Whaddya' Sayre?

Sayre, Pennsylvania...a town I don't need to see again anytime soon. After our Upper Saddle River, NJ performance, we drove straight to Sayre where we were supposed to stay in a Best Western for two nights. The Best Western was actually pretty nice. I have to admit I had my doubts before arriving. It boasted an indoor pool and jacuzzi (neither of which I took advantage of).

After we arrived and took naps, Collen and Lauren (my roommates for the two nights) and I headed downstairs to the hotel restaurant for the early bird dinner specials. I ordered a pasta primavera which had maybe 5 vegetable pieces in it and was made which a cream sauce instead of marinara. It was basically a bowl of cream and noodles with a couple of veges thrown in as a garnish. Primavera my eye! Then we headed back upstairs to settle in for our weekly Lost viewing party. Colleen, Lauren, Brian and I are obsessed and it's really fun to watch together. This episode didn't disappoint. R.I.P. John Locke!!!

The next morning we drove about 20 minutes to Towanda, PA where we proceeded to have the worst morning of the tour so far. First of all, the door we had to load in did not lead directly to the stage. We had to come in the door, turn a corner, go up some stairs, and then turn onto the stage. Our set is the biggest of all the TheatreWorks sets so it was a lot of work just getting it onto the stage. Then we discovered that the stage had a huge hump in it...well it wasn't that huge...you couldn't see it unless you were looking for it....BUT, it did prevent us from being able to fully assemble our house which is supposed to be able to rotate 360 degrees and both sides open up like a book to reveal interior scenes. You couldn't open the doors or rotate the house in anyway because of the big hump. We ended up putting up the front of the house and having to do the whole show without ever changing the house. We had to adjust all our entrances and exits and figure out how we were going to do the Tarantula number without the wall flap to hide behind. We ended up moving one of the fence pieces over to join with the other fence piece which provided some cover for us. Because there wasn't much time to fully discuss how we were going to make it all work, some of the entrances and exits were off and several of us ran into the corner of the roof that hangs down on the corner of the house since we weren't used to exiting/entering that way. Luckely for me, when I ran into the house I was wearing my bunny ears which cushioned the blow. On top of all of this, the guy at the theatre was not helpful at all, we were all in terrible moods, and we were all exhausted from being on a long stretch of something like 8 days in a row of shows. This can happen sometimes if your day off in one week is at the beginning and your day off in the following week is at the end. BLAH!

Colleen rests between shows. We were all dead tired.


The next day we were scheduled for two performances in Sayre which was down the road form our Best Western and RUN BY THE SAME GUY FROM YESTERDAY'S THEATRE! This was the day we discovered he was crazy. They had turned the downstairs dressing room space into a "Cafe" - I use that term lightly since it was no Starbucks:) This apparently drove him crazy because he kept mumbling and sometimes yelling about it to himself. Awkward! The one dressing room they did keep was a Toy Story themed dressing room (yes, the Pixar film starring Woody and Buzz Lightyear). I had to take pictures because it was so odd.

The theatre in Sayre was a little better since we were able to put together the house and do the show the way it is meant to be done. The kids loved it and we were happy to pack up after the show and leave Sayre behind.

Last night we drove to Syracuse, NY where we stayed in a Craftsman style themed hotel which was really nice, and enjoyed a dinner out at Pizzaria Uno. I went to bed at 10 and didn't get up until almost 9 the next morning! I needed sleep!!!!! Today I'm feeling more refreshed and more like myself.

Today we are driving to Ogdensburg, NY which is near the Canada border and where the temperature is currently reported to be -4 degrees. UGH!!!!!! We have a day off tomorrow in Ogdensberg and then a performance there on Monday. I'm not sure what we'll do with our day off in such a cold temperature, but I'm thinking something indoors...perhaps a mall?

Update: We've arrived in Ogdensburg and there is no mall or movie theatre. There is Bingo night at the Odd Fellows Hall though which we are actually considering taking part in.