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.