Counting down - final two weeks in China

Last night we celebrated our 51st performance, and our last show in mainland China. It suddenly hit me that this is all ending, we're all going to be leaving, and some of us may be in touch, and might see each other again, but many of these friendships might not hold past the length of tour. What a depressing thought! Many of these people I know I will never see again, simply because of their age (the kids!) and where they live. I definitely hope to have a cast reunion in the future. That is what is so sad about this business: every gig is so short-lived, even the longer runs. You meet a fascinating group of people, become very close to them, and then you part ways.

Today a group of us went to visit a Buddhist temple after having a wonderful Japanese lunch at the hotel next door. I must admit that my favorite meal, perhaps so far in China (and I'm sorry to say it's not Chinese food) is the beef stroganoff served in the Western restaurant of the hotel next door. It's incredible! I've had it twice and I'm getting it again tonight. My favorite Chinese meal in China was definitely the Kung Pao Chicken at that first hole-in-the-wall restaurant we discovered near our rehearsal space in Chengdu. I wish we could go back there! If I had known that the tour was going to be cut short, there are many things I would have done differently. (Every meal at Kung Pao chicken, etc!)

Some things I'm really going to miss about performing The Sound of Music in China:

-The audience applause we received in one city for the children's marching entrance. This isn't a meaningful moment in the show, but it felt so good to get entrance applause for our group of kids!
-Even more important, the audiences that applauded as Michael (Captain) began singing Edelweiss. What a moment!
-Trying to communicate with our Chinese dressers. It's so funny! They'll simply talk to us in Chinese, and we'll talk to them in English, and nobody understands the other. My dressers always have a problem because I enter one scene with a head kerchief on, and I exit without it (when Captain grabs it off my head). In every single city, my dresser mimes to me, "Where is your kerchief?" and I point to the stage, indicating that it's still out there in the scene. In the end, I have to get Justin, our head wardrobe, to explain to them that the kerchief is used in the scene and exits in Maria's pocket.
-The antics of our von Trapp kids. I won't go into detail, because I don't want to incriminate anyone, but we have got one dramatic, crazy group of kids here! (Not to mention talented...)
-Understudy rehearsals. We have done some understudy rehearsals that end up like a production of Noises Off. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound funny at all when I try to explain it, so I'll just leave it at that.
-The orchestra. What other situation would enable us to meet a group of handsome, young, in most cases Ukrainian men!

I'll leave it at that. Perhaps more later! We have a few days off here in Fuzhou, then we take a bus to Xiamen so that we can fly from there to Macau. I'm so excited for Macau, not for the gambling, which doesn't interest me in the least, but for the Portuguese influence! We'll have eight performances in Macau, and that's the end of our tour ... for the time being, at least!