Keep Easy!
It is moving day again after 5 nights at Davies Bayou at the Gulf Coast National Seashore in Ocean Springs, Mississippi . Yesterday was the weird day that started with a humid 66 degrees at around 6:30 AM, and within the hour the wind started to blow and the temp dropped 20 degrees right off. I spent the day nosing around in a 2nd hand store, coffee shop, and then checked out the The Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center of Arts and Education which was utterly exciting. I talked to Stacy Howell, the program director, who used to do some puppetry, and she was a great resource for theater contacts. As I go along, I see that perhaps this is an advance trip for a future puppetry tour, either that or it makes a case for some significant research before heading out on a trip like this. I must stand firm, though, in my relaxed approach to this journey. Way back in the Fall as this trip started to brew, I felt the grind of my usual approach to things start to abrade my brain matter, and I decided that I would figure things out on the fly, and I felt so happy to glide for a change. Now my challenge is to keep a relaxed approach to this “tour.” I am truly an itinerant puppeteer and I am making my way. I think I need to be bolder than I feel, and be willing to set up and start busking. So far the angles I have tried have not borne fruit, but that is okay.
*I went to a local elementary school to offer a show, and they said no because they are too busy preparing for tests. Now isn’t that the current state of affairs? I say, ask the kids if they might enjoy a 45-minute puppet break from test preparations just to aerate the brain soil!
*A retired guy from Tennessee and his buddy, who I ran into at a coffee shop in Bay St. Louis, said that he could maybe organize a show with friends gathered at his new home on the coast. He gave me his phone number; I gave him my card. I just imagine him telling his wife about this possibility when he got home! “You said you’d do what????!” I was delighted by his offer, but it did not work out!
*I asked at Buccaneer State Park if I could set up to do a show, and the park manager cited policy and procedures a number of times. No.
*At my current campground, people chat me up constantly about my trailer, and they are charmed. It is an anomaly amongst the huge metal rolling living spaces that expand at the push of a button. Some rigs are more modest, but they all have heat! (I was envious of that as the temperatures dipped down to 30 this morning!) Anytime I suggest that I could do a puppet show, people bemoan the lack of children! I need to be bold and make my case for puppets that adults like too!
Well, could it be time to leave my refuge: Coffee Fusion Bubbletea Cafe. These folks said come and hang out as much as I want while the temperatures drop!! I worked on my shadow show at a table last night until closing!
