MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

*

that's that

well... two final shows went great. probably won't be posting anything regularly now. if any more pictures show up i'll put them on. hopefully i'll get more work soon and we can do it again.
thanks everyone for following along. it's been an adventure and an experience. you know how to email me if you want. take care.

melbourne dressing room

almost there

i know you get tired of hearing this, but...

wow, wow, wow!!!

the show was great, the audience was great, the theatre was great, my dressing room was great.

the theatre holds 2000 people and it was nearly full. the show is working so well.
we went to the beach on the way here today and played awhile. went to the theatre and had a great dinner. the stage was big, with lots of room backstage. they had 2 white-light christmas trees backstage. my dressing room was pretty cool. it had a big bathroom, and comfy-chair, a little christmas tree, and a refrigerator and a TV!!!... amazing... what fun.
i am staying in a hilton hotel tonight, on the 7th floor. the bed is very comfortable.

one more day to go in the tour. we have two shows tomorrow. have to get up early and get there for the matinee.

jacksonville

hey, another good show in another beautiful old theatre. about 1500 people tonight. i had two friends there from apalachicola. that was great. 3 more shows left. we go to melbourne tomorrow - gonna stop by the beach to play for awhile on the way.

wesley chapel and lakeland, fl.

is that where i was yesterday?...

the "workshop" in wesley chapel went real well. a theatre full of junior and high school kids. we took turns talking about things theatrical, especially pertaining to our tour. i spoke about christmas carol in general, and about our show, and some character/costume/prop stuff. we sang some of the songs. then we drove to lakeland and did a show last night. it was an excellent show - maybe our best one so far. it was another old-timey theatre, with ornate insides. the dressing rooms and backstage area were small - very narrow staircases. one of the dressing rooms had a special protective cover thing on the wall - highlighting the signature of........ elvis presley... no kidding. me and elvis on the same stage...

these are pics of inside the theatre.

uhhhhh... well it is a picture of me... joe gave his camera to one of the little girls during mic-check and i walked by as she snapped the shutter.

night and day

wellllllllllllll, i think yesterday we were swept into the twilight zone... there really wasn't a place called belle glade with a crappy hotel... but now we're out of it and much happier. i am in a beautiful holiday inn - one of the best rooms i've had. but as usual, i won't get to spend much time here. gotta be on the bus at 8:15 am.

we did two shows today - both very good, the second one especially. big crowd, probably about 1500. the theatre was right on the water. beautiful place, sarasota. we had an hour break between and walked around picking up seashells and enjoying the scenery. lots of birds of course, and all these land-lubbers were very excited. yes, i get excited too. the theatre was very nice and the outside was painted purple/lavender. i'm not surprised. these floridians are like that.

tomorrow morning we are doing a "workshop" at a high school about an hour from here, then traveling to lakeland for the evening performance.

the pics are of the theatre and of me and friend marc (the drummer) standing by the seashore.

no contest

hey everybody, i am in belle glade, fl. sounds nice doesn't it? well... this is the worst hotel we've stayed at. before now it would have been a tough choice - they've all been pretty good... but that's over now. my front door won't close quite right. my smoke alarm is hanging a foot down the wall from it's electrical wires. there is nothing extra in the room. some of the others have worse ones it sounds like. the tv works pretty well...don't have time to watch it.
the show went really well last night. pretty good audience here in belle glade, floriduh.
we're about to leave for sarasota, where we have two shows today.
sorry i don't take more pictures. i don't do that much that is photogenic... wanna see the kentucky fried chicken i had dinner at?... how about the smoke alarm hanging in my room...?

closing in on the end of this trip. mixed feelings about that.

see you down the road.

mickeymouse

hey - 11 hours on the bus today. we are somewhere near orlando. when we pulled in there was a firetruck outside... bad start... weren't sure we could stay, but we did, and we won't have running water for 2 hours. i am beat. still getting over 3 shows in 26 hours and the bus ride.

the pics are of the fancy hotel from yesterday.

sleepy

hey, two shows yesterday with about 1 1/2 hours between. gotta get on the bus for a very long ride, all the way to orlando, fl. for a stopover - no show tonight.

have a nice day..............

alabama

sorry i missed yesterday - bad internet at that hotel. i just got to hoover, al. we have two shows today so not much time otherwise. You should see this fancy hotel. it's connected to a big upscale mall. i'll try to take pics, though i won't get any time to look around here.
more later.

we're all bozos on this bus

.
.
TEN HOURS ON THE BUS...

we are in newnan, georgia for a layover, before continuing to alabama in the morning.
see ya there...

nc2

hey, i had a great show tonight. some of us didn't but i did. i haven't had a bad show yet, but tonight really clicked for me. there are always nights when things just feel really right. i had one tonight. went for a walk downtown today. it was nice - nice town. walked along the waterfront and found one antique store and an art gallery. it was a good day.
they have changed some scheduling for me - were supposed to be in alabama tomorrow for a day off, but because tonight's show was originally supposed to be a matinee this afternoon, we are behind and will get there friday. the show in daytona beach is canceled so we are driving to jacksonville a day early and will have that night off.

we have another loooooong bus ride tomorrow probably 10 hours or so, stopping in georgia for the night.

thanks for reading my blog. i appreciate it.

washington, nc

hey there, had a good show tonight. it was a strange show in some ways, because the stage was very small. we have three big sections to the set - left, right and center, and tonight we could only use the center section, and still the stage was crowded. we had to be careful of each other and the edge of the stage, and the offstage sections were stuffed full of set pieces so there was only one small entrance on each side. yet the show really went well. difficult situations make you pay more attention, give you extra adrenalin because of the uncertainty and danger - everything was different tonight - it was fun. the theatre was pretty. old and ornate. a bit small, but it was sold-out, and tomorrow night is sold-out too.

washington, nc is a pretty town. it is on the water - sort of a big inlet/bay from the atlantic. we are a little ways away from it, but with tomorrow off, i am going to walk that way and have a look. i saw some great old buildings and an antique shop... can't resist.

boonies, nc.

hey, the show went well tonight. good crowd - there were 1000 people there.

have a fairly short drive tomorrow to another part of n.c. and we stay there two nights with a show both nights.

we are not really in the boonies here, but kinda. we are close to the ocean and about 30 miles from myrtle beach. we drove through a fairly big town with lots of stores and stuff, then we drove on out of town a ways to the hotel which has a restaurant beside it, a car dealer across the highway, and nothing else within walking distance. oh well. don't have much time here anyway. need to eat my snack and hit the sack...

ohmygosh, virginia

oh my gosh...oh my gosh...

you should'a been here!!!

this theatre was beautiful. had a balcony and side boxes and different levels all around. and... it was a sold-out performance.

guess... go ahead, guess how many people... come on...take a guess...

i performed for 1700 people today. can you believe that? it was great.
and i had a huge cool dressing room all to myself. it had a big comfy-chair, its' own thermostat, and a separate bathroom and shower. i took a movie of it for you to see. heehee.

and this hotel is something. they have a pillow menu - i can call up and order a certain firmness of pillows and they will bring them up... no, i didn't do it.

we have a long ride tomorrow to north carolina, so i gotta get up early. the good news is i have chocolate covered krispy kreme donuts for breakfast. oh boy.

oh, also, 2 weeks from now, i'll be done.

here's my video - press play...

......................................lost in new jersey !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

here's this...

me being silly at warm-ups one night...

(silly?...me...no, not me...)

bus stop

well, i survived another long bus ride - almost 9 hours. glad that's over. have a very nice room at the holiday inn here. i am off till sunday's matinee, then we go to north carolina on monday. i have enjoyed the northeast and new england, places i've never been before, though i saw it in passing. great old architecture - and you know how i like that. riding along and seeing the spires of a cathedral reaching up out of a city. beautiful old theatres... and a nice place to be for theatre work as well.

pomona, nj.

hey - great show tonight. it was a strange stage. the audience seating started about 6 feet above stage level and went up from there. so we have to act "up" to them. interesting. you have to do the show normally, but always be thinking about looking up. a challenge.

the hotel is fairly new, and nice. too bad i can't stay longer. tomorrow morning we ride the bus about 7 hours to newport news, va. but don't have a show until sunday afternoon.

there is snow on the ground here - come have a snowball fight.

nighty-night

the more i know
the less i understand...

waterbury, ct.

heylo, had a great show at this beautiful theatre. it was as cool as the picture looks. wish you could see it. it started snowing on us as we left delaware this morning, but none here. gotta go back to new jersey tomorrow, and after that i think virginia, where i have an extra day off. plus that is the beginning of our southward turn, and warmer weather, though i can't complain too much. our weather could have been much worse till now. hope you are all well.

preview

hey, don't really need to say anything today... just resting at the hotel. getting ready to go to connecticut. wow, here's a pic of the theatre there - looks very cool... i'll be acting on this stage tomorrow night...

hairy

went for a walk, ate lunch, saw the sites...pretty exciting... no it wasn't... it was cold and the wind blowing hard made it very cold. no snow yet, might be some coming. walked by a christmas tree lot, that almost made the walk worthwhile. back in the room, chilling out by the heater, with my computer to keep me company.

hey! can you tell how long my hair is getting? amazing huh? makes a pretty good ponytail. makes a pretty good scrooge too...

grand opera house - wilmington de.

oh boy...

I am a happy chappy in a snappy zarape. we had a great show today and now i have 2+ days off in delaware to kick back and relax. my hotel room has a fridge and microwave and big tv and dvd player with free movies to watch, and there's a grocery store next door.

wish you were here...!

the show is going so well for me. it feels great. i enjoy doing it and having big crowds is so cool and helpful to me as an actor. they really seem to enjoy watching it.

me and dale(marley's ghost)

i'm dreaming of a

morning...ugh...gotta get on the bus. thought you might like to see the little bit of snow that fell overnight... looking out my 3rd floor window.

later...

new joisey

well i must say, this is going really well. i am having a great time. the show is going very well. i was at the theatre for 10 hours today. we did two shows and they fed us dinner in-between. i feel good, my voice got a little scratchy toward the end of the second show. it also helps make for a good show when you have
1200
people in the audience...no kidding, it was amazing.

have a matinee in delaware tomorrow and then two days off.

new york

hey there, had a really good show tonight. good sized audience and they were very receptive and responsive. leaving in the morning for new jersey. turns out we have two shows there, so this time tomorrow i will be done in. then have a matinee on sunday in...delaware?... i think. oh well, doesn't matter - i just get on the bus, get off the bus, do the show, look for pizza and donuts, get on the bus, get off the bus,...............

queens

no, not those guys... i mean the city...that's where i am in new york. i think bayside is part of queens, ny.gonna be here 'til saturday morn. the ride here was fine. snowed pretty good in the mountains of pennsylvania. i went for a walk and bought some supplies. everything around here is written in english and chinese. and boy do all these people talk funny. they have new york accents mixed with other ethnic things. very interesting.

can you believe i'm in new york?

jeepers

........................the view from my hotel window...look closely.

stopped at a rest stop in new jersey - this design was on a hillside...i guess that's the shape of new jersey...it was made of little rocks...another sign said this rest stop would soon be closing permanently...

bloomsburg, pa.

okay.....another 12 hours on the bus. not fun. rode through indiana, ohio, and most of pennsylvania. i am on eastern time now. lots of toll booths today. whatever that means. have an easy day tomorrow. 3 hours to new york, then nothing until friday night's show.

merrillville, in. #2

well, the show went pretty well for me tonight. the theatre was big, but the crowd was small. that's okay. today's treat was breakfast at IHOP. yum. gotta get to sleep and be on the bus at 7:30.

merrillville, in. #1

hey, got on the bus in nebraska at 8:45 am.......got off the bus in indiana at 8:45 pm......

what a ride. ate dinner and went to bed, and am about to go to breakfast and do some shopping. will do the show here tonight and get on the bus at 7:30 am for an even longer ride to pennsylvania, which is just a stopover on the way to new york where we show on friday.

austin, mn. & columbus, ne.

hey you guys, the performances are going really well. we performed last night in an old-timey theatre in minnesota. i believe we had about 600 people there. it was a sell-out. this morning i woke up at 4:15 to get on the bus for a long drive to nebraska. we got here just in time to go to the theatre, because today was a matinee at 3:00. it was a big theatre and i don't know for sure, but there were at least that many today, probably more. it was pretty full. my voice survived the day and i am now happily resting at the hotel, watching one of my favorite christmas movies, "a christmas story"(the one about the red-ryder b-b gun...and the weird little brother named randy). and this made even better by my tummy full of deep dish pepperoni pizza and pepsi i had delivered to my room. it is indeed almost perfect.

there is no show tomorrow so we will ride the bus all day to indiana, and do the show there on tuesday. so i get an extra day of rest.

the bus rides are okay. not terrible , but it's rather bumpy. we stop every 2+ hours for potty breaks, and sometimes for quick meals unless we are on short time to get to the venue. usually the theatres feed us something when we arrive.

i guess i should tell you, because it is silly (and you all know me well), but at the first venue, and any others that have the facilities, i had my own dressing room with a special sign on the door... and yes, everyone else teases me about it terribly.

i am working on getting new pics to post.

the picture above is of a frozen pond next to a rest stop in north dakota.

grand forks, north dakota

hey, this will be short. we opened tonight in a beautiful theatre to an audience 0f 830 people. amazing. did a 45 minute telephone interview today with a reporter from new jersey. gotta be ready to go at 7:45 am. nighty-night.

 

"...and i sing for you, though you can't hear me, when i get through, and feel you near me..."

that's that

hey all, well there it is. no more show until we open in north dakota friday night. today went well. i'm one tired dude. had them drop me at the big store on the way home. got some groceries and a little pizza for dinner. then walked home in the SNOW. pretty...........coooold and pretty. gonna relax tomorrow, watch a parade on tv... they made me a reservation downtown for Thanksgiving dinner. will be some technicians, musicians and others there too, we that don't have any people here. so that'll be good. the picture lady got some really good shots - don't have the digital files yet. she gave me some prints she made and i copied them with my camera. maybe i'll have more soon.

toeses is roses

hey, it's late tuesday night. just got back from rehearsal. went in at 10:00 this morning. worked some stuff, then got ready for a tech-dress-rehearsal-through-thing. when we go in, we first must get our microphones on and go onstage for a sound check. everyone has a wireless microphone attached to their head somewhere. girls have it hidden in their wigs, guys put it over the ear and tape it in place, then there is a battery pack strapped to your body. i have 2 microphones for some reason, and they are attached to a pair of glasses that i wear, and that means 2 battery packs in a little holster thing worn under my clothes. so we go in and say some lines and sing a song for the sound man, then into costume and make-up and do the show.
then later, after a one hour break, we did it all again, this time with a small invited audience watching. it went pretty well. still having some technical difficulties. near the end of the first run, i smashed my big toe pretty bad. i wear cloth slippers mostly, and that made it worse. it's black and blue and red. OUCH.
tomorrow we do some scene work and fixing things and then do another preview for an audience.
a lady was taking pictures today, don't know yet how to get ahold of them, but will try.

OTD

hey there, relaxing in my hotel room today. have the day off. yesterday we ran the show twice, with a dinner break in between. they both went well. got through almost unscathed. got all my lines in and right. need to work on a few song lyrics. i can stand still and sing, but some of my songs have lots of movement and detail stuff in them. if you could hear them, you would understand, and if you could see how intense the pace is. i also spend alot of time on the floor, hiding from scary ghosts or being emotional or because the director said fall on the floor.

i put some links on the show schedule page of my website for some of the theatres i will be at. if you are interested, you can see some of the cool places i get to perform.

tomorrow we begin "tech" work with the actual set and sound and special effects. so i will have new details to report. it will be very busy. on tuesday we will start early with tech stuff, then do a dress rehearsal, then do a "preview" that night, then another preview wednesday afternoon.

i have thanksgiving thursday off, and we leave on the bus friday morning for north dakota, to open the show there friday night.

chapped lips and more

hey all, sorry life's not terribly exciting. getting to where we mostly will "run" whole acts, or the whole show. supposed to have a little extra time off during the next few days. for me that means rest. not feeling up to par. voice still rough. have to push those high notes out. things will soon get more interesting, so i will have more to tell.

shhhhhhhhhhh !!!

hey there, sunday is a day off for us. i need it. yesterday took a toll. after singing rehearsal, we ran through act 2 and after a dinner break, ran through the whole show. when it was over my voice was gone. it went well. it is going to be a good show. so i'm resting my throat today, going over notes from yesterday, and still memorizing some lines and lyrics. and to celebrate being here a week, did my laundry (yuck) and had a PersonalPanPepperoniPizza (yum). oh, and some oreos... so we've blocked the whole show, which means we know basically where to move and what to do at any given moment. now we will start going back through and being more specific and working on difficult parts and working on character details. everything has to be done this week. next week will be tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals - there is a lot of tech in this, lots of special effects which we can't really prepare for 'til we get there. so we get as ready as we can, then we have to adapt it to set pieces, props, lights, sounds, costume changes, and such.

tour schedule

hello all, very busy day, lots of talking and singing...i am tired, my voice is tired. a week ago i was on a plane flying here, and two weeks from right now i will be onstage in nebraska for opening night. i have updated the show tour schedule on my website. they say it is complete now, for those who might get the chance to attend. here is a link to that page: http://www.randykeiththompson.com/Current_Upcoming_Shows/current_upcoming_shows.html

out to lunch

hey, pretty good day, worked on act two (ghost of Christmas present), and songs of act two, and other stuff. had a food break about 3:30. three of us walked up the street a ways, there's not much around the rehearsal space, went to a little "cafe", and i ate a $9.00 bowl of macaroni and cheese.

it was reeeeeeeally good macaroni and cheese.

act one

busy long day. did some dancing and singing catch-up today and then we ran act one tonight, straight through, more or less, to get a sense of continuity. some parts were pretty good, some were pretty bad. my first song is difficult, and it was a mess, but it got better from there. tomorrow begins work on act two. got two pics as you see, and they have been taking more so i should have more soon.

spooky

hey, on a lunch break. going back soon. did first two ghosts this morning and danced a bit in the fezziwig scene...eeek! more blocking tonight and tomorrow along with singing and dancing. one of my co-horts has been taking pictures and is supposed to send me some. yesterday morn i walked over to the post office with snowflakes drifting around me...double-eeek!

brrrrr

hey - sorry i can't do this as much as i and you might hope. i will try to do better. worked late last night and preparing to go in today. so far so good, i am happy with it, mostly. have spent much time on singing and dancing. i only dance in one scene, and only one of my songs is with the whole cast, so while they rehearse all that, i work on lines, and work on my stuff separately, but today starts scene-blocking in earnest and that means me all the time. i leave the stage two times in the show and that is for quick costume changes and right back on. i will write more soon, and try to take a pic or two. special requests accepted...(or excepted, maybe). oh and by the way...
it's COLD here.

turbulance and looking for mr. cheerio

sorry i couldn't report last night, i was dead. took 2 flights to get here, flew from oklahoma city to dallas, then from dallas to minneapolis. 30 minutes into the flight from dallas we flew over oklahoma city.........very silly. by the time i got a shuttle to the hotel and settled in it was after midnight. went for a walk in the brisk 40 degree morning, looking for mr. cheerio and his friends. no luck. went to first rehearsal, met most of the rest of the cast, and did some singing. i got to leave a bit early 'cause they were working on group things and most of my singing is singular. that gave me a chance to go searching again, and with the advice of a local, found the spot, and bought mr. cheerio and his friends milk and sugar and pepsi and ho-ho's and peanut butter and...

my faaaaaaaaaaaavorite part so far is - upon exiting the retail complex, i glanced over and glimpsed the words...."PIZZA HUT" ........ahhh, deep dish pepperoni...

well, here i go. i'm not a blogging kind of guy, and i don't know how interesting this will be, but a couple of my friends suggested it. i decided to do the "lists of things" on the side here - songs i like and favorite movies. i will add more to these lists as i go along. you can listen to the songs if you click on them. also, you can send a comment to me from these posts by clicking the "comments" at the bottom, but your comments will not be seen on here without my approval. so it'll be like sending me an email. nobody will see it unless i want to post it.
tomorrow i fly to minneapolis, and rehearsals start saturday afternoon. i've been studying my lines and music. it seems to be coming along well. i need to put a link on here to a list of venues. there's one on my website, but it needs to be updated. i will do that as i find out more info. got my sweaters and long-johns packed. i will soon post a picture of me in my long-johns...

...you wish........

well, wish me luck... it'll be an adventure.