Home Again

It's amazing how fast two weeks can go by when you are doing what you love. All good things must come to an end, and Frog Belly Rat Bone in Atlanta is no exception. Our last days in the Big Peach were as fun and quirky as any other day on our trip. Here's how it went down.

After our final performance, we presented Stage Manager Extraordinaire Hayley with our second parting gift (she's wearing the first one in the picture below): a genuine Frog Belly Rat Bone kazoo, discretely signed by the entire cast. The look on her face was just fantastic.

Now anytime she needs us, all she has to do is *bzzzz.*

Despite having just laid it all out for two extraordinary final shows, our intrepid cast pulled together to strike our set with gusto. Christina zipped about and snapped some fantastic pictures of the mayhem. Miles and Thu pulled apart Cementland while Amy provided motivation.

Tyler was a palletizing machine, stacking our gear onto wooden platforms that could easily be trucked back across the nation.

Sean put his video designer hat back on to unplug the projector.

I hid out in the booth, wondering how to put everything back together. I'm pretty sure I got it right eventually.

The game of Tetris continued. Thanks to everyone's hard work, the entire set was wrapped and ready to go in no time at all.

Go Team Friendship!

Before we walked out the door for good, we were able to leave our mark on the Center of Puppetry. Can you find it?

How about now?

That night, we hit the town for our last dinner together on tour. We were joined by the wondrous Hayley, as well as Jon and his lovely wife at one of our strangest stops yet: Dante's Down the Hatch. The restaurant features an indoor pirate ship; a live alligator; a Mark Twain mannequin; striped-shirted waiters; a menu that is more idealogical than informative; and a talking, mechanical witch in the ladies room. Also, fondue. Seated at the captain's table while enjoying a live jazz combo, I knew it was a perfect topper to our tour of the madness of Georgian camp.

The next morning, Roy and Liz from the Center got up extra early and shuttled us to ATL. Amid luggage-wrangling and coffee-balancing, we exchanged farewell hugs under the watchful eye of airport security.

Before you knew it, we were up and away.

When we landed at LAX, it felt good to be home where we belong. No city in the world is like Los Angeles. We were all aching to see all our friends and loved ones again. However, there was definitely an air of melancholy as we retrieved our luggage and finally parted ways.

I prefer happy endings, so I'm going to close out this documentation of our tour with a story about one of our new young fans. He saw our show three times in total, including the early show on our last day. At this show, every time Frog Belly addressed the audience, this child was roaring back at the stage as if to challenge him to a Frog Belly roaring contest. I could hear him all the way from the booth. He brought this drawing with him to the show and presented it to the cast:

We were all touched by the gesture. Especially Thu.

Moments like that make me want to do this show forever. Thank you, Center for Puppetry Arts, for taking a chance on our little show and for always being such gracious hosts. Thanks Frog Belly cast, for being the best traveling companions I could ever ask for. So long, Atlanta. I hope we meet again.