No Weasels, Just Purple!

We don't need no stinkin' weasels!

After a 1 month hiatus for the Christmas holidays, we are officially back on the road! The 1st National North American Tour of Godspell began it's second leg on Monday, January 13th in sunny Florida.

After a god awful early bus call for our airport shuttle on Monday morning I discovered that my favourite kind of flight attendant is the kind that hands out free alcoholic beverages on commuter flights.  I always fly with a double jack and coke, and when its on the airline's dime, so much the better. 

After a couple of VERY CHOPPY, mostly calm flights, those of us that hadn't missed the flight (who shall remain nameless) were all happy to get our feet on solid ground, and the fact that the sun was shining made it all the better.  We must have been a sight.  Picture 15 Canadians in full January winter gear landing in West Palm Beach to immediately seek out the nearest washroom, telephone booth, or sidewalk to strip down into shorts, sandals, and tank tops.

This is just a short 2 week leg, with performances in new venues pretty much every night, but the first 10 days are all in Florida so with a little effort we should be able to soak up some sun and transform from pasty white Canadians into marginally less pasty white Canadians.

We had a brush up rehearsal at our first venue in Fort Pierce, before storming the stage for a 7pm show.  I hear through the grapevine that that first show was perhaps a bit of a shock to the system for many of the performers, but it looked and sounded great, and the audience loved it.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  We had our first live alligator sighting from the bus this afternoon!  Okay, so they were in captivity at a sketchy looking mini-putt course, but it still counts!

Tonight we are in Sarasota Florida, and just wrapped a big show at the Huge Purple Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.  The picture up above actually hangs in the star dressing room at the Van Wezel.  And it made me laugh!  I don't know what the staff have against weasels...but boy oh boy do they like purple.  The exterior of the building is PURPLE, the interior of the Theatre is PURPLE, even carpet and the sofas in every dressing room are PURPLE.

DAMN!  That is a PURPLE sofa.

All kidding aside, it was a big, beautiful venue, and the show went off without a hitch, and I'm sure that the Van Wezel's whomever they are, are very rich and possibly even lovely people...not at all Weasel-y.  Regardless, tonight's near capacity crowd loved the show.  We even had a couple from Ontario, who have been abroad with the Drayton Entertainment Travel Club hop on board the tour bus post show to tell us how much they enjoyed the show.

Tomorrow we hit the road for Bell Glade, where, just like Crockett, Texas, we may have to make some edits to the show...time will tell.

Tune in next time for more of our ongoing adventures!

Austin, Texas

Dipping our feet in the frigid waters of Barton Springs Pool on Nov 28th
 

  I know that most of my close friends know this, but for those of you just along for the ride here's a personal secret for you...I HATE flying.  To be honest, it's more than that.  I actually LOATH everything to do with airports...security, the tedium of waiting for flights, having zero control over the entire process.  But more than anything, I hate being strapped into a tin can 30,000ft above sea level, the entire time feeling like my life is in the hands of a stranger.  But, I love to travel, and often I have to travel for work, so flying is a necessary evil.  Truth: My trick...I try to never do it sober.  A double Jack & Coke and a couple of Gravol and I am good to go.  If I can be asleep before we even get off the runway, so much the better.  Of course this recipe doesn't work on show days for obvious reasons...but this was not the case last Sunday when we took our very first flight of the tour from Detroit to Austin, Texas, with a short layover in Charlotte North Carolina. We eventually landed safely at our destination, which I consider a win.

A few of us had friends and family flying down for the week, as this was the perfect week for a visit: only 2 shows over 5 days in Austin, and 2 whole days off inside that week, including American Thanksgiving.  We all took full advantage of the free time to explore everything Austin had to offer despite the unseasonably cold (for Texas) weather.

Over the course of 5 days we explored the bars & restaurants of 6th Street, ate some genuine Texan cuisine at Stubb's BBQ, wandered "The Drag" alongside the University of Texas at Austin (Go Longhorns!), Explored the local western culture of SoCo (South Congress) including Allen's Boots, and eventually made our way to Zilker Park, home of the beautiful Barton Springs Pool, a 3 acre spring fed swimming hole located right in the middle of a tributary of the Colorado River.  Free to the public on Holidays ($2 for non-residents otherwise) the pool is a vast public swimming hole with a natural (read: fish & plant life inhabited) bottom that's water stays at a brisk 68 degrees year round.  Since it was Thanksgiving (Nov 28th) and about 12 degrees outside, we only dipped our feet in the water, but there were a few brave souls enjoying a leisurely swim.  Proof that Texans are nuts! 

 



Here's an Arial shot of the pool to help you understand the scope and size.  Everything IS bigger in Texas.



We also had a company meal for American Thanksgiving at Threadgills organized by Technical Director and Company Manager. Good times were had by all.  With both the Longhorns and The Cowboys winning their Thanksgiving day Football games, it was quite the day to be rooting for Texas!

 

Of course, we are on tour with a show, not on vacation, so we also had a couple of performances at the beautiful Long Center for the Performing Arts.  The crowds here in Austin loved the show, and were very generous with their applause. 

 

I know for a fact that Austin has already replaced St. Louis as a few peoples favourite stop on the tour thus far, myself included.  This has definitely been a week to remember.

 

I am actually writing this post from my hotel room in Crocket Texas, where we are scheduled to perform in just a couple of hours.  A tiny little civic center with no wing space, available flylines for our lighting gear, and only 21' wide, tonight's show is guaranteed to be interesting to say the least.

 

But more on that next time! 



 



Phobias...We Don't Need No Stinkin' Phobias...

Okay, so a little back story may be required for this one. I work as a Manager for a pretty big theatre production company here in Ontario. If you don't know what a stage manager does, thats okay...most people haven't got a clue. Basically, once a show is up and running, it is my responsibility to ensure that the artistic vision of the director is maintained, and that all of the technical elements of the production occur at the proper time. Lights, Sound effects, scene changes, video projections, cast entrances, even wardrobe and props all fall under my umbrella. Typically in Canadian Theatre, the Stage Manager is set up in a booth out front, watching the show. The picture above will give you a decent idea of what I see during a performance. I am also in direct contact with all of the backstage crew, and any Assistant Stage Managers working backstage via clear com headsets. Using the clear com, the stage manager leterally "calls the show", giving standby's and Go's for all of the required cues. Typically, if all goes well, the shows runs exactly the same each and every performance.
So now that you have had a brief lesson on how I do what I do, we get to the point....today not everything went according to plan...
Right after I had given a standby for a cue sequence, what I consider to be a giant spider crawled out from under my prompt script and scuttled away behind one of my computer monitors. Other than being a little freaked out, this initial discovery didn't bother me too much...while I don't like spiders or big creepy bugs of any kind...he seemed content to leave me in peace. I announced his arrival over headset, much to the enjoyment of my backstage crew, and promptly forgot about him. In the rural setting I am working in right now, bugs and creepy crawly's in the booth are basically an every day occurrence. It wasn't until a few minutes later when the little bastard reappeared and startled my video operator, Kim, that things went down hill in the booth. He quickly disappeared again, and suddenly both Kim and I were on high alert. She wouldn't put her feet on the floor, and neither of us would rest our arms on the consoles that we need to operate for the various cues in the show. Things got worse a moment later when he suddenly scuttled out from underneath the lighting board and made a creepy quick bee line for my right hand. I caught sight of him out of the corner of my eye and shrieked like a little school girl, jumping about 4" in the air straight out of my chair as I did so. Now, I have no issues admitting that I am a grown man with a fear of spiders, and while I recognize that I have no actual logical reason to fear a common garden variety spider the size of a nickel, it was such an intense and guttural reaction that I literally didn't have an ounce of control over my response. My backstage crew of course died laughing, and who can blame them? What ensued in the booth was likely pretty funny to eavesdrop in on over clear com, as Kim and I attempted to track down and kill this 8-legged menace before he could terrorize us further. We literally spent the rest of the show in full alert, attempting to chase down and exterminate the little bastard between cueing sequences. We failed. Miserably. Every time we would locate him, he would scuttle off on his 8 creepy little legs before we could send him for a dirt nap. I say we, but really it was mainly Kim trying to squash him while I attempted to keep the show running smoothly without provoking subsequent attacks. I am certain that, other than our backstage crew on headset, no one in the audience or onstage would have any idea about the epic battle being waged in the booth during the performance.
The wiley little bastard eluded us for the entire show, but luckily, at the end of the show, we were able to turn on the lights and flush something out of hiding from under my chair, where Kim quickly stomped it flat. My only concern is that the creepy crawler that she squashed may not have been the spider who had eluded us throughout today's show...in which case, he could be back tomorrow, bigger and meaner than ever....and if we are really unlucky, he will bring all his creepy little bastard friends...
I think I am going to bring a hammer along to work tomorrow to keep in the booth...just in case.