Manitowoc Loves Guys on Ice

Manitowoc had a lot of community involvement building up to this show. They had the Shanty contest (see Becca's blog for pictures of some of the shantys) It was a fun show. The booth was on the first balcony in what used to be the center section when it was a movie theater. It was open air - just sitting in the balcony, so Bill, Craig and I were right in the middle of the house.
The audience LOVED the show, they laughed at everything, even a lot of things that aren't usually funny! For the first time, when Lloyd is telling Marvin why Debby left him, the audience was on Lloyd's side! They even supported him in caring more about the Packers than her! It was great fun to be right in the middle of it. During the half time show Ernie picked people all the way up in the third balcony - it was fun and they
embraced their life in the "Cheap Seats" Since this was the closest we played to Green Bay Doug had about 30 people in the house. It is also my home town so I had a lot of family there and ran into old friends that I knew afterwards in the lobby. At the end of the show - Doug pointed out his Mom sitting in the second row - it was really sweet. We again had a bar in the hotel and it was a lot of fun.

Manitowoc

Manitowoc was another HUGE house, we played the show in front of 1130 people (The theater seats 1150, but the top seats are a hard sell). It's an old movie house that was restored to it's former glory and the theater is beautiful. They are slowly but surely working on getting the theater from the proscenium back renovated to match the beauty of the house.

Bill was a little frustrated with the lights and trying to get them somewhere close to our show. But in the end it looked very nice and we called all of the cues in the show - some of them looked VERY different without the side lights, but it was pretty.

The dressing rooms were below the stage and were nice. So even though the load in was rough, there were a lot of people helping welcome us.

Middleton Part II

After our detour to South Milwaukee we made our way back to Middleton. The Middleton show had a bit of a pre-show presentation by the local Muskie club. A power point presentation of people who had caught ENORMOUS fish. It was crazy. They also gave awards to two of their 'friends', one each show. It was very nice.



Sometimes Becca just needs to take charge with Craig.

An actor prepares








Diane, our mic helper for the half time show, took her job seriously the second show with a huge white furry hunting cap, complete with ear flaps. It was adorable and made her very easy to track during the show!

South Milwaukee

This is the site that greeted us as we arrived in South Milwaukee. ANOTHER performing arts center in a high school, and another beautiful facility.
The contacts here - Brenda and Tony - were very nice and the load in, show and load out went very smoothly. The theater was deceptive because it was so wide. It was hard to get a picture that included all of the seats. Even thought Bill, Craig and I were all in the same booth again, we were at the back of the house on the same level as the audience. The first time we've looked up at the show instead of down to it. At the back of the house, it was also easy for people to just pop in to the window and talk to us, like some kind of drive through booth!

Zero degrees... or thereabouts.

It is still flirting with the zero mark here in Wisconsin. Even though the truck was plugged in overnight the plug didn't work and our poor truck was dead in the morning. Ryder to the rescue - they came and got us up and running again with only about a half hour delay. It's COLD!!!!

Middleton Part I

Our first night in Middleton. Another Performing Arts Center in a high school. It's a wonderful facility. The show sits well on the stage. This was an added performance because they sold out their originally scheduled Friday performance. As it was, they sold out 3/4 of the house, there were about 600 people at the show. During the half time show (which was mostly kids again) a Freshman at Middleton High school got the third question right and picked the Pickled egg as his prize. He went up to the stage to get it and then as he was walking back to his seat he popped the whole thing in his mouth, took a bite and spit it back out, then he ran from the theater! It was pretty funny.

Part Two - Wausau

Another two SOLD OUT performances in Wausau. The house was packed and they really enjoyed it. There was an especially fun moment when a pickled egg was passed from the stage all the way to the back of the house where an usher took the egg up stairs and it continued to be passed across the balcony to it's final destination at the very back of the house.
After the first show they had 'the state's largest tail gate'. Wausau treated us to a huge brat fry in their Arts Bar. It was good food and lots of fun. They had Door Counties most popularaccordion player treating people to show tunes. It was a good time.

A rare "note session" prior to our second performance.