Taylor in Kansas City as Little House Closes

They always say that nothing stays the same---you can’t go back. Granddaughter Taylor Bera might dispute that old adage.

She and her dad, Joe, went back to the Prairie last week after being away from Little House on the Prairie The Musical since early April and after talking with her, it sounds like she hadn’t missed a beat.

The cast and crew of Little House were in Kansas City for the closing performances of an odyssey that started when they all joined together to begin rehearsals in a 42nd Street hall last August.

I’m told that it was like Taylor had never left the play. She and her father ran into cast members almost immediately after checking in the hotel. I’m told by a reliable authority that her reunion went full steam ahead when she boarded the cast bus to go to the theater and they gave her a standing ovation. She was similarly welcomed backstage by the rest of the cast and crew.

The show was being performed at the Starlight Theater, an outdoor amphitheater that can seat in excess of 8,000 including lawn seats. Of course, since it is outdoors, it makes lighting and sound control more difficult and coupled with the summer heat, makes matinees for Broadway type shows nearly impossible. Daytime temperatures last week also stretched into the 100s.

This was the largest venue for Little House during its 28-city tour that began last September in Paper Mill in Millburn, NJ.

I’m told that the stage and backstage areas were enclosed during the day and fully air conditioned. Just before the opening act, they raise a huge “garage-like” door that opens the stage to theatergoers. The backstage area remains air conditioned during the show. I’ve included some pictures of the amphitheater area with the photo slide show attached:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=177395497803%3A867364169&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer


Shows start at 8 p.m. nightly, so some sunlight remains, which led one actor to comment that this is the first show where he needed to include sunscreen in his makeup kit.

Taylor got to be part of a final cast picture standing beside her buddy, Michael Boxleitner, Melissa Gilbert’s son. Michael, who attended school during the tour with Taylor, commented when seeing her that he thought she had grown even taller since he last saw her.

Starlight Theater and Swope Park, where the theater is located, had two hours of “western-type” events planned for early arrivers for every show.

All of the kids got to ride in horse drawn wagon “piloted” by Melissa Gilbert.


Taylor and Joe saw two shows while in Kansas City before heading back to New Jersey on Sunday so that Tay could join with big sister Maggie at the summer conservatory at Paper Mill on Monday.

Tay got to see her first show from the audience, but the real treat, I think, was to sit in the wings and watch from there one night. I’m told that one cast member tried to entice her to put on a bonnet and coat and join them onstage for the “church scene.” Of course, Taylor couldn’t –it would have violated Equity union rules but the “flip flops” on her feet, probably would have been a dead giveaway she didn’t belong in a prairie setting.

Taylor played in 210 of the show’s 288 regular shows plus a couple of weeks of preview performances before the show had its opening night.

Of course, Taylor’s trip wasn’t just about seeing the show. She got one last chance to bond with her “family” of nearly eight months.

On Saturday, she “bonded again” really well with the younger cast members and their family members when they went to the “Worlds of Fun” amusement park. There are lots of pictures of their adventures in the attached slide show –most of the photos are courtesy of our friends , the Enghs, parents of Kurt—who started with Little House when it was in its “infant stage” at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis a couple of years ago. Kurt completed his junior year in high school via computer while on the road and is looking forward to his senior year at home.

By coming home on Sunday, they missed the final show and the closing night party. Pictures the cast took and shared on Facebook show that a good time was had by all. Some male members of the cast celebrated by getting rid of their prairie-style haircuts by getting “buzzed.” I guess nearly a year of long hair was enough. I borrowed a couple of those pictures too.

It finally was the end of an idyllic adventure for Taylor (and her family). She logged about 23,000 air miles during her 20-stop segment of the tour. Too bad it wasn’t all on the same airline.

Off to the Prairie--One More Time

Granddaughter Taylor Bera is headed back to the Prairie once again as she joins up with the cast of “Little House on the Prairie The Musical” —this time in Kansas City.

No, there wasn’t an urgent call saying they needed to her to retake the stage to reprise her role as Carrie or as Ruby, but for the next couple of days she’ll get to do something that she didn’t ever do in eight months as a member of the Little House cast, she’ll get to enjoy the show and cheer from a seat in the audience.

For 210 regular shows and countless rehearsals and previews, she was on onstage in costume alongside the cast.

Taylor and her father, Joe, left this morning for Kansas City to meet and party a bit with the Little House cast in Kansas City as the final performances of the musical’s national tour are held in the outdoor Starlight Theater. It closes on Sunday.

My reason for this blog is to let Taylor’s fans know that there’ll be one more report from the Prairie next week after Taylor returns and before she and sister, Maggie, head off to the Paper Mill’s summer conservatory program in New Jersey.

I’ll be interviewing her about her experiences with her friends and their memories of her time on the prairie with the cast of Little House. She says that she and father Joe will be taking lots of pictures in Kansas City.

The Last Week with Little House

I’ve spent the last week trying to think of a word to describe the experiences that granddaughter Taylor Bera had during her eight months surrounded by the folks from the “Little House on the Prairie The Musical.” I thought it should be something spectacular like “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” but then even that word is not appropriate.

The word sounds spectacular but according to the Disney film in 1964 it means "something to say when you have nothing to say". That doesn’t apply here.

That’s certainly not the case for Taylor’s adventures since last August when she walked into a practice room on 42nd Street in New York City and met the director and the cast for the first time.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to be a part of this adventure that took us all over the country from Tempe in southwest Arizona to across the northeast border to Toronto. Helen was also able to make about two and a half months of the tour too.

I feel compelled to recap it all but that’s something for a later time particularly since I’ve been writing a regular blog about our adventures along the way. For me, this is blog #20 and I’ll focus on our last stop on the tour in Spokane, WA—which followed a 10-day break at home for the holidays.

As usual, getting there was another adventure---nothing is simple when you’re going from the EDT to PDT in a day. Our flight from JFK seemed simple, 4 ½ hours to Salt Lake City then a short 1 ½ hour hop to Spokane. The plane was we’d be in Spokane about 8:30pm local time.

Unfortunately, the plane to carry a major section of the play’s cast and crew started its day in Denver and some foreign diplomat (?) there apparently didn’t know you can’t smoke in the restroom on planes. So planes in and out of Denver and flights around the country were delayed, etc. Guess it wasn’t too serious an incident though because he was let go without charges. If it was you or I, we’d be doing “hard time” right now. Does seem fair!

Our connecting flight was 2 hours late and, of course, the 35-minute connecting window we had in SLC was gone. The plane left without us and we were prepared to spend the night at a hotel near the airport. The last plane to Spokane only had five seats left. We had our hotel vouchers and meal vouchers in hand when the “gods look down on us.”
Because of all the flight delays that day, 20 or so people who had been booked on that last flight could make their connections and our “stand-by ducats” were honored.

We arrived at the Spokane at 11pm local time tired but grateful we were there. Fortunately, we had a good selection of takeout restaurants that deliver to the hotels at that hour.

The pizza was good—of course, our only other food along the way came from a Cinnabon that I persuaded to stay open long enough to give us two before we hoped a flight in SLC. Oh, I forgot the couple of bags of pretzels who got as snacks.

Even though we were on a short week—only six performances instead of the normal eight—school was still on Taylor’s schedule and noon came quickly the next day after a our long travel day.

Taylor was up to the task and even arrived a little early for her last week with tutor Carolyn Dunning and fellow original cast member, Michael Boxleitner. Two new members of the LHOTP cast-Anastasia Korbal and Camille Mancuso-had already joined the classroom at a tour stop in Appleton, WS, following a couple of weeks of practice to learn their show parts.

The four became close in their three weeks or so together and did have some good times besides those in school.

Spokane was a fun place for the kids and the “bigger kids” in the cast and crew and I include myself, and other guardians for kids on the tour. I have to say that Scott Engh, Bruce Boxleitner and I had some fun times too away from the hustle and bustle of the daily tour grind.

Us two Bruce’s got to sit in the music pit for one of the shows just yards away from the Taylor and Michael performing on the stage above us. I’ve done it before a few times but it was a first for Michael’s father. For those of you who don’t know by now, Michael is Melissa Gilbert’s son and Bruce is the one who has appeared in many TV series and movies. His newest film will be out in December—Tron Legacy—the 3D update of the movie from the 80s that he made with Jeff Bridges.

It was kinda fun to be around someone who shares my same first name---not many Bruces around anymore—although it was confusing at time when someone called out for one of us—we both answered.

Little House played before enthusiastic crowds at the INB Performing Arts Center, a great venue that was built for the Spokane World’s Fair in 1974. It used to known as the Spokane Opera House before the city’s Public Facilities District partnered with Inland Northwest Bank to do some remodeling of the 2,700 seat facility.

It was hard for Taylor and me to say goodbye for now to the cast and crew members we grew to be good friends with during the months of being on the road together.

They gave Taylor a rousing sendoff on the night of her final performance as Ruby. It was show #210. That counts the regular performances at Paper Mill in Millburn, NJ, in September. The first performance on the real road was #24 in St. Paul, MN, on October 13.

The kids in the cast—including 17-year-old Kurt Engh, who does his school work through the Minnesota online school facility—put together a montage of photos from her time on tour. Just about everyone in the cast and crew is pictured at various times with Taylor. There’s quite a bit of change in all of the “kids” in the cast over the eight month period.

Melissa Gilbert, “Ma” in the show wasn’t in Spokane because of her injured back required some repair, but she sent along a package of gifts with Michael, who gave them to Taylor. So between the gold Dolce & Gabanna dress that she got from her Secret Santa (Melissa) at Christmas while we were in Denver and the collection of gifts from Kitsons of LA, Taylor is pretty well decked out.

All of those gifts are pretty but I know that Taylor will also have some special memories of being able to work so closely and dance with the original Laura of TV’s “Little House on the Prairie” along with the rest of the superb cast.

I won’t try to list everyone who has been special to Taylor during the tour but I hope the attached picture collection from our time in Spokane will include everyone. I know that one picture includes almost everyone when we climbed into the monster Radio Flyer Wagon that sits in Riverfront Park next to the INB PAC.

Check out these picures from our time in Spokane:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=477883735803%3A213505603&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

The last week had some sad times because it was the last on the tour, but there were plenty of fun ones too. We got to attend a performance of “Walking with Dinosaurs” at the Spokane Arena which tells the story of 200 million years when dinosaurs inhabited the earth. They tell the story using 15 life-size dinosaurs created through the magic of technology. I’m told that this show will be at Madison Square Garden in July. It was based on a BBC television series.

The kids also got to ride a 100-year-old carousel that features one of only three “creeping tigers” ever carved for use on a carousel. The other two are in private collections. We all tried our hand at plucking a colored ring from the holder as we made each revolution on the carousel. The kids were much better than me in this task. Guess it was because their hands are smaller.

Everyone got to feed trash to the resident goat in the park—this one is a mechanical tin creature connected to a trash compactor that sucks up anything put near its mouth.

Overall it was a great experience but an end has to come to even a “great experience.” I guess those two simple words pretty much sums it up pretty well.

Taylor's Odyssey Has One More Stop

Granddaughter Taylor Bera’s odyssey, which started in August last year when she walked into a rehearsal hall in New York City, is near an end. She joins the cast of “Little House on the Prairie The Musical” for one last trip on the trail this week.

But first, she gets an answer to the question that she asked her stage parents when playing the littlest Ingalls sister Carrie. Nightly, before the family packed up the wagon train and started their trek, Carrie asked them, “Where is West?”

On Wednesday, we’ll head almost as far Northwest as the continental United States allows, when we go to Spokane, WA, for six shows.

Then we’ll head back to New Jersey and Taylor will return to family and friends and local activities. Who would have thought eight months ago that out “little” Taylor would have grown too tall to play the littlest Ingalls sister?

But it’s true! When she took the stage last week in Appleton, WI, she was nearly as tall as Laura, so it was time to move on even though the producers wanted her to complete the tour in her original role as Ruby and a member of the ensemble. But she was missed at home –eight months is a long time to be away-and her parents didn’t renew her contract.

It’s been a real trip though to get to this point and Little House’s time in Appleton was absolutely great for everyone including Helen and myself.

For those of you who don’t know, Appleton was the boyhood home of magician Harry Houdini then known as Ehrich Weiss. I didn’t know that even though I was a “boy magician” in my youth and dreamed at one time of doing the feats of magic that he and other famous magicians performed. His father was the local Rabbi before the family moved to Milwaukee and then New York City.

Taylor and her classmate, Michael Boxleitner, got to tour the Houdini museum while we were in Appleton as part of their schoolwork. Don’t know who had a better time—me or the kids or their tutor Carolyn Dunning! The kids got to try their hand at some of Houdini’s tricks and escapes including the straitjacket escape that Houdini made famous. Of course, this version used Velcro strips, so Michael had no trouble breaking free. Taylor tried to follow the instructions on how Houdini did it and but was not successful.

The exhibit is housed in Appleton’s History Museum At the Castle which includes exhibits about the works of Edna Ferber, a Pulitzer prize-winning author who grew up in the town and the infamous Sen. Joe McCarthy, who was also born and raised in Appleton. The city’s organized sports were also highlighted in an exhibit. A little known fact is that the Yankees’ current third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, didn’t sit out the 1994 strike—he played for the minor league Appleton Foxes. A portrait of him and a bat he broke while playing are on display in the Castle.

Downtown in Houdini Square is a plaque noting the night when Ehrich and his older brother “pranked” the town by unlocking all of the businesses on College Avenue, the main street in Appleton. The plaque didn’t note the punishment they received but I’m sure the business owners weren’t very happy with the youngsters.

The cast and crew also took a morning to work with the local Habitat for Humanity project. Habitat leaders this time took us to a ReStore outlet—something I had never heard of. ReStore is a retail outlet that accepts donations of new and gently used building materials, which are in turn sold to the public at greatly discounted prices. All of the profits then go to the local Habitat for Humanity’s effort to eliminate substandard housing.

At the Appleton ReStore location, we constructed the floors, walls and roof sections for sheds that will be sold to the public. We did this work inside because it was too cold and windy to work outside at a Habitat construction site where the shed would be built onsite.

Overall the weather in Appleton was much better than anticipated before we got there from the southern climate we had basked in Florida and North Carolina. We had to use winter wear for a couple of the days but the hotel where we stayed was right across the street from the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center where Little House played for the week to large and enthusiastic crowds.

The Arts Center is about 10 years old and was a “performer friendly environment” with large and spacious dressing rooms on the same level as the stage and permitted easy crossover between scenes for the cast. This is not something the cast has been able to enjoy at the other 19 stops so far on the tour.

All of the “kids”—old and young alike-- in the cast and crew got to partake in the indoor pool and hot tub that the hotel offered. The area included ping pong tables and a full workout area that was open all hours of the days and night. It was not something we’ve really had at any other stop.

Overall, Appleton gets an A+ as a tour stop in my book.

Photos from our time in Appleton can be found at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=563815674803%3A348337530&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer

We’re now enjoying a 10-day break and as I noted earlier, we’ll pack up and head back to the prairie on Wednesday for one last set of performances. I know we’ll come back with lots of memories from the last eight months.

Taylor gets Support from Home

I know that the cast of Little House on the Prairie The Musical” gets a lot of enjoyment out of making the audience happy when they attend one of their shows, but what makes a performer happy?

I’m not one of those who have ever been on the stage, so I can’t speak from experience, but I think when you’re a performer, it helps to have been supported in your role by loved ones.

I’m not talking about the kind of “groupies” who are fans of a rock group and usually follow the group around on concert tours or admirers of a celebrity who attend as many of his or her public appearances as possible.

Granddaughter Taylor Bera is lucky because her groupies aren’t the “store bought kind”—they’re her family.

When she took the stage last week in Raleigh, NC, in the regular role as Carrie, the littlest Ingalls sister, her groupies began their trek to the south to see her.

Dad Joe took a vacation week so he could see a full week of her performances and to give Helen and me a break from some of the guardianship duties we have enjoyed during the musical’s tour of the U.S. and Canada.

Mom Kelly and Taylor’s aunts, Terri and Carolyn, were there for a weekend of performances to cheer her on too. Of course, besides getting to be around Taylor for their times there, they also got to spent time with many of the cast members on an informal basis. That’s something few “groupies” ever get to do with the groups they support.

I won’t say which one really enjoyed being able to talk with the show’s Almanzo Wilder (Kevin Massey) while riding the hotel elevator with him one day, but it happened. He’s such a gracious guy and the girls think he’s good looking too. Besides that, he’s a great singer and actor.

I know that Taylor was really happy to see her parents and aunts---it’s been a long six months since she’s been home for any length of time.

However, Taylor’s journey to Raleigh was not without incident as I noted in my last blog. When I last wrote, we were forced into an overnighter in Fort Lauderdale, FL, en route from a week in Naples and I was up before dawn writing. I know there are those out there who will say that’s “really rough duty” being stuck in Florida where the temps were in the high 60s and low 70s, but we lost a whole day off in the process.

Theater-folk, and I have to include Helen and myself in that group along with Taylor, live for days off after a week of eight performances, so any disruption in their travel schedule regardless of the climate is hard to take.

Well, we did make our “rescheduled” flight on Tuesday from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa where we comfortably transferred to another flight scheduled for Raleigh. Everyone boarded the plane and sat back for the hour and a half flight north.

The ground crew was in process of getting ready to put our bags on the plane when someone in one of the crews ran into the plane with some heavy equipment and scratched it. Unlike your personal vehicle when someone bangs into it with a shopping cart, you can’t just holler at them and curse. The damage to the aircraft had to be formally accessed to insure it was still airworthy.

That process took nearly two hours; meanwhile we sat like captives on an airship in outer space. I have to say that the crew of the Southwest Airlines plane, including the pilot, made our wait somewhat entertaining. The best sight though was our female pilot out on the tarmac personally helping load our luggage on the plane after we got the go ahead.

We finally made it to the hotel in Raleigh with about an hour to spare before the sound check prelude to the evening’s performance.

Members of the orchestra, the sound and light crews and the rest of the backstage crew got to Raleigh ahead us after a night of driving from Florida. Their work was done too and the show was ready to roll.

Other than the start, we had a great week in Raleigh. The weather cooperated and the crowds for the show were receptive.

The opening night show at the Progress Energy Performing Arts Center had something for the younger members of the audience that I haven’t seen before—a pajama party. Kids showed up in pajamas and they enjoyed cookies and milk at intermission. The shows started at 8 p.m. each night, so I guess the Pajama Party facilitated getting them to bed quicker when the show let out at 10:30 p.m.

Little House cast members took part in a build at a Habitat for Humanity site in Raleigh. This one was a nearly completed and we got to do some of the exterior painting and interior work on kitchen cabinets. I got work with another guardian for a cast member on some exterior siding and I did tell the new homeowner that hope she would fondly remember “Little House” when she looks at one piece of the siding that probably could have been a little straighter. She laughed and said she would.

Pictures from our time in Raleigh can be found at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=687563334803%3A835251441

We’re now in Appleton, WI. the birthplace and boyhood home of magician Harry Houdini. The weather here is sunny and cool today. It’s a great place, but the whole cast and crew, including the guardians, is looking to next week and a 10-day break. We’ll be home in time for Easter.

Travel Woes

The life of a bunch of “stars” in the theater business isn’t all you read about in the papers. It’s not all glitter and high living like some of the tell-all magazines like to portray it.

I’m not one of the stars but Helen and I have the pleasure of traveling with a bunch of the best in show business, the cast of “Little House on the Prairie The Musical. As I write this before the crack of dawn before another long travel day, the only word that comes to mind is “arduous.”

The prize at the end for our granddaughter Taylor Bera, who has been a member of the cast since last August, is to be a “principal” in the show on a regular basis and that goal is just “Up Ahead” –if I might borrow a song title from the play itself.

When she next steps on the stage, she’ll be Carrie, the youngest Ingalls’ sister, on a daily basis.

That will be tonight in Raleigh, NC, at 8 p.m. but first, in true Ingalls family tradition, we have an adventure ahead of us today.

Yesterday, a normal travel day in the business for touring companies, started like others have since we hit the road in October last year. We loaded our bags on a bus to travel to the airport for a flight to our next city after two weeks in Florida, the last in Naples on the Gulf side of the state.

We were pumped because we actually were scheduled for a “direct flight” to Raleigh —no stops, no change of planes. We could sit down in relatively comfortable seats, each with its own TV, and enjoy the flight to North Carolina.

Of course, we did have to travel by bus from Naples, across Alligator Alley to Fort Lauderdale, but that didn’t bother us. Most slept or read. Some counted the number of alligators along the roadside—the highest count was 15. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for a snack after going through check-in and security.

It was pretty close to heaven, but minutes later we thought we were in the other “H.” The word “cancelled” was posted next to our flight number on the board and our veteran manager, who handles all of the tour arrangements, was told the earliest the airline could get us on a flight was Wednesday. That, of course, was not acceptable to anyone, so he really worked his “A” off to make alternate arrangements. It was just good that his hair had already changed color (I can say that because mine changed a long time ago to silver) because yesterday was one that would have brought it on quickly.

So what did this mean for everyone? Well, rental vehicles for the production team members to drive 12 to 13 hours to Raleigh, so they could be there when the four semi-trailer trucks filled with scenery, props, costumes and other show gear arrived to be unloaded. The sound and light guys had to set up for tonight’s show starting at 6 a.m. this morning. The hair, makeup and wardrobe directors had to be there to make sure those were ready for a show too.

The orchestra regulars had to be there to begin rehearsals at 9 a.m. with the local additions to their group so we’d have music for tonight’s show (if the cast makes it). That group similarly piled into a quickly rented vehicle.

I don’t know how they decided who would be driving, but I know that I wouldn’t have wanted to be with them. I can’t imagine that they got much rest between shifts.

For the cast, some of the day was still left after we arrived after a hotel was found for us. Some took advantage of the unexpected overnighter to swim or whatever in the city on the Atlantic Ocean side of the state. We all got some sun or otherwise chilled out. We ate dinner at a seafood restaurant overlooking a bay with some very, very nice seaworthy private ships.

Oh well—we can’t dwell on it for too long---today is another day and Raleigh and Taylor’s big day is just over the horizon.

Our week in Naples was otherwise great for the most part. We enjoyed the sun ---only one day was raining and unfortunately that was the day the school kids had a scheduled half day so they could go to the beach. We saw “Alice in Wonderland” instead.

Little House had a great sunny day on Wednesday when we took part in a Habitat for Humanity build at a site in Collier County. We actually framed six walls and “raised” the walls before we left. Habitat is building single story duplex homes for 184 families at the site and we hope that our half of the duplex proves out to be the sturdiest.

We all affixed our signatures to a bunch of studs that will be used in construction, so we truly have a stake in the success of the project.

A couple of our former neighbors from Old Bridge, NJ, were able to jump off a cruise and be with us on our final full day in Naples. It was great seeing Barb and Art McCauley, who lived across the street from us when we moved to NJ from Illinois in the 70s. Of course, we recognized each other immediately because we all looked the same—we wish.

Pictures from our time in Naples can be found at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=964593004803%3A748852900

The sun is up and we’re heading for the airport shortly. Stayed tuned for the next installment—hope it has better news.

Not all Learning Comes from Books

The question last week for the kids on tour with Little House on the Prairie The Musical was how to make learning really, really fun. And, of course, where there’s a will, there’s a way! Not all learning comes from a book--borrowing a line from the play.

Last Friday, the cast and crew from Little House were invited to see the sights at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. The school kids got to learn an awful lot through an up close and personal tour “backstage” with the stars of that massive show—the animals from all of the world.

And, the rest of the kids in the play (the cast, crew and chaperones) got to tag along too.

I know that none of us every thought we’d be able to actually pet a porcupine or a baby kangaroo. They (we) learned that a mother kangaroo can have three babies at various stages of growth at one time—one already born and living outside the pouch, one born but still inside the pouch and a third still waiting to be born. At Busch, the baby kangaroos and their “cousins,” the wallabies, live in fabric pouches that simulate their mother’s womb.

The school kids got to meet up close the “actors” in some of the shows at Busch. In this case, it was the birds, dogs, snakes, bears and other animals who are the real stars and their trainers who put them through the paces.

Busch also afforded all of the “kids” a real chance to study, in real time, the forces that you can only read about in physics books--like what does it feel like when you’re dropped off a 200 foot cliff and freefall at a 90 degree angle to the bottom. You have four seconds to contemplate that question before the freefall force took over on the SheiKra ride and our car plummeted to earth before take us on a twisting trail to head toward another similar drop.

There’s just no way any fairly studious person can solve this physics question the first time. There were not many from Little House who was satisfied after one trip. Most of the cast proved that practice makes perfect and it took three, four or even five rehearsals to make sure they had the right answer.

This writer and his charge, granddaughter Taylor Bera, only got in two tries and if the bus wasn't waiting for us to go back to reality, we might still be there.

Tampa was a great change from the wintery climes of the north. It was in the 60s during the day and cooler 40s at night, but still a 30 degree improvement in any case. We’re looking forward to temps in the 70s next week further south in Naples.

The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (in the process of changing its name to the Straz Center for the Performing Arts) is a great complex. It has its own performing arts conservatory for students and five different theaters offering a wide variety of theatrical endeavors from opera to straight theater. For instance, the theater next to ours last night was host to the Miss Tampa contest.

Little House was in the Carol Morsani Hall, a 2,200 seat venue. The sound was great and there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. The crowds were very receptive to the show. Season subscribers make up 70% of the audience. Next season, they’ll be treated to shows like Billy Elliott when it starts its road tour.

While the kids have been in school, the grownups in the cast and crew and the kids’ chaperones have found plenty to do in the off hours.

Ybor City is listed as a historical city whose main trade at one time was making cigars. They still do that in many shops but there’s a lot going on there, Helen and I were able to partake of some of the food there plus look on as the city hosted its own version of the Amazing Race TV show---two-person teams in all sorts of costumes raced around the city solving riddles, finding landmarks, taking pictures then racing back to the finish line for a party that didn’t look like it would end any time shortly.

Ditto for the beer tasting charity event that ran for 6 hours or more. I couldn’t try that one because it was sold out with pre-subscriptions before it started. I did get to try some orange-colored local brew appropriately called Shock Top as we sat in a balcony hamburger restaurant overlooking the main drag in Ybor (pronounced “E-Bore.”) From high above it looked like everyone was having a great time. I wanted to go to the party across the street but found out it was a costumed affair for the owner’s daughter and Helen and I couldn’t match the dress of the “Alice in Wonderland and Red Queen” pair, who we saw enter earlier. Guess they were inspired by the movie that just opened.

We’re told that the area really goes wild on most holidays. Locals said St. Patrick’s Day will really be rocking. Others said Halloween is another big favorite along with any other holiday that gives them a good excuse for partying.

All in all it’s been a good week in Little House and Taylor continued to perform in the play at her usual high level. She even got to play the major role of “Carrie” so we were extra thrilled to be on hand. Her other grandfather and grandmother, Joe and Kate Bera, stopped by Tampa after returning from a cruise with two other aunts and an uncle. So they got to see her in the show too.

Taylor actually did the role 2 ½ times---jumping in after intermission for one show, which meant putting in contracts, having her hair put into pigtails, changing her mike and getting a whole new set of costumes. All in about 15 minutes. She loves it though--that’s what actors are expected to do!!

It was an extra special week for us too because the daughter of the best man at our wedding 48 years ago was able to bring two of her children to the show on Sunday when Taylor got to be Carrie. Debi Ferger Fiegle and two of her three children, Alyson and Jason, saw the show. Debi's father and mother, Bill and Janet Ferger, were our good friends in Dixon, Il. Debi lives in the Tampa area.

Pictures from our time in Tampa are at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=616067573803%3A2118278018

Next stop is Naples.