A major milestone came over the weekend in the region’s recovery from Missouri River flooding.  Interstate 29 highway, closed by flooding nearly four months ago, has reopened between Rock Port, Mo., (exit 110) to U.S. Highway 34 (exit 32) near Pacific Junction, Iowa. The 15 miles of Missouri interstate closed on June 15 when flood waters forced Iowa to close I-29 near the border.

Except for a few days at the height of the flooding when water did cross the interstate at the states’ border, the Missouri portion of I-29 remained dry and undamaged making it easy for MoDOT to reopen the interstate.

According to information from IDOT, temporary lane crossovers will be in place at mileposts 0.8 northbound and 3.2 southbound, near Hamburg, Iowa. Two-way traffic conditions will be present between the crossovers with vehicles diverted into the southbound lanes. The crossovers are necessary to avoid a bridge in the northbound lanes that suffered damage.

Exit 1, Iowa 333 to Hamburg; and exit 10, Iowa 2 to Nebraska City, remain closed. An earthen levee was built on Iowa 333 and an approach to the bridge on this road collapsed and requires repair. Iowa 2 sustained substantial damage due to the flooding and must be repaired. Iowa plans to restore traffic on these roadways as quickly as possible.

It is with mixed feelings that I end my part in the production of “Romeo & Juliet” at Missouri Western State University.  It has been a great delight.  I’m humbled and grateful to everyone who took part.  I will take home some fine memories of each member of the cast, crew and front-of-house staff.  My hat goes off to director Tee Quillin for his tireless efforts on this marvelous production.

It is with sadness that I depart the production.  I am not taking part in the school performances Monday and Tuesday.

The adjudicators’ comments about my performance  (click here) were positive and encouraging.

Acting the part of Friar Laurence has proven a great challenge.  He is said to represent politics and wisdom within the story, and yet his politics and wisdom lead directly to the deaths of the title characters.  He secretly marries a 13-year-old girl to a man who would later commit cold-blooded murder.  He gives that girl a powerful narcotic, urges her to feign death, lies outrageously to her parents, then plots to spirit her away.

He hopes to mend a long-running family feud, and in that one regard he is successful, even as he fails miserably in all the particulars.

I didn’t do a lot to change my general appearance for my performance.  My costume was simple and generic: black suit with a long jacket, standard-issue puffy shirt, period tie, character shoes.

Makeup consisted of pancake foundation, eyebrow pencil and liner, chestnut brown shadows and “clown white” highlights, with finishing powder.

For earlier posts, click here.

It’s been a few days. The production has gone well, all things considered. After a boffo opening night, my performance went flat on Friday night. On Saturday I bounced back. Today I close the book on Romeo & Juliet.

Maybe.

On Saturday night, once the (full) house had been cleared, the cast and crew assembled as the play was adjudicated by Region Six of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The adjudicators were (left) Bruce Cohen, of Arkansas State University, and (right) Harold Hynick, of Missouri Valley College.

The city of St Joseph is close to finalizing a deal to sell the Gieger Mansion.

City officials Friday said they chose to sell the mansion to the Craig Realty Group for $251,000.

The city council will consider approval of the sale at the next council meeting, October 17^th.

The building was used temporary as an office for the St. Jo Frontier Casino this summer when flood waters forced the closure of the casino.

The former bank, which was donated to the city, was slated to become a firestation until public outcry led the city council to consider other uses.

 

Shatto Root Beer Milk has won first place in the World Dairy Exposition in Madison, Wisconsin, for the second year in a row.

The dairy has a good track record at the World Dairy Exposition. Last year Shatto 2% Root Beer and Strawberry placed in the top three in the world, and in 2009 Shatto Chocolate Milk was named one of the top three chocolate milks in the world.

The Shatto family has been delivering fresh milk from their family farm near Osborn since 2003. For more information go to www.shattomilkcompany.com.

R&J’s opening night drew a sellout crowd to Potter Hall Thursday. 

The cast explored the high art of “holding for laughs” at some peculiar moments within the drama.  Among the most peculiar came in my tragic spotlight near the end.  I had to hold for laughs, literally waiting for the laughter to stop, before delivering some tragic news to Juliet.

Friar Laurence enters the Capulet family crypt to find Romeo dead and Juliet waking up. The script calls for a “noise within,” to which Laurence replies “I hear some noise.”

In our production we use a firearm.

It was unexpectedly loud.

I delivered the line “I hear some noise,” and then had to hold for widespread laughter and lingering titters from the audience. Apparently they heard it too.

The next string of lines are anything but funny

“…Lady, come from that nest

of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.”

The laughter stopped as abruptly as it started.

 

UNDERSTUDY ALERT:

I will not be performing in the school matinees next week.  My final performance is Sunday.

Eric Burns-Sprung (left), who plays Friar John in the lead cast, will take over the role of Friar Laurence for those performances. 

Filling in as Friar John will be Jeff Jones(right), who doubles as one of the townspeople.

Residents of Big Lake, Missouri, their homes surrounded and inundated by floodwater for months, are now making do without fresh water. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources issued a boil order last week until further notice. Water service was shut down due to a water main break.

Officials say because there was a complete loss of water pressure in the water lines, there is a high potential for floodwater to enter the drinking water lines.

The boil order will remain in effect for all of the Village of Big Lake until water distribution lines can be repaired, flushed, disinfected

After that, the water must pass two consecutive days of testing before the water is deemed safe.

Customers of the Big Lake water system are urged to take the following precautions:
*Boil water vigorously for three minutes prior to use for cooking or drinking.
*Disinfect food contact surfaces such as dishes by immersing them for at least one minute in clean water that contains one teaspoon of unscented household bleach per gallon of water.
*Dispose of ice cubes and remake them with boiled water.
*Continue boiling all drinking and cooking water, until the cause of the contamination has been found and corrected.
*Water used for bathing does not need to be boiled.