For reasons I now can't recall, I came across this blog while diving down a rabbit hole of one type or another. It just so happens that the first post on this blog was published on August 12, 2005, almost 20 years to the day this one is being published. The big surprise is that this blog still actually exists. I was completely stunned to find it live under an unused Gmail account I created for just this purpose, I believe. BlogSpot was one of the first free, simple, and easy blogging platforms around, and it's hard to believe that Google has not yet abandoned it. If it weren't for the fact that Google, as a company, has now turned evil, it would continue to be a decent free blogging platform. In 2005, when Google was still abiding by its "Do No Evil" creed, it was a great choice. But now, it's nothing but an information-sucking behemoth, and I've only used Blogspot on very specific occasions to create immediately accessible websites.
This blog is a journey through one of the happiest years of my life. My one-year sabbatical as a member of the American Shakespeare Center's Atomic Fission touring company has been a highlight of my life and my career. Even at the time, at 53 years old, I was almost 20 years older than the next oldest member of the company. I served as the tour's historian, responsible for documenting the tour. I was the first historian to do so electronically, shooting pictures and videos with a digital camera, and maintaining this blog as the written record of the tour. I produced a picture album at the end using Google's album publishing feature (I can't recall if Google Photo was in service yet. I remember using Flickr before Yahoo bought it.) I also created the first "documentary video" of an ASC tour. I was also the first person to introduce the use of a Garmin GPS for getting to our next location rather than a paper map. I loved touring very much, and would do it again in a heartbeat if the opportunity ever arose.
Sadly, the American Shakespeare Center no longer has a touring company. The pandemic brought a lot of changes there, and one of the unfortunate results was the elimination of a touring company. The ASC also gave up its status as an Equity house in order to continue operating during the pandemic without concern for the very tight Equity Covid-19 conditions of employment. The tours also probably became a luxury college campuses could no longer afford, as enrollments declined and funds dried up. It is a bygone era, one that will probably never be revived.
I'm now 20 years older, but having this website pop up out of the rabbit hole I was in has brought back a wonderful sense of nostalgia as well as many warm and fun memories. Should you choose to read any or all of these entries, please keep in mind that many of the links may be broken or lost or not working. I have updated just a few links in the last few episodes, as well as the side bar links. I went on to blog about theatre during the theatrical blogosphere era of the aughts, and continue to blog today (see sidebar for link), although not with the same dedicated focus on theatre. This is a digital time capsule, and should be viewed as such. I hope you find the same sense of nostalgia and charm I found in reading these pages after so many years. -twl
