triumph, as expected

Today, we had two fabulous shows.  Of course they weren't perfect.  Of course weird things happened and lines were ad-libbed.  But they were a ton of fun.  These kids are so energetic and talented.  They were simply a delight to work with, as I stated before.

Let's start with the beginning of the day.  One of the raccoons came in pretty late.  As he walked him, I told him to just have a seat quickly and that I liked his lunchbox.  He said "yeah, it's Staw Waws" (note: my attempt to phonetically write out the babyish way in which he pronounced Star Wars).  The raccoons were cracking me up all day.  They all thought they looked like beavers rather than racoons (note: they don't).  And backstage they were constantly asking when it was their turn to go on.  Then they would get back stage, and literally as they were walking onstage one of them would ask me a question that was COMPLETELY unrelated to the play, and I would just kind of brush them off with a smile and shove them on-stage.

Between shows we got Chinese food and went to Starbucks.  We ran into a couple of my favorite kids there (they are brother and sister).  The little boy is a very articulate six year-old, who apparently participates in this game the kids in the wolfgang (who are a little older) all play where-in someone is "the babysitter" and they have to figure out who it is and catch him/her.  Anyhow, he is the cutest little thing, and his older sisters are both a delight.  The middle one, who I think is 11 or so has been SO wonderful with our down syndrome cast member.  She talks to her all the time and always makes sure she knows where she is supposed to be and what she's supposed to be doing.  (forgive me, I changed tenses about six times in that paragraph)

When Sam was collecting costumes, apparently our little Star Wars raccoon told her that if we were doing Indiana Jones next time, he would want to be in it.  I mostly had kids helping me load the truck and telling me that they wanted to do my job when they grew up.  Including some really sweet kids who I did not cast.

We were told by multiple cast members who have done many MANY Missoula shows that we were their favorite directors ever.  They thought the others were good, but that we were the most fun to be around.  It helps that we have a really fun show.  But it was still great to hear that people think I am good at what I do.

I know there were so many more funny stories from today, but my head is so scrambled right now that I can't think of them.  I am just really going to miss this group of kids, and I am ESPECIALLY going to miss my fabulous assistant directors!  I hope I never have to work without ADs again, and I will be hard-pressed to find a group as good as these guys.

We got a few very nice parting gifts from the cast and their families.  But most importantly, we got a stuffed dog called "lucky".  He is a good-luck dog.  Apparently it is a tradition here to have a good luck dog and all of the cast members shake his hand once before the show.  The kids decided to give him to us so we could bring him and his good luck powers to all of our other residencies.  We certainly plan to.  (plus, he looks cute on our dashboard)