David and Lisa

This was completely new to me in style and in the form of acting we were asked to do. The audience was seated on stage, with the farthest seats only 6' or so from our performing area. Also, we were completely in the round (the audience had us surrounded with entrances and exits for us to use). Jack Hill was a student from UND who wanted to direct, and Central gave him the chance. It was a cool experience, if not a little odd.

This was another chance to work really closely with Mike, and with Judy Henry. We had been buds for a while, but nowhere near as close as we were about to get through the course of this show. I recall Andi also talked some of the speech/debate crew into auditioning, and a couple got parts. A pretty good bridge we were forming.

The set was actually just a bunch of wedge-shaped blocks and boards we moved around to become tables, desks, chairs, etc. After a while you didn't really even think about it, but sometimes you just couldn't help noticing some inappropriate stuff. For instance, Judy sitting straddled on one of the wedges so she could rock back and forth resulted in the pointy corner of it being lodged in places that got rubbed raw (and not in a good way!).

Two of the cast members were seniors, Beth and Kris Harris, who had been going out with Mike at the time (she wore sweats to set constructions that had Mike's hand prints on the cheeks of her ass). I don't know if the others figured the musical was the last real show or what, but we did just fine without them on this one.

As for the memories, they're both with Mike. One of the scenes was a midnight snack scene where we had cake and milk. The cake was microwave cake because it was easy. The first night, the cake wasn't bad but the milk was room temperature. By Saturday, we had convinced them to keep the milk in a thermos until the scene, but the cake was horribly dry. The last day, they forgot the thermos and... well, let's just say that microwave cake was ok on the first day and nasty the second. This was day 5 for that cake. And the milk was room temp again. With the audience only a few feet away, we had to say the lines "Mmm, that was good." and "Yeah, that really hit the spot."
The other big memory was just for me and Mike. One of the things his character was obsessive over was the time and clocks. He asked what time it was and Beth, playing his mom, remarked that I'd have a watch and I'd be able to tell him. His response: "A Mickey Mouse watch, no doubt." So on the next to last performance, I wore a Mickey Mouse watch. Later in the show, he asks what time it is. You should have seen the look in his eyes when he saw the watch. The audience was only three feet away, and he managed to keep them from seeing it. Kudos, Mike. That's for tickling my knee.