Dear Constant Reader,
On Friday Brigitte, Stella, Scratch, and I hit the road for our latest touring venture. It was with a little trepidation, since our final stop was Pittsburgh and we had an interesting (in the Chinese curse sense) trip home from that city last year.
First things first, the annual picture of me looking like I’ve been run over while attaching the cargo carrier. We all met at the studio to load up and head off for our first destination: The Courtyard Theatre in Sellinsgrove, PA.
It was a little fussy loading up the car with all our crap. Although the plan was to have all 3 pink boxes (that’s one of them to the right) that we use in “Factory Girls” (and contain all our costumes) in the car, our Tetris failed and one had to ride on the cargo carrier. And my rice-paper silhouette screen got wrapped in a tarp and rode on the roof. (The reason I mention all these dull details will become clear later). The packing logistics plus some ugly traffic on 93 made for us being a bit behind schedule to start off.
The drive was fairly uneventful for a while and we even made up a little lost time. Then we hit the inevitable Pennsylvania roadwork… and traffic came to a dead stop. Now sooner did we finally start moving than the clouds began gathering and the skies opened up. Torrential rain! Like, Scratch stepped outside for about 75 seconds and was soaked to the skin. That kind of rain.
Remember the pink box and the screen on the outside of the car? I don’t know about anyone else in the car but I was now stressing about being way behind schedule and potentially having ruined a box of costumes (and the box itself) and my major set piece. I could see, when we stopped, that the wind had peeled the end of the tarp on the screen back.
We finally arrived at the theatre. Which is in a mall. Like, turn left at the JC Penney’s to get to the stage door, in a mall.
Two hours late, we began frantically racing to get set up. Fearing for the worst, we unpacked. The bottom of Stella’s trunk had gotten wet and a few items were damp, but nothing too bad. Whew! My screen on the other hand, looked pretty sad. Fortunately, a little packing tape (plus a little pastie tape) got everything back into usable condition.
It’s a pretty nice theatre: large stage, decent lighting, helpful staff, good dressing room with clothing racks, big well-lit mirrors, and a bathroom. And no microphones. We travel with a vintage-style microphone and had requested a stand and cables in our tech rider, but they had none of that. That is, not at the theatre. Someone had the audio equipment at home and forgot to bring it.
It’s not a big theatre and someone with a big voice could easily be heard in the back without amplification, but Stella really needed that microphone for her song. And Scratch had been sick for most of the week and was on the verge of losing his voice. Nothing to do but power through it and hope for the best.
Our special guest performer, Private Tails, arrived, as did Isaac and two kittens from Billtown Burlesque who were helping us out. And we all got ready to go on.
I wish I had thought to take some backstage pictures, but we were in such a rush from the minute we got in the door. The house was packed and the merch was selling fast before the show even started! The acts were all very well received. Stella solved her volume problem by wandering into the audience during the song and then dancing with one particular gentleman. They ate it up.
We got so many nice compliments afterwards. Much of the audience had never seen burlesque before and were just delighted by the show. Yay! That’s what we like to hear. Some of the more amusing comments we got included someone asking if Stella & Brigitte were twins and the fellow who chatted me up for a while about my perfect Irish looks.
Here’s a post-show shot of the cast and some of the folks from the Courtyard theatre on stage:
While packing up, the venue kindly gave us several large trash bags and some packing tape. We bagged & taped up the pink boxes and securely lashed all 3 to the cargo carrier (where they fit very nicely), then swaddled my screen and rewrapped the tarp in a more secure configuration.
Too tired to join the rest of the cast at Applebee’s, we drove down the street to our lovely hotel and passed the heck out.
We arrived a couple hours before call and had a drink and relaxed in the hot tub with Fionna. The club is very nice, with an outdoor pool, a sauna, and the hot tub. Early on I was introduced to a distingushed-looking gentleman who said “I have the perfect thing for you.” Fionna explained that he was a regular who would bring a big suitcase full of lingerie and hand it out to the ladies. He’s usually dead accurate on size and style. More on that later.
In honor of the floral motif for the show, Esther had asked me to do “By Any Other Name”, my rose-themed act. Unfortunately, I discovered that I had left my ribbon corset back at my hotel. Since it doesn’t come off and is just pretty, if I had to forget part of my costume, this was the best item.
I’ll probably bling it up and use it in an act.
I think we arrived at Higher Ground before the show actually started, checked in with Kyla, and headed to the Chinese restaurant next door. A chicken and vegetable stir-fry is one of my favorite pre-show meals, so that was perfect. The photo is kind of dark, but we’re all wearing LBDs and the matching jackets Betty made for us, plus our rhinestone name necklaces from Scratch. The other 4 Babydolls have incorporated their demon horns for our number into their hairstyles.
(Photo by Michael Z. Rork at Zinfandel Photography)
(Photos taken by Cha Cha Velour)
Performers all got goodie bags — these chic Monday Night Tease packs filled with useful items for keeping warm, like books of matches and snazzy Vermont Burlesque Festival scarves.
(Photo by Greg Gouwens @ G-2 Photography)
This I didn’t buy, but it’s too cool to ignore. Lili von Schtupp gave me my very own 
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 