Our amazing 3 story house in Toronto! We even had a grill and two porches! We named the house Beta Tau Beta for BTB, since is seemed rather fratty of us.
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| So we arrived on July 2rd, which is Canada Day. NOTHING WAS OPEN! After a long day of traveling a beer with dinner sounded like a great idea, but apparently impossible. We stumbled into a wine bottling shop in our neighborhood, and somehow stumbled out with an entire small barrel's worth...21 bottles. Between 8 people, they disappeared in about 9 days. |
Jen's little mole was consistently holiday appropriate, and it may be very difficult to see, but that little heart contains a small American flag. Our crafty- and patriotic- lady!
What I missed in San Antonio on the 4th- sweet Josiah's first Independence Day. Look at that face!!
Last press event for our group! We performed Gaston for a big network in Canada, and I even got a little screen time!
Jeff refused to wear his blacks, so the boys edited him out of the manly photo. It's kind of obvious here, but on Facebook it looked nearly flawless. Love these boys!
No rehearsals means plenty of leisure time. Sunshiney Toronto plus a backyard made for good times at Beta Tau Beta!!
New zapatos!! I've been wanting some oxfords for ages and I found a pair by Capezio on sale in this enormous mall near the theatre...Canada seems to have the best malls!
Ruth's Chris adventure. Kyle has been itching to plan a group outing to the steak house and amazingly we got nearly everyone there!
The Chicago group at Ruth's Chris: Amanda, Lauren, Matt, me, Jess, and Kolby. Just missing Nick Nelson, but he was with us in spirit. Jess and Amanda are staying with the tour but the rest of us are on our way.
Beta Tau beta house group! Mandy, Caitlin, Andrew, Carly, Michael, me, James, and Emily. Of this group, only James will remain...19 out of 30 in the cast is a huge turn over!
Carly, me, and Emily at Ruth's Chris. This must've been one of their biggest groups without some sort of set catering menu...I think we were close to 40, ordering separately. Our waiters were very gracious and we had a great time.
Last week of performances means, my replacement is here! This is Laura Douciere, who happens to be one of Bill's students- he is our new Papa who came in Salt Lake City. She would be a senior in college next year- what an accomplishment to book the tour and finish school from afar!
The ladies of Beta Tau Beta riding the trolley to the theatre. We loved having an open air option every day.
So, I have been curious about what a pixie cut would look like...funny how you work for years to grow out your hair, and then you want to chop it all off. Here I am trying on one of the Salt/Pepper wigs from Be Our Guest...what do you think? A little Liza with a Z? (Don't worry, I still have all my hair)
Passing on the pertinent information to the newbies: makeup plots! Carly's was very pretty, mine was definitely not photo worthy...
Got started on our goodbye group shots early, to avoid the tears and hugs that would probably take up our final performance together. Jess is grandfathered in to the chorus as she spent her first 8 months as the "Busty Girl".
Amanda and my favorite on stage moment from Gaston...she just doesn't have that cleft chin. I'll miss my green silly!
The "singer" tracks...of which I am only really half. Basically we are the non-wolves of the chorus ladies. Love these ladies!
Yom-swith-eroo! The first generation BTB ladies started this trend...we all switched costumes for a photo op. I literally looked forward to this ALL YEAR. I'm Carly in the photo, and Christie is me.
I feel like I could've rocked this sun hat and coral frock. Loved wearing it, even for a few minutes :)
The winning shot from our mini photo shoot in BOG leotards. We all loved the Toronto theatre's grandeur and Carly organized a day when we could take pictures all together in the famous gold leotard, which got very little photo time. She was so sweet to print this, our best pose, for everyone.
Final performance of Beauty and the Beast for a whole lot of us! We got there early for breakfast and to watch a little goodbye video compiled by sweet Jess, which of course meant lots of laughs and tears.
Goodbye letters on my station...
Carly and I always walked down to stage together...
A great press shot from earlier in the run in Toronto, one of the most fun and crazy numbers I've been a part of- Gaston. Bye bye Big Clink!
I really wish I had a photo (or better yet, video) of the final Finale. Just tears and sobs from the entire cast. I'm not sure I could sing much past the first few notes. It was a very emotional and beautiful moment, I only hope the audience still got the end of the play!! And that's it!! Goodbye to Beauty and the Beast, my tour family, and suitcase life!
Packing up my box. My suitcases were so full I had to leave a lot behind.
One last look at the gondola line up. (Note: we didn't always have this incredible amount of space backstage...but Toronto was a treat. Thanks for the perfect photo op)
My goodbye gift to the cast. In my little note I included why...Hebrews 6:19 says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." It is my hope that as we leave one another, it is the best of memories and lessons we take away from this trip together, and that we may find one another again along the way. (Thanks Brit for modeling :) )
Obviously we went out after our final show...I've got a thing for mustaches, and proceeded to draw them one EVERYONE's fingers. There is an entire album of pictures on my computer dedicated to this event, but I decided one example might suffice. Thankfully everyone plenty of fun with me.
Pre-show margaritas as we see the brand new Beauty and the Beast, with 19 new cast members!
Having a hot dog as we head out for our Toronto Island adventure. So nice to have lots of paid free time!
Toronto Island's view of the city skyline, from our rented canoes! We also rented tandem bikes, but it's a bit difficult to capture that fun when you are trying to learn how to peddle...in tandem...
Adventures in cooking...so apparently our salt grinder lived a little too close to the oven and the attachment melted. I went to add a little salt to my pasta water to boil, and this happened...It's very difficult to get salt off of a hot stove top.
Carly and me at the company hosted party...open bar, dancers to get the party going, and getting all dressed up. We had a great time!!
My stage husband Kyle. I told him no matter what, his new 'wife' will only ever be his mistress...
My sweet Jimmy baby. He's like a little brother to me, and it was hard to imagine leaving him to continue on the journey without me. But I think he's doing just fine, new friends and new fun!
We always wanted to have a field day, and better late than never! While many weren't feeling up to a long day outside after that big company party, the group that came out still had a blast. We had an egg race, kick ball, water balloon toss, and even threw in a little Cross Fit training!
Big group for water balloons means lots of accidents. So much fun!
I kept a map with our year on the road. It's very difficult to see the routes between flying and driving, but instead of packing on Saturday night I calculated our approximate mileage (check next post for the numbers!!)
A final farewell beer in the Toronto airport, headed back to NYC with Emily. What a wonderful adventure we've had!!
I can hardly believe it, but that's a wrap! Next post I'll do a little break down of numbers, best and worst, all that fun stuff. It's always bittersweet to close one chapter of life, especially as I found it just got better and better, but I am excited to see what the future holds. I've made some incredible and hopefully life long friends, played one of my dream roles, learned a lot about myself, and traveled the country (and Canada!) all while getting paid...what a wonderful gift!! Thank you my friends, for keeping up from afar!
Lots of love and credit goes to my ladies who were sooooo good at photo documenting le tour: Amanda Holt, Carly Casey, Brittany Conigatti, and Jessica Haugh. I feel as though I must have stolen more than 50% of my photos here from your wonderful albums. Thank you for sharing!
