Show # 57

Today's show followed on the heels of breakfast in bed and what amounted to a very rushed load-in. Also the crew at this theatre was insufferably rude and did their best to make us aware of how low on the totem-pole they think Theatreworks is. It was... not pleasant.

Still, the show was wonderful - as was the space. We played in the same hall that some of my favourite artists have performed in: Joan Baez, George Carlin, Dame Edna (to name a few...).
After our show, we went our separate ways for lunch and I ended up at an Indian restaurant. It was a good lunch before the drive back to NY (which is where I am currently.. yep, back in Bushwick).

Tomorrow is a day off and on Friday we aren't called until 2.45 pm. So it's almost one and a half days off. HURRAY!

Shows # 55 & 56

Oh man, we have been back on the road for three days now with two new performances under our belt and the range of emotion I have felt in the last 72 hours just about spans all of the things one can feel.

I have felt exhausted, enraged, elated and exhausted (yes, exhausted twice). Things have been tense, peaceful and indifferent. The music has both rocked and sucked while in the van.
Basically, no two days are ever fully alike.

Take, for example, our first show after our days off. We loaded into a giant gymnasium, easily large enough to host two basketball games simultaneously while driving a tractor around them, and with the little amount of energy we had gave a completely mediocre performance to a suitably unimpressed crowd. Literally, the only honest moment I had on stage that day was when I yawned in the middle of a song. Everything else about the show was purely painful. We had a painfully early call after nowhere near enough sleep; the crew was present but not at all helpful and the stage was about 6 feet up off the ground. Oh, did I mention we had to do it in a thrust-space again? Yeesh.

Still, while that may have been par for the course, we then trucked from ME down to MA for a show in Auburn at one of the most beautiful spaces we've ever performed in (video images and photos to follow...) The Mechanics Hall (so named for reasons I never discovered) turns 150 years old this year (like Thalian!) and has truly stunning decor inside. It also has an extensive set of maze-like hallways and back stair-cases, which Michelle and I got thoroughly lost in while trying to find our way down to the loading dock.

As for how the morning went - we loaded about half the set into the freight elevator, lugged it on up to the third floor and realised the stage was WAY too small for the house. I LOVE WHEN THAT HAPPENS! It makes load-in (and -out) significantly easier and the entire day that much more bearable. Especially given that after lunch, we had to drive back to ME. Yes, we went from Maine, to Mass and back to Maine in three days. Not anywhere near the length of drive from North Carolina to PA, but still not the best planning, I feel.

After a stormy drive across MA (complete with the loss of my temper and my subsequent apologies to those who had to witness the outburst) we got into our hotel in ME, went out for a lobster dinner that couldn't be beat and came back to enjoy a drink and a smoke with the Portland ME law-students at their law-student prom. They were asking us what we were, and Michelle and I answered "We're travelling actors. It's... beyond words." Anyway, we had a few jokes on the front steps of the hotel and then I came up here. Our call tomorrow is at 7.50, the latest it's been in a while, and the hotel we're in serves breakfast in bed. I am THRILLED about breakfast in bed.

And the upcoming day off in the city.

Sometimes I ask myself when this will end. Sometimes I go out for lobster dinner. It is what it is.
Ah, touring.

Shows # 51 - 54

Our Saratoga Springs shows were among the best we have had yet. Shows # 51 & 52 both ran off without any real hitches. At one point, Ruby's mic was muted, but I compensated for Ethan's absence in a scene change and he turned her mic back on for the remainder of the show. All in all, these shows were both quite lovely. Except there was the one minor hiccup of the fire alarm going off in the beginning moments of the 2nd show and the show having to be put on hold until the building was deemed safe to re-enter. We also had to cut the show down to about 25 minutes (and for the record, it's about 50 minutes long, normally). These things were all challenging, but entirely do-able. And almost expected, I think, at this point in the run.
Anyway - Saratoga springs was very good to us, ultimately (they brought us deli sandwiches between shows! it rocked!) and it was with high hearts that we drove to Woodstock, CT to perform for the 53rd and 54th time.

We drove into this private boarding school in the middle of the country (and the fields had all just been freshly fertilized... yes, the smell was... not enchanting) and loaded in the show for our last two performances before we headed back to the city. The shows were fine, even though we had a bunch of sound issues and we loaded our entire set out in a RECORD 40 minutes. The itch to get back was pretty strong with all of us.

Anyway, we got in last night, I had some time with my Trav at brunch today and now I'm getting set for the next jaunt out on the road. Given that we will not be out for six weeks straight this time, it feels much more do-able.
I'll let you know how this next leg goes.

Show # 50

Today marks the 50th time we have performed the beast known as Max & Ruby.
It was... not a good show.

First off, yesterday was a 16 hour road-trip day, complete with bickering, high-strung-ness and the usual pettiness that occurs when 7 people are couped up in a vehicle or two for entirely two long. We are getting to a point where this upcoming couple of nights in the city may be the only thing that is powering us through.

Regardless, Michelle and I (who shared a room last night) awoke this morning after a scant six hours of sleep to climb into the vans and drive to the High School in Turin, NY (somewhere upstate near Booneville) where we had a show at 9.30 am.

The good news is we didn't have to build the house, which lightened the load of our usual load-in tremendously. The bad news is none of us had slept enough, there was no breakfast readily available (short of the granola bars some of us had packed in our bags), no coffee and we are all too physically exhausted to give a good product at 9.30 in the morning. I, apparently, had left my voice somewhere in VA and could barely sing through this morning's show.
Others were also hard-pressed to vocally mark and try to compensate for it through the sheer physicality of this show. Long story short, we were all very low-energy and the quality suffered accordingly.

On the plus side, after load-out and lunch, we drove to Saratoga Springs which is the CUTEST little town I've been to in a long while. Feeling as miserable as I did about today's performance, I opted to treat myself to something spa-like and wandered through the little downtown area of Saratoga until I found a place where I could get a pedicure. Michelle joined me for that particular activity, and then the two of us wandered around until we found the Circus Bar, where we enjoyed a couple of exquisite mojitos and finally called it a night around 7.30 to come back to our hotel room.

I've decided that I'm definitely coming back to this town for a weekend to fully enjoy it.
Anyway, 50 down. I don't know how many we have to go, but we're definitely going for another month or so. I'm back in NYC this Saturday for the day and I'm so anxious to get there and touch base with my friends that it nearly boggles the mind. I'm more anxious about getting back to NY than I ever was about my own birthday presents as a young child. I just need to be around my people again, I guess.
Anyway - I'm enjoying the mojito buzz. I'm going to finish the pizza I ordered for lunch, watch some mind-numbing tv and occasionally glance down at my delightful pedicure (it's an orangy-coral, for the record). Goodnight, all.

Shows # 48 & 49 and ROAD TRIP FOR DAYS

Oh Wilmington!
We finished up our two-day stint at Thalian Hall in Wilmington with two absolutely delightful crowds, packed up and drove to to Richmond, VA. It was a good way to end out the 40s (by which I mean the count of how many times we have performed).
Once in Richmond, we slept soundly for a night and geared up for the following morning, when we would not only be driving to Booneville, NY (I'm not making this shit up), but have to stop in Philly to pick up the Death Mobile and drop off the rental vehicle.
It was a long long day; we began at 7 am and didn't get into the old-style boarding house where we slept last night until 11 pm. Then, this morning, we were called at 7.30 am.
Today's show will have to be a separate entry, just to mark the uniqueness of it.
Anyway - to sum it up, Wilmington rocked, the road-trip was long and arduous and we're back in NYC in two days. It's SO CLOSE I can almost chew it up. Almost.

Shows # 46 & 47

Today's performances were LOVELY.

We are currently performing in a delightful old theatre in Wilmington (it celebrates it's 150th birthday in October!) and had two performances today at the entirely civilised hours of 2 and 4 pm.

The crowd was made up entirely of families - as opposed to school groups - and the combination of parents and children was what this show was originally intended for, I feel. The parents laugh more than the kids do! We got responses we have never gotten before - during the first performance, one child bellowed along with us during one of the songs. Parents were able to encourage their children not to be afraid of the tarantula, but rather to laugh at it. It rocked.

Look how pretty this space is:
Tomorrow, we have morning shows, but we were able to leave the set there this evening, so we don't have to build tomorrow - just load-out.

Call-time - 8 am.

TRAVEL DAY

So about 15 hours ago, I got into the Death Mobile (aka the passenger van), drove with Emileena into Philly, dropped it off at a Dodge dealership (where they will hopefully repair the van), picked up our rental car and then headed back to Chester to pick up the rest of the cast and drive back down to North Carolina.

We drove.
And drove.
And drove.

this is what the moon looked like, as we drove

It is now midnight, we just checked into our hotel a few brief minutes ago and we are called at 11.15 tomorrow morning for two shows.

One of these days, I swear I will sleep.
One of these days, I swear I will even sleep in my own bed (dare to dream).

Shows # 43, 44 & 45

Today was our first (and hopefully only) three-show day.
Yikes! Three shows!
We were called this morning at 6.30, drove to Drexel Hill High (well, took taxis, as our passenger van is out of commission), loaded in our set without any additional crew and ran the show twice, pretty much back to back.
Then we were "on break" from 1.30 til 6.00, but unfortunately, the taxis we called to pick us up after lunch (so around 2.45) didn't show up until 4.00. Yes, we loitered in the front area of the Perkins at which we had lunched. Yes, the manager thought we were vagrants or something and asked us to leave. No, we did not leave.
Eventually, the cabs showed, we crawled in, rode back to the hotel. Some of us showered, all of us napped and at 6.00 pm, we were fired up (or attempting to get there) and ready to do our third show and load out the set.
We did, and we did.
Now, we're here at the hotel and gearing up for tomorrow's road day.
There are almost too many details to add to today's entry, but know that there should be another video in the near-ish future, fully illustrating JUST how ghetto these three days have been.

Goodnight.

So, about Myrtle Beach...

This photo is indicative of what the entire stay at Myrtle Beach was like. These are the wind-chimes outside the back window of my aunt's beach house in Pawleys Island.

We went to the beach (just to say we'd been).

We ran from this giant shark by the side of the road (luckily, everyone survived).



the photo that wasn't.
all of those are self-explanatory.

the COOLEST MEMORABILIA EVER!


... it was
SO AWESOME.

Shows # 39 & 40, 41 & 42 and the Saga of the Van Door

This will be cryptic, because I'm too excited about what just happened, but I want to catch up as much as possible before I spill.
Shows # 39 & 40 took place in Wilkesboro, NC - the floor was so slippery that most of us slid on stage for our entrances, slid off for our exits and I even face-planted mid-scene, as I was running around various set pieces and actors. Also, there was almost no air and we were very overheated. Also, it was discovered that Leah misplaced her mesh-bag containing socks and tarantula gloves and so she and I are currently sharing tarantula gloves.
I hope we find her her own pair soon.

So that was Wilkesboro.
Then we drove to Wilmington, where we performed in the most beautiful theatre - it's part of the North Carolina School for the Arts. The ceiling must be 80 ft up; there's enough fly-space to fit a few rockets up there. Also, the seats were a brilliant, vibrant green, giving me the impression that I had stepped into the Emerald City when I first walked in to the theatre. The crew was very helpful and the shows ran fairly well, given the unavoidable hiccups that always happen - mic issues, scene change minutiae getting missed, what have you - and after our two performances (#'s 41 and 42, respectively) we loaded out and lunched at the Mellow Mushroom. A good day.

Then, today, we drove to Chester, PA. Yes, you read correctly. From North Carolina to Pennsylvania. Eight hours, 4 states, 3 ten minute breaks and 1 lunch-hour after we stepped into the vans this morning, we pulled into the parking lot at the illustrious Days Inn of Chester, PA, where I was gloriously reunited with my laptop!!! It's in PRISTINE condition, completely re-outfitted with a new outside structure, new charge port and complete with all the memory it got sent to the Apple Centre with. It's a beautiful thing.

After a couple hours of blissfully tooling around on the internet, Ben and I opted to drive to a nearby Walmart to buy some breakfast and snack food for the marathon day that tomorrow promises to be. On the drive back, we discovered that the side door on the passenger van is no longer functional. At all. Even with bungee cords holding it shut ( and yes, I bungee-ed the door shut, after vaulting over the seats while we were briefly stopped at a red light. I felt very MacGyver-like). So, having just returned to the hotel for the last time this evening, Ben and I informed Emileena, the stage manager, who in turn informed the rest of the cast. We have removed the most important personal belongings and ordered taxis for tomorrow morning. I only hope we can get it fixed before we have to drive back to North Carolina (which we do on Saturday).
To follow: Photos from Myrtle Beach!

Shows # 37 & 38

Oooooh Talladega. All I knew of Talladega, before the fateful day we set foot there, was Ricky Bobby. That was, quite literally, the full extent of my knowledge about the place. And I want to start off by saying that the place itself is just fine - as a town, Talladega is about average. Certainly no worse than your average American small town.

But our experience at the Ritz was... beyond words? It can't be, though, because words are all I have to convey what it was like. I guess I'll just give you a blow-by-blow account.

We began with load-in the night before. Why the night before?
Well! Turns out our first performance the following morning was at 8.45. Yes. 8.45. Gag me.
So, the previous evening, we trucked on in to the loading-dock and took a look at the stage. It was (significantly) too small for us to build the entire set, so we cut the biggest piece (yep, the house) and sallied forth courageously anyway. After all, we've done the show sans maison before, so this really shouldn't have been the obstacle it turned out to be.
Once we had loaded in the set (which didn't take long, given that 50% of it was left in the van), we did some touch-up painting on select props and set-pieces, while our stage manager tried to set up the sound equipment together with the (un-)help of the technical director.
Basically, we're painting, running the fans, hanging out, chatting, what-have-you, when we hear an incredible crashing noise. That noise, it transpires, is the sound of our mini-disc player, falling. Off of the edge of the balcony. Down to the ground floor.
However, it played the first bit of the overture, so we weren't too panicked when we said good-bye with the promise of an early morning return.
We headed back to our Super 8, slept like the dead and awoke in time for our first show call. Warmed up, dressed up and made up, hit places and waited. And waited. And waited.
The guy who ran the theatre decided he wanted to "warm the crowd up" for us. The thing is that five year olds don't need to be warmed up for this show. They're already thrilled to be there. If anything, he warmed them down.
Regardless! He made his spiel, then Emileena said her bit about photography, then I gave the curtain-speech and FINALLY! the overture began. Max and Ruby ran out on stage to start and all seemed to be going fine, until the sound started skipping ahead and then just plain stopped. Michelle (the lady playing Ruby) did her best with the silence - though she was supposed to start a show, she stalled, ad-libbed and did what she could to fill the void and, just as she was running out of ideas, our stage manager walked down the aisle to make the following announcement:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we ask our pardon. We're experiencing technical difficulties, but hope to have them resolved in ten minutes. Actors, you may leave the stage, when we begin, we'll be starting from the top."
Yep. We started over from the top.
Turns out dropping the mini-disc player a whole story isn't good for it - who knew!? So, we waited, Emileena did what she could with the malfunctioning machine and we did our first performance. It was sloppy, sweaty and scary as hell, not knowning whether or not the sound would work and being a little overcome by the size (or lack thereof) of the stage.
Ultimately, the shows were ok. Brutally hard, but the kids loved it (thank goodness) and, because the two shows were back-to-back, the whole thing was over before early afternoon.
As soon as the second show ended, we packed up, drove the hell out of Talladega and headed for Georgia.

From Georgia, we headed on to Myrtle Beach, but I reeeaally don't want to write about it until I have my laptop back and can show you guys the pictures of where we were.

Ugh, I get tired just remembering Talladega. Not that the people weren't lovely - they were more polite than.. somebody really polite. BUT THOSE BUMPKINS BROKE OUR MINI-DISC PLAYER!
I think, from this point on, I will never speak of it again.

Driving Through the South...

...is a nearly surreal experience. It's big, it's beautiful, it's boundless. We cross rivers with names like Withlacoochee, Chattahoochee
(Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
It gets hotter than a hoochie coochie )
Echeconnee, Tobesofkee, and Tallapoosa.

We drove up the I-75 and jumped on the I-20, headed West. We passed through Atlanta, clear out and over the Georgia/Alabama state line. I regret to say that, while in Georgia, we did not drive by a single peach orchard. I won't say I was disappointed, but...

Once in Alabama, we had to stop for the mandatory union break, which we decided to take at a Cracker Barrel. Now, I know they exist outside of the South, but I'd never been to one before, so for me, it will always be inextricably linked with this particular sojourn.
We drove in to Talladega, got royally lost in the back-roads of Alabama and opted to head back to the Interstate. Eventually we received alternate directions and followed those to our hotel (the glamorous Super 8). Once here, we went to the theatre here to load in our set and do some basic touch-up painting. (Un)Fortunately, the stage is too small to build the house. So, once again, we will be performing our shows tomorrow sans maison.

Our call time tomorrow morning is 7.50. We have an 8.45 am show and a 10.30 am show.

And to think, most people think theatre is a night-time event. The night will barely be over before we begin our performances tomorrow!
As for pictures - I've been taking them with my phone, but I can't quite figure out how to load them up onto this blog, so.. until I do... these entries will be photo-less.

Use your imaginations.

Show # 36

Today was show # 6x6, 12x3, 9x4 and many other ways of multiplying smaller factors to come up with a total of 36. It was... a good show? I don't know. I think it was predominantly good, but we need to pick up our cues.

Load-in was a very smooth, almost regal affair. At this point, we are so entrenched in the sheer muscle-memory of building the set that we barely need to communicate, verbally, and we go through the motions on auto-pilot. It's nice - putting the set together (for me, at least) is almost a ritual before the show. We build it before we get to live on it. I'm not saying I want to do that for the rest of my life, but... it's a nice thing for now.

Anyway, we built the set, had a very leisurely sound-check, sedately spiked and corrected prop and set-piece placement, lacksidasically went back to places, unhurriedly finished make-up and getting into costume and received our places call in due time, when (GASP!) we all had a collective jolt of adrenaline as Ben realized that he had forgotten his bunny ears in the van!
With seconds to spare, he bolted out into the parking lot (in full costume, I might add) and dashed back into the venue as the pre-show announcement was cued. It was... kind of a wake-up. No matter how much we think we have this down pat, we still need to be alert. Oy.
Anyway, I want to describe our drive through the South - but I also want to save it for tomorrow. I'm trying to take pictures with my phone and send it to the blog (we'll see how that goes).

In other news - I won't have my laptop for nearly two weeks. Thank you, Ethan, for letting me use yours.

Show # 35/i am electronically challenged

More about the electronics later.
For starters, we had our first show in five days and it felt GREAT to be back in the swing of things. It was a rough show; the stage was slippery and we had to fudge our way through a few scene changes that went awry, and really only made some of the costume changes by the skin of our collective teeth, but on the whole, the show rocked. ROCKED. And the kids went absolutely wild. So, that was nice.

In other news, not only did my lap-top come down with a minor cold yesterday (necessitating a trip to the mac store, dropping off my lap-top and waiting for a week while they give it the old poke-and-prod to make sure it's healthy again before they ship it out to me... wherever we may be) but my PHONE also died. By which I mean, the screen died. I could receive calls and make calls, but only if I knew what number I was dialing. And I had no way of knowing what I was dialing unless I physically entered the number myself. Scrolling through the phonebook? It's pretty much impossible when you can't read the screen on your phone.

Anyway, the happy news is that I got a new phone today - FOR FREE! Luckily for me, I was just inside my warranty by about a week. And I should get my laptop back in a week or so.
So, I can still communicate with the outside world. I cannot, however, post pictures or movies or anything on this lovely little blog until I have my computer back.

Anyway - good show, a good trip to the Verizon store and the promise of a good night's sleep.
Call time tomorrow, 7.15.

Nowhere Fast

Today was one of those days (following on the heels of many days like this one) where I sat.
And thought.
And sat some more.
Ate some fruit.
Devoured a novel written by a friend.
I have spent the last couple days holed up inside of myself, so to speak.
I'm thinking and trying not to worry about the end of this tour; specifically, what I'm going to be doing with myself at the end of this tour.
And where I am right now.
I cut myself off a little bit from the group, to clear my head, to sleep and think things out and to get a grasp on myself.
I know I'm going to be alright.
My friend Brett floated a pretty huge idea past me a couple days ago that I am still marinating on. I know that's kind of cryptic, but that's also about as specific as I'm going to get about it.
We went out to dinner, having made plans to go The German Restaurant, but were thwarted in our efforts when it developed that we should have made reservations. Instead, we stopped in a Boston Market, where there was much hemming and hawing about do we eat here, do we get it to go, do we pay separately or together. The inanity of the decisions that we were unable to reach irritated me to a point where I withdrew again, mentally, and waited for my cohorts to come to some sort of communal agreement. They did, we got our food to go and now Leah and I are sitting on our beds, having eaten, watched an episode of the Simpsons and discussing the merits of "Step Up & Dance", a Bravo reality show.
I have a feeling I'm going to finish that novel I started today.

Show # 34

Oh, Ocala!
Our venue was a former-high-school-turned-community-college with all the charm and ambiance of a prison. Everything was gray, shades of gray, granite, tombstone, depressing gray. The bathrooms? Gray. The lobby? Gray. The exterior of the building? Gray, with a darker gray stripe running around the entire building, as if it highlight the additional gray slate roofing and gray parking lot structure. Even the plants were drab. In contrast, however, the interior of the auditorium we performed in was a (not much better) mustard yellow. The wood looked more like plastic or linoleum than wood, but the stage was big enough for the entire set. Which was, incidentally, the only splash of colour in the entire surrounding area. It was quite the contrast to our Tampa experience...

Anyway, the show went off without too many hitches. We were all a little affected by the heat and humidity and, not for the first time, I think more than one of us phoned it in a little. I feel sort of guilty saying that, but it's difficult to throw in 100% when you wake up after 6 hours of sleep in high humidity, load in our (let's face it) gigantic set and then run through the 47 minute marathon that is our show. In extremely warm costumes. Particularly with the knowledge of the impending load-out before we can break for lunch. It's times like that that make it difficult to commit all of your energy to the 47 minutes of show time. You want to conserve some for the break-down and drive. Whine, whine, whine, I know, I know, I know. At the end of the day, I am very lucky to be doing this. Still...

From the prison, we drove to lunch at a Panera and then hit the road back to Port Richey, where we are now. The hotel itself is decent, the area has enough businesses and restaurants that we won't get bored during out stay here and the beach is just a short drive away. On the agenda while we're here? Definitely some jet-skiing. Perhaps some para-sailing, if it can be fit in to the schedule.

But now, as promised, some pictures from our glorious day at the beach when we built sand-castles, flew a kite and had a general grand ole time!

Show # 33

Yesterday's show was in the old Tampa Theatre... it was built in 1926 and, honestly, the whole thing is so beautifully decorated that it almost felt like a Disney ride. The whole front of the proscenium is carved statuettes and busts with intricate detailing and the ceiling is blue-black and covered in stars. Yes, some of the stars even twinkled. It also has the original Wurlitzer organ that it had when it opened. Gorgeous space.

What made the show unique (apart from all the gilt work and carving) was that the stage was too small for our entire house and so, for the second time, we did the show without the key set-piece. Namely, the house. It was fine; we've done it before, so we weren't overwhelmed by this hurdle.

Anyway, I'll write about today's show later. I just wanted to get caught up for now.

Gone swimming.