Plans for the "future"

I am not a big "plans for the future" kind of gal.  I learned in college (the first 2 years) that plans need to be flexible.  Plans change.  Recently (ie the past year) my plans have been so flexible that I sometimes don't know what I am doing a month in advance.  The good news is I have plans now!!  For the month of June and July I will be in Chicago.  For Aug I will be in CT, and back with NTD/LTD.  Yep it is official, I have been asked back to join the cast for one more year of touring.  We will continue with our "Stories in my Pocket Too" and also tour with a second show "The W 5, stories behind Who, What, Where, When, and Why"  Both are geared toward an elementary audience.  I love some of the new stories.  One with "Anasi" the spider, and one where I get to make "Stars".  My two cast mates are back too.  Now that I have plans.....  Guess we will wait to see what these plans bring, and where they take me this year.  I am looking forward to continuing "New Adventures".  See you in August.

Back to our Roots

The final part of my contract was a two week residency at the Eugene O'Neil Theater Center in Waterford CT.  This is the ORIGINAL, very first place, that NTD started.  For the two weeks we tried out new material, worked on new material for next year, and practiced more improve.  At the end of our two weeks we had a small show and tell for an audience.  At the show and tell we met some of the Board of Directors and one of the original voice actors (no pressure!!)  

NTD is in the process of moving the main office back to this area.  We now have office space in Eugene's summer home, the Monte Cristo!!  It is such a beautiful area.  When it was not raining (most of the time it was) we were able to get in a bit a beach time.  

This is NOT the original location of this house.  They moved it so it could be preserved.

Looking out onto the Long Island Sound, and beach.

The Mansion 

The pub

New home of the NTD offices 

Final Dinner together before the Show and Tell 

Final dinner together before the Show and Tell 

Beach time!!  

Final weeks of touring

For our final two weeks of touring we stayed in the state of CT.  The state gave us a grant so that we could provide free performances to 5 elementary schools.  These schools were schools that do not have the budget to bring in special events.  We also gave a performance to the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford.  We had the most post show questions with this group.  One of the biggest lessons I have learned this season is how to answer the questions "Do they talk?"   During the show I am the only "voice".  For those who are encountering the Deaf world for the first time it can be confusing why they use their hands and not their voices.  Explaining that to a 3rd grader... well how would you?  Luckily I have two cast mates who answer it well.

Mich/IL in pictures

Monopoly

The guys played to the very last dollar and hotel! 

Some of Joey's former interpreters

Post show photo fun! 

Students who enjoyed the show! 

Mich students 

Post show- meeting the fans 

My Parents 

IL advertisement 

IL school for the Deaf 

Post show 

Colorful blanket 

The bed Chuck Baird slept in

From Italy

THANKS!! 

John A Logan College 

Deafest sponsors

Mich and IL- Family week

Our biggest trip/tour this season was a full week traveling from CT to Mich and then to IL and then back to CT.  We set off on Sat after a professional photo shoot and drove to PA.  We found a hotel and crashed.  The next morning we all got up and got back in the car and drove to MICH.  This was a home stay for Joey.  After two days of driving we were able to relax on Mon.  Tuesday we had an early show at Joey's high school.  Post show we had lunch with all the kids from 4 different schools.  It was crazy!!  They were so excited to talk with us the three of us barely had time to eat our sandwiches!!  We loved it, and are not complaining.  It was fun for me to watch my two cast mates give the junior and seniors advice about college.  My two cast mates went to the two most popular college for the deaf.  Both had very different experiences.  It is fun to watch them "debate"  :)  After lunch we had a bit of down time and then had a public performance.  This was fun for me because my family was able to attend.  This was the first time that my family had seen this style of work.  My mom said her favorite part was after the show and watching the 3 of us interact with the audience.  (its one of my fav parts too).  This was also the first audience that guessed all our "Puns".  Very smart audience.

On Wed we got up early and drove from Mich to Southern IL.  I was driving the first leg and many times I tried to turn the car north and make a stop in Chicago, but my cast mates and GPS said no  :(  (Next time right!?)  We had a wonderful day for the drive.  Lots of sunshine and warm weather.  We arrived at the IL School for the Deaf.  This was Chrissy's school, and she quickly took over tour guide duties.  We were able to stay on campus for the night, and the next day eat in the cafe with the students.  We had a show Thurs am for all of the school (elem-high school) and a few near by schools/colleges.  After the show there was a small talk back.  Naturally I jumped into interpreting mode (some of the visiting schools were students learning ASL).  At the end of the talk back the sponsor was giving instructions on what classes/hour to go back to etc and I continued to interpret.  (bad habit) WELL I over heard one of the interpreters who works at the school say "Wow, Impressed how well to stayed caught up and handled that talk back!"  "and you were able to follow ______(name of sponsor)."  I said "Thanks!  I did not know if I was to interpret that or not.  Sorry if I stepped on your toes"  The interpreter said "oh no problem glad to have a moment to enjoy and not work!"  Felt good to have some positive feedback from a fellow interpreter!  After the show we had time to meet some of the students and some of the teachers.  After lunch we again loaded up the van and drove further south.

We arrived at John A Logan College.  Here we were able to see the space we were going to perform the next day.  For this leg of our trip we were invited to stay with a host family.  It was an amazing host stay!!  We learned that many guests stay with this host family for the "Deafest".  And this next part is going to sound a bit weird but in a geeky way.  This host family has hosted many of the presenter's and on was Chuck Baird.  He is a deaf artist who also worked with NTD.  Well the bed that I slept in was the same bed that Chuck Baird slept. HOW COOL IS THAT!!  hahaha  OK well the next day was a two show day.

What a fun day!  Our morning show has many young audience members.  Sometimes part of our show involves an audience member joining us on stage. For the particular show we had two members join us.  After the show we found out that one has never interacted with other deaf people before, and is in an a special one on one program and does not even attend school with any other deaf people.  This person tends to be shy but they jumped right up on stage and joined us!!  That is another part of my job that I love!  Due to many of the audience members seeing the show both times we were able to do our full repertoire.  The first time that had happened.   After the two shows we again loaded up the van and started our trip back to CT.  We drove a few hours into IND were we were invited to stay with Chrissy's family.  It was a short but fun stay!  The next day we drove back to PA, and ended up in the same city as the past Sat.  It was a full week but one that we had the most fun with.  It was great to meet all our families and has a bit of time with them.

After this long week we were planning a trip to New Mexico.  Well the trip fell through  :(