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A rather frantic looking employee came into the green room where I was unpacking my costume and shouted into the room “the Fire Marshal says we have 5 minutes to leave, grab as much stuff as you can and get out.” It almost sounded like a joke, and in fact the three of us (Kelsey, Adam and I), took it as such at first until we saw employees heading for the door with great armfuls of stuff.

.. ..

I went to find a manger and ended up bumping into the lovely sound man Kris who was attempting to fit an entire lifetime of stuff though the small stage door. It was true, he had no details, but we were to leave. Luckily I had unpacked mostly nothing and we had not started to do a real load in for sound check. I grabbed a few things from stage and yelled down the hall that it was true that we were to leave. We huddled on the sidewalk, refugee like, with Vagabond Opera waiting to be let back in.

.. ..

Except we would not be let back in.

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Several people had snippets of information and none of it was a whole story, so I went to talk to the Fire Marshal myself. He was actually quite a lovely man – he was excited to receive a few toys and stickers. He apologized to me for shutting the building and said – it wasn’t just us and our show but the restaurant and club and the offices he had to evacuate. The place would be allowed to open as soon as they addressed the “issues” perhaps as early as tomorrow but certainly not today. He placed his hand on my should and said “I am really sorry, I have to act on the tips I get when I get them”. I was a bit dazzled by his shiny badge and chagrin.

.. ..

Bill (a producing associate for the Zipper Factory) did his best to give everyone information. He didn’t have much more to add by way of “why” but he did say they would certainly reschedule the show in whatever capacity we needed and that everyone who bought a pre-sale ticket would be refunded (according to him we had nearly sold out the night which was good for a Tuesday!). We heard more details, mostly conjecture, as to the why, but nothing I can write here.

.. ..

Everyone got busy trying to txt, call and email as many people as possible to let them know the show was cancelled (and perhaps find another venue). Walter called the lovely third performer Adrienne (who unfortunately was already headed to the venue and completely missed us – sad sad sad!) to let her know what happened. A few people were able to get the word out to more people then I could contact (Thank you my lovely sister for taking a break from your own crisis to help us out and to Adam, Kelsey, MJ, Michael, Brian, Martin, Kris, JoeBen, Luther, Katrina, Robin, Mali and the psychic next door who traded a palm reading for a CD! [the palm reading is a whole other story!])

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There was an impromptu sidewalk revelry which attracted construction workers and homeless people. I handed out toys to passersby and we all hugged and kissed took pictures and video and went off into the cold. As the group of us arrived at the car, a street once FULL of parked vehicles showed my lonely tour coffin (aka the Saturn) completely alone on that side of the street. I had read every sign on the street and nothing stated I could not park there. I had no ticket but as we were loading the car back up, a tow truck and parking enforcement car arrived and honked and gestured at us to move along. If we had not left when we did, my car would have been towed to who knows where- another lucky thing to happen yesterday!

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The end and the beginning of this story are not really the action that took place at the club, that was the most exciting and public part – the real story happened in the car on the way down and up. Walter, Kelsey, Adam and I fell even more in friend with each other, sharing intimate moments of conversation, many many laughs and some really good food in a REALLY odd place. I will treasure that time like no other – honest, open sharing moments (without fear) are hard to come by and we had hours and hours of them – thank you guys for being wonderful and to those who were busy or did not fit in the car (Kevin, jojo, Ami, Steph) your physical presence was sorely missed.