May 18, 2015 - Monday

We were up and ready to begin our day this morning by 5:45am, but mom had already been up and working on the laundry and her personal study time well before that!  We had the cleaning duties this morning at the jail and then we were off on our morning walk by 6:50am.  What a great way to begin the day!

The day started off very slow at the Visitors Center, with our first tour around 9:30am.  The couple pictured below came in for a tour and we discovered they are from Rigby.  They were on a trip to the east coast and stopped by Carthage and Nauvoo.  We told them to say hi to everyone there in Rigby!

Since it was a slower day, mom and I were able to leave the Visitors Center by 3:00pm for a nice dinner together before we went into Nauvoo for my first rehearsal with Jimmy and Marie, two of the Young Performing Missionaries here for the summer.  I met them Sunday with their tour of Carthage, and it was good to work with them!  It helped me get the routine down.  What was really fun tonight, was that I knew my lines a little better than my Jimmie (Elder Rosenberg), but he was so quick to ad lib!  Here are some action shots and a little pre show publicity!  My debut is Monday May 24th!

 Taking the stage and getting ready for the vignette.  This is the next part of the show after the audience is welcomed to the show.

 I have a brief part with the lead actor of the play in this shot before the full focus falls on Jimmie and me..... but mostly Jimmy.  He is so full of energy and the combination of old and young is hilarious!

"Pa Robbins" is just greeting Jimmy who just came running up the aisle to get my attention and let me know he needed to talk to me... in private.  Exit lead man and now all lights and cameras on on Pa and Jimmy.

Now, Jimmy is trying to tell me about his feelings for Marie.... but those feelings can't be easily shared and that is what makes this vignette so funny!

Look at that intense "Pa" focusing on his next line!  His preparation is complete and he is on the cutting edge and ready to deliver!  I'm seeing Oscar in my future.....

More focus and catlike preparation to deliver his next line with exactness and fixed determination not to blow it!

And then, Jimmy and Marie complete the scene. These two work so well together.  This was so much fun to rehearse together tonight, and now, to  look forward to at least 35 shows!

Jimmy and Marie finishing up the scene.

Here we are!  One small happy stage family!  This will be a fun show.  I must say that after tonight, my confidence shot up about 100 points on the stage show scale!!.

The Rendezvous play went very well tonight after this rehearsal.  We had just one show at 7:00pm and mom and I had a lot of fun.  I had three parts with one very small speaking part that got lots of laughs!!  Also, mom and I were in a dancing scene and we kind of made up our own little part and it got lots of attention when the audience loved it.  So fun!  We are getting just a little tooooooo comfortable on this "stage"!  Well, like I have said so many times.... you will get the full measure of the price of admission when you see Granny and Grandpa on the Rendezvous or Sunset stages!!  Guaranteed!

I do have one prayer that I keep in my heart about all these added duties and responsibilities that I received from the "Good Clean Funny Laughs";  It comes from random thoughts as we age.....

"Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, (putting on these plays...), the courage to change the things I can, (trying to remember the lines and the songs and the dances and, and, and....???), AND the friends to post my bail when I finally snap!"

And that is a wrap for today!  Thank you for checking in with us, and don't forget to plan your next vacation to come to Nauvoo!!