Cruise Control - 5/7/06

Staunton VA - Well, here it is, Sunday morning, and I've got a little classical music on the XM going, as well as a cup of fresh-pressed coffee. This weekend we have five shows over 51 hours, from Friday night through Sunday night. The extra performance this week is a benefit performance of Planet for a local hospice group featuring an introduction by Willard Scott. So it's a busy weekend, but I find spending some time writing in the blog is actually relaxing and takes my mind a little off the work.

Events of the week are as follows: Wed. morning we had a matinee of middle-school children. There were some of the kinds of reactions you'd expect, but I think they had a good time. We then had Planet, Much Ado, and Planet over the next three successive nights. The Much Ado felt a little stale to me, but the two Planets seemed OK. The music is really settling into a nice place in terms of dynamics. And audiences continue to dig it - the dancing in the seats at the end still gets me every time. We only have one performance of R3 this week, which we did yesterday afternoon. Then another MA, followed by today's two Planets.

The shows themselves are pretty much on cruise control. We have them at a pretty good place, and we basically come in and get them done. Of course, this can as much be a trap as a good thing, and I think I got a taste of this on Thursday's Much Ado. The gulling scene seemed off, and I don't know if we are judging it by audience reaction or how we're executing the scene. Audiences on the road, which generally skewed a bit younger than at Blackfriars, really had large reactions to the gulling scene, but in the Blackfriars it has been a bit more subdued. It might be the scene is exactly the way we've always done it, but the reactions of the audience has changed a bit. I think we have to adjust to this and not have too many expectations going into the scene. I find myself that when I do my "bad actor" bit as Leonato, sometimes I am waiting for a certain reaction rather than just executing the action. But this is one of the challenges about long runs, the attempt to keep everything fresh. I have discovered in the past few days I am losing the ability to surprise myself on stage, as my head seems to be clogged up with anticipation. It's partly fatigue, partly boredom, partly the curse of routine. It can't be denied that, after a while, a long run can become as repetitious a job as assembly line work. Now, doing that well means the audience cannot know that's the case, but I think the only way to guard against that feeling coming on stage with you means you at least have to recognize it exists. I think once I actually walk through that curtain I am present and ready on stage, but I need to take that five seconds beforehand to get in the right place. Cruise control is not necessarily a bad thing as long as you stay alert, and shows have to be repeated so that everyone is on the right page. Staying alive and alert while on that stage is the key, of course, and I think the best tool I have found for getting that done is listening.

With only one school performance this past week, the daytime schedule was pretty open. So on Thursday I finally got to make my pilgrimage to the Cedar Creek Battlefield up in Middletown, VA. It's about a 75-minute drive down the valley, close to the area where Interstates 81 and 66 converge. I have an interest in that particular battle, because the subject of my one-person show, J. Herbert George, Principal Musician 10th Vermont, participated in that battle. The battle is a famous one because it represents the final defeat of the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley and is cited as one of the reasons the election of 1864 swung to Lincoln. Confederate General Jubal Early had launched a successful sneak attack on Federal forces camped in the area, and had succeeded in routing the enemy, but regrettably chose to halt his advance of the Federals and re-group. This gave time for General Phil Sheridan to dash back from Winchester VA (he was heading to a meeting in Washington DC), rouse the Federal forces, re-organized his troops and counterattack. His charge routed the CSA forces in return, and Early was forced to take his troops back up the valley to Fisher's Hill, having lost too many men and equipment to ever become an effective military force in the area again. The war would be over six months later.

I went to the battlefield and first stopped at the Visitor's Center. They re-enact this battle every year on the weekend closest to October 19th, and the visitor's center is across from the open part of the field. The battle itself covered a large area of ground, and much of where the battle took place is actually private property, but a large open area between the visitor's center on the east and Belle Grove Mansion on the west is where the re-enactment takes place. I got a very well-written guide book, which takes you on an auto tour through the area and points out in chronological order the progress of the battle. I concentrated on the area where the 10th Vermont would have been, which was about half the tour. I took a bunch of pictures as well. I also took a tour of Belle Grove Mansion, which was General Sheridan's HQ in the valley and saw a good deal of the fighting. You can follow my tour a little bit through the picture here as well as following the online version of the guidebook here (I started at Stop 8). It was a great experience. Whenever I do these battlefield visits, I can always feel the events inside me, with that sense of being connected to the lives and deaths of the soldiers who once fought here. This particular battle is rightly famous for its tactics and its displays of courage on both sides. It raged from 4:00 in the morning until 7:00 that night, close to 15 hours. There were several significant actions in the battle, most notably the Second Division of the Third Brigade, Sixth Corp of the Federal forces, who held off Early's charge for over an hour with significantly less forces on a hill which is now a cemetery. My man Herbie was probably located with the supply chains and hospital, as musicians also served as nurses, and was thus probably stationed rearward, but no doubt he saw much of the action as it unfolded before him. Anyway, it was a good visit, one I had been wanting to make for a long time.

Friday was nothing but a lazy day, with everything done on the spur of the moment. I went to Lowe's in the morning to get a screen for my broken window, as it appears the landlord isn't going to do anything about fixing it while I am here. On an impulse I was going to go up to Sherando Lake to explore the area, but as I was driving I changed my mind and headed for Crozet, to try to find a convent of Cistercian nuns who apparently make a very good gouda cheese in the French fashion. I did not find them, but I did find an awesome whole foods store, a nice-looking Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating, other places to eat, and a back road to the Charlottesville reservoir and a trail leading into the back country of Shenandoah National Park. I later found the trail on a park map, but no indication of the type of trail it is. I have an urge to do some backcountry camping in the park, but they don't allow campfires in the backcountry (WTF?), and Ann Marie says I can't spend any money to buy a tent. So I may have to settle for a hike this coming "weekend," although the weather does not look promising.

Some more illness is starting to creep back into the troupe: Chris has been battling laryngitis all week, and Kevin seemed a bit hoarse last night. Let's hope this doesn't spread too far. Still five weeks to go! -TWL