"Chicken Emergency! ... [T]he laundromat sent our laundry to another establishment somewhere in the Bronx to be cleaned. They sent everything back except Shaun and Ethan's Chicken Corsets (we have the padding)... [T]his other laundromat will not be open until 9AM tomorrow, which doesn't work for us. So, for the next couple days we will need to create our own chicken costumes."
Gulp! I headed home, in search of something, anything, that I might be able to contribute to our "Franken-chicken" costumes. All I had that might even remotely work with the padding was an extra-large t-shirt and a bandana. I packed them, slunk into bed, and hoped for the best.
Next morning, we all met at the vans up at 108th St and 6:15am. Groggy but ready to go, we shipped out for Philly when Aaron revealed that his wife had come through with two ponchos, which fit over our padding perfectly. Once we'd driven to the venue (through traffic), set up our set (double-time, because we were late), checked sound (negotiating two tempermental mics) and changed into our basic skin parts, Shaun and I first got a look at our new outfits. Throw on a bandanna and a tail, and, voila, instant chicken:
It even made the costume change go faster, since I just had to throw the poncho over the padding! So, we went for it! The show started (a little rusty, as we'd had four days off, but still pretty good) and all was progressing swimmingly, up to our chicken scene. Shaun, Colleen and I rapidly changed into chickens backstage and clucked our way out, feeling particularly sassy and girly in our ponchos. However, never having actually tried any of my choreography in this new piece, I was rudely awakened to the limitation of my costume when... um... well, you see, my chicken padding has brown "mounds" over particularly feminine areas of the torso. And, when I raised my arms for my ninja move during the fight, my clucking was drowned out by the "ewws" of elementary school boys. Oops.
Show (and flashing) complete, we broke down, loaded out and piled into our vans, ready for some grub and a trip to Allentown. Yet, all was not right. Our passenger vehicle, named "Proud Mary," wouldn't start -- it appeared her always-precarious battery had finally kicked. Aaron and Alaina attempted a jump, but to no avail. It seems diesel engines require much more finesse than your everyday gasoline car. So, we all grabbed lunch while Alaina called AAA. When we returned with sandwiches, we were greeted with the unfortunate news: Proud Mary probably needed a new battery, so the AAA guy would have to tow her to a Sprinter dealership 30 miles away. Alaina kindly offered to wait with the car and released us upon Philadelphia, so we did what any sane Theatreworks cast would do: we attempted to find a movie.
We finally found our way to a showing of The Hurt Locker at 4pm and, assuming it was going to take at least two hours to fix the car situation, settled in for a great flick. But, exactly 10 minutes in, my phone buzzed with a text from Alaina:
"Tow was able to jump start the van.
Hurray! But, ugh! The movie was already getting good, and we were halfway across town. We pried ourselves away from the screen, flagged down two cabs and raced back to Proud Mary and Cargo Cathy (the latter is our cargo van). Nobody was thrilled with the unfortunate turn of events from the day, and, trying to make the best of it, we trundled our way to Allentown. Where we were greeted with beautiful beds at our Quality Inn, an exceptional (and cheap!) Thai meal at a take-out place that set up tables just for us, and a nice trip to Target afterward.
Amazing how quickly a day can turn around.
Call tomorrow: 7:40, Quality Inn in Allentown, PA.
Kid Quote of the Day: Besides "Eww," after Aaron hit his money note during "Loretta's Anthem," a little boy groaned in amazement: "Wow!" No kidding!
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