Kansas City Going Strong

As I said in my last post, Kansas City has yet to let me down. The other day we got to the theatre and this was posted on the back of the car we parked next to.
Way to keep it classy Kansas City.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to sample ALL of the KC BBQ, but I did make one final stop. Arthur Bryants. I first heard about it on the food network's Food Wars. Apparently Kansas City is divided between Arthur Bryants and Gates for best BBQ, but after being told by the local dressers to not waste my time at Gates I went to AB.
The portrait is of Arthur the founder of the place and then the lineup where you order. You take a plate from the pile, hand it to the guy behind the window, tell him what you want and he loads it up with meat for you.
Not going to win any awards for being sanitary...

Luckily I went with a friend this time so I could sample the ribs AND the pulled pork.


We opted for the Long End this time (if you have been following you know that I had a hard time with this decision at Oklahoma Joe's). The long end ribs were great, but overall the ribs at Oklahoma Joe's are the winner. Now, I didn't get to try the pulled pork there, but the pulled pork here was out of this work. Sweet, spicy, tangy, tender and just SOAKED the wonder bread underneath it with the delicious juices. There were a variety of sauces on the table and we sampled all of them. The Sweet Heat was my favorite, followed by the Rich and Spicy and I wasn't crazy about the original. Their original had kind of a spanish mole flavor which I don't really care for.

Even though we split everything, we couldn't finish. That BBQ really fills you up!
I was completely defeated.

I dealt with my shame and we moved on and stopped by Gates just to pick up a bottle of their sauce of a comparison at a later date.

I am currently on a bus riding from Kansas City to Dallas. Should be about 10 hours of driving total, but approximately 12-13 hours total including when we stop for meals. We just stopped in Oklahoma City to get some food and stretch a little. There was a big target so I went in, did a little shopping and got a sandwich.

At this point you may be asking yourself "how is she blogging if she is on a bus?" Well, the bus as wireless! It's incredible. I has made this drive exponentially more bearable and we have onyl three hours left or so which is going to fly by!

More to come from Dallas!

Heat Advisory

So it is REALLY hot down here. They put on a heat advisory yesterday afternoon that lasts until Tuesday. Lucky for us we leave Monday to go to Dallas which will be EVEN HOTTER!!!!

So...what did we do today? Go to the pool! We didn't last very long because it was so hot, but there was a guy playing the steel drum and singing (albeit off key) and the only thing missing from this faux island paradise was a margarita.

I hadn't uploaded photos from my camera and found a great one from our opening night party that I wanted to share.
From left to right we have: Christina (my roommate this week), Jesse with the bangs, Jaime, Sarah, me and Adam (aka Blue). Lookin good, no?

Last night after the show the local crew hosted a BBQ for us. They said they like to this with the casts of the shows that come through and I think it's fantastic. When you are out on a longer tour there is really nothing better than home cooked food. We have been on the road for only two weeks so far so our desperation for this hasn't really surfaced yet, but it was still really nice. One of the guys on the crew brought his wife's homemade wine. It was delicious and there was also a cooler of PBR and bud light nearby. I love Kansas City.

Besides PBR and homemade wine, I also love Kansas City because they have some of the most creative homeless people I have encountered. I apologize for lack of photo, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead I will explain my top two. Now in NYC there are a lot of homeless people on the street with signs describing their situations and what they want from you: food, money, etc. You often wonder if the signs about being laid off and having sick children are true stories or something they just right trying to get your sympathy. Here is Kansas City they lay it all out there. #2 of my top two was a bigger guy probably in his late twenties had a sign saying "Ninjas killed my family. Need money for Kung Fu." I give him props because we all laughed. #1 was a thin, older gentleman (I use the term "gentleman" generously here) with a sign saying "Need beer and fat ass lady." It obvious why he is the winner. He is not looking for sympathy, he wants a cocktail and well...a fat ass lady. I appreciate your honesty, Sir.

To finish off today's post I include this photo of our lovely Almond champagne and cheese soiree after last nights show.

Opening night!!!!!

So we go to do the whole show last night which was awesome! Because the megadoor was closed all day it was significantly cooler onstage and backstage. My consisted of being on headset, doing my three flashlight cues, tracking havana and reading Catching Fire. Again, if you have not gone to Barnes and Noble to get the Hunger Games books you are only hurting yourself.

After the show we had our opening night party that our producer from Big League organized. There was great food, including some ribs which were great but not as good as Oklahoma Joe's, salmon, salad, cheese, pasta, etc and an open bar. Delightful! We had a great time and then I slept until noon. After having breakfast in the hotel room, I got back into bed to read emails and was surprised by the emails announcing the newest addition to the Daniels Family!!!! Maysie Fae!!!!!!!!!!What a cutie patootie!!!!!!!! I can't wait to meet her!!!!

Another great day

After deciding to sleep in a little bit this morning, we got up and had breakfast before heading to yoga. The past few days I have had the same delicious breakfast. Oatmeal with some ground flax which I bought in NYC and are packaged in convenient little single serving packs. I dressed the oatmeal in honey, slices banana and fresh blueberries. A delicious, healthy, filling and cheap breakfast!After the cardio class yesterday, both Christina and I were very sore this morning so we took a hatha yoga class which was just what the doctor ordered. It was a great class. The teacher was really nice and took our requests and the people in class were really friendly and welcoming.

It's been time to do laundry for a while so today was finally the day. Luckily before leaving my mom found these great laundry sheets so I don't have to travel bottles of detergent and fabric softener. They look like dryer sheets, but they have detergent, fabric softener and a stain buster all in one sheet! So you just throw it in with the wash and leave it in for the dryer! AMAZING!!! AND they take up virtually no room in my suitcase. Thanks Mom!

I made a delightful lunch while everything was in the wash. I warmed up my leftover ribs, pulled the meat off the bone (obviously finished off whatever was left in the bone in the classic rib eating fashion) and put the meat in a wrap with the leftover coleslaw. Here are the before and after pictures.

I don't think I even need to tell you how delicious it was. I'm now finishing my lunch with some yogi tea with honey.

Now it is time to move the laundry to the dryer and maybe then read and take a nap. You know, life on the road is really tough. Hahaha. Sometimes it is, but then other times getting to take however many naps you want and know you are being paid to be there is the best.

Opening night...?

Another great day here in Kansas City. My friend Christina and I woke up early and went to a cardio class at a local yoga studio that completely kicked our butts. After that we made a target run. It's amazing the things you can find that you need/don't need at target.

I think the heat is getting to me because I had a headache all day long. I tried to drink a lot more water today so hopefully I will feel better tomorrow. I took a nap and it didn't really help and made me a little more groggy.

I made a delightful dinner using some left over rotisserie chicken, some brown rice (wholefoods sells frozen brown rice that you can microwave so I did that) and then used the rest of my left over beans from Oklahoma Joes and a little coleslaw.We are performing at the Kansas City Starlight which is a really big outdoor theatre here. As you can see in the picture below they have what is call the "Megadoor" instead of a curtain because they blast the AC on stage before the show since it can get really hot. Last night, because of our needing to have a soundcheck, the megadoor was open most of the afternoon which made the stage really really hot.
The theatre has nearly 8,000 seats! Crazy!

When we got to our dressing rooms our opening night gifts were waiting for us. A lovely Guys & Dolls satchel from our producers and a rose from the producers at Kansas City Starlight.
Opening night was exciting for a variety of reasons. #1 of course being that I got my headset!
As you can see I am taking care of some very important business.

On my search for Dippin Dots (which I didn't get because now a small costs $5 and I think that's CRAZY) I saw a cast list posted and was excited to see my name included! You see, I was a very last minute replacement for this tour. The girl who had the job found out the show she is in in Chicago is going to Broadway this summer! She found out Thursday, I got the offer Friday and started rehearsals on Saturday. So, because of all the minute switches and press releases having already been organized, there have been a lot of articles and such that still have her name instead of mine. It's all sorted out now and I will be listed as part of the cast, but it was pretty awesome to see. Also, thanks mom and dad for insuring that I'm at the top of the list!
Now here is where things get really exciting. I have my headset on, flashlight and show order in hand we are starting the show. It's hot, but everything is going very well and the audience is very responsive. Then, about 45 minutes in, people start walking out. I hear this over the headset and wonder if it's because the girls have just stripped in "Bushel and Peck" and wonder if people are offended and that's why they're leaving. People continue to leave during the following scene with Adelaide and Nathan. We can't figure it out until I hear over my trusty headset that there is a LOT of lightening. We continue the show for another 10-15 minutes until it really becomes too dangerous to have all of the lights, microphones and speakers going and we stop the show about 3 minutes before it starts to rain cats and dogs. We try to wait out the rain, but they decide to cancel the show. So much for an opening night. The theatre had already panned an opening night party for us with food and two free drink tickets and they decide to have it anyway since everything is already set up. It was really nice and the local volunteers put together the whole thing and even made really cute center pieces. One woman offered to let me take it home, but I told her it wouldn't fit in my suitcase.

We ran through the rain to the care which had let up a little bit which was nice for the ride home. Then I completely passed out after a cup of yogi tea with honey. I was so tired from the day and still had a headache and was excited to read more the second book in the Hunger Games series before I zonked out. If you haven't read the Hunger Games, you should.

the student film I worked on!

I also just got this via email today. I danced in the audition scene and then acting as assitant/associate choreographer for the big outdoor dance scene. This is part of a senior project at the New York Film Academy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUD_IK3ly_A

Enjoy!

same city, different hotel, different year

I think it's fitting that my last post from A Chorus Line was from Kansas City and now my first Guys & Dolls post is here in Kansas City a little over a year later.

We spent a week in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but I don't really have too much to report because we were in tech the whole time. I was given the impression that Fayetteville was going to be very boring, but that was wrong. It's a cute college town with tons of restaurants, bars and coffee shops. The gym there even had some reformers that we could use. They weren't gratz or really like anything I have worked on before, but they got the job done and it was nice to be able to mix it up a bit from the usual mat workouts I do while out on the road.

We got to Fayetteville on the fourth of July and nothing was open. We ended up hanging out by the hotel pool and watching the fireworks from there. We also had the delightful surprise that domestic beers cost...are you ready?....$1.50 at the hotel bar. Can you believe that?! Unreal.

We got here to Kansas City yesterday by bus. We are staying in a great hotel with beautiful rooms.
And we also got mini fridges and microwaves which is perfect because while out on chorus line I learned a lot of great tricks to make full meals using just a microwave! The first thing we did after getting to our rooms was make a grocery store trip which resulted in this.
For dinner last night my friend and I bought a rotisserie chicken at whole foods which gives you a free side (we chose a macaroni salad). In the first picture you can also see the regular salad I made to go with my dinner and then we had the main course. I still have some left over chicken to use either for a sandwich or maybe I'll add it to some of the instant meals I have that I can make in the microwave.

Even though tour life in general and all of the sights in each city are interesting, my brother suggested I make this more of a food blog since I'm either out trying out the local fair or making gourmet meals out of a minifridge and a coffeemaker hahahhaa.

So ater last nights home cookin, I figured I should take tonight (we don't have any shows) and try some of the local home cookin. We are in Kansas city so you know that means...BBQ!!!!! I had a hard time deciding where to go. I consulted diners, drive ins and dives (their most recent episode was Kansas City BBQ, how funny!) as well as yelp and google. I decided to go to Oklahoma joe's since Anthony Bourdain included it on his list of the 13 places you need to goeat at before you die. I couldn't believe my eyes when I drove up.
I know what you are asking yourself. "Is that a GAS station?!" The answer is "why yes it is." the little convenience store that you find at gas stations is also a part of Oklahoma Joe's. I walked in and got on line for my ribs
I grabbed a menu to look at while I was waiting and was promptly faced with my first challenge. I knew I wanted a half rack of ribs, but now I had to decide between short end or long end. Google told me that short end ribs tend to be fattier making for an extra juicy rib, but didn't offer any help with which I may like better. I went with the short end and am happy I made that choice. 35 minutes later I was walking back to my rental car with a short end order of ribs and sides of creamy cole slaw and BBQ beans.
When I unwrapped the package (should I call it a present?) and saw that the ribs were sandwiched between two slices of white bread and topped with sliced pickles I knew I was in for a treat! The ribs were delicious. I have to say that I think I am more of a long end kinda girl. The ribs were a little fattier than I prefer and I found that as I worked my way toward the center I was preferring the drier meat. The slaw was killer and the BBQ beans were the greatest surprise of all. Its a mix of black, red and another type of beans and there are chunks of BBQed brisket in them. Amazing. Unfortunately, with all that food, the ribs won. I only made it halfway through the whole thing.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I am planning to try Athur Bryant's later in the week. They are supposed to be the original Kansas City rib joint. I willproabbly go for a pulled pork sandwich, but we shall see.

Tomorrow I plan on doing some very exciting things: laundry, potentially having to switch hotel rooms and making a gourmet microwave meal.

Thanks for visiting and let me know if you have an requests.

bye y'all!