musician – Clownmommy

Leaving Bigfork

8/17/09

I stopped by the theatre to pick up my reunion t-shirt. Then I walked along Electric Avenue and looked at the shops, some that were there when I was a playhouse actor and most that were not. In the gift shop next to the theatre I heard some people talking about JK Simmons and how he had been walking around town like anybody.
“Yeah, he’s one of us,” said one of the men.
Then they started to talk about his older brother David, “that big guy with the big voice”. He was a friend of mine when we were both still in Missoula going to school and involved with the Missoula Children’s Theatre and for the record he is the younger brother. During one pre-production build, I rode out to Lolo in a truck with David to pick up some lumber or piece of equipment for a show and as we drove past the McDonalds I read the sign announcing “Chicken McNuggets”. It was the first time in my life I’d seen those words and I laughed all the way to Lolo. Chicken McNuggets. Who thought that would last.

Who knew that 50 years after some college kids showed up to put on plays in the sleepy town of Bigfork, Montana, that the theatre would be the centerpiece of the town’s vibrant summer tourist industry. There was much praise for Don and Jude Thompson who have run the playhouse for most of it’s history, but also much praise and admiration for Bo Brown who started the theater company in 1960. He gave a lovely speech at the gala. I can imagine how inspirational and charismatic he must have been as a young man. When he was done after 8 years, he turned the theatre over to DT who with his wife Jude grew it too what it is today. For several years in the 1970’s when Jim Caron was in the company, actors who didn’t have anything better to do spend the winter with Jim and the Missoula Children’s Theatre Association. I was one of the kids they worked with back then. I talked my parents into taking me up to Bigfork to see the professional theater. We would camp and fish and in the evening my dad would row my mother and I and sometimes my sister to the dock at Bigfork and we would get out of the boat and go up the hill and attend the theater in the old building. (We bought the orange drink Bo Brown mentioned in his speech.) I would buy the program and ask everyone in the company for their autograph. Even 5-year-old Gavin Thompson who played the youngest Snow child in Carousel printed his first name over his picture in my program. He’s married now with children and a career in technical theatre.

The number of Bigfork Alumni still in the business is a testament to the quality of performers and technicians Don and Jude hired. Others have equally impressive jobs in academics and health care. At the party one actor was talking to a musician about a successful Broadway musical he had been in which had a group dynamic and creative smart caring people at the helm that had reminded him of the Bigfork Summer Playhouse.

Running Out of Time

I thought we would spend some time at the Pacific Science Center with My Kid. But, that didn’t happen. We enjoyed hanging out in the hotel room as a family until it was time for The Husband to go have lunch with a former work colleague. My Kid and I went swimming in the hotel pool. Then when The Husband met us at the pool so I could go meet an old friend, My Kid decided to get out of the pool. Then she decided she wanted to ride out to the sewing machine repair shop at the far North end city limit with a drive-throu McDonald’s thrown in for fun. The errand took so long that they didn’t get back downtown in time to visit Seattle Center and the Pacific Science Center. Instead they met me at the wine bar where I was with my friend who hadn’t seen Ken since our wedding. I think I stopped by her office with my new baby once. My new baby is going into 4th grade. We had some catching up to do. We talked about the summer she played my older sister in both Gypsy and Fiddler on the Roof and the same actress played our mother in both musicals performed under a circus tent in an asphalt parking lot in Missoula, Montana

When The Husband and My Kid showed up at the wine bar where we were sitting with our happy hour flights of Italian red and truffle flavored popcorn (eyes rolling yeah I know) we talked a little more and then we went up to The Mother-In-Law’s apartment to deliver the repaired surger and for The Husband to program the new phone and hang pictures and some other small chores. We were at her apartment long enough for My Kid to watch the entire movie Mousehunt. At 10 p m we had to leave even though there were still more things on The Mother-In-Law’s to do list because my kid hadn’t had dinner yet. We parked downtown and thought we could find a restaurant downtown but the kitchens were closed so we went back to the hotel and ordered room service. The Husband walked two blocks to buy beverages at Ralph’s grocery on 4th Ave. where we used to buy food so often on the way to rehearsals or shows when we worked at Annex. I remember shopping for snacks at Ralph’s once to eat while hanging out with one of my many housemates from that big white house on Queen Anne Hill. He was an engineer at Bad Animals music studio at the time. I think he moved to Austin, Texas to be a musician. I wonder if he found success.

I had a nice visit with an old friend from the same Montana hometown as the theatre friend we had lunch with the day before. They weren’t friends growing up but they had siblings who were in the same class. Remember when 2 or 3 years difference in age meant you wouldn’t even have cause to meet or talk to a person. Some of the parents of my daughter’s classmates are probably younger than anyone I ever babysat. Thoughts of who were we as children growing up in 1970’s Montana, then making the decisions to become actors and life for all of us beyond that which now includes aging parents.

Today will go quickly, we have to make a promised stop at Magic Mouse Toys in Pioneer Square. We’ll start with breakfast (or brunch or lunch depending on how long it takes us to get up and out of here) in Pike Place Market and check out the stuffed animal store My Kid saw last night when we were looking for a restaurant. She’s looking for a toy lemur but the ones we’ve found so far are apparently the wrong breed. (She’s looking for one that looks like “Mort” from The Penguins of Madagascar. It’s a search that began on Sunday at the Woodland Park Zoo on a day spent with The Husband’s father. (Yes in addition to juggling work and family and friends and sightseeing The Husband must carefully coordinate the time he spends with each of his divorced parents.)

There are more errands to run and things to fix and check off the list of things for The Husband to do for The Mother-In-Law. At least it is Saturday and The Husband won’t be dialing into his office.

Is it possible to make theatre with children in the room?

That is the question of the current project I’m involved in. A call went put out for actors with children to work on a piece for the Six Figures Theatre Artists of Tomorrow Festival. I signed on with My Kid, even though she has no intention of performing. The director is pregnant and has a 2-year-old. One actress has a 3-year-old and another has a 10-month-old. Everyone at rehearsal, but the musician, has a kid that they bring to rehearsal but the musician. My kid is the oldest, the only one who even knows what is going on. But, she comes willingly because she likes playing with the babies. Sometimes it’s complete chaos more like a playgroup or toddler music class with the 3-year-old running and screaming and the 2-year-old refusing to relinquish the musician’s song sheet and the baby moving around the room followed by her mother who is pinching off bits of banana and placing the food in the baby’s mouth like a mother bird. My Kid adds her own notes to the cacophony.