We've never been that way. Our show is about expression, about being someone else, about characterization, about the sheer enjoyment of an art form."

 

Often the schools will ask them to do residencies, sharing their talents with children and adults who then do their own show. "We're trained to be teachers, to teach a lot of different kinds of theater skills, and we're good at that." Jacob wist­fully adds, "We would like to eventually have our own place, a theatre to teach and perform in ourselves."

 

How likely is Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, to be an entertainment mecca to the mid­west? Jacob is quick to point out, "There are mainly two schools is the U.S. that teach our kind of theater: del Arte on the west coast and Celebration Barn in the east. In the Midwest, there's nothing, and here's Mt. Horeb, halfway between Minneapolis and Chicago."

 

Stranger things have happened.

 

Yes, back there I did mention the whole family. About five years ago Callie Grace Mills decided to make her way into the world, and that is an inspirational story in and of itself.

 

Expecting her to arrive in October of '89, Jacob and Nina finished their June cruise ship performances and began a tour of the eastern U.S., planning on arriving home in Mt. Horeb in plenty of time for a midwife-assisted home delivery. Callie, however, made her debut in Cleveland's University Hospital on August 8 - 10 weeks pre­mature. Never mind that Mommy and and Daddy had a three-day booking in Burlington, Vt. The show had to go on, so Jacob traveled to Burlington. He explained, "We needed the money and they were counting on us."

 

Meanwhile Nina, who knew exactly one person in Cleveland, stayed near the baby. The one person turned out to be the right one, though, and through friends of friends Nina was able to stay in a condo close to the hospital and get a job at a local frame shop to help with the bills. Jacob began performing a two-person comedy juggling act solo. "I was making it up as I went along," he said. "I started developing a routine asking the audience whether I should pay my wife after she cut out of the tour just to have a baby."

 

He did get to see his family again briefly in Cleveland on his way to Michigan for a couple of more solo shows, but their tribulations were not over.

 

The hospital finally said Callie could fly home. But the Insurance Gods decree they will not pay the $4,000 necessary for that to happen. A benevolent California agency agreed to fly her, but Murphy's Law made the special crib she needed too big to fit on the plane.

 

Tempus kept fugiting along, and lucrative college bookings and Chicago-area Labor Day performances loomed on the horizon. Finally, with bills getting bigger and income needed, Nina was forced to leave Callie in the Cleveland Hospital for 10 days. That produced some unusual performance pressure. "It could have been worse," Jacob said. "The news spread throughout the hospital and they all came together to help make us feel that she was safe and cared for." Callie came home finally on September 21, and she's been a part of the team ever since. Early on, Nina remembers, the youngster became a critic. "On the way back from a show, Callie said 'Daddy, don't do that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle joke anymore.' She named about three other things, and Jacob and I just looked at each other and said 'My God, she's only three-and-a-half!' "