We Survived Hell Week!

This week was all about numbers: 9 shows, 7 venues, 9 days, 5 states, 20 hours on the bus. Welcome to touring. One-off performances, where you load in, do a show, or sometimes two, and then load out the same night, take an undeniable toll on your body, and your mind. This week it got real. It was a whirlwind. This is what I remember touring being like. I am not going to bore you with a list of where we were, or what the theaters were like, in fact I couldn't if I wanted to at this point. The entire week is already a hazy indistinct blur of scattered images of calling the show, riding the tour bus, vague hotel rooms, only to lather, rinse and repeat the entire process again, and again, and again. What I can tell you, is that the show is in good shape, the audiences are loving it, and the cast are in good spirits. Oh, don't get me wrong. We are all exhausted, but we have all more or less learned to adapt to make the most of the creature comforts that we have. For the cast, learning to sleep on the bus during our long drives has become a marketable skill. Personally, I prefer to take advantage of the quiet time created by everyone else's naps to focus on the administrative paperwork that goes with being a touring Stage Manager. If I can be done my reports, logs, and emails by our morning rest stop, the rest of the ride is suddenly mine, to curl up with the latest Chuck Palaniuk novel, shoot douche waffles on my PS Vita, text with all the folks at home or otherwise relax and unwind until we arrive at the next venue.

It really is the little things that bring you comfort during a week like this that make all the difference in the world. Things like Venti Mocha Frappachino's, bus jeans, comfy hoodies, Skype, Netflix, clean laundry, a bottle of JD in your suitcase, all serve a very important purpose. The small pleasures that they bring make you forget how tired you are in the moment and focus on what is going right, right now. Yes, we spend all day on a tour bus, and we wake up in a new hotel room all most every day, but we are never bored, and this company is never unhappy. They have figured out that as long as you can control the little things in life that matter to you, you can get through anything with a smile on your face. Add all that to the fact that each and every one of us is out here doing what we love, and it becomes a pretty incredible experience.

We have been a little spoiled up to this point, with two or three day sit downs at every venue. We have had the opportunity to explore, and to get to see the sights in the cities we've played. That was not the case with hell week. All there was time for every day was literally: Get up, get on the bus, arrive, do a show, drink a pint, fall asleep, depart for the next city. The end. But all of our hard work is now paying off. As I write this post we are on the bus headed to Pittsburgh, where we have the night off, on route to Saint Louis. Our next show is Friday night...4 days from now. 4 days of rest and relaxation between shows. Almost unheard of in this industry. Our only responsibility is to be on the bus on time each day so that we can continue our journey. Heaven.
Until next time!
Check back soon for more updates.

Field Trip! Wrentham Village Premium Outlets!

So, we are right in the middle of what I have been calling "Hell Week", and today we caught a little break.
Hell week consists of  9 shows in 7 venues over a span of 9 days, most of them in different states, which means that we are on the bus every morning to do a show in a new theatre pretty much every night.  On the upside, many of these cities have thus far been reasonably close  together, and to be honest it is already getting hard to keep the cities straight in my head.

Today, because we only have a 2 hour drive between New Bedford MA, and Springfield MA, Keith, our Rock star Company Manager arranged a little excursion to help pad the time between when we had to check out of one hotel and when we could check in to our next.  The tour bus dropped us for a two hour shopping trip at the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets here in Massachusetts.  Up until this point, I have always thought that Walmart trips while on tour were highly entertaining - everyone rushing off to acquire all the goodies that they need to make life on the road a little easier in a strict one hour time limit.  Today was that same sense of urgency and frantic excitement multiplied by a thousand degrees.  All most  everyone immediately scattered to scour the stores for the best deals.  Some of the cast were on personal shopping missions, snapping up great deals on hot fashions for themselves, while others, myself included, focused on early Christmas shopping for all the folks back home.  Banana Republic, Coach, Kenneth Cole, and Gap were big hits!

People were frantically bargain hunting right up to the wire, spending per diem cash hand over fist.  It was awesome. 
The best part of the entire experience was the little fashion show that happened at the back of the tour bus as we were about to hit the road.  Everyone eager to show off their new acquisitions, and see all the great finds everyone else had snapped up.

It was a fun distraction from Hell Week, but now we are back on the bus rolling through the rain for our next stop. 
Check back soon for more updates.

Opening Night!

Hard at work, now calling the show from backstage!

Our adventure continues!  After an easy travel day that included our first meal stop at a Walmart so that everyone could stock up on food and supplies, we arrived at our first performance destination, New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale, on Thursday night, and quickly settled in to our luxurious suites.   Life on the road is always easier with nice hotel rooms, especially ones that have full kitchen facilities. 

The cast and band immediately arranged a pot luck dinner, because they are just that sweet.  A little later on Charles and I headed downtown with Kirsten, our swing tech, and John, our audio tech to the Theatre district for a substantial meal.  As the crew had to do their first load in call at 7am Friday morning, it was an early night.

Friday morning at 10am four of the cast and myself were scheduled to appear for a Q & A session at a local performing arts high school, arranged by the educational outreach division of the Shubert Theatre.  The five of us had an absolute blast sharing our stories with the students and faculty. They were such an engaged, generous audience that I sense all of us came away from it feeling even more pumped about our Opening Night performance that night. The local media was also in attendance, and we actually made the local paper & online section of their website.  Here's the link: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/the_downbeat_and_the_lowdown_delivered_to_co-0p_actors/

After the Q & A session I caught a ride over to the historic Shubert Theatre to see how the load-in was going, and see if I could be of any assistance.  The remainder of the cast had the afternoon free to explore the town and rest up for our big night.

The view from the 2nd balcony! 
There were a lot of stairs to climb to get this shot!

The crew has just about finished the load in
at this point.

The view from the stage.
I couldn't get the 2nd balcony
in the shot.

 The Shubert Theatre here in New Haven Connecticut was built in 1914, and has hosted premiers of many landmark American plays including Oklahoma and A Streetcar Named Desire.  It really is a beautiful space with a wonderful staff, and a great local crew.  By the time I arrived on Friday afternoon, our touring crew was pretty much done load in, so I helped out where I could, mapping out dressing room signage, and prepping the space for the casts arrival. 

We got our very first on the road sound check, all 15 minutes of it, and then it was the cast's 1/2 hour call.  On the road you almost never get a lot of extra time to prep for a show...it's just a fact of life, and we all have to work within our limitations, while striving to deliver the absolute best possible show to each and every audience.

Our Opening Night performance had it's share of minor technical bumps and hiccups, but the cast were on fire!  The zeal and energy that they bring to this show every night truly is inspiring, and the audience loved it.  We received an immediate standing ovation for the curtain call.
Post show our producers had arranged an after party for us at a local pub, and I can guarantee that a good time was had by all. 

Saturday was a double show day, and I took the time to explore the Yale Campus between shows.  What an incredible experience!  The campus is simply breath taking, and I wish I had had more time to explore all of the nooks and cranny's of this stunning educational institution. 
  It really was something worth seeing.  I also hit the campus bookstore and picked up a wicked new Yale sweater that immediately makes me look smarter :)

Here's a few of the photo's I snapped of the campus, they hardly do it justice!

 

 

I have also started uploading some of my tour shots to my Facebook Photo Album, which is a tradition I started the last time I went out on the road - They should be accessible under the Godspell Tour Album.  Enjoy!
Tomorrow we perform our final matinee here in New Haven, before rolling out for our next destination - Fredericton New Brunswick.  Check back in a few days for another update!

I Blame Charles...

So the big day has finally arrived.  Day one of our 13 week North American tour of the Drayton Entertainment Production of Godspell.  The Tour is being produced by TMA/ Moonglow Productions out of NYC, headed by the same people who produced the tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that I had the opportunity to go out on a few years back.

This time around it is 11 Canadian Cast Members, 2 Canadian Stage Managers, 5 American Crew, and our American Company Manager who I am hoping will keep us "between the mailboxes".

We boarded the bus at 9:45am in Cambridge ON, and after what was a teary goodbye for some of our cast, we set out on our very first travel day.  Our only real goal today was to make it across the border into the U.S. and then travel about 50 percent of the way to our first venue - New Haven Connecticut.  It was smooth sailing the entire way to our first stop.  We breezed through customs in record time - 40 min from arrival at the border to departure.  Not too shabby for a bus filled with a mixed production company of Canadian Cast and American Crew.  No fuss, no muss, no worries, and no delays.  It was pretty slick.

As far as being out on the road, I was actually surprised at how quickly I found myself falling into my old touring habits.  I grabbed the same seat on the coach that I had the last time I went out (It really is all about being at the back of the bus), and settled in very quickly.  I have found that on the road you have to rely on technology to keep you entertained...tablets, e-readers, laptops, and portable gaming systems are your best friends, and keeping them charged is a primary concern!  My tablet and PS Vita got a solid work out today, as we passed through Ontario's wine country, and down into New York State.  The number of sets of headphones in use on the bus is very encouraging.  This group has already figured out that it is up to them to keep themselves entertained while they are on the bus.  We also put on our first group movie after the lunch break, but to be honest, I have no idea what it was because I was deep into Uncharted: The Golden Abyss on my PS Vita at the time.

I was also amused by a few of the casts ability to nap on the bus on day one.  Regardless of all of the excitement and energy that they had when we left Cambridge, a few were able to stretch out and catch a few z's before we even hit the border.  No question, they will adapt just fine to life on the bus.

We arrived in Syracuse NY in time for dinner and didn't waste any time making plans.  After a healthy stop at the hotel bar, the majority of us wound up catching a free shuttle down to Syracuse Suds, in the market district for dinner.  While the craft beer was far from stellar, the food was decent, the live jazz was fun, and the company was second to none.   From there, small groups peeled off to do whatever they wanted, but the gang I was with, which included my unflappable ASM Charles,  started a little pub crawl that took us to four or five local establishments, every one of which was more interesting than the last.  After sampling more than our share of the local craft brews, and some fresh mussels, We ended our evening at a fantastic hole in the wall bar called Al's which had the biggest wall of liquor that I have ever seen... which was impressive in and of itself.  (We're talking 15' high x 36' long folks!) Also, when I asked the bartender if they had a bottle of  Crown Royal Cask #16 on hand, he readily acknowledged that they had it, and was happy to pour me a $15 ounce.  HEAVEN. 

(I really do need to pick up another bottle of that while I am out on tour to bring home as a special treat for myself.)   On top of the great bourbon/scotch selection, there was also a hip trio playing at Al's and we stuck around to hear them play for a good 35 min... reminded me a lot of Death Cab For Cutie.  A very mellow sound with lot's of interesting instrumental combinations.
After walking home - about 1.54 miles - BTW a big Thank-you to iphones for keeping us from getting totally lost in strange new cities - we went our separate ways.

Tomorrow is another straight travel day before we load in for our first show on Friday night.  I smell a friendly poker game in my future.

I can't. I work in Theatre.

Okay so I have been terrible about posting new info lately, but I have been stupid busy at work the last month opening the Canadian Premiere of Mary Poppins, at the brand new Dunfield Theatre Cambridge for Drayton Entertainment.  As one of the ASM's my focus has been in tracking sets amd props, and coordinating the backstage team.  This is the first time that the show has been produced Off Broadway/ National Tour....and it is a friggin beast. Luckily, we have a magnificient production Team, backstage crew, and the cast are brilliant, so while the hours have been long, it has not been a terrible experience.  Now that the show officially open I may just get my life back.
Fingers crossed.