Shootin' The Lights Out in Plymouth

Plymouth is a cool little village in Eastern North Carolina, just upstream of the Inner Banks region. Clustered around the southern bank of the Roanoke River, it has the feel of a water town.

After a pleasant drive from Charlotte, I pulled in to town at dinnertime for two school performances the following day.

My taste buds were set on a fish sandwich and a cold beer. I envisioned dining at some riverside dive with my newspaper and the view to accompany me. However, it looked like the sidewalks in downtown Plymouth were rolled up pretty tight. I did have a peek inside the super cool Maritime Museum and while I stood gawking at a beautiful handmade 12’ Bateau that was being raffled off at the Community Art Center; I heard a pickup pull up behind me. A nice guy jumped out and asked me if I wanted to buy some raffle tickets. Ahhh, you have to love the small towns. He explained the boat was donated by its maker in an effort to raise money for the guy down at the Bike Shop who had to go in the hospital and had one hell of a bill to pay. I was “all in” to help out and gave him my address so that he could mail the raffle tickets. I should have asked him where to eat.

The fish sandwich wasn’t happening, but I vowed to seek out some local place, rather than succumbing (shudder) to the fast food chains back out on the big road. I saw a sponsor’s banner, “Mama’s Pizza” on the school ball field fence as I drove out of Plymouth proper. It sounded sort of promising. Mama’s Pizza wasn’t hard to find, it was nestled in a small strip center that was anchored by the Piggly Wiggly.

The place had a good vibe. A hearty mix of locals filled the joint; farmers, fisherman and golfers. They all talked across their tables about their children’s baseball games earlier that night. Cool.

It turned out to be a fine meal; a one trip salad bar followed up by a really great grilled vegetable ravioli. Fantastic. They even had that cold beer I was after. Plymouth you rock.

The next morning found me up and out of the hotel and standing in the office at Pines Elementary School promptly at 7:45am for a 9:00am performance. Things did not start out spectacularly. It went something like this:

Me: Good morning, I’m Drew Allison with Grey Seal Puppets. I’m here to set up for the puppet performance this morning.

School Secretary: (blank look of confusion.)

Me: (Stare back with expectation)

School Secretary: OoooooKayyyy. Where was it supposed to be, in the gym?

Me: I’m not sure.

School Secretary: Which grades were supposed to see it?

Me: I’m not sure.

School Secretary: (whips out walkie talkie) Mrs. Pendergast? Mrs. Pendergast?

Other School Secretary: She isn’t here. She’s gone to a meeting.

School Secretary: (with the slightest of tones) I’m going to have to go out to the Bus Ramp and ask the Assistant Principal where you’re supposed to be.

Suffice it to say that 20 minutes of my set up time was spent waiting in the office to be told where to go. Nobody’s fault really, but still kind of exasperating. Leave it to the students to save the day. They were a great audience and it was a blast performing for them.

I struck the show and grabbed a perfect veggie patty sub at the ubiquitous Subway, resplendent with pepper jack cheese, jalapenos and banana peppers. A great sandwich artist put that baby together. Then it was on to Creswell, NC for the afternoon performance.

Creswell Elementary had the thing that all school-bound troubadours are looking for; a custodian who runs the show. This guy was great. He got me primo parking inside the cones, turned on the stage lights and showed me the only outlet that I never would have found without him. Awesome.

So, you’re probably wondering about the title to this little piece. Well, there’s a scene in the show I was doing, A Show of Virtues, where a tiny bit of water is shot through a plastic syringe and sprinkles the audience. It has to do with the story of the Little Hero of Holland, the finger in the dyke, all that. The little plastic syringe is pretty amazing. I can hit the 8th or 9th row with this thing. Except for this time. Something went wrong with the trajectory and the water went straight up into the aforementioned stage lights. These were ancient scoop-like fixtures for you lighting techie-types. At any rate, the water shot up and in an instant one of the bulbs burst and along with the water a shower of glass clattered down all around me. It was pretty cool and rock star-like. I heard a 1^st grader instantly assess the situation: “He blowed the bulb out.” Indeed I did.

We all regrouped and the rest of performance went just fine. The Creswell students were as amazing as the Pines students that morning. As I packed up, the custodian returned. I heard a student say, “He’s coming with the vacuum to get that bulb up.”

Hilarious. Many thanks to the Washington County Schools and sweet Victoria Fields for a great day of puppeteering along the Roanoke River.