On the Road with Taproot Theatre

This week of touring, students celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. by taking Monday off from school. This provided a much appreciated day of rest for the Road Company as well, and we launched into the week with renewed enthusiasm. Imagine our dismay when we discovered on Thursday morning that disaster had struck again. “I think Simone’s veering a little to the right” said Adrienne (Simone is our van, in case you haven’t been keeping up with our blog and/or antics). We needed to get gas anyway, so we pulled into the 76 station on the corner of Aurora and 85th. When we piled out, we saw that Simone’s front right tire had gone completely flat! We pulled out enough of our set pieces to get at the spare tire, which was a good deal heavier than I expected it to be, and dug around in the van until we located our trusty jack. Of course, none of us was particularly proficient in the changing of tires, so we gave it our best shot but couldn’t even get Simone off the ground enough to get the old tire off. All of this before dawn, in the chill winter air, mind you!

Fortunately, Adrienne called AAA and utilized her charm and state of panic to get them to dispatch a service vehicle to our location, which arrived in almost no time. The mechanic (I will call him Gus) saw our predicament and immediately inquired, seeing the spare tire and abandoned jack, “Well why haven’t you changed the tire yet?” with a grin. Then he quickly broke out a couple tools that made our rusty jack look like an antique and had the tire changed in no time flat. We snagged a quick photo with Alicia’s phone (luckily Gus was extraordinarily good-natured in these wee hours of the morning) and set off for Carnation, back on track. We arrived with time to spare.

As is the case in all of these somewhat disastrous and comic scenarios, I am once again reminded of the strengths of our team, and grateful for their perseverance and good nature in the face of adversity. How fitting that in a week dedicated to remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we should happen upon such a beautiful reminder of the power of unity and collaboration, no matter the obstacles in our path.