Mormons Boycott Shriners; Bella Bears Brunt, (we think that's what happened), May 4

We're not sure what exactly happened in Hurricane.  Be we do know exactly what happened  And many times on the way back to Cedar City, we continued to ask one another…"What just happened?"

It was a puzzle, but by the time we left, we think we had most of the pieces.  Looking back on the trip (as I'm catching up on the blog well after the fact), Hurricane was the apex of the trip, the crux, fulcrum even, if you will, as it was.  Cedar City had very small audiences for the town's size and scale of the theater.  Panguitch was also small but we chalked it up to a Tuesday night and conflict with religious meetings. In Hurricane, there was no accident.  At showtime, not a single person was in the theater.  Something else was going on.    

Hurricane, pronounced "hur-ah-kun," has a population of around 11,000 though to us, it felt much smaller. 

"Its first residents, the Paiute Indians, called the area Timpoweap, meaning "Rock Canyon."   In 1776, the Dominguez and Escalante expedition passed through the region, stopping at the confluence of Ash Creek, LaVerkin Creek and the Virgin River and noting the signs of irrigation left by the Paiutes. Some speculate that mountain men such as Jedediah Smith and George C. Yount also passed through the area. A group led by Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt in 1849-50 and another exploring party led by John Steele in 1852 came through Hurricane, both using the river junction as a landmark and a crossing point." - from www.utahsdixie.com/hurricane.html

Erastus Snow, a Vermont born Mormon convert is credited with the name.  He was in the first Mormon pioneer company to cross the plains and, along with Orson Platt, was first to enter the Salt Lake Valley.  While traveling in the area, a whirlwind blew the top off of his buggy.  Snow explaimed, "Well, that was a hurricane.  We'll name this 'Hurricane Hill."  This was back in 1896.  

It was a windy place.  The town sits half way between Cedar City and St. George and neighbors Tocquerville and La Verkin.  All quaint communities with a heavy reliance on tourism for the national parks.

Over a month ago, while arranging venue logistics, we knew we were going to have some challenges at the Hurricane Performing Arts Center.  Don, the contact for the center, still only a voice to us, informed that a dress rehearsal for the school production of Anne of Green Gables  was scheduled for our show day.  They had agreed to end early for our set up needs and we were offered a 5:30pm load in time for a 7pm show.  It was going to be tight.

On Monday, JB had connected with the proprietors at Pah Tempe Hot Springs, located just on the edge of Hurricane, and made plans for all of us to go in the morning before load in.  Alas, it was a premature move.  Three hours in a hot springs before a show felt risky to a couple of us and Ariana was uneasy about it for the sake of her body.  Others were game to go with the flow.  Also, we knew we wouldn't be able to work the trapeze on the small stage so we had to rework the show order, rewrite and print a sound cue sheet, etc.  

Alas no Hot Springs.  This was a working trip.  JB did seem to develop a connect with the proprietor and as it now stands, the guy is looking for $2M investor/partner and wants JB to help find "the one."  If anyone out there is interested, please let us know as Circus Bella is up for a good commission if we can find the right person.  JB works in mysterious ways. 

So we headed for Hurricane and arrived early – around 3:30pm.  Abby and I went to investigate the situation while the rest hung out in an adjacent park.   Now Don, our contact had gone for the day, but the pleasant women in the office of the Community Center directed us across the street to the actual theater and instructed us to meet the technical director, Chris. 

Sure enough, at the theater, bands of teenagers were congregating for their rehearsal to soon begin.  We met Chris G. in the lobby and he instantly became our new friend and ally in Hurricane. Charming and sweet as ever, he gave Abby and I a more than thorough tour of the stage, available dressing room, sound and light booths.  He has the gate and walk of a tech director, slightly leaning forward with quick steps.  He comments at and jokes with all the kids we pass as we make the rounds.  They all clearly adore him and he clearly adores his role here.

He connected us with the custodian, Jamie, for access to the key to the outside water facet.  Jamie was more than ready to go home and handed over the key without a question, brushing off that he'd just somehow get it later.   We agreed to reconnect with Chris around 5:00pm and returned to find the others laid out in the grass proudly displaying their 99¢ frozen yogurt soft serve from the health food store across the street.  Arianna taking it a step further with a bag of shredded coconut to sprinkle on top.  Atta-Girl!

With some time to kill, we walked over to the consignment shop in town.  One of the shop keepers proudly stated that there are over 300 people with merchandise in the shop.  It was a labyrinth of old luggage, doll houses and miniature wares, brick-a-brack, nick-naks, and furniture. My favorite was the 5 lb. mechanical Punch and Judy steel bank.  You put your coin in Judy's hand and then pull the lever.  Judy swings over and drops the coin inside while Punch almost wacks her with his bobble.  We were carrying too much stuff already.

While in the store, Chris called me asking if we wanted to grab a bite to eat to "talk over our tech needs".  There was really no need as JB had that covered but it was an invitation and opportunity to hang out with our new friend.  Mark, Abby, JB and I met him back at the theater and walked to small Mexican restaurant.  Though very tight on time, it was well worth the detour. 

Chris is a charming 20 year-old young-man whose family dates back to the founding of neighboring La Verkin.  The townsite was surveyed in 1898 by tow brothers, Joseph and Henry Gubler.  The area grew into an area of fruit production, turkey growing and dairy farming.  Chris' father owns the grocery store in La Verkin and it's amazing to think that the store probably dated back to Joseph and Henry's first fruit trees in the settlement.  Chris is not, however, following his paternal path as he's very dedicated to the performing arts. (His father doesn't really like music).

Aside from being the tech director, he plays piano, accordion, sings, and dances.  And he's proud of all of the talent in Hurricane. He also loves the surrounding wild landscape and had a stint working at Zion National Park as a host of the restaurant.  Unfortunately, his sense of humor got him fired when some one called and asked if there was a dress code. "Not really, just don't come naked…"  It was too much for them.

When we got back to the theater, we had some time to fill the water barrels right outside the door, thanks to the facet key we got from Jamie the custodian  - moments before he left for the day – and unloaded most of the truck in the hall.  The rehearsal was starting to wrap up and kids were scattering about in prairie costumes with painted on moustaches.  At one point , the director instructed them to "get out of the way for the Shriners…."  

DOINK!

At that moment in Hurricane, UT we found out who we were in Hurricane, UT. We were no longer Circus Bella billed as a Shrine Circus.  We were Shriners.  

Mark took the time to explain to a few of the kids that we were not really Shriners but a circus troupe being presented  by Shriners.  But, in Hurricane, at that moment, we were Shriners. And you better get out of the way.

We set up on the relatively shallow stage, folding the ring tarp ¼ back and opting to hang the CB sign on the back curtain instead of setting up the backdrop.  Alas, no trapeze for the low ceiling and stage specs but fortunately the table would work for Mark's unicycle act and Tristan's moment up on the stacked chairs and boxes.  I got going on rigging the rope and got a bit caught up in my warm up.  Just coming down, feeling a some internal time pressure to start getting ready, Abby walked onto the stage in her blue suit and stated that it was 7:00pm.  I was a bit perplexed and asked why hadn't anyone come to tell me.  "Because nobody's here," Abby simply stated.   

Empty.

We walked into the hallway to try to make sense of the situation.  Five after seven, no one.  Ten after seven, a family of four arrives.  We discuss with A.C. just what to do and naturally decide to cancel the show.  Abby was the brave one to deliver the bad news to the family and that they were certainly invited to come see the show the following night in Richfield, or on Thursday in Parowan.  They were not pleased.

No one showed up.  Here, in this relatively small town, where the show was announced in a calendar sent to every resident in Hurricane, a circus mind you, something went down.  It was a Shrine thing, a Mormon thing, and a circus thing.  The shows are billed as raising money for the El Kalah Shrine Center.  Not the Mormon Church.  This likely had something to do with it also.

Chris explained that sometimes people only come out for sports events and local theater.

So…Chris got on the piano and began playing melodies of pop songs, JB got his camera out and we knocked out a little photo shoot over the next 30 minutes.  We packed it all back up in the truck and, on Chris' suggestion, went to Dairy Queen.

Which was buzzing with local teens getting on with their Wednesday night sugar buzz.  We did the same complete with shredded coconut thanks to Ariana.  One young woman was their with her friends, guitar on lap, playing the recent top 40 chart list: Jason Mraz, Train, Taylor Swift, and she sounded great!  Friends all leaning over a smart phone clearly reading the lyrics off the screen.  It was acoustic, live Karaoke  in the DQ in Hurricane, UT.  And we sat together, clearly from the other side, baffled and amazed.  You know what they say…if you can't beat them…..but only Chris felt comfortable to belt out along with a couple songs – every one in DQ knew him and gave him a rousing applause when he did.  Well deserved.  Mark would have if he had been invited because he knew all the words too. 

In another time and place perhaps Chris could have run away with the circus, but tonight, we dropped Chris back off at the theater so he could retrieve his bike and ride home to La Verkin  and we headed back to our humble abode in Cedar City wondering what was to come the rest of the week.

Abby knew something about what was to come.....