For the last month I’ve had doctors tell me if I felt short of breath I should go to the ER. So it was disconcerting to step off the plane thinking it was the pressurization, take a deep breath in the terminal and feel just as short. Then I was like, “Oh wait this is Denver. That’s just… the air.”😶

Sitting in another airport studying another venue survey, jotting my notes about what I need to investigate at load-in. Except again this is one of my surveys from 2021. One of my first, but pretty thorough. I wasn’t doing any markup on the photos to make it easier to understand, but lots of text.

When our run in Anchorage was canceled we were assured we wouldn’t be laid off, and it would be replaced with an “exciting new city.” I thought it was being oversold because we’ve recently played all the exciting cities, and how would the big cities have room for us on 6 months’ notice anyway?

Finally got my surgery date, and it’s not till Jan 16. 😡 But at least I have time to plan my recovery, which I’m 95% sure I’m going to take a 9-week LOA specifically because load-in week in Detroit is the most exhausting thing I ever experienced in 4+ years on tour WITHOUT having had major surgery.

That was a rough week to come back from surgery: 9 shows & rehearsal. But I got through it. This week is 3 shows and the remaining half of the vacation I was taking when we were supposed to be playing Anchorage. Also huge props to one of our crew swings who ran the damn Chicago Marathon yesterday!

It is our opinion in rehearsal today that Cher needs to cover “He Lives in You.”

Checking in on my former-Broadway colleagues today to make sure they’re OK after the Broadway cast got to meet Cher last night.

Got a clean bill of health to proceed with my second surgery, now just waiting on a date! Eager to start figuring out the logistics of all that. And I know company management and the rest of the stage managers (especially the subs!) are, too!

Chester has figured out that the new hooman who gives scritches when Mom & Dad are at work is leaving.

Surgery went perfectly, it seems. Back resting comfortably at the house of an old friend who was part of the local talent pool of my 1st summer stock theatre 20 years ago. When I played here in ‘24 we hadn’t seen each other in 15 years. Crazy we’re here now with her & husband taking care of me. ☺️

One of the things that’s my responsibility is designing the three distribution routes for the 19 copies of the In/Out, to get them out as fast as possible without making the 3 SMs schlep all around the building. Now that we’re returning to cities it’s funny how my old route comes back into my body.

LOL. Pulling up to the airport and I get a message from my doctor’s office. I’m like “Oh cool maybe they fixed that problem with my prescription.” No. They miraculously found an open slot in the OR to do my 1st procedure THIS FRIDAY.

Just offered a shadow to a random hotel employee’s stage manager daughter, who works in a city that’s not on our schedule yet but is kind of overdue. Texted our team “Hey so I scheduled a shadow for like 2027 or 2028, just FYI.”

We also had the pleasure of stealing the great Tshidi Manye right after her legendary long run as Rafiki on Broadway. She’s been with us for 3 weeks covering our Rafiki’s vacation, but I hope it won’t be the last time!

Bidding farewell to “war-torn Portland,” and one of my favorite house staffs of all time, as well as the weirdest path I’ve ever had to guide an elephant through. Our two runs here in ‘24 and ‘25 have made the staff and crew here feel like family.

The only thing bad about visiting the Curry studio is that you can’t take pictures of all the amazing things you see! They’re in the process of archiving a ton of Lion King stuff from the early days of development, and it’s just sitting in piles and boxes in the room we’re working in. Crazy.

Nobody wants a rehearsal call at 12 on a Tuesday, but this is one people are fighting to attend. We’re loading the bus to Michael Curry’s studio in the farmland outside town, to be shown our new 9-piece mask by the puppetmaster himself! “9-Piece Mask Day” has been highly anticipated for like a year.

My annual Talk Like a Pirate Day call was a great success. While the Star Wars Day half hour call is for everyone, the pirate top of show check-in is mostly for the crew. Everyone played along with enthusiasm and some good quips. I made some improvements to the script this time.🏴‍☠️

What a fun day! My first repeat city, and very unusually, one we only played less than 2 years ago. The number of returning people, both ours and the house’s, made it feel like a reunion. Everyone was saying that after walking around a few minutes it feels like we’ve only been gone maybe a week.

Well we didn’t crash, probably because they didn’t put any of our bags on. Only a few people got all their bags. I’d estimate at least 30 of us were lined up at the lost bag claim desk. I got none. But I did see this coming so I was 1st in line and GTFO quickly.🤞🏻they come in late tonight.

Well they held the flight to “load more bags.” I can’t wait to feel this thing try to take off with an entire Rafiki Company’s worth of bags on board. Just know if we crash I died laughing.🛫

It may not fit my luggage, but I never thought I’d just waltz right up to a Dash-8, so there’s that.

Doing my usual airport lounge work, putting the final touches on all the FOH paperwork for the next city, re-reading the survey and writing down all my questions. This is the first time the previous survey and all the paperwork I’m referencing were created by me. ☺️

Upon checking in at the airport I had a particularly bad case of “Good morning, ma’am, where are you traveling to?” “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh [entire rest of the year’s schedule flashes before my eyes and I verify it’s in the right order] Portland.”

Lounges really are the least relaxing places in an airport sometimes. This one is just an overcrowded cafeteria with a broken coffee machine and a screaming baby, and everyone’s cranky with each other cause there’s literally no personal space.

Travel day! Nearly cried when theysaid, “TSA PreCheck? This way.” Totally forgot when returning to the US you can use all that stuff like PreCheck and GlobalEntry. Now I’m 4 hrs early. Largely because we’re flying most of our company on a teeny-tiny plane and there’s no way our bags will all fit.

I don’t know anything about this person except this video but I would recommend them for any job in the theatre because you don’t nail it this well without having lived it for a long time. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ShVhfG/

When people say “Vancouver is awesome” I think they’re talking about the lively downtown, the restaurants, the nature trails, the whale watching. They neglected to mention that you can’t find a restaurant that serves Dr. Pepper to save your life. What is up with that??

“Can you handle that, or do you need a human?” Me, to the Cheetah, who dropped one of the sticks to control her leg. A Zebra will be almost offended if you suggest they can’t retrieve the stick with their foot, but it’s a bit harder for a Cheetah.

It’s Associates Week! Associates Week happens twice a year, when the folks who maintain our show worldwide pop in for a visit. This one is more popular, as it’s not the one where they’re deciding who gets renewed. I love this week. I always learn lots of new things from listening to rehearsals.

A classic Pridelands moment: Nala, walking around in our office, bumps her (puppet) head on a paper hanging ceiling decoration, turns and looks at it quizzically: “Oh. I forgot I have another head.”

It’s an interesting day of change. Today marks four years that I’ve been with the tour. It’s also the closing performance of the Toronto company, whose tech and early weeks of performances I assisted with. One more turn in the circle of life.

Approaching rehearsal with positivity: it’s my only one of the week, and I get to have my 1st rehearsal with two new actors who have arrived over the course of the last week. And while the mile-long walk to work is time consuming, the weather is always beautiful and Vancouver is fascinating.

I came in to a note on my desk asking me to replace our most annoying spike, which is a concoction of glow dots, paint pen, and marley tape. While assembling the supplies I saw this box of Altoids on my desk, and wow was I sad that it wasn’t a box of glow dots, but inexplicably… Altoids.

Back to exploring another balcony in another house, this time the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. Simple in the house, but the backstage is a 3D maze that will twist you around like a pretzel, as evidenced by the signage my esteemed colleague made for the first hallway😂.

The flight attendant keeps telling people they can’t get out of their seats. Then she closed this curtain across the aisle. I know they’re trying not to spoil it, but I’m a professional and I know this trick: they’re setting an elephant back there and they’re gonna perform a musical number for us.

It’s been very sweet in the lobby tonight: every actor who crosses the lobby is getting individually applauded by the entire house staff. As someone who worked FOH on Broadway for 13 years, it’s one of my favorite parts of my job to have the house staff so involved in our show.

Tonight we say goodbye to the Rafiki Tour’s 100th city, Calgary. On to Vancouver to continue our Canadian journey. Getting there in the midst of the Air Canada strike will be an adventure, but I wish the union much success!

The most prominent Yellow Antelope I’ve done in a while. Doing a 2nd survey for an almost-identical theatre has been an interesting challenge. I’ve been focusing on taking slightly different angles for each photo so the two surveys can be used in combination for even more context.

I wonder if I could apply for a leave of absence for a duration of “Until I’ve played every game in my Steam library.” 🎮

I’m looking forward to seeing Denver again, and I guess their social media team is excited for us, too! 🤣

2:30 in the morning and the hotel is evacuated. We’re all clustered in one corner of the plaza out front.

Bad news: It’s Tuesday and the day off is over. Worse news: I have Tuesday rehearsal. Best news: It’s a dialect rehearsal, which is my favorite type.

There’s a contingency that was drilled into us as new SMs, that in 4 years we have NEVER had to do, when the main curtain is broken and you use the King’s Curtain for finale and bows, which also requires spacing and exit changes for the cast. This afternoon we did it. Achievement unlocked.🏅

It’s been an exhausting first week, but my wholesome moment of the day came after the top of Act 2 when an actor from the balcony came down and told me that a little girl right in front of her position was trying to offer her a gummy candy through the whole song.

I’ve just had my mind blown. We have this heavy scenic piece that stores in the air. In some cities the motors make a perceptible mechanical noise from the deck, and in others it’s essentially silent. I always thought it varied based on the characteristics of the venue.

Moving from Edmonton to Calgary is so freaky. It’s literally like we took a day off from work, came back, and like, a set of double doors became a single door. Somebody installed a giant piece of machinery outside our office window. A janky fake step in the elephant aisle became a real step. Spooky.

The funny thing is, I’ve been so excited about how easy it will be to return to venues I’ve played before, without realizing in a way this is the first one. The number of times in my FOH meeting I found myself saying “What we found to work was…” or “but we didn’t really have any problems with that.”

Also, my paperwork is done.

It’s 4:15 and I’m on the train home from load in. That’s the train platform. That’s the stage door in the background. Even though we can take Ubers for free I think I’m going to take the train a lot. It’s actually the 1st time since I’ve been on the tour where public transit is convenient for work.