DIRTY ROTTEN WITCHITA, KS

The Century II Hall wins the award for being the weirdest space we've ever played in. The building looks like a giant flying saucer and it houses several "performance spaces" some of which can double as exhibition space. The "stages" of these spaces meet in the middle of the circle, their backstage walls forming an unevenly sliced pie of three (I think) pieces. Though we are in the permanent theatre space, which has a pretty big capacity, the wing space backstage is not good and we are once again forced to edit the show and keep our backstage radar on to keep from being killed. Allison tells me that this structure is the local tornado shelter (Toto, I think we're in Kansas) which is no surprise given it's aerodynamic shape and solid cement construction.

Question: Why is it, that on every local crew, there is one guy that's always in the fucking way. One guy that always somehow manages to be standing in the exact spot that will prohibit a whole slew of people from getting to where they need to go. And as if this weren't bad enough, he seems constantly surprised, and a little annoyed that people either ask him to move or, if they are in a hurry, move him out of their way as he lumbers from inconvenient spot to inconvenient spot.

We are staying at another great old historic hotel in Wichita. The Broadview, built in 1922. Discussion with the cast reveals that about half of us got rooms so small you have to go into the hall to blink, while the other half got rooms so large that you could play Jai Alai in them. (Michael and I got the large room) Because it is an historic hotel, however, their heating/cooling system is very specific. They blow HEAT only until April, and then switch to A/C only until October. Because the weather is unseasonably warm, we are advised to leave our windows open to cool the room. I love the antique, overstuffed chairs and couches in the lobby, the free popcorn from the circus-style, portable cart and the fact that the bartender seems to like us all enough to pour us 16oz glasses of wine for $4. (Ahh.....America......land of the free pour)

Because we perform two nights here, Michael and I have a day to spend together. I do a brief on-line surf of the various museums in town and can't find anything I'm interested in, even though the Museum of Art that we can see from our window is a beautiful bit of architecture. The downtown core is reminiscent of our day in Sioux City, Iowa....a whole lotta nothin'. This is a downtown core that was already on the verge of disaster even before the current economic crunch. We are told that the only place where there is anything at all is the district they call Old Town, a 20 minute walk from the hotel. What we discover is a few restaurants, the odd up-scale shop, a movie theatre, and a whole lot of old cobble stone streets. It's trying to be like the Distillery District in Toronto but not quite achieving it's goal.....though we appreciate the effort.