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April 4, 2000

Posted to the BallfestNews Mailing List

Hi Gang!

So much has happened since my last post, that I hardly know where to begin, which means this is probably going to be really long!

 

Anyway...I spent far too much time trying to make a nice little name pin thingie for our weekend Ballfest, which would include a nice photo of Douglas Sills, but finally figured out that even though it showed up perfectly on-screen, it was definitely NOT going to print out, so settled for an all text version, which worked out okay.

Then, last Friday in the middle of the night, I got a note from my Douglas contact person in NYC, advising me that Douglas had not done the Friday night show and would NOT be doing the Saturday matinee either, but would be definitely doing the Saturday evening performance.  She didn't tell me why, but I suppose it didn't really matter.  Rachel, M and I had seen him on stage last weekend, but I knew the rest of our group, and probably the entire audience would be disappointed.  So much for surprising Douglas I figured.

I dropped a hasty note to Marilyn, and Merrill, granddaughter Samantha and I headed for SeaTac airport to pick up Rachel who was returning from a quick trip to Chicago, and except for seeing J&H a few more times and being given a dressing room tour by Chuck Wagner, she had a less than wonderful trip and was exhausted to the max!

The first thing we did was to unanimously decide that we absolutely had to see SP twice that day!  Luckily we forgot about the Daylight Savings time change, and didn't think of how late we were all going to get back home again!

Feeling a bit better about things, we headed for Seattle, confirmed the cast lists for the day, and bought 5 tickets for the evening performance, with the knowledge that IF Douglas's flight arrived on time (5 PM) he would do the evening show. 

Ever the optimists, we went merrily into the theatre after first advising the rest of our group that the leading role would be performed by Matt Shepherd, who Rachel had met the previous weekend, and who is a friend of our friend Greg Stone.

The show was excellent actually, Matt was outstanding, even venturing an ad lib or two of his own, William Paul Michals as Chauvelin was utterly fantastic, and I think I can safely say that no one of the 10 people in our group was disappointed. 

Marilyn found us at intermission, and after a brief hugging session, we watched the 2nd act.  There was a full-house standing ovation, which very obviously made Matt's day, not to mention the rest of the cast!

As always, we headed immediately for the stage door, wearing our little name badges, and there we were joined by Marilyn's husband Stu, and also our long, long time friends, Richard Sy-Facunda and his new bride Leslie, who were honeymooning in the US and had only arrived at the airport at noon, just in time to get into town, check into a hotel and get to the theatre in time for the stage door get-together.  Talk about some serious hugging!  Wow, how much excitement can one person cram into one day?  Well, apparently a whole bunch!  This turned out to only be the beginning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our new friends from last weekend, cast members D B Bonds, Matt Shepherd and William P Michals soon showed up at the stage door where they were greeted by a somewhat larger crowd than usual!   What a great day for them, as SP is not exactly the only show in town - POTO is playing only a few blocks away!

 

 

 

After introductions all around, autographs, taking pictures, hugging, and feeling such a part of this whole exciting "event" nine of us headed for the Dragonfish restaurant, while the others headed home to Bremerton.  Again, I think I can safely say, dinner was wonderful, and the excitement and fun continued.  We didn't spend much time talking about Michael really, but we were there because we had found each other through Michael to begin with, and by golly he was with us all, if only in our hearts.  We were about as diversified a group as we could possibly be, but I think the camaraderie and excitement and fun was about as perfect as it could possibly have been. 

 
Time for a coffee, pop-corn or rest break...
 
I will continue with the rest of the day asap!
 

Love, hugs and Happy Ballfesting to every single one of you, Jackie :-)

Note: Continued on the next page.

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