Between Annapolis MD and Fairmont WV - A full week has past since I got back from vacation, and here on the road everything now seems once again quite familiar. I'm sitting in my "office" in the back of the passenger van typing out this particular post, listening to the BBC on XM Radio, while Kevin, Daniel and Andrew are having some sort of esoteric conversation. Lacking at the beginning of this leg is the initial excitement of the fall leg, but of course that's to be expected from us "seasoned road pros." We've done Much Ado once at Hot Springs VA (Bath County High School) and R3 once at Blue Springs Community College in Weyers Cave (about 15 minutes from Staunton) and twice at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis MD. We're now heading for a week's residence at Fairmont State College in Fairmont WV, where we do three 90-minute matinees of Much Ado for area high schools and then a weekend of all our shows at the college. We also have several workshops to do, so it will be quite a busy week. It's the first time the ASC has been to Fairmont. They are putting us up in dorm rooms, so it's from a beautiful motel in Annapolis to dorm living and campus food. It's almost an exact replica of the beginning of the fall tour, where we went from a nice motel in Elon NC to the shortened residence in Shreveport LA in the large house.The time in Staunton before leaving got real busy. Wednesday was the trip to Hot Springs, and it was a cold but beautiful, sunny day. We went up "over the mountain" to Bath County, and apparently there is a hot spring there which is a major tourist attraction. We did not get a chance to visit the hot spring, but I think during the spring residence at the Blackfriars I'll be paying a visit up there. It's right in the Appalachian range maybe about 90 minutes SW of Staunton. The high school was set right in the mountains, and it was snowing a bit when we got there, but nothing accumulating. These 90-minute high school shows are a result of our NEA grant to bring Shakespeare into local high schools that would not ordinarily get a chance to see a live WS p
erformance, and the stated mission is to keep language-based literature and entertainment alive in rural and remote regions. This also accounts for the HS performances coming up in Fairmont, which as I take it from looking at Google Earth (and if you don't have Google Earth, you should get it) is about 20 minutes or so SW of Morgantown WV. High school audiences are so varied in their responses that you never know what's coming. This audience was somewhat typical, with a mix of bored kids and some interested ones. They laughed at the humor when they finally realized it was OK to laugh, and were attentive and quiet (or asleep) during the dramatic parts. We did a Q&A with a selected group of students after the show and got the usual array of questions ("How do you memorize all those lines? How did you get into the company? What's your favorite role?"). Once sort of funny incident happened when one of our troupe members (who shall remain anonymous) had accidentally place costumes for Much Ado into the R3 garment bag, and so did not have the proper costumes. Adjustments were made, costumes were borrow and adapted, and all went well, except for the vain, aborted attempt Carie made to drive to Staunton to recover the proper costumes.Thursday was spent accomplishing a lot of tasks in preparation for leaving Friday. I helped Joyce analyze her computer because it was running slow, and then met Jessica to get everything together to sell merchandise. I also ended up getting a flat tire during the day, so I had to go out to Wal-Mart and get that fixed. A few shopping trips, a small laundry load, a little errand to UPS to send a poster of Christmas Carol to my father, some packing, and then the show at Blue Springs CC that evening. A rather typical performance, set in a multipurpose room where we had to use the aisles for entrances. A good audience, somewhat subdued, with two women in the front row following along in their complete works until they got hopelessly lost trying to follow our cut. There was one guy sitting center right who was just loving it; every expression on his face was one of pure delight and involvement from moment to moment.
Friday was a very busy day. I got up early to collect my tire and put it back on the car so I could park it while off on the road. Then I got the passenger van suited up again for traveling with the power converter and the new 2-way radio setup with rechargeable cradles (no more batteries). Then I had to do final packing and moving stuff over to basement storage in 605. We left Staunton at around 11 AM for the trip to Annapolis and a 7:00 PM performance there.
Performing for the Brigade of Midshipmen was quite interesting. Apparently the first-year students - plebes - are the ones required to see the show. You initially think you're performing for a disciplined collection of well-trained and polite people, but in fact they are really college freshmen, 18-19-year-old boys in basically an all-male environment. The few female contingent of plebes do not seem to have any mollifying influence on the overall testosterone feeling of the gathering. The evening crowd on Friday night was rowdy as they gathered, and during the "house music" pre-show (in which I now play lead guitar!!) we could hardly hear ourselves play on stage over the din. During the pre-show that Greg and I do, when we announced that the seats on the stage were available for sitting, there was an actual scrum to get to the seats, and on stage right one of the chairs got knocked right off the stage as two guys fought over the seat. A little overenthusiastic. During the show they were somewhat attentive, and did get into the show when we needed audience response, but you could also see a significant number of them sleeping. But they really got into the last act during the war and fight sequences, and of course reacted with intense enthusiasm during the broadsword fight and subsequent death of Richard. Richmond's victory brought cheers aplenty, with a great cry of "Amen" to Richmond's call. So what they liked, they liked a lot. A nice reception with the
members of the Foundation (our sponsor) was held after the Friday performance, and it was interesting tot talk to the military people and civilian members of the Humanities division. I got my picture taken with the Superintendent of the Academy, Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt. That's about the highest military brass I'll ever meet!The Saturday performance for the other half of the plebe class was essentially the same, and you could tell that they had been briefed in some manner by their comrades. However, there were far more sleepers in the audience on Saturday morning - maybe almost a third of the audience was napping at one time or another. Favorite locations were the balcony and the back rows. But they were there again for the fight. it was quite interesting getting a small insight into the general atmosphere of a military academy. We also perform for the cadets at Virginia Military academy towards the end of the tour. That should be another interesting time.
The grounds of the academy are very beautiful, and after the Sat. matinee I stayed on campus to tour about. The Mahan Theatre itself it an interesting architectural sight, and many of the buildings on the campus are very solid in that sort of military granite way. I visited the crypt where John Paul Jones, apparently the primary iconic figure of the US Navy, is interred. The chapel, unfortunately, was closed for a wedding and I could not get in. Dalgren Hall, which houses an ice rink, was quite the place, and I had lunch there. The residence is off limits, so I went to the Visitor's Center. There was a nice view of the harbor there, and some history on the founding of the academy, as well as an exhibit honoring graduates of the academy who've been in the NASA program. I did get to see freedom 7, the Mercury space capsule which took Alan Shepard up into space. It is surprising how small that capsule is, just barely big enough for one man to sit in.
Annapolis is the MD state capital, and right downtown sits the Statehouse and various historical sites. Alex Haley's novel Roots identifies Annapolis as the place where Kunta Kinte first comes from Africa to the US, and there is a display to commemorate the event. The downtown harbor area is full of quaint shops and restaurants, and I decided to have dinner at Barry's Ribs and Crabs. I went for the all-you-can-eat buffet, which was OK but not spectacular. However, I did eat all I could of the crab legs, clams and shrimp as well as some of the other dishes. Some of the tables had whole Maryland-spiced crabs which looked quite good, but I did not mind being able to pass the time eating my fill. I should have taken some pictures of the statehouse, but I seem to be out of practice carrying my camera about. Annapolis is quite pretty but pricey, as you might expect a DC-area place to be. I had breakfast this morning in what must be a well-known "delly" in the area, very old-fashioned and quaint. And then off to Fairmont.
Fairmont, WV - So we got into Fairmont and after settling into our nice comfortable dorm room (add sarcasm here) we were trundled off to the President's house, where we had quite a nice reception. I'll do more about the reception and the living situation in a later post, because for tonight I think I've had it. Besides, the internet connection in the
dorms here is pretty slow and miserable, so hopefully I can get this posted at all.By the way, a special HELLO tonight to Cathy Wilmoth, Alyssa's mother, who I understand is a regular reader. Alyssa is doing fine and says hello to you. Here's a nice picture of her at Annapolis, waving Hi just to you. -TWL
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