Training

Patuxent River, MD

Hello Friends,

Lets conclude this little nostalgic tryptic with a recollection of my first training at the home office in Missoula.

Being trained as a Tour Actor/Director (TAD) is a terrifying prospect.

In advance you are given a script, a score, and a CD with the instructions to have your lines and songs down cold before you arrive. You walk into a massive theatre full of a home staff of around 50 people all smiling at you and welcoming you to a new job. You are a in a sea of unknowns and your schedule is jam packed to the gills from the moment you step in the building.

What happens over the next two weeks goes by in a blur of 14 hours days full of process sessions to learn the nuts and bolts of the MCT method followed by show sessions to learn every single aspect of the show. If your brain doesn't feel like mush about half way through the week then something is wrong.

Thankfully I did have lines memorized and being trained in the fall (something that actually doesn't happen anymore) my "class" of fellow new TAD's was only five. This meant we got to plow through our process sessions fairly quick and were able to spend more time on our shows. I was the odd man out of the group as the other four newbies were partnered together. My partner wouldn't arrive until we did our show for premier week (I'll get to that).

What I learned that first of two weeks laid the foundation for the teach that I am today. How to teach kids blocking and singing without a script in their hands. How to control large groups through humor and positive reinforcement. Simple tricks and tools to install acting technique in seconds. The list goes on and on. I loved it.

As the week concluded it was time to show off these new skills to the bosses. Since no kids were available to be "demo" kids (which we have in the summer) we had the joy to teach other veteran tour actors who arrive for premier week and their tours. This. Was. Terrifying. There is nothing more imposing then the prospect of teaching a fellow employee who has been doing a job much longer then you something that they have down pat perfectly.

The room was full of forty veteran tour actors. All good friends. All excited to see each other again. All just itching to see what these newbies could do. First the bosses get up and lay the rules down.

- Act like good kids, don't be funny and try to act like a bad kid.

- Don't give advice or say "The way I do it is..."

- Be supportive.

With the gauntlet thrown down they turned to the five of us and asked who would like to go first. Of course my hand shot up. I was prepared. I love to get things done with then dread about them. My session went well as I taught my peers to be cowboys and horses that loose their skin (no worries, that show is off the road). After ten minutes or so the bosses had seen enough. I received my notes on what to work on and was given a general "good job" from all of them. I even think I saw a few vets nodding in approval.

I don't mean to boast, but it was one of the few times in my life that I was really prepared and on my "A" game, just let me have this one.

Week one of training ended and the next week was time for Premier Week!!! This is when a handful of schools in Missoula actually host a tour team to put on a show at the school. The school gets a free play and MCT gets invaluable experience for their new hires in a controlled environment where home staff can help if needed. It is a brilliant system.

The week was even more stressful then training. It's one thing to talk about working with kids but nothing can ever prepare you for that first moment when 70 of them are all staring at you just waiting for you to tell them what to do.

Auditions were crazy. Cast a show in two hours!? But it the show was cast. Rehearsals flew by. How am I suppose to teach all this at just two hours at a time?! But the learned their parts. Dress rehearsal was awful - I even forgot words to songs! But the performances were stellar. The kids shined, the bosses nodded in approval, even I felt a pang of relief - it can be done!

Now all I had to do was pack up my truck and leave Missoula the next day so I could start my grand adventure - tour.

And now four and half years on the road later (with some breaks here on there) I can not think of any other way I would have wanted to spend my life. The road has been crazy to say the least. Full of many tour partners, tens of thousands of miles, gorgeous sights, crazy adventures, kind people, daring food, and many many sacrifices. But in the end its all worth just to hear one kid say "I did it!"

The Adventure STILL Continues - ML