10/21/09-10/22/09 – McCallum Center, Palm Desert, CA

Ahh, Palm Desert…land of palm trees, swimming pools and golf courses. We arrived at the palm tree-lined parking lot of our second venue, the McCallum Center for the Performing Arts, on the afternoon of 10/21/09. The Center houses a gorgeous 1100-seat multi-tiered theatre and some of the nicest theatre personnel. As we toured the facility, we realized that the green room has a complete kitchen, flat screen TV and patio with barbeque. Each dressing room is named after a celebrity and contains a shower, flat screen TV and couch. Many of the venues in which we are performing (including the McCallum) deal with both Equity and non-Equity productions and even though we are not an Equity tour, we were definitely given the full star treatment at the McCallum.

Both of our performances at the McCallum were sold out. The audiences seemed to really enjoy the show. There is nothing like performing in front of such a large audience with so much energy. After our second show, we participated in an audience talkback, where the main questions were “How do you make the spaghetti move?” and “How do you do all of the magic?”

One of the most memorable aspects of our visit to the McCallum Center was Valentina, the wonderful wardrobe head. We were greeted by her warm smile the moment we set foot in the theatre and she went out of her way to make sure that our costumes were washed, dry cleaned and repaired. In addition to performing, each actor also handles a technical/production assignment for the tour. With my costume background, I am wardrobe head, which means that I, along with my assistant Jen, am responsible for the care and cleaning of all of the costumes. Due to the very physical nature of the show, we constantly sweat through our costumes and since the majority of our costume pieces are dry clean only, keeping our costumes clean has been a major (and very stressful) issue for me. Wearing dirty, smelly costumes is uncomfortable not only for the actor but also for everyone in the actor’s presence. However, throughout much of the tour, it has been almost impossible for us to have our costumes drycleaned because there simply is not enough time. Having Valentina’s help in Palm Desert was such a relief as it allowed me to focus almost entirely on my performance rather than worrying about the costumes. (OK, I will stop venting now…)

The walls backstage at the McCallum are covered with actor’s signatures from each visiting production. As we finished load-out at this lovely theatre, we, too, left our John Hancocks etched on the walls. Goodbye, McCallum Center, we shall miss you!



Next stop – OCPAC in Costa Mesa, CA. Until the next adventure…

Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine