Isn't This Backwards?

I just started reading a new book today that already has my head spinning a little bit. We are gearing up for another election and, as usual, I am so torn. I believe VERY strongly in what I believe. There are stances on certain issues that just are so completely clear to me right now and, unfortunately, every candidate seems to be split on some of these issues. I am totally on board with a candidate on this matter, but totally opposed to their view on another. It's so hard for me to understand how the candidates can not believe exactly as I do, but that's another issue altogether.

When I first was old enough to vote and NEED to care about politics I came to an understanding of what I thought was good, right, in line with Jesus... and those things seemed to be in the Bible and on my heart. There was this backwards thing, though; I learned about what was good and right many times from my friends who weren't part of the church. I determined what I believe was in line with Jesus' teachings and what I wanted to stand up for from my home and my church, but also a great deal from my friends in theatre. Below is a quote from "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller. It perfectly describes how I felt.

"I seemed to see two camps before me, and there was something radically wrong with both of them. The people most passionate about social justice were moral relativists, while the morally upright didn't seem to care about the oppression going on all over the world."

I am not saying that the church doesn't fight for the oppressed and for social justice. I have been involved with missions within the church my entire life and it was those missions that gave me the heart and eye for loving people like Jesus did. It just struck me that the way I was taught to think about helping people was that it was a private sort of thing. Keep it in the church and take care of it how you would like to, but make it a public issue and it's wrong. Since when is there a wrong way to help the "least of these?" To my young mind and heart (one that is fully admitting to not being the most informed or knowledgeable on political matters) an opportunity to give to the poor or help the oppressed of our society or lend a helping hand is just that. It's an opportunity.

One thing I have learned and that I do know from this business is that you only take what you have sometimes, and many times all you have is a chance. An opportunity. Why not take the opportunity to help and to show who Jesus is? Why not take the opportunity to give, and open up conversations about the Giver who gave His life? Why not take the opportunity to follow that example? To allow others to see the beauty of a chance in Christ through the love of His people?

I know I don't get it all. I know this is a simple, surface look at many larger issues. All I know is that Christ was not stingy with me. He showed me what it means to be loved and to be COVERED in the lavish gift of redemption and life. I hope I can show a piece of that love.

Up to Christmas Break...

We spent a week in Orlando and I was so excited because I was able to visit with my friends Ellen Kahne and Brad Frost who are both working down there. We stayed at a hotel right downtown and went to dinner one of the first nights there. Seeing friends on the road is just such a refreshing thing. It reminds me that there is life outside of this show and that I have a community of people supporting me along the way.

Later in the week we planned a trip to Disneyworld! If I am in Orlando I will do ANYTHING to get to Disney. It’s one of my favorite places in the world! A couple of cast members hadn’t ever been to Disney and we all contacted as many friends and family as possible who work at the park to get some tickets! My great friends, Karen and Chris Baker, are both working there after having met on our cruise ship. They are such sweet and talented, hard working people. They were sous a chance. generous to get a big group of us into the parks and we spent the day exploring Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

The biggest part of my week in Orlando was that I went home for a few days to be part of the wedding of Matt and Catie Castleman. I had so much fun being in Cincinnati for a couple days and it was great to see so many friends from college, high school, church, etc. We just had a great time and I was so happy to be there to support two people who I admire so much and are so wonderful together. I can’t wait to be in the same city with them for a longer period of time. Our last day in Orlando was a whirlwind of me traveling back, doing two shows, and then we had a big party thrown for us! Brad and Ellen were able to come out and meet the cast (Ellen saw the show) and party a bit at a great little spot where the had food and drinks. We also got together and had a little cabaret night where we all sang Christmas songs and stuff that we had with us. It’s always great to get a chance to do something DIFFERENT than our show every night.

The last week of tour before break was a week full of one-nighters. We started in Rockford, IL where I decided to plan a little outing. The night before in Orlando we had so much fun singing together and singing Christmas songs and I thought it would be a terrible waste to not share that holiday joy with others. I found an assisted living facility nearby to our hotel in Rockford and called them. We ended up having about 20 of the cast plus our violinist, Chase, come along and sing from the show, Christmas carols, etc. I played piano, Chase improvised beautifully on the violin, and we threw together about an hour’s worth of music that the residents seemed to REALLY enjoy. It made me so glad to be able to use our talents for something bigger than ourselves. We performed that night at a really great old palace theatre. It is always fun to see the varying architecture of theatres all over the country.

The next day we were in Evansville, IN. It was crazy to think I was so close to home, but the day flew by and the next day was a travel day. We drove through rain past downtown Louisville. What a tease! I just wanted to jump off the bus, but we had a few more days. That night we stopped along the way in Charleston, WV, a city I never thought I would randomly spend so much time in. This time we were in a hotel that was surrounded by… nothing. There were no restaurants open or anything, so we ended up having a bit of a pizza party in our hotel room. All sorts of people came by as we watched old Christmas movies on TV, played Catch Phrase, and Celebrity and had a grand old time. We have definitely learned how to entertain ourselves on the road.

For the first part of the weekend we played Richmond, VA. We performed in a HUGE theatre, the Landmark Theatre, which had history as a Masonic lodge or something. I have never seen anything quite like it. It was nice to be in a pretty fun town. There were lots of shops and things around. Between shows on Saturday I ended up taking a group to a restaurant I found called The Black Sheep. It had been on Man vs. Food and was one of the best meals we had on tour. It was just so incredible; warm, RICH, and delicious. Our last stop before break was Charleston, WV, where we actually performed. We were in a beautiful performing arts center, but the highlight of being there was that my parents came to see the show! It was such a nice treat to have them in the audience and then we had a late drive to get me HOME! For someone who travels constantly for a living, I just CRAVE being home in the Louisville/Cincinnati area. To my friends and family there: I am so thankful for the loving community you are to me. It makes all the difference to have people surround you that build into you, invest in you, and care for you the way you all do. It is because of you that I love to come home. Can’t wait until next time!

Love,

Tripp

When the Saints Go Marching in... to NOLA!

Returning after Thanksgiving break we knew that we only had 3 weeks, so it was a really exciting time to get geared up for the holidays. I am so thankful to be so close with my family and friends, but on the road these people are truly your family. We make sure to watch out for each other and take care to make life as happy as possible, especially during a season like the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we all just want to be home.

Our first week was spent in New Orleans, a city I have been dying to visit for a long time. It was a great welcome back to tour, all of us out dancing and excited to see one another in a city so full of history and culture. We spent the week rehearsing quite a bit because we had a new addition to the cast. Ann Northern joined us for a few weeks to fill in Jenny’s track. We were so happy to have her and her personality meshed so well with our whole group! Rehearsals certainly never stopped us from exploring, though, and I had a lot of time to do just that. The main event of town is just walking around. The architecture, the music, the food… it is all so overwhelmingly colorful and vibrant. I had so much fun just easing my way through the days there. Wandering through the French Quarter I found lots of fun shops, viewed interesting churches, etc.

One of the first days we went exploring through one of New Orleans’ famous cemeteries and explored all the mausoleums of voodoo queens and mayors. I started day one having classic food from the area. Between red beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo, po boys, crawfish etouffee, etc. I was in heaven! I had more incredible seafood in New Orleans than is fair. I also stopped for the donut-like dessert of beignets a couple of times, both at Café Beignet (my favorite little hole-in-the-wall) and at the renowned Café Du Monde.

Katie Reid’s good friend Aimee is from New Orleans and was in town, able to show us around! We ate at her restaurant, which was fantastic. Later in the week Katie and I also did a master class at a school near the 9^th Ward, which was so terribly damaged by Katrina 7 years ago. It was amazing to see the progress that has been made there, but this is still a city in major recovery of that time. It was so rejuvenating to be around students who were very talented and so eager to learn and listen to any advice we had to give. It was a wonderful, fulfilling afternoon and I was glad to share it with Katie. We went to Mother’s for lunch and had the best jambalaya of the whole trip.

The nightlife in New Orleans is unbeatable, of course. We explored Bourbon Street, but our favorite spot was Frenchman Street where there were many little dive bars with great jazz music playing. We had a big night out hearing all sorts of great musicians, young and old. It was cool to see the musicianship of the community still being passed down through families and generations. We also went to a unique place called Carousel Bar where there’s a carousel inside the bar and the bar stool move around the bar in a circle. It was so fun to find spots like that throughout the city.

Our last night in town we went to the Ritz-Carlton and to the Davenport Lounge. I had been given a tip to head there because Jeremy Davenport was an excellent trumpet player and entertainer. He had played in Harry Connick Jr.’s band for years and now is the resident lounge singer at this hotel. I was also excited to see my friend, Ramon, again. He was a dancer on my ship and I was able to meet him in Jacksonville earlier on tour. I love the fun times we have together. We went upstairs to a BEAUTIFUL room, decorated for the holidays and packed with patrons all in great moods to hear Mr. Davenport’s music. He played all sorts of standards and we had fun dancing throughout the night, but the highlight was certainly when we were all dancing to the Louis Armstrong classic “What a Wonderful World.” It truly is a wonderful world and a wonderful city. We were so blessed by our time in NOLA.

Tripp

Ready for Turkey Time

We had one more week of one-nighters before our Thanksgiving break! Needless to say, we were all pretty antsy and anxious to see family, friends, and get a break from doing the show and traveling. To cap off our week in Austin we had a 5 show weekend right into shows on Monday and Tuesday. Our day off for the week wasn’t until Wednesday, so we ended up doing 11 shows in 8 days. Those first two shows were in College Station, TX, home of Texas A&M. We pulled in the first day and just had time to run to the Applebees across the street for dinner and headed to the show. The next 24 hours included 2 more meals at Applebees, spending a portion of my Best Buy gift card, and a game of shuffleboard on a terrible board. Thrilling.

Off to Pearl, MS, which was just a stopover in our travel, but it meant a night off. We bided our time with dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s and catching up on the Sing-Off. One thing that was funny was that we quickly realized another tour was staying right by us and a lot of us had friends there that we were able to catch up with! What a small world! Our experience at Ruby Tuesday’s that night was also a bit of a mess. Quite often we have found that people are thrown off when 50 of us come in, all with ID’s from different states, all traveling together… it is understandably confusing. However, this restaurant refused to take a NY state ID that was valid! We quickly pulled together more NY id’s to clear up the situation, but the manager was very confused by our teaming up from tables all over the restaurant. Ha ha! Oxford, MS was a nice stop just because we really got a taste of the South. Pretty girls wandered around the immaculate main town square and there were plenty of shops to peruse. The show was in a really nice concert hall on Ole Miss’s campus. We went out for my roommate, Jake’s, birthday that night and enjoyed Square Pizza afterward, a great late-night snack.

The next day we had a show in Baton Rouge. It was a little bit of a tricky theatre backstage, but all went smoothly. I was able to get a small taste of Louisiana (enough to get me excited for New Orleans) with some red beans and rice for dinner. The following morning we hit the ground running, traveling again to Galveston, TX. We were all THRILLED when we pulled up to our hotel that sat right on the beach. It was GREAT to get a nice walk on the beach, an automatically calming and rejuvenating environment. The show was in a really pretty Opera House that was pretty tight for our show, but very charming and we played a PACKED house that night.

Our last 2 shows of the week were in Orange, TX. It was a really long, but rewarding day. We had to wake up and travel to Orange on the bus, heading straight to the theatre and into sound check. Our first show was complete and we had dinner provided for us. Little did we know that it was going to be a Thanksgiving FEAST! With 50+ people in our company it’s not exactly easy to feed all of us, but we all ate to our heart’s content and were filled with good ole Southern goodness! This certainly got us ready for the last show, which was one of our best! It included an intermission dance party thrown by the kids’ dressing room and subsequent celebration as we went to the hotel to pack up and head to our families for the holiday!

Heading back to tour now, refreshed and ready for 3 weeks of hard work before Christmas!

Tripp

Finishing up Before Thanksgiving!

A long weekend in Colorado is always welcome to me. I have quickly learned that I love the mentality of the people in this part of the country and there tends to be great food. We were in a really nice little theatre in Fort Collins and I had gotten some great recommendations from my friend, Maddie, so we were set to go! We enjoyed going on the main strip right in town and found some great spots there. After Mongolian grill for lunch, we did two shows and I had dinner with Katie’s family at Austin’s, a really fantastic bistro. For dessert I had to take up Maddie’s tip for dark chocolate crème brulee at the Chocolate Café. Oh. My. Heavens. I don’t even know what to say. We also loved the bread pudding and tomato soup there.

That night we went out to a couple bars, which was particularly fun because Colorado State University is in town and we had fun mingling with all the students. Ha ha! Our hotel was a little ways out of town so we figured we would just take a cab back, but thankfully we made friends with a guy named Bill who volunteered to drive us in his pickup truck. 6 of us piled in and made the trek, but it was pretty funny to see all of us piled among his fly-fishing gear and everything!

The next morning a group of us guys walked in to get breakfast at the well-known spot, Snooze. We had heard that there would be a long wait, but that it would be worth it, so we went ahead and put our names in and got coffee for the hour-long wait. Thank goodness we did! Our brunch was just over-the-top. The servers and hostesses were so great and our food was out of this world. At the table we ended up having pineapple upside down pancakes, red velvet pancakes, sweet potato pancakes, plus eggs, bacon, corned beef hash… it never seemed to end! That just made my Sunday and my time in Ft. Collins. We went to Chocolate Café for dinner that night and ended our time back at the hotel playing Celebrity. What a crazy couple of days in Colorado. It was great to just gorge over those two days. Little did I know what Austin would hold! Oh gracious.

I have heard for a couple years how great Austin is and I was excited to discover it for myself! Our hotel was outside of town, so a few of us decided to chip in and share in renting a car for a few days to have the freedom to get around town as we pleased. We got in early on Monday and hit the ground running! First we had dinner at Trudy’s, an Austin Tex-Mex staple. From Mexican Martinis to stuffed avocados, we weren’t disappointed in our castmate, Ben’s recommendation! From there we decided to explore 6^th street a bit. 6^th street is the Austin equivalent to New Orleans’ Bourbon Street. Lined with bars and live music, we had a fun time trying to find the best spot. We heard some fun music and even ended up riding a mechanical bull! Getting into the Texas spirit was proving to be easy for our group, for sure! We ended up finding a fun spot called Buffalo Billiards where we played table shuffleboard for a bit. The night ended at Mozarts, a charming spot right on some water that was open late for coffee and locally made ice cream. There was even a fun Christmas light show set to music that capped off our night! All in one night we had fallen in LOVE with this city.

The next day a group of us went to the shooting range. It was a really fun time just having shooting competitions and trying out different guns. We all had a great time and ended up meeting some really nice people along the way. That afternoon I had Rudy’s BBQ. Ben actually used to work there and gave us the inside scoop on what meats to order, sauces to use, etc. Nothing like a great BBQ meal outside under the sun to get you ready for a show! We performed for the week at the Bass Concert Hall on the University of Texas campus. It was a big theatre and reminded me a lot of Whitney Hall in Louisville. The audiences were just so generous to us the entire week, having so much fun and enjoying the show out loud! That night an opening night party was thrown for us at a local spot and we headed back to Buffalo Billiards for another round of shuffleboard. We quickly realized our addiction to the game and a competitive spirit was born around the shuffleboard table among our cast. Ha ha!

Wednesday was our last full day with the car so we all piled in and headed to South Congress, a quirky street lined with vintage stores, great restaurants, local flavor and fashions. Austin is known for its food trucks, a trend that is growing in cities. Not just your typical street meat, these carts are parked in pods and groups ALL OVER the city and serve gourmet quality food. Everything from cupcakes to bbq to Thai… you can find ANYTHING. We explored those and then started filling our bellies. We had Home Slice pizza, Sugar Mama’s Cupcakes, and tacos at Polvos Mexican all in a matter of a couple hours! Oh my heavens!!! That kept our tummies full while we shopped at some fun vintage stores and a great men’s store called Stag. We also went to Barton Springs Pool, a really unique watering whole right in Austin where a spring has been controlled and used as a big public swimming hole. That night after the show a group of us went to play shuffleboard and I ate an incredible burger at Casino el Camino, a dive bar that was famous for its burgers, featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”

The next day we knew we had to really take advantage of the last few hours of car access so we drove all the way out to Ben’s house and to the famous Salt Lick BBQ. On the drive there I dreamt out loud of tons of meat just smoking over a huge pit and I was NOT disappointed! I had a plate of brisket, ribs, and sausage, but was quickly upgraded to the all-you-can-eat plate so I could enjoy more and more! I won’t even discuss the blackberry cobbler for dessert. All of it was just OUT OF CONTROL! We had some understudy rehearsals that day that were really encouraging and I felt great to have gotten pretty much the whole show as Cable under my belt.

The weekend was exciting because our Nellie understudy, Rachel, went on for the first time! It was so exciting to see her hard work paying off for the crowds in Austin and all of us were just super pumped, watching and cheering on her every move from the wings. We decided to make Friday night a big night out to experience Austin’s 6^th street in full force. The bus dropped us off and we walked around a bit to find somewhere we could dance and we ended up at some bar that we ended up referring to as Bali Hai! Ha! It was SO FUN. There was a loose jungle or African theme, but we basically went upstairs to the glass dance floor where a hip DJ was playing GREAT music and mixing it up for us all to dance the night away. At one point, though we all looked up and realized that there was no roof! The dance floor was open to elements and we danced away underneath a full moon and with giant elephant tusks forming a sort of canopy over us. It was so fantastic! We headed to another dingier place afterwards in a basement where we had a funny encounter with some smokers in the bathroom…. Sheldon…. The night was capped off getting late-night food from a food truck and heading home, having conquered 6^th street and marked our territory!

The weekend finished up smoothly. I had my last brilliant meal from Hut’s burgers and on Sunday night we celebrated Rachel’s run as Nellie by going out. First, though, I had a surprise up my sleeve. I heard about a place called Tiff’s Treats in Austin that delivered hot cookies by order. At the start of our last show in Austin I put in an order for 2 dozen assorted cookies to be delivered to the stage door at the end of the show. Just as planned, they arrived and were warm and WONDERFUL for a treat to celebrate our AMAZING run in Austin. (My dressing roommates were pretty psyched, too.)

Wow! Hope your mouth is watering by now. Thanks, Austin, for probably my favorite week on tour! Can’t wait to return!

Tripp

One Night Only

Milwaukee left us one person short, unfortunately. Jenny Piersol, our precious “Bessie Mae,” slipped in a rehearsal and actually broke her foot! We were all just so upset about her leaving, but the show must go on and though our hearts were with her, we kept on and our swing, Angela, really stepped up to the plate! We had quite the travel to get us to our next show in Grand Forks, ND! We spent one day traveling as far as Minneapolis where we stopped at the Mall of America for the night! It was really fun to explore the mall and we even took the time to ride some pretty great rollercoasters in the mall! Ha ha!

Grand Forks, ND sits right on the border of MN so me and my roommate took the time to walk over the river to say we walked to Minnesota. Ha! The night flew by. These one-nighters are so hard to keep up with because they just fly by so fast! Thankfully, our crew does an incredibly good job of keeping the show running really well, which makes all the shows blend together at times. From Grand Forks we went to Bismarck, ND. On our way to Bismarck we stopped in a mall and I saw a friend I went to college with at NKU. This world is just so small. I say it all the time, but I continue to be astonished by how much we are really all living so closely. To think that we both just happened to be in BISMARCK at the same mall, at the same food court, at the same time of day?! It blows my mind. Anyway- it was great seeing him.

That night we had our one and only night performing in an ARENA. Yup- that’s right. I don’t hardly know how to describe it to you. Basically they sat up a bunch of chairs on the ground floor with a temporary stage set up facing half the auditorium. There are big drapes hanging to cover our “backstage” and we have some other obstacles. First, the sheer size of the building becomes quite interesting. Any sort of quick crossover to get from one side of the stage to the other all of a sudden becomes a long sprint to make your entrance! The biggest difference in an arena show, though, is that we have no flys. That means that anything that is flown in from above is cut from the show. It is pretty interesting, but really becomes a sort of acting exercise to tell this story with our limited resources. I was surprised to see the audience PACKED in Bismarck and you never would have known the show was missing any of our regular set by the way the audience was eating up the show. It was a really fun night and kept us on our toes, for sure! Nights like that make me appreciate non-equity touring experiences and taking these shows to smaller markets like that. Bismarck needed to see this show and have a really great night at the theatre as much as Boston did. The audience was so excellent and we were so happy to be there.

Our next shows weren’t for a couple days in Ft. Collins, but that long travel included a stopover in Rapid City, SD. I was pumped to make it there, though, because Rapid City is home of Mt. Rushmore! We took a full busload of us up to see the monument for a few minutes. It was pretty incredible to think of the people who climbed around those hills and thought, “I know what we’ll do!” Ha ha ha! To have the thought of carving these faces into that mountain is just ridiculous, but it did just what they wanted, bringing tourism to their area. It was definitely a bucket list item marked off and we had a nice relaxing night enjoying a great meal at Firehouse Brewery and playing celebrity.

We didn’t know what to expect from the Dakotas, but what a treat it was! Some crazy country that reminds you of just how much land there is in the world. Just… open space.

Anyway- on to Colorado and Texas!

Tripp

"Once I visited my cousin..." in MILWAUKEE, U.S.A!

We spent Halloween weekend in Milwaukee, which I wasn’t particularly excited about, just not knowing what to expect. I was glad to be staying in a Hampton Inn (the best beds) and be in one city for 3 days. We arrived to the large theatre and were really able to spread out with our full show and in a fairly large city for the weekend. Unfortunately our booking was a little strange and we didn’t have the best crowds, which we have been spoiled with up until now. It was fine and we still did a great show every night, but wished we were sharing it with more people. Milwaukee was a really fun town, though. I didn’t know much about it, but it was nice to explore and get to know this city.

Our first night in Milwaukee we went to a really cool bar called Safehouse. We had heard from lots of friends that we just had to get over there. It is in the theme of a secret agent/speakeasy sort of deal. We had to find out where the entrance was (an unmarked door down an alley) and then a few of us learned of the password to enter. We arrived at the door and a couple girls greeted us and said we may enter if we knew the password. Those of us who did headed in through a secret door behind a fireplace and down a mirrored hallway into a unique, quirky space. From there we got to watch as our friends struggled to get in. They had cameras for us to watch as they had to complete acts to enter the bar. Some had to act like penguins, others did full runway walks with boas, etc. It was a riot. The place was very cool with all sorts of little nooks and crannies, unique drinks, secret passages, and puzzles to get you into that secret agent mode!

Saturday was a 2 show day, but I was determined to get out and see some of the city (as usual) so I walked with Alex Pepper (our dance captain) over to the Milwaukee Art Museum, which I had heard was a really cool spot right on Lake Michigan. I have always found the great lakes to be really incredible, so I was glad to walk over there. We were pretty blown away by the stunning architecture of this building. It was voted sexiest building in 2010 and I can see why! It has been used in a number of movies and things. The dramatic wings or sails retract around the building a couple of times throughout the day and it was a pretty spectacular thing to watch on such a beautiful day right out on the water. Inside, the light in the main atrium is just stunning. And who would have thought… Milwaukee?!

Sunday I went to church and the Katie and I headed down to Milwaukee’s historic Third Ward and the Public Market.It’s a large indoor market with all sorts of local food vendors and was a great way to have a taste of the local flavor and see a really cool part of town with all kinds of interesting shops. The big event of the weekend was our Halloween party on Sunday night after our two shows. Our party planning committee did a great job planning 2 parties. Since we have kids on tour we had a separate party for them first where we had gingerbread haunted houses to decorate, pizza for dinner, pin the tail on the donkey, etc. You better believe, though that we had a huge time with the kids and parents playing musical chairs, limbo, and dancing down a soul train line! Ha ha! Later that night we reconvened for a “adult” party with costumes, music, etc. I dressed as JFK, complete with Jackie O as my date, but the costumes were really excellent. Some of the best included Liat after the war, twin Christian Marriners, drunk Nellie, our Capt. Brackett dressed as a geisha, our Marcello dressed as his wife, Annelle, and Little Richard!

Liat, abandoned and pregnant after the war. Nellie... "Am I drunk? Yes I am!"

We quickly realized that we all wanted to have our own games of musical chairs and limbo, so you better believe we had 2 vicious competitions. It was a RIOT to see all of us wrestling each other down to win. I won a solid second place in musical chairs and won the adult round of limbo, also! Solid showing! Ha ha!

Tripp Hampton

Ps- The title of this post comes from a Gershwin song from my tour last year.