April 29, 2008

Keep watching...it's time to crank up again!

February 20, 2008

View of the...well, just a view of the "Kitchen Witches" at the cauldron, Marilyn is on the right(like you couldn't tell).

Your eyes don't deceive you, it's the pre-season warm up...oh, if only it would...warm up, that is. We have been living through some frigid temperatures this last while, although we did get to zero celsius (32F) last Saturday. What a dirty trick, giving us that little sample and then pulling away with some -50 windchill temps...oh, well...it's Saskatchewan in the winter.
The winter has passed in a blur, even though it is still only February, it won't be long until it's time to get things ready for the move south. The first step is the paperwork to be allowed to head south, and that is filing through the proper channels at this very time, so that's a start.
Marilyn was kept busy all winter with theatre. First, directing the Christmas dinner theatre, then helping backstage and with sets for the huge musical, and now acting in the latest production that has had three performances. this production will be going to a drama festival on the other side of the province and then for a ladies night out in April. Oh, yes, annd the old work thing at Staples.
Speaking of work, Al is now working for H&R Block doing income tax returns. This is only for the tax season, since he has a 'summer job', but it gets him up in the morning.
Well, don't want to get too carried away on the first entry of 2008. There really is more to come...

There's more coming!

Don't give up just yet...the blog won't be done without some closure to wind up the year.

Of course, finding the time...

November 3-Paper Bag Wins!

View of the day-Our Archbishop wins best supporting actor!!!

Ray wins best supporting actor and he is a partsman at Yorkton New Holland, so it still has some thing to do with the harvest...

November 2

View of the day-Setting up for the big performance.

Al got help from Mike to load the combine...Marilyn's usual job...and got everything flanged in then prepared to head north. He crossed the border into Canada in the mid-afternoon with nothing of note at the checkpoint. The rest of the story will come on Sundya when we finally get to see each other.

Marilyn was up early for adjudications in the morning and an actor's workshop in the afternoon. The adjudicator made a lot of interesting comments on the play and it seems unfortunate that the play will not be performed again. There are always a lot of improvements from a "professional" set of eyes, we almost wanted to try it again to utilize what we had learned. The evening had another three plays, two hilarious and one very deep...the last one not really Marilyn's cup of tea, but it was well done. Three more tomorrow and then the awards for the festival...don't think we have a sniff, but it's the festival experience that really matters.

More barley taken care of...

November 1

View of the day-The vista out the patio doors of our room outside Kamsack.

Al spent the day getting things organized to move back home, at least we hope so. Marilyn on the other hand got the bus loaded and picked up the five other passengers to go to Kamsack to "tread the boards". Once we got to town, we had the grand tour of the theatre and then got to check into the motel before our rehearsal time.

The theatre is actually a movie theatre that is still in use, but they have added additional stage area to be able to use it for live theatre. We were allowed two hours to familiarize ourselves with the change in venue, then it was back out to the motel to "get in the zone" and wait til performance time. We have found in the past, if the rehearsal sucks, then the performance will be a good one, and except for a couple of minor hiccups, that still held true...it was the best performance of this play we had done to date. The adjudicator was really positive in her remarks, but we will get the rest of the story tomorrow morning when we get a full hour of her comments.

The green room theme was Mexican Fiesta, so after we got back to the hotel to drop the bus off and change, we all got 'dolled up' in our sombreros, ponchos and moustaches and caught the shuttle back into town. After closing down the green room...one has to support small town enterprises, right?...we got back to the hotel...and this is bizarre...high speed internet, but no phones in the rooms. They had to bring a cordless phone down when the stage manager was looking for us. We did manage to make enough noise to wake up Joanne...yes the "blog comments" Joanne, when we got back to the room...she doesn't need to read the blog tomorrow.

Well, now, if harvest is over...do the blogs continue? As long as there is a mention of harvesting, it should count, right?

We were harvesting "barley" tonight...could be more tomorrow...

October 31-Trick or Treat!

View of the day-Well, it's a dig into the archives for one of Al's favorite shots...because he actually took it himself!

Well it's official...the 2007 harvest season is over for us...the cutting part of it anyway. We still have to get everything cleaned up, moved home and put away for the year. Al is working on getting that done and hopes to be home by Friday. Didn't that season go fast?

Marilyn spent part of the day cleaning at home and then took the bus up to Ebenezer to unload the fifty risers...okay, more like 20...clean up the storage space and load the set pieces on the bus. She had help from Brenda, her stage manager...who is also her manager at Staples...and after three hours, it was back home to pack.

Marilyn is also heading north...to Kamsack for Theatre Saskatchewan's short play drama festival. There are nine community theatre groups from around the province taking part, with three different one act plays each night. The adjudications are held the morning after the performances and they have an acting workshop as well. Yorkton Paper Bag Players are taking the first act of a two act play they did for the mental health awareness week, and Marilyn is directing...and driving the busload of performers and sets. We are staying at a motel 5 miles out of Kamsack and they did tell us that there would be a shuttle service. This is a good thing since Marilyn has been known to quaff a few Coors Light in the green room after the evenings performance, and she doesn't drink and drive...anymore. Each night the green room has a different theme...Mexican Fiesta, 70's lounge lizard and formal, and as usual, Marilyn is trying to sew and glue her costumes, while also getting the last minute set pieces repaired.

Didn't have any goblins...