We are done again yay

Post show karaoke. Unexpected, but there are some proper musical theatre extrovert types in this company, and Sam.

Sam kicked it off a few days ago with Sweet Caroline in White Water Tavern in Little Rock. That is a glorious place covered in graffiti and absolutely unpretentious. We met some people there.

“There were some kids who had never been to theatre before,” said Antonio, the guy who brought us in and raised the funding. “I didn’t think they were coming back for the second half, cos they all went to the parking lot and got completely stoned. But they came back! I spoke to them. They’ve never seen anything before.” “Yeah, they were our friends…” That was Elana. She played pool with us, then sang karaoke after Sam did Sweet Caroline. She was absolutely tiny, probably just 21, we literally just told her what we were doing and then she showed up mob handed to a Shakespeare play and stayed.

Antonio was generally pleased about us bringing in our weird audience members. “They stayed, and then they asked what else we have on,” he beamed.

The lady from the car hire in Little Rock, came with her mum and her friends too! She was bemused but happy. It’s a good show and as it should, it connects us to the audience.

After the show we went into town.

“I like you guys cus you clearly don’t fit in around here,” said Brad tonight as his opener. This was before anyone sang karaoke. We are just in the only good pub in Conway. JJ’s. Brad is depressed. He moved back here from Cali. His dad died. Now he lives where his dad lived. It is entirely on him to get over his shit but right now he hates his life. I wonder the extent to which we all get into these expectation tangles.

I’m just here now. I kinda had to sing a karaoke really so I did Johnny Cash covering U2 One. I can talk that mostly so

Now I’m writing at the bar while everyone goes about the things.

We had a matinee today and that was that. We are now all packed up and good to go. Lovely to see the guys off who have helped us in the theatre. It’s a brilliant college, Hendrix, with a really tight team running the training at the moment. I’m hopeful that I’ll come across people here in the greater industry. It is a frequent thing for me to meet a young American in the UK who might be at Stage Door and tell me the college we met at, and I will always remember them exactly. Some are friends on social media. None are given this link, which I’ve realised I basically never share to anyone. I think that’s ok. I’m not writing for you, darling. And it isn’t monetised so it means nothing if you read it or not. One of my friends who thinks all the things keeps apologising for unsubscribing and I literally couldn’t give a fuck. I still love them. My love is not conditional on you reading these ramblings or even knowing they exist.

That said, there are some of you who I know about and I love you for it, because life is hard. Support is a powerful thing, and even basic interest somehow implies support. So yeah – In the tone of all the instawankers: I’m so very very glad of you all. At least I’m not shouting into a void. When I’m shouting.

Right now I’m just happy to find so much liberal art in Arkansas…