Thrown to the Wolves - 3/22/06

Raleigh, NC - I've just come in from walking to the hotel after this evening's performance of Planet, and boy, am I tired. I could have ridden in the van, of course, but I wanted to stop along the strip on Hillsborough St to see if there were any food establishments open. Only a pizza joint was open for business, so pizza and an ice tea it was. And now, time for a quick blog before the next few days of insanity hit. I am sorry the last few blogs have not had many pictures, but for some reason Blogger.com is not being very cooperative in the past few days with uploading my pictures. Sometimes the pictures upload, but lately often they don't. I will keep trying, but in the meantime you should be able to see pictures at Flickr.com.

We have spent the past few days in Raleigh, NC, playing on the campus of North Carolina State University - the home of the Wolfpack. We arrived on Sunday afternoon, but due to some confusion we had to spend our arrival night in one hotel, and the rest of our stay in another. The first motel really sucked hard. The room Sarah and I shared had a sign on it that said it was a non-smoking room, but they must have put that sign up 10 minutes before we got there. The room smelled of smoke, but we both thought we could bear it rather then move to another room. Jessica and I made our way over to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. I tell you what - the Outback Steakhouse does a pretty good steak for a chain restaurant, and the Bloomin Onion is quite the appetizer. A couple of Newcastles with the steak and not too bad a dinner. When I got back to my room, I sort of watched an episode of Big Love on HBO, and it was not too good. It's about a Mormon guy and his three wives living in the middle of suburbia, but I think it's just an excuse to watch a man make love to three different women (which he did in the course of the episode, amd of course they all got jealous). Then Daniel came around and I listened to the song he and Sarah are writing in preparation of the interludes for Blackfriars. It's a good song which needs just a bit of tweaking here and there; very metaphorical in tone, but could use just a bit more clarity in the storytelling. Then, as I went to sleep, I began to choke a little on the stale smoky air. Sarah tried to hide the odor with some incense, but it was too little too late. It was a restless sleep, and we were glad to leave that nasty place.

We traveled to the neighborhood which borders on the NC State campus in Raleigh, and we had to hang around until our rooms were ready. It was supposed to be a day off, and it mostly was, but we did have to sort of kill time waiting to come back and move in. The hotel here is quite nice. It must have at one time been a Holiday Inn, but I cannot tell whether it still considers itself as such or is a private motel called the Brownstone. At any rate, it's nice, with Tempur-pedic mattresses, those foam deals which conform to your shape. Kevin is my roommate for this sojourn. In killing time I walked down Hillsborough St, which apparently is also known as the Wolfstrip. It has a collection of coffee shops, pizza joints, record stores and a few bars (less than you might think). One store I went in right away, however, was a little jeweler store, where the repairman replaced the second hand on my watch. Nice guy, good job. $5. Can't be beat. I also walked up the strip to a little tavern called the East Village, where Daniel, Andrew and I had lunch with our Bloody Marys. It was sort of nice to have an afternoon drink, seeing as how we had no show that night. Then we walked over to CupAJoe's, a smoky coffee shop with some nice atmosphere. The smoking section was in a separate room (remember, this is North Carolina, where they grow a lot of tobacco). It also had wireless, so I sat for a bit and had a cup of joe, but no cigarettes. I concluded with dinner at the downstairs restaurant in the hotel, a fairly weak Italian-style restaurant but convenient. Then I finally settled in for the World Baseball Classic final between Japan and Cuba. It was a pretty good game, with Japan getting a quick lead, Cuba almost catching them, and Japan closing it out in the final inning. I really enjoyed the World Baseball Classic, and from what I can read it's getting a good review all around. Nice to have meaningful baseball - and well-played baseball - in March.

Yesterday was a very long day. We had a 10:30 AM Much Ado for a mostly high school crowd, which went well. Carie informed us that this stop is a very important one, because it's Ralph's old stomping grounds, and because a lot of people come from here to Staunton and the Blackfriars. The kids were for the most part pretty good, although Tyler got hit with a spitball during curtain call. This wasn't an NEA show, as Raleigh is hardly an "underserved population." The in the afternoon I had to give my Planet lecture on sort of short notice to a crown of senior citizens taking continuing education classes. I walked from the theatre over to the McKimmon Conference Center, not quite realizing how far it was. NC State is a fairly large campus, with expansion hubs all around. It was sort of a "specialized" workshop, taking about 90 minutes. I felt a bit sorrier for Daniel and Jessica, who tried to do an improvisation workshop with this over-65 set. Not too many people wanted to get up and participate, so they finally gave in and gave them a little show. Then dinner with Chris, Kevin, Tyler and Tyler's girlfriend Olivia (who is in from the west coast to visit him), and then back to the theatre for another Much Ado, the full version. It was a good show, one of the best we've done in awhile, I thought, and a good thing too, because I understood that the university chancellor was in the audience. Hopefully we made a positive impression.

Following the performance there was a great party at the house of one of our contact people. The highlight of the party was the pizza - five types of vegetarian pizzas, with terrific crusts and a combination of veggies and spices not to be believed. The company was fun, and there was this little dog which provided a great deal of fun for all, especially Greg. You should check out the movie page when I get this movie of Greg and the dog on the site. It's almost obscene!

Today I got up feeling quite a bit stiff and sore. I was really tired after yesterday, but despite going to bed ASAP I still felt sore. I tried to walk it out a bit by slowly making my way towards the day's workshop, a Shakesfeet session over at Meredith College, about 2 miles from the hotel. First I stopped at Brueggers Bagels for a smoked salmon on bagel sandwich, then down to CupAJoe's for some coffee, then to the bodega for some plantain chips, then to the college for the workshop. Meredith College is an all-women's Baptist college, and there is something very peaceful about being on an all-female campus. The workshop went well (Sarah was my workshop partner), and afterwards we walked back to the NC State area. The day was bright and sunny, but the temperature was just a bit chilly in the low 50s and some breeze. Sarah went on to other things while I moseyed over to the library to see if I could connect to a network (no). A light (and cheap) Chinese dinner, and then to the theatre for tonight's rendition of Planet. The audience went for the show big-time; seemed as if there were a lot of boomers in the house tonight. Our audiences were mostly adults, not so much college students. But I will say the university treated us well; coffee, bagels, fruit, water, soda, tea and more all in the green room, plenty of student help (which we hardly used) and fine contact people. Thanks Sharon!

So now I am in my room getting ready for the next few crazy days ahead of us? How crazy, you may ask? Quite crazy, bordering on the absurd. Tomorrow we drive to Lexington VA, load in, do Much Ado at the Virginia Military Academy, load out, and actually drive in the night to the hotel at our next venue in West Virginia. We then have a 7:30 AM call on Friday morning for an NEA high school Much Ado, and also a Much Ado performance that night as well. We drive back to Staunton on Saturday, off Sunday, and back out for one more gig on Tuesday, I believe. One week from tomorrow and we will be back in Staunton, ready to open at the Blackfriars and begin Act Five. It's the end of the word as we know it, coming soon. -TWL

(Note to Cathy Wilmoth - I would like to sincerely apologize to you for my indecent references to a certain part of your daughter's anatomy in this blog. Such ungentlemanly-like behavior on my part will not happen again. I think, however, you can hardly blame me. After all, from what I remember the last time we partied together in Ohio, she's only shakin' what her mama gave her. - twl)