This is either really good or really bad: "How are we ever to know?"

When you tell any musical theatre student, "Hey guess what? I am going to do a Stephen Sondheim show in only 8 days!!" The normal reaction would be breaking into a giant burst of laughter and then someone checking to see if I am still sane or not. But its true! I have been working on a show for the past 2 weeks and we opened it last Friday after only 8 days of rehearsal. Stephen Sondheim is an amazing AMAZING composer who did the music for an award winning show by the name of Into the Woods. And when I was cast in it for the summer stock season at Grandstreet Theatre, I received an email that with an attachment of the schedule. The body of the email warned me that if I wasn't scared by the schedule I should be. And believe me I was! Upon arrival to Helena we immediately got to work. After only 3 days, all the songs were learned and the show was blocked. So when the opening day came we had quite the day. When you think of the things to do on an opening day you may think rehearse, or doing showy type things. Well not at the Adams house!! No we went to the carousal. Now if you are not familiar to the Helena area the Carousel is a magical place where they have made the amazing combination of ice cream and riding hand carved ponies. So Josey, Josie, Marianne, Jess and I went to this incredible fantasy land!

Josie hanging out on a horse!!

Jess on an otter

and this is Josey

After taking two trips on the magical circle, we took a break and met up with Sam. Then we went to enjoy the second pleasure of the is incredible facility. That is ice cream. They create their own unique flavors and to all my friends in Missouri, its kind of like Sparky's. ONLY BETTER!! They had flavors like Hot Chocolate (Chocolate with cayenne pepper in it, I heard it was very delicious), pecan cinnamon roll, the montana classic Huckleberry, and many other brilliant flavors. I was suffering from a bad cold so did not participate in the eating of dairy instead drank a huckleberry italian soda, just as good but not nearly as awesome.

So after slaving the afternoon away we got to the point where it was show time. As the the lights came up so did the thrill and as the show ended the adrenaline kept moving. As tradition stands after every Grandstreet show there is an after party down a few blocks at Bert and Ernie's. It was so fun to hang out with the cast, crew and our supporters. It was our moment to breath as a cast and revul in the accomplishment that is an amazing created by all of us in just 8 days. There is one line from the show that has really stuck with me. "How are we ever to know?" As I stood around looking at all the faces that made up this show, and thought how could people ever to know? How could people ever know that simply 8 days before we were complete strangers? How could people ever know that for 8 days we eat, breathed, and slept this show, only for the simple enjoyment of hearing the clapping and cheering during the show (and of course the purchase of tickets ;) ;) ) But how could people ever know the back grounds that brought each of us to this point in time? I look around the after party and think of all the successful people that make up not only Grandstreet but the amazing acting community that was surrounding me. I was with people who had come all across the United States to simply make amazing theatre. A true blessing!