Letters Home Tour Blog #1

At the moment I'm in Iola, KS. We did our first show this morning at the Bowlus Event center for a group of youths.

Let me back up. 

For the next month or so, I'll be acting in a touring production of The Griffin Theatre Company's Letters Home, a play about the human experience of soldiers in the wars of Iraq and Afganistan. We had our first show this morning.

I'll be writing via my phone so please excuse the brevity and careless mistakes. The cast is wonderful and really brought this show to life. The emotional weight of the real stories of the men and women of the armed forces affected me much more than I thought it would. 

I am reading the letters of Leonard Cowherd. The family of this serviceman had seen the previous iterations of the show and gifted Leonard's uniform to the company. The director, Bill Massolia, brought out the uniform before our performance. Touching that uniform was an immensely emotional moment. It was humbling. 

We have some off time before our second show of the day. We explored the town square and I, as I am wont to do, found the nearest coffee place. They do pour overs. I was happy.

Afterwards, we visited the second-hand stores. I found a vintage Old Spice shaving mug that I'm sure will get its own MugLife.com write-up soon. 

After peaking into the exercise room (using the broadest possible interpretation of the word), me and some of the guys did some recon and found a nearby gym that sold us day passes. Today I learned that Pete is stronger than I am and that people in Iola don't lock up their belongings. They just leave them on the counter. It blew our paranoid minds. They said nothing had ever been stolen. Having had the watch my father gave me after getting my Master's degree stolen at a gym, I was skeptical. I kept my phone and wallet in my shorts.

My Dad served in the military. He was in stationed in Korea (not the war) and I only now have started to ask about his experiences. Makes me wish I would have done so earlier. I wonder how much of his interesting life I have missed because I was too dumb to ask and he was too classy to it bring up on his own.

I am grateful and excited and haven't fucked up the show yet. This month I will pay my bills acting. And that is something that will make my Dad proud. He always said, "Do what you love and figure out how to get paid for it later." 

Dad, I did.