Two Weeks in Denver

The bad news is that we had to end two beautiful weeks in Denver, but the cast and crew of Little House on the Prairie The Musical, was overjoyed because we were able to head home for a week with our families.

Most of us missed Christmas with our families although some families were able to trek to Denver on a snowy night to get here before Santa arrived.

Granddaughter Taylor Bera and I got to spend Christmas Day with her parents, Kelly and Joe, and my older granddaughter, Maggie. But Helen and the rest of the family, daughter Terri, her husband Jeff and grandsons, Jake and Christian continued the tradition of awaiting Santa’s arrival at our house.

Through the “wonder” of webcam, we all got to hookup on Christmas Eve and Helen even got to visit with some folks in Denver, whose father was born in Lefkada, an island in Greece, where Helen’s father Nick was born. Helen’s family had last visited with the Denver family 60 years ago, so it so nice they could talk face-to-face after so many years. It was great I was able to hookup with them during our stop, but it’s too bad Helen wasn’t able to be on the tour at this time. The two families share the same Greek last name although it’s spelled a little different---probably due to translation when they immigrated to the U.S. some in the early 1900s.

Back to details about the tour. We had absolutely wonderful weather for almost two weeks in Denver. The snows and cold weather didn’t arrive until Wednesday, the second week. Before that it was cold but sunny –some days just a sweater would suffice until the sun went down.

Here are some pictorial memories from of our two-week gig in Denver:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=810268390803%3A42522120

The Denver Performance Arts Complex is something to see. Press kits say it is the largest performing arts complex under one roof, and the second-largest center of its kind in terms of number of venues and seating capacity. Connected by an 80-foot-tall glass roof, DPAC houses ten performance spaces on its four-block, 12-acre site. It hosts a Tony Award-winning repertory theatre company, Broadway touring productions, contemporary dance and ballet, magnificent chorales, a major symphony orchestra, internationally-acclaimed opera and more.

Our show was in the Buell Theater and we competed well with the Nutcracker that was next door during the run and the Denver Symphony Orchestra and related musical program in the concert hall across the way.

There was lots of comings and goings at the complex. The restaurants were full before and after

The Buell was a great venue for the cast and crew—lots of stage space that permitted easy access and changes by the cast during a show. The dressing room areas were probably the largest and best situated of those we’ve encountered at any venue during the four months so far in the tour.

Best of all we stayed at a hotel that just across from the Buell and there are lots of shops and restaurants within easy walking distance. Urban renewal has done wonders for downtown Denver. The 16th Street mall runs is about 10 to 12 blocks long ( 1 ¼ miles) with free buses running the length of it everyday—just hop on or off at each street corner from Union Station on the south to the Capitol Building on the north. “Winter in the City” is its theme this year and they’ve even placed pianos in five outdoor areas where you can sit down and play if you’re so inclined.

One good time about a two-week gig in a city is that the whole cast and crew gets Monday off the second week. Some went skiing, tubing or just took the day for shopping, resting, etc.

Taylor and I hopped a regional bus with the Enghs (cast member Kurt and his father Scott) and spent the day in Boulder, CO—about 30 miles away. We just wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the daily grind of school for the kids (Kurt is in high school and does all of his class work on the computer while Taylor has 5 hours of school with two other kids in the play).

Boulder was a great place to relax–the kids got to skate on the city rink twice. The Pearl Street Mall runs through the center of town. Great shops—we spent an hour in a toy shop where I found out that I haven’t forgotten how to play with a yo-yo although they were much more costly than the one I had as a kid. These models ran from $18 to a $100. I liked on that was $22 but didn’t opt to get it.

The cast has been running a Secret Santa exchange for the past two weeks—we drew names in Tempe—and we were able to find some “great gifts” in the toy shop. We liked them and hope the people we have liked them as well. Everyone will found out who their Secret Santa was at the cast party on Christmas Night. And yes, if you’re curious, the cast had a show to perform on Christmas night too.

Taylor’s turned out to be Melissa Gilbert and Tay was like a star walking the runway in her gold-sequined Dolce & Gabanna that her Secret Santa gave her. My SS was Gayle and I got some favorite reading material, some “suds” at a local in-house brewery, a collapsible brew cup, and plenty of my favorite candy treats. It was lots of fun.

We had fun but we still were able to give back to the community during our visit. One morning the most of the cast piled into a bus and headed to the south side of town where we were to put the finishing touches on a duplex built for two families by Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. We cleaned floors and windows while the kids of the cast and others decorated cookies for the party later that night when the keys for both houses would be turned over to their new occupants. One of my jobs was to lay down walkway paper upstairs so the people who were to visit later won’t re-dirty the floors we cleaned—you see it’s too cold here to grow grass in wintertime and we didn’t want the dirt tracked in.

We got to meet one of the families getting their first house. Each one spent well in excess of 250 hours working on the construction themselves. The kids seemed real happy to have their first real place to call home and one of the little ones learned how to “lock a bathroom door.” The mother had to scramble to find the key to open it after a little panic. It was a good lesson for all—everyone’s kids have done that at one time or another.

The Habitat homes are considered “green.” Everything in the home is as energy efficient as possible. One thing I found interesting is the “hot water on demand” system. The foreman on the project, Trevor, who has built more than a 100 homes for Metro Denver Habitat, demonstrated the Rinnai tankless system, which provides hot water almost instantly when you turn on a spigot or turn on the shower. When the demand for hot water ends, the tankless unit shuts down and uses no energy.

Of course, the system requires that all of the home’s water use locations be situated in same section of the house so the unit powering the energy efficient system doesn’t require the water to travel great distances.

Our two weeks in Denver ended on Monday (December 28) and the cast scattered ‘hither and yon’ for visits with family and friends. Fifteen of us came back to the New York City area. We’ll all join up again in Fayetteville, AR., on Monday for a week in Wal-Mart headquarters and University of Arkansas country.

We hope all of our friends and family have a wonderful Happy New Year and a great 2010.

On the Road Again--In Tempe, AZ

We’re back on the wagon train with the cast of “Little House on the Prairie The Musical” but the “we” is only one for now. Helen remains in our New Jersey home for continued recuperation after a bout with pneumonia knocked her for a loop in Springfield, MO.

She’s much, much better now and thanks everyone for their calls, e-mails and cards. She even received some from folks we befriended along the trail.

I rejoined the group in cold and blustery Detroit last week and fortunately only had to spend a couple of days there in 20 degree weather before heading to the more “balmy conditions” in Tempe, AZ, some 2,000 miles away. Actually, the folks here think its cold, but I’ll take the sunny 60s in December any day.

Our hotel is adjacent to Arizona State University and the Sun Devils have a great looking campus with palm trees and orange trees lining the sidewalks and mountains in background.

It’s a beautiful area and a couple of high school classmates, who live in the area, campaigned for Helen and I to join them in this sunny clime—at least for part of the year. I got together with two of my classmates and their wives. We spent an evening reliving the good ole days. We had so much fun that none of us remembered to take out a camera and record the event.

Little House on the Prairie was performing this week in the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium on the ASU campus. The hall was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. People on the street giving you directions to the auditorium say you can’t miss it---“just look for the building that looks like a birthday or wedding cake,” the say.

They’re right---as you’ll see in one of my pictures. It’s round and has ramps on each side on the outside of the building leading to the “upper deck.” At night, the lights on the ramps give the appearance of candles.

I reserve judgment on the architectural merits of the building, but I can say that I that I sat in the next to the last row of the upper deck for last night’s show, and had a great view of the performance. I couldn’t get into the filled last row—I guess it’s like some sporting events where it’s cool to be as far away from the field as possible. The sounds from show were great---I heard every word and the music from the pit was fantastic. The cheap seats aren’t so bad unless you’re prone to nosebleeds.

This is just one of the perks of being part of the traveling tour. You get to know the people running the facilities where the cast is performing and can experience many things that you otherwise wouldn’t.

Some of these aspects are just fascinating to me—a novice in the world of theater.

I was lucky enough the other day to sit in on a rehearsal session for “understudies.” I really enjoyed seeing another side of cast members who play regular roles on a daily basis, but who could be called upon at any time to perform a “leading role.” One of those, of course, is granddaughter, Taylor Bera, who is the understudy for little sister, Carrie.
And, that same day, the whole cast also had a two-hour rehearsal for the director and choreographer to “fine tune” various aspects of the show.

If it was me, I’d make a show about these kinds of backstage aspects to a show and sell tickets to that one---kind of an updated version of “A Chorus Line.” I wonder . . . . .??

The cast has been having a great time in Tempe otherwise. There’s been mountain climbing at Camelback and skydiving from 13,000 feet for the older members of the cast—yes, the director knew about the latter (or heard about it later) and wasn’t too happy. The dozen that went (not including me) say they’d go again in a heartbeat. I can almost imagine what a minute long freefall from 13,000 feet to 5,000 feet would feel like. WOW!!!

Meanwhile, Taylor and her classmates continued the schoolhouse grind, both for real and in the show itself. No class trips this week. They did have fun times at “Meet and Greets” for several groups, including a contingent of “military families,” who attended the shows. The also had a special event night for kids prior to the show.

They also got to meet a distant relative of the Ingalls’ family---Laura Ingalls Gunn. She is related through her great-great grandfather Lansford James, the brother of Charles Ingalls, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s father. She is actually is a fourth cousin of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House books. She came backstage after the opening night show and then showed up the next day for kid’s day in a traditional prairie dress. She wanted to be our friend on Facebook and we agreed.

It’s hard to recap what happened since we left the tour in Springfield and rejoining it in Detroit, but my picture gallery attached will do that through the courtesy of shots taken by Taylor; her father and mother, Joe and Kelly Bera, and Carolyn Dunning, the tutor, who travels with the show.

Check out this site:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=648785820803%3A701487783

My last blog had pictures from the stop in Tulsa. Joe went there with Taylor following Springfield and stayed on through Oklahoma City and St. Louis. Kelly and granddaughter, Maggie, joined them in St. Louis for Thanksgiving and then Kelly went with Taylor to Detroit.

In Oklahoma City they visited the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum and the memorial at the site of Murrah Building bombing. In St. Louis, the when up in the Arch overlooking the city and the Mississippi River. They also went through the St. Louis City Museum.

In Detroit, they toured the Ford Museum and Hitsville USA.
Here’s a review of the play while it played in Detroit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-29085-Detroit-Performing-Arts-Examiner~y2009m12d2-Review-Little-House-on-the-Prairie-The-Musical-at-Fox-Theatre-in-Detroit

The next stop is Denver for two weeks where spend Christmas—hope Santa follows Joe, Kelly and Maggie to the “Mile-High City.” The company gets a break in time to give us a chance to ring in the New Year at home, and then we head off to our next stop in Fayetteville, AK.