Auburn, AL

Gogue Performing Arts Center in the Woltosz Theater
Sunday, December 12, 2021

How would you pronounce "Gogue"? I got it totally wrong. Even if I had 10 guesses, I wouldn't have said it correctly.

You know this guy?

That's the actor Robert Loggia. Do you know how to pronounce his last name? That's the only way I can think of to help you. Gogue is like GOJE. But not a hard J, but rather like a double G. It's so silly. 

Anyway, we had a rough drive in the morning from Augusta, GA to Auburn, AL -- it's just a four hour drive, but we had a two-show day, and were driving directly to the theater. Our tour manager missed the fact that we'd be gaining an hour by driving into Alabama. When we have a 2-show day, we drive from the hotel in the morning directly to the theater, no time to go to the hotel and drop our bags, etc. (it's before the typical check-in time anyway). We left Augusta at 8:30am, which isn't too early, but it wasn't until we were driving (and I was searching for places to have our lunch break) that we realized we'd be gaining an hour. Which meant we had more time than previously thought--you'd think that would be great, right!?

Well, I floated the idea of stopping at the enormous farmers market in Atlanta that is open 24 HOURS A DAY. What?! Anyway, we planned to stop there for 45 minutes. We'd take a lunch later when we were closer to lunch time and closer to the theater. Auburn being a college town (and we were performing on the campus of the university), there were a plethora of lunch options very close to the theater.

We stopped at the Farmers Market and I found out that most of the cast was extremely picky and not ready for the type of market it was. It wasn't the vegan, holistic, Santa Monica-type thing they must have been used to. This was a very large (150 acres), wholesale style market with tons of veggies and fruits and pecans, etc. There were even large stalks of sugar cane for sale! The cast weren't happy, so it was decided we'd leave and go find a place that had coffee (that's really all they wanted). 

Well, I was done finding places for us to stop. Our tour manager found a WalMart that had a Dunkin Donuts close by, and we went there. But what turned into a short 15-minute break turned into 30 minutes as the traffic to get back on the freeway was terrible. This left us 30 minutes for lunch once we arrived in Auburn.

What started as an easy 4-hour trip, which would have allowed for a one-hour lunch stop plus an extra break, turned into a bulk of frustration. 

I think we're all tired, and the frustration of the early travel and no lunch break to Augusta, GA the day before mixed with this bump was extra frustrating for people.

But we did get to have a lovely space at Auburn University in a large modern theater. The crowds were great, which always helps.

I think this will be the newest theater we will perform in this year--it was built in 2019. It seats 1,202; specially built for excellent acoustics. Some shots from their website --

Would have been nice to see more of Auburn, but that's not happening on this tour! On to Oxford, AL the next day -- for a day off! Woo hoo!