The Blues: of Grassy and Moody Varieties

It's been a blues-filled week. (I may be stretching a little bit by tying these two events together, but I like to think of it as "being creative.")

First, on a quick, unrelated note: I had a birthday. There's not much to report on the subject, but it seemed a little weird to just go past it without acknowledging it. So: I had a birthday. It went by pretty uneventfully, as I was in dress rehearsals for my show at the time. I bought myself some new clothes (from Matt... he got away easy this year), had a little dinner with my family, and got some books, craft stuff, and more clothes for gifts. It was nice, and now I'm older. That's all.

Anyway, back to my bluesy week.

On Tuesday, I went out for what I hope will become a new summer tradition. There's a fun restaurant up in Lyons, Colorado called Oskar Blues. This place is known for its good beer and fun music events, and every Tuesday night is bluegrass night. My friend, Rachel, and I headed up for dinner and some good music.

Rachel and Stumpy (her cast).

I hadn't realized that there would be no organized bluegrass band performing for us. Instead, a ton of bluegrass musicians gathered around to jam. With no plan and no set list, these people just came together and played music. It was pretty awesome.

Bluegrass jam.

Yay, music.

As the night went on, more and more musicians kept coming in. The circle grew, with many people standing around the edges. At one point, I counted over 25 musicians.

Lots of bluegrass-ers.

Rachel and I got lucky with a front row table to the whole event. It was really cool, and we hope to repeat the fun many times this summer.

After bluegrassing it up on Tuesday, my blues became... blue-er. (I'm really pulling this out of nowhere now... oh, well.)

This weekend, I closed the show I've been working on for the last month or so. It was very sad for me.

See. I'm sad. I'm about to perform my show for the last time.

I'm totally suffering from the post-show blues. But I tried to enjoy the opportunity while I still had it. I had a blast performing this weekend. In fact, I think Saturday night's show was one of the most fun performances I've ever been involved in.

I went a little picture crazy during the last show. I just had to capture the memories!

Men getting ready.

Women getting ready.

Me and Mom.

We had a little drama before our final show. Our hero and leading man was late! He was driving from a dress rehearsal in Larkspur to our show in Brighton (a really long way, for all you non-Coloradans). We knew he was doing his best to get to the show, so we weren't too worried. But it is a little nerve-wracking to be missing the star of the show.

Our director, on the phone with Jack Swan.

Our show was supposed to start at 2. He still wasn't there.

The cast, waiting and worried.

Finally, he has arrived. I'm not sure if I've ever seen anyone run across a parking lot that fast.

Our hero.

Finally, our show could start. It was pretty ridiculously awesome.

Mother McGoof and Captain Bermuda.

Me and the director/Carlota.

Rawhide, eating his sandwich.

The preacher. He tried to marry me.

Now that the show's over, I can let out the secret: the damsel does not end up with the hero. We're tricky. I end up with this guy:

Lt. Lorne Order and my future husband. He's 6'8", so he pretty much looks like this to me when I look up at him.

Scary villain.

Showing off my bloomers. They were cute.

After the show, Jack Swan took the time to meet one of his biggest fans, my niece. She liked him.

Hero and villain after the show. Now they can be friends. How nice.

As is usually the case, post-show is the time for parties. We had a last hurrah together at the cast party.

Food and party.

Now it's over, and I've got the post-show blues. I usually get pretty sad when shows end, but this time I'm really sad. Now I'm back on hiatus until I finish grad school. It's really hard to walk away from this much fun, knowing that I have no more theatre in my near future. Of course, I wasn't planning on being involved in this show until I got pulled in at the last minute. So, I guess you never know what will happen. In any case, there will be more shows. Just maybe not for a while.