The end of the tour was fabulous. The FREE trip to Six Flags was so much fun. My favorite rides were the Texas Titan and the Texas Giant. They were spectacularly thrilling – even though it felt as if my brains were being jostled loose with every twist and turn. We had to stand in a few lines, but all in all, it was a “walk up and ride” day. It had been way too long since I’d been to an amusement park.
The cast and crew also got to attend another party-in-a-mansion before we were through. Julie has a cousin who is a (renowned) surgeon in Dallas, and he and his family threw us a wonderful party with loads of yummy food – including a chocolate fountain. I need a chocolate fountain. If anybody out there is dying to buy me a gift, please, oh please let it be a chocolate fountain.
We had a special guest star during the last week. Jens – our fantastic fiddler – had to leave for a few days for a job he’d previously committed to, so Laurie Canaan (who played the fiddle for the Broadway show) came out and joined us for about a week. What an overwhelming job she had. Seriously. Not only did she have to learn approximately one million measures of music (different arrangements than when she did the show the first time), but she was also thrown into a group of people who had already been settled into this show for months and months! She did a bang-up job though, and it was really a pleasure to be onstage with her.
As for saying good-bye, that is always hard. Even when you know that you’ll keep in touch and see people again, you also know that this particular
experience is coming to a close and will soon be put into the “memories” file. As dramatic as it sounds, my heart has gotten used to being busted up on a regular basis in this line of work. You’re constantly leaving people. You’re constantly meeting people, yes, but you’re constantly leaving them too. It’s a double-edged sword, but I can’t imagine doing anything else. I suppose it’s true that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and saying good-bye doesn’t kill you. It just makes you cry every now and then.
On a lighter note, I must admit that there was one particular good-bye that I wasn’t sad to make, and that was to the jeans I wore in the show. They started out big, so Shannon took them in. Then I got skinnier, so she took them in again. Then I went to Dallas, and found that everything really IS bigger in Texas (i.e. my ass). Man, did those jeans get tight - like denim spandex. I nearly busted the seams on the poor Levi’s before the final two weeks were out. Actually, I think I did bust a seam, but it wasn’t bad enough to fix for a show or two.
We couldn’t have asked for a better final show. The audience was super-responsive, and it was a relief to those of us who were hurting vocally to be able to really blow it out without worrying about the next show. When it was over I shed a little tear in my dressing room, not really believing that it was actually over, then I sucked it up and prepared to move on. I wonder what the next big adventure will be…
Tags: humor, travel, acting, erin, parker, writing, singing, theatre, ring of fire, tour, Texas, friends, end
