Wednesday, October 31, 2007

appreciating our cast


Today was our cast appreciation! The staff has been staying together all week here in Prenzlau, Germany, and every night we’ve been preparing the celebration that we did today.

The cast was convinced that something was really wrong. Joern and Frank Liffers (our European tour manager who traveled with Scott & I in ‘97) told the cast when they arrived that there was “an issue” that the rest of the staff was meeting about. Frank said that he usually is excited to come out and visit the cast, but not today. Then at 8:30am they opened the doors to the auditorium and saw that we had set up the stage and decorated the set with streamers, balloons and signs. We had stayed up late all week learning dances and songs to perform for the cast—the show’s swing dance, “Everybody’s Everybody” from our previous uwp show, and a few other fun songs to have them laugh at and with us. My ribs are so bruised from doing the flips in the swing dance, and my stomach muscles have never been so sore in my whole life. But it was so worth it. From when I started as road staff, the cast appreciation day was one of the things I looked most forward to. And overall, it went so well! We had a few technical difficulties in getting our opening video started, but after that, the little show, the dance party, and then a movie in the morning were all big hits with the cast. We set the table and served them a sit-down lunch (rather than a buffet line how we eat most every meal) with candles and Frank Sinatra playing in the background. We wanted to show them how much we appreciate their positive attitudes and commitment to the program.

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