiet show, the audience seemed a little preoccupied by the weather.


After the show we all went back to a wine bar called the Vintage at our hotel The Hawthorn Inn. It's a very nice hotel and we had a great time socializing as a group. Last year, the only time all eight of us were together socially was closing night in Red Wing watching the end of the Oscars. This is already the second time we've played together.














Our second performance to a much larger audience was a lot better. The audience was fun and responsive and we had a good time with the show. There were some interesting performance things that we experience that had never happened before (Doug couldn't get his shorts on, Katherine tossed the tuna bowl out the kitchen window) but it was a lot of fun.

Luckily Becca has two door signs, because this one fell off the door and became one with the frozen world outside the door!

Wausau x 2

Back to Wausau - though it's not sold out for either show like last year (4500 people saw Guys on Ice over two days), but it's still a big place and one of our biggest houses of the tour so far.

Last year they invited us to a brat fry between shows, this year it was a pizza party. We had pizza, and cheese bread or 'pizza fries' as they called them. Then, enough time for a short nap! As you can see, the weather is a balmy 18 degrees, Within 12 hours, the temperature would drop more than 20 degrees!






Afterwards, back to the hotel and all 8 of us socialized in the bar together for the first time!

There was a cold front coming in and the forecast for our drive day was between -5 and -9. When we left this morning the High in Wausau was -5 and the low -10, with the wind chill, the 'feels like' temperature was -41. Freakin' Cold. So cold in fact that the truck won't start (our van started right up, but it wasn't happy about it and made some pretty weird noises for the first 20 minutes we drove around.) In the end Ryder towed our truck to their garage and Bill stayed behind to wait for it to feel better.

The truck was warm and happy and back in Milwaukee by noon!