Snuggle up with some hot cocoa, this here's a long one

As promised, here's a large post for you all to read about what I've been up to since I arrived here and what not. I've tried to break it down into sections and hopefully I haven't missed anything.



The Colorado Experience
I arrived here on Saturday the 23rd which was about a week and a half ago. The flight was boring and tired me out considerably since I saved a great deal of packing and moving everything out of my room for the subleter for the night before I left. After a four and a half hour plane ride, I was driven 2 hours out of Denver to Grand Lake, CO where the theater I'm working for is located. This is my first time out west and I have to say it's hard to feel homesick when you wake up every morning and see mountains as beautiful as the ones out here. It's been cold and it rains at least once a day, but I'm handling it very well. Luckily I didn't really have any problems adjusting to the time difference or the altitude. I am trying to drink more water, though, because they say it's a necessity for living so high up in the mountains.

Grand Lake is a cute little town that consists of basically one road with lots of gift stores, a bank, a library, etc. It's freakin adorable. Most of the people here are residents year round but the town really doesn't come alive until the summer time when vacationers come to visit and the theater opens up. The theater is pretty much the heart of the town. The people who live here wait for summer time every year because they love the theater but I'll get more into that later.

I don't have much time to explore the place as much as I want to because I work so much, but later in the summer once the shows are all up and running I will have a bit more free time to go hiking and such. We have about four full days off from now until August 24th when I come home, and I will probably participate in company activities on those days such as horseback riding, white water rafting and mountain climbing. I'm really looking forward to it. I did get a chance to go kayaking in the lake that sits right next to the town a few days ago. I woke up at 6:30 and went out with Cat, the technical director, for an hour before work. It was really fun and I plan on doing it again a few more times.

I live in a cabin with two other girls. The theater company consists of approximately 30 actors, technicians and designers and many of them live in cabins in one area of the town. The cabin has a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom with bunk beds where I stay and a living room that Elisa, the wardrobe manager, sleeps in. It's cozy and is a really fun place when Elisa and Kathleen (my other cabin mate) and I all come home at the end of the day to drink wine and watch episodes of How I Met Your Mother.


Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre
The theater that I work for is a summer stock theater that could be considered semi-professional. They put on three shows in the summer and then one more in the fall but I will be gone by that time. The shows that I'm working on are all musicals; Brigadoon, Pirates of Penzance and All Shook Up. Brigadoon opens on the 12th, Pirates one week after that and then about two weeks after that All Shook Up will open. Opening for All Shook Up is on July 3rd. At that point, all the shows will be completely built and the rest of the summer will just be a matter of running the shows on a three day rotation schedule and changing over the set between shows. Until then, we work from 9AM to 9PM every day of the week. It's a long day, but there's lots to do and so at the very least I don't get bored.

As I mentioned earlier, this town thrives on the theater. There's a whole board of trustees set up that works year round raising money for the theater and making sure that we are all comfortable while we're here. They love us and treat us like celebrities. Every time I go into a store, I'm asked about what I'm doing and where I'm from and if I'm enjoying my time, etc. We have also been treated a few times already to home-cooked dinners, barbecues, and banquets for everyone in the town to come out and meet us. It's so different from my experience working at PSF last summer. It's much more positive and even though I'm working much harder than I did last summer, I'm enjoying myself so much more. I've never seen a community embrace theater as much as this one does.

My jobs here are working as the props manager and the deck captain for all three shows so essentially I have two jobs. Right now I am really only working on props. What this means is that I'm responsible for finding all the props for all three shows and making sure they're ready for a full summer of performances. Some props I've found in storage and some I've had to go out and buy either in the town here or driving in a pick-up truck through the mountains about 17 miles to the next town over which is a bit larger than Grand Lake. Some props have been donated by people in the town who love us and some have just been given to me for free when I tell people that I work for the theater. I've also worked with the carpenters on some of the set pieces and larger prop pieces. My biggest accomplishment thus far has been building two carts for Brigadoon. I worked three hard days on cutting out all the pieces and then handed the project over to actors once I started working harder on finding all the props for the shows.

The company is made up of about 16 actors, a handful of musicians, myself, a technical director who manages the set construction, three carpenters who are all students at a nearby college who will leave once all three shows are running, Elisa (my cabin mate and the wardrobe manager) and another costume construction person, and then a production team of designers and management people. There's also some sort of youth program that will be starting up later in the summer but I don't have any real duties in that department. Because we are on such a tight schedule and have so much to do, the actors are required to help out in all departments when they're not in rehearsals. It's so much fun. It's kinda weird but really nice when two actors will come up to me and say "Biebs, I'm here to help! What do you need me to do?"

Throughout the summer, the company will hold events such as cabarets and auctions to raise money for a project they're working on to build a new theater. I'm hoping to be able to participate in these. I'd like to get some opportunities to sing some jazz standards. It should be a blast and I'll keep you all updated as things come up.


My (Limited) Down Time
As mentioned, we work 12 hour days. We get an hour off for lunch and an hour and a half for dinner. Usually I go back to my cabin during these times. I spend my time at lunch messing around on the guitar mostly. I'm trying to work on my skills so that I can build my repertoire up from just being able to play Leaving on a Jet Plane and Wherever You Go There's Always Someone Jewish. At dinner, I eat and again mess around on the guitar or just shoot the breeze with my cabin mates or other company members. Luckily we have internet set up in the cabins so I also get a chance to check up on everyone's facebook dealios and sometimes chat with people on the phone or on Skype. I think Skype is the greatest thing ever and if you don't have it, get it. And add me to your contacts. Search for Lauren Bieber or my screen name which is HyperHead1.


Other Things
I really want to buy a pair of cowboy boots in the near future. I can't come back to Philly without a pair. They're pretty pricey, but perhaps on one of my outings to a thrift store for props I'll be able to find a cheap pair. I ate beef jerky for the first time and loved it. I haven't had a chance to take as many pictures as I'd like, but there will definitely be plenty of time for that once the work load lets up. I miss everyone a lot but I know that many of my friends are out working across the country or doing fun things in Philadelphia. I know that some of them are doing BORING things in Philadelphia and they should definitely give me a call or Skype me! I wish I had brought my green sneakers along with me, but my Converses are finally getting the full wear that they deserve and hopefully they'll make it through the entire summer. My snuggie has proven to be the greatest thing ever and I'm so happy that I remembered to pack it. I plan on bringing it with me when I go mountain climbing so that I can take some epic photos. In my first two days here I saw a total of four moose and haven't seen any since. I did see about a zillion elk the other day driving back to the shop from someone's house who made tacos for all the carpenters and me. They're a bit more startling than deer. No bears yet, but I hear they like to hang out by the dumpster in the cabin area later on in the summer.


Alright, so that's about our show for now. I've left a lot of stuff out but I think that's all the writing I can handle at this time and probably all the reading you can sit through in one go. I'd love to go into more detail about all the people that I work with and the specifics of what I do on a day to day basis but I'm sure within the next few days I'll be on here writing away a storm. I hope you all appreciate the posts and will continue to follow my experience. If there's anything you'd like to hear about leave me a comment or text me or email me. I love and miss you all!