So there I am, in an alley in downtown Bakersfield, carrying a toilet.

Am I the vision of feminity or what?

Have you carried a toilet lately? They are not a light piece of machinery – and even though my biceps are rather buff from heaving around my always-slower-than-I-want-him-to-go-five-year-old , I had to hold onto laughter when this group of people caught sight of me and said to someone waiting with an open door, “You waiting for a toilet delivery?”

Oh, the things we do for our love of theatre.

Hal Friedman called me last week looking for a prop for “The Full Monty” which opens at Spotlight Theatre this weekend.  I am oh-so-happy to oblige.

Then “Picnic” opened and I went into this post-opening weekend haze until he called to remind me. “Umm, Julie, where’s that toilet you promised me?” or something like that I heard on my voice mail.

So I schlep to BCT and risk life and limb to get this plumbing device down from a crushing pile of furniture props, praying I don’t make the whole thing avalanche on my head.  I am without backup because my usual assistant and daughter, Katherine, is at callbacks for the Fall Show at EBHS… and since I love that SHE loves theatre, too – I decide to brave the toilet retrieval all by myself.

So that is how I wound up in an alley, downtown, with a toilet in my arms.  I passed it ceremoniously into the waiting arms of my friend Michelle Weingarden.

My favorite moment of this entire interlude was when I bumped into Michelle’s mom in the lobby of Spotlight and she shared with me that she had been cast in “Jesse’s Place” – a World Premiere production of a Barbara Gagnon play which is coming up in November at the Empty Space.

Sharing that excitement with Mrs. Weingarden – it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Yes – this is why I do all the things I do for theatre.  Deliver toilets, act my heart out, give it my all when I direct, accept the slings and arrows as they come, and very importantly, share my resources with the other theatres in town so that we all benefit.. and the audiences get the best show possible, too.

Yup, that’s the reason I schlep toilets around alleys. Its certainly the best reason I could think up.