Back at it!

Okay, so I have been more than a little remiss about posting new content regarding our tour adventures lately, but I promise that I have a great post from Miami beach that I will get typed up as soon as I have a chance.
After a blissful week off at home, we are all back on the road today with connecting flights from Toronto to Atlanta and Atlanta to Columbia, South Carolina to begin our 3rd and final leg of this little adventure.  Once we land in Columbia we will board a shuttle for the hour long hike to Newberry where we will perform our first show tomorrow afternoon, our first double show day in a LONG time...Life is hard.
This leg we have bid farewell to Robert and our remarkable Soul Bus, so it will be alot of flights and short shuttles on this leg.
As I write this I am camped out on the floor of Gate D36 in the Atlanta international airport awaiting our puddle jumping 61 min connection to Columbia.  Something tells me that the plane for this next flight will be smaller than the soul bus, and that likely means a rocky ride.  God, I hate flying!  Somebody better pour me a double Jack & Coke very soon!

Update: After sitting on the tarmac for an hour we were all asked to deplane due to a maintenance issue, but not until after the flight attendant rewarded all of us with free booze (JACK!) because the cast sang a couple of numbers from the show to entertain the passengers.  We were supposed to arrive at 8:15pm, but now it is 8:30pm and we are still sitting at the second gate waiting for our crew to board this new airplane...another long travel day with connecting flights.

Update the second:  We made it...90 min late, but we got to Columbia, and after a painless bus ride to Newberry, most of us made it...We may not have any lights for the show tomorrow, but we'll give them a hell of a show!

Time for me to crash.  I promise more info soon, check back when you have a chance. 

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!

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.

Oh, Canada! Godspell hits the East Coast of the Great White North.

The journey continues...when we last left our heroes, they had one final matinee to perform in New Haven Connecticut, before moving on to our first Canadian stops of the tour. 
The matinee was a success, and from what I have been told by the crew, their first load-out was relatively painless.  We were also asked to sign the wall at the historic Shubert Theatre, a tradition that I have seen a few times at various venues on the road.  Kudos to Charles for finger painting us a great piece of signage, that will now become part of the legacy of the Shubert.  At this point our Crew also moved off of our coach bus onto their sweet Rock Star sleeper bus, their new traveling home away from home.

After the show and dinner in New Haven,  the cast and band piled onto the coach for what I think was an amazing night drive up to Portsmouth New Hampshire, our stopping point before crossing back into Canada.  Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I had a wicked time on this bus ride because I snagged one of the rear "lounge" spots for the ride: to clarify, we have removed some seats from the coach, and at the very back we have two sets of seats that have been turned 180 degrees, and installed collapsible tables to form what I loving refer to as "the lounges".  They are perfect spots for someone to work on lines, write show reports, have a group card game, or just stretch out.

 Initially I set up my laptop to write my matinee show reports and then once they were sent, I settled in and relaxed for what was one of my favourite rides thus far of any tour.  I watched about 6 episodes of Parks and Rec, and then when that got old, just set my music collection to shuffle and watched the world flow by.  It was a very Zen happy little bubble.

Upon arrival at our hotel most people promptly made their way to our very first hot tub of the tour! Any hotel with a hot tub and a pool is always a hit after a long day on a tour bus.

The next day we had a full day of travel to Fredericton New Brunswick, where we had the evening off.  Our company manager and I promptly found a great spot to have a wonderful meal in town.  Brewbaker's was magnificent.
Our two  shows in Fredericton at The Playhouse were well received, and I met some great people on the local crew who are friends of friends that work out here fairly regularly.  We swapped a few war stories and shared some laughs.  It was a not so subtle reminder of exactly how small this industry really is.

After our Wednesday evening show, the touring company organized an impromptu pre-Halloween party in one of the banquet rooms of our hotel.  Hilarity ensued, and I don't know that many people got much sleep.

We also had the next day (which coincidently, happened to be Halloween) off in Fredericton, so many of us took the opportunity to see the sights, sample the local micro brews, and experience some of the local culture.

 I explored the banks of the St. John River, following a great hiking trail along the shore of the downtown core, before staring a little pub crawl, and eventually having another fantastic meal, this time at The Blue Door.  Some of the cast caught an evening movie at the mall by our hotel, but I opted for something a little more daring and caught the opening night performance of a local community theatre groups production of Evil Dead: The Musical.  My thoughts on this production are also available here in a previous post.

Friday we had a leisurely 90 minute ride down the highway to our next stop: St. John New Brunswick - NOT to be confused with St. John's Newfoundland - Ivan.  

The Imperial Theatre here in St. John is a beautiful space that celebrated its centennial this year.  A gorgeous venue with another fantastic local crew, both of our shows here went off without a hitch.  Many of us took advantage of our free time in town to take in the local attractions, like the famous -  if wildly misnamed - reversing falls, the local brew pubs (Like the High Tide and The St. John Ale House), and many of us decided to do the Maritimes right and had a big Lobster & seafood dinner at Steamers Lobster Company down by the Wharf.  Dinner was a huge, butter smeared, success.

Tomorrow we bid farewell to Atlantic Canada, as we continue our journey back into the US with a matinee performance in Orono, Maine. 

Tomorrow also marks the beginning of what I have come to think of as our first hell week - 7 different venues in 8 days.  I am sure we will all come out the other side unscathed, but it will be a shock to the system after such a smooth, sedate first few stops.

Check back soon for more updates!

My Night With Lois Lane

While this story is a few years old, I think it's a good one, so I am going to share it, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.  So there.

While I was out on the road, touring a Broadway-style show, I found myself stranded in Livingston Montana with a couple of days off.  If you have ever been to Montana, odds are that you know there isn't a damn thing to do there...so I figured I was stuck, when all of a sudden a very interesting opportunity came my way.

One of my lead actor's, who also happens to be a good friend had made arrangements to meet an old acquaintance for dinner and asked me, and another pair of company members to join them.  No big deal.  Its just a dinner, right?  Well, as it turns out, it was to be a night to remember as the acquaintance turned out to be Lois Lane herself, Margot Kidder.

Brian had directed Margot in a show at Stage West years ago, and they had maintained a pretty good relationship over the years so this dinner invitation was a chance for old friends to get caught up, and her to be hospitable to some of his traveling companions.

Margot picked the four of us up at our hotel in her Suburban, with 2 very large, very energetic dogs in tow.

Our first stop was Costco to pick up enough food to feed an army.  2 HUGE Pork loins, and salad fixings, strawberries...groceries, and alot of them.

Next stop, the local pharmacy so Margot could fill her "prescriptions".  Margot was very open and honest with us all night about her battle with mental illness, and I have to give her credit for being a very brave, independent individual.  She is also very politically minded, and a huge supporter of President Obama.

We were under the impression that this was to be a very low key evening in.  The night started with a tour of her lovely, modest home, and included what I still consider to be the highlight of the event.  In Margot's 2nd story den, above the mantle I discovered a framed copy of the famous Daily Planet Newspaper Article wirtten by Lois Lane "My Night With Superman."  This discovery really made my night.  I have always been a huge Superman fan, and as if meeting Margot wasn't enough of a thrill, seeing this piece of movie history really made my night.  I asked Margot about the piece, and she told me that it had been given to her as a gift by one of the props people many years after the movie wrapped filming. 

Turns out that Margot had invited 20 of her closest friends over for a dinner party to celebrate our being in town, and had plans to prepare a huge meal.  Unfortuantely, Margot's idea of prepping a huge meal was to attempt to put the pork loins in the microwave to cook them...Bless her, she was pretty much useless in the kitchen, but has a huge heart. 

So three of us from the show, the drummer, one of the two lead actors, and me, the stage manager, slaved away in the kitchen for most of the evening cooking the meal while Margot and Brian regailed us with some fantastic stories, all of which I have promised never to repeat, I will say I learned some things about Christopher Reeve that night ;)

While we slaved away over the hot stove, we may have sampled a few bottles of wine...okay more than a few...

Eventually, mostly thanks to our drummer's kitchen wisdom, and my unparralled ability to stir a boiling pot, we were able serve a pretty damn fine meal.  We had set up 3 or 4 tables in Margot's living room on the main floor to accomodate all of the guests.  Margot's guests included a number of local artists and notables including author Maryanne Vollers, who wrote Ghosts of Mississippi.  It actually was a lovely evening, with alot of fun conversation, and only one beret wareing jackass, a local retired war correspodant, turned philospher who got raging drunk and insisted on attempting to make very long winded toasts every 15 minutes for the remainder of the evening.  Margot and Maryanne eventually told him to sit down and shut up.  Pretty funny.

At the end of the evening we (the same three that had prepped the meal) did the dishes and helped put the house in order.  My memory gets pretty hazy about this part of the evening as I was happily hammered, but I do know that I washed alot of dishes!  Since a few of us were in rough shape, Margot offered to put us up for the night, but as we needed to be back on our tour bus the next morning to leave town, she wound up loaning us her vehicle and one of the sober actors drove us back to the hotel.  Good times had by all, except maybe the douche waffle in the beret, but no one cares about him...