Countdown Begins - 3/19/06

Tusculum, TN - Actually, it is Sunday morning and we are on our way out of town, heading for Raleigh NC. We did a performance of Much Ado last night at Tusculum College, another small religious college located in this eastern Tennessee town right on the ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. Prior to this past gig, we did Planet at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. That performance was pretty OK, but the hall was rather large, and on my first number I lost the beat because all of a sudden I could not hear the band behind me. I had to turn upstage to get the beat back from Chris, and once I did that I walked a bit upstage to get upstage of the proscenium arch, and then I could hear everything. A strange space for that. Jim trenberth had driven over from Ames again to bring Nancy to see the show, and after load-out we went looking for a place to eat, but nothing in Waverly was open at all, so we ended up in the Fox Motel, where we were staying, sitting in the lobby and chatting. Hopefully Jim and Nancy and Ann Marie and I can get together at Stratford ON this summer to see some Shakespeare there. The Fox Motel was a strange little place, something of a "classy" motel sometime in the fifties, but now showing its age. First, they claimed they had "wireless," when in fact they distributed their internet through their electrical system via Netgear. You had to get one at the front desk, and they had a limited number. I tried to set up my wireless Wiflyer, but it has a limited reach through so many walls. Then, on the morning we left, people came down to breakfast, and they had a brand new cook in the back on his first day ever, without any help. My omlette took 40 minutes to arrive, and when it did, the onions were raw. We eneded up being late getting out because everyone's breakfast was delayed. They had to call in the head chef from home to help with the backup. And the place smelled of smoke in the lobby area. Altogether somewhat nasty.

Wednesday was another one of our 8-hour travel days. We went from Waverly to Muncie IN. Over the course of this leg of the tour we have had several 8-hour travel days, as it seems our gigs are spaced that far apart. As we approach T-2 weeks and counting, it is clear that we are all weary of 8-hour travel days and the vans. Next weekend we apparently will be home in Staunton for two days, with one more trip after that before opening with Planet on April 1. Everybody is holding up well under the circumstances, and at least here in the south the greening up of the countryside and the mountains are a welcome exchange from the cold, flat, brown prairie. There are very clear signs of spring in this area, and this morning as I write on a crisp sunny morning the mountains in the distance are a very beautiful sight. Jessica and I tried to find a place to hike yesterday, but everything was too far away and she was not feeling too well, so we shall wait until Shenandoah.

Thursday brought us to the Cornerstone Center for the Arts in Muncie, Indiana. The space itself was gorgeous - an opera house environment within an old Masonic Temple. There was a humongous chandelier hanging above the audience, and a mural above the front of the stage on the ceiling. Apparently there are many more of these in the building. The dressing rooms were sort of tiered along the stage left area, from mainstage level to second floor. The space was old, but sort of dignified, reminding me a little bit of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. But although the space was nice, the audience ended up being an obnoxious group of kids, by far the most obnoxious we have encountered. It made the show very difficult to perform, and left everyone in a prety bad mood by the end of the show and the Q&A. It was more than talking; it was just the snide, smug attitude they brought to the event. We could not win the group of boys on the stage right side over, so we settled for getting through the show and out by noon. Done. The staff was very cordial and nice, and I should not paint the audience with such a broad stroke, because there were some audience members who enjoyed the show, and some mentally challenged kids in the house as well who were having a good time. It's so very hard to concentrate on those having a good time when the knuckleheads are at your elbow. One of the great traps of direct audience contact is that, when faced with hecklers, you, as the actor, are constrained, because you don't have the same freedom in those circumstances as the audience has. If we REALLY wanted to have "direct audience contact" then perhaps we should be as free as the actors in Shakespeare's day probably were to handle the hecklers. Ah well, you can't win them all.

Thursday we had a troupe meeting to discuss some issues relative to Richard III and to the interludes and pre-show stuff when we get back to the Blackfriars in April. I did not have much to discuss in either context, so I pretty much sat and listened to other's ideas. After the meeting I took a walk out into the suburban MallofAmerica landscape, roamed through a Best Buy, got caught in a small hailstorm, and wandered back to the motel room to begin watching the evening's sports presentations. I have been following the World Baseball Classic, and believe me it has been worth watching. At this point the final is set for Cuba and Japan, but I had been rooting for Korea and Puerto Rico. Team USA was not playing well at all, and their lack of preparation was evident throughout the whole series. It's sort of that same arrogant USA approach to all international sports except maybe soccer - throw together a team of professional players and expect to beat everyone. Well, it don't work that way. All the other teams had their fundamentals sound, and it's interesting to note that the Cubans, an essentially amateur team, and Japan, a country where fundamental baseball is the name of the game, are the teams in the championship. Even teams like Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico had MLB players who are not skills players, and so they lost. I am sorry for Team Korea, who pitched so well and played such great ball beating Japan twice, that due to how the brackets worked they get eliminated even though their record is 5-1. Such is playoff ball. And in watching the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse is already out if it, losing to Texas A&M in the first round. Typical of Syracuse at times, this is not the first time they've had a first-round loss. Usually if they get past the first round they have a good tournament, but such was not to be. Gerry McNamara couldn't play after that great run in the Big East Championship. So it goes. All in all Thursday was not one of the better days in my life.

Then guess what? Friday - another 8-hour van ride. From Muncie IN we took off for Greeneville TN and our Tusculum performance on Saturday night. The drive took us through Knoxville, bypassing Cinncinatti and Lexington KY, where we had lunch in a Waffle House where all the employees had Universuty of Kentucky T-Shirts on. I've come to like Waffle Houses - simple food cooked up right on the grill in front of you. Probably too fatty, but in moderation it's OK. Our performace yesterday in Tusculum was pretty good, given that it had been a long time since we had done a full Much Ado. For the record - Tusculum College gets the prize for worst dining hall food this leg. Nothing about last night's show really stood out except Tyler's dive into the stage left gallant seats during the gulling scene. It was a very nice audience, good receptive house. And yesterday was Tyler's 26th birthday, so during the pre-show the Blackfriars Four sang "Happy Birthday" to him on stage before "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." After the show some of the troupe went to help Tyler celebrate, but I stayed in for the semifinal game between Korea and Japan, which Japan won 6-1. I did not see the whole game, falling asleep during the rain delay, but I did see all the scoring.

So today - Sunday - is a travel day again, about 6 hours to Raleigh, where tomorrow we get sort of a day off. Due to some confusion and delay, we have to stay in two different hotels while there. So tonight is one hotel, and during our day off we have to switch hotels. The second one is nice, I hear. We are in Raleigh for a few days, doing both the 90-minute and the full Much Ado, and then Planet the second night. From there it's off to Lexington VA to Virginia Military Academy and then to Lewisburg WV for a Much Ado, and then home for a weekend. I am going to give the same lecture at North Carolina State that I gave at UA-Huntsville for a special workshop, so I have to polish that up a bit.

I must say that today the drive is pretty spectacular. As I write this we are passing through the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, just east of Asheville NC. From Greeneville TN we drove up into the mountains and along a very winding mountain raod, following the Paint Creek. The road was hilly, winding and narrow, but the view was very nice. There were some nice hollows within the mountains, and as we came to a crossroads in the river there was a spot where several fishermen were flyfishing for trout. The area was dotted with some very nice houses mixed with some run-down shacks. We've crossed the Appalachians in several places now in the south, and every time it's been quite nice. Again, I am struck by the beauty of the scenery and the temperateness of the climate. It's no wonder people like to retire down to this part of the country. You get the benefit of four seasons but not the bitter harshness of deep winters, with earlier springs and slightly longer falls. Hard to beat. Makes me long for a weekend on my land. -TWL

Pretty Pebbles - 3/14/06

Waverly, IA - You may have wondered where I've disappeared to in the last few days. The answer lies in the fact that we've had an unusually long amount of time off, and during that time I found myself with limited access to the internet. It wouldn't have mattered much, however, as I just spent the time laying low anyway.

The chronological details are that we went from Pella IA to Platteville WI on Thursday, did R3 on Thursday night at UW-Platteville, and essentially had off from then until yesterday (Monday) when we travelled to Waverly IA to perform Planet at Wartsburg College this evening. The show at Platteville was a fairly typical performance of R3, a little better than the past few performances. We did the show in the Brodbeck Music Hall, a very nice space as it stands for music and acoustics, but a little big for our show, I think. The gallant stools were packed with students, and I think they stayed with us through the performance.

But the essence of this post is not so much about the performances at Platteville; it's about me rummaging through the attics of my mind and dusting off a few items I was forced to put up there. Many of you might know I spent eight seasons (85-86, 90-94, 98) with the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival, which took place on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. It was a summer Shakespeare festival started by Tom Collins, Wendy Collins and Tom Goltry back in 1977. They were the theatre department at the college; Collins was the performance/historian guy while Goltry concentrated mostly on tech and design with some acting thrown in. Wendy was not technically on the faculty, but served as the festival's resident costume designer. It was a small festival, drawing its actors mainly from graduate training programs and the Milwaukee/Madison area, and lasted for 23 years until 1999, when a new university chancellor essentially pulled the plug on the festival and stole the foundation money which the festival had earned through the years. Collins and Goltry have both since retired; Collins to Arizona, and Goltry remains in Platteville. It had been eight years since the last summer I spent there as Associate Artistic Director and director of The Miser.

I think it's fair to say that all throughout my middling acting career I have sought to work in the atmosphere of an ensemble troupe, a collection of actors who work often together and through the years develop that sense of playing together, knowing each other's tendencies, and building a body of work together. In short, I prefer situations where I, as an artist, have a "home." The WSF was, for the time it existed, that kind of home for me. I went back because people there appreciated my work and effort and offered me my first opportunity since getting out of graduate school to do significant acting work. As I developed my work in the city of Buffalo, I alternated with Shakespeare in Delaware Park, sometimes for family reasons, sometimes financial. But I loved going back to Platteville when I could.

I find it somewhat difficult to describe the attraction of Platteville and the WSF to outsiders. After all, it was a small festival set in the middle of nowhere, a very small midwestern town. I think it's because most theatre people tend to track their careers towards ever-growing and ever-more-recognized theatres and venues in larger and larger cities. I don't deny that in the back of my head I have those aspirations at times, but in reality I have been quite satisfied with finding smaller situations for myself. My teaching career is a reflection of that; I have not chosen to move up the ladder of university theatre departments, but have been quite content teaching in an undergraduate program at a small state college. I very much like working in Buffalo rather than pursuing a career in some other cities. And the same held true of Platteville. The WSF was more than a Shakespeare festival to me; it was a collection of good people, both from the festival and from the town, who became colleagues and friends, and in some instances like second family. I came to know a great many people in the area, I came to know the area itself quite well (particularly its golf courses), and it really was in so many ways a second home. I mean, a foursome for golf on a day off might include myself, the janitor of the Fine Arts Center, the superintendent of the local water and sewage plant (who doubled as an actor by night) and the lighting designer. That's the kind of place it was.

And we did some good theatre, and at times even great theatre. Our height was during that run in the 90s, when we assembled some fine talent from Milwaukee and the PTTP at Univ. Delaware. So many names - Michael Duncan, Lee Ernst, Laura Gordon, Laurie Birmingham, Mark Meinart, Elizabeth Heflin, Haasan El-Amin, Mic Woicek, Paul Steger, Mark Herold, Stevie Ray Dallimore, Chip Duford, Carine Montbertrand and so many more - all came through this way. During that time the festival was making a name for itself and gaining more credibility as a fine place to see Shakespeare. It's too bad that its demise came so quickly and brutally and it was not given a chance to re-locate or grow.

So, in visiting the area with the Blackfriars Stage Company after all these years, my mind and heart sort of got caught up in flood of memories of good times now gone. In a lot of ways the history of the festival has all but disappeared from UW-P's records and the town's memories. In its place is the Heartland Festival, an attempt to bring musical theatre into the area for the summer done by essentially amateurs. There is only one banner from the WSF hanging in the scene shop. I thought of stealing it, but then I thought that it was the only item from the WSF I could see that was still in the building apart from the Mary Barnes and Bert Glanz plaques, so I left it there. The UW-P has no section of its web site dedicated to the festival, and I have no idea if there are any archived records of its existence on campus. Dust in the wind.

So with my time there I looked up old friends and went about examining the city. When I arrived on Thursday I walked into the theatre after lunch, and who should be sitting there but old Doc Goltry. He had retired some 5 or 6 years earlier and had not set foot into the Center for the Arts since then, but it so fell out that the current musical theatre teacher and her husband had ferreted him out of his house to come down and design/consult on the set for their upcoming production of Pirates of Penzance. He was the last person I expected to see sitting there, but we had a hearty greeting and chatted up old times for about two hours. We were joined by Jim Trenberth, longtime lighting designer for the festival, from Iowa State. Also on campus was Michael Duncan, who graduated from UW-Platteville and did 14 seasons with WSF. He was in town because he was doing some initial consulting for the Heartland Festival, for which he's directing a show in the summer. I had alerted most of these people I was coming in, so we had a dinner reunion at Uno's Pizzeria, and what a fun reunion it was. This Uno's is not the Chicago chain, but an independent restuarant which has been there since I've known the town. I knew the original owner as well as the present owner, and a number of wait staff over the years (in particular Diane, who used to greet me with a wet bartowel to the face the first time I walked in any summer). The place looked exactly the same, complete with a rendering of one Wendy's costume designs, and the trivia contest (which I answered correctly and got a free drink for Trenberth). Even the menu appeared the same, designed like a newspaper, complete with Tater Tuesday and Fettucini Friday. Soon enough the gang showed up: Doc and Carol Goltry, Maggie and Steve Kleisath with their daughter Katie and Maggie's mom Margaret (this is my "adopted family" in Platteville and my hosts for the time I stayed in town), Michael Duncan, Jim and I. Like old times. Doc's wife Carol is pretty close to being blind these days, but she hugged me fiercely, sat next to me and held my hand for a long time. I hated to go but I had a show to do, so I left to make a 6:00 call. After the show, I had arranged with Maggie for a small party at her house, so most of the company showed up at 11:00 PM to chat and party (thanks guys!). The company was dispersing the next day; some going to see loved ones, some friends, some family; the rest were having the time off in Madison.

The next morning I had breakfast with Jim and Michael at the Owl Cafe, one of my favorite haunts in P'ville. It's a small hometown cafe with about six tables and a counter crammed into a tiny space. The same people who operated it eight years ago were still there, Big Jim still making the best omlettes in the world. I had a Wundoe omlette, made with Wun-Doe-Mus, a local spice blend composed mostly of salt, Hungarian paprika, white and black pepper, onion and garlic powder. It's delicious and gar-ron-teed. It's a giant, fluffy omlette with Wun-doe-mus spice, sausage, salsa, sour cream and cheese with onions and peppers. Nothing else like it on the planet (I should have taken a picture). Great talk with Michael and Jim about old times. Then Jim and I went over to Doc Goltry's place for coffee and conversation, and Mike Willis, now retired from the sewage plant and helping his daughter open a sports store, came over for more chat about old friends and old times.

Now, Doc Goltry is a big, burly man, not easily given to semtiment. If you can imagine a Wilford Brimley, look-alike, that's Doc. He has a collection of sayings which he would frequently employ when directing or just hanging around the theatre. We were talking about the good old days, and we could tell Doc missed it a lot. He said one thing that stuck with me, which I believe he attributed to Mark Twain. He was talking about all the fun we had at the festival, how throughout the school year he'd always look forward to the summer and when the actors and technicians got it. He said, "You know, theatre is something like the ocean. It's so vast, that no one ever gets to see the whole thing at once and up close. But there's something to be said for standing on the beach and playing with the pretty pebbles. That's what we did, guys, play with the pretty pebbles, and damn, it was a good time!" The whole experience was happy and sad at the same time. Wistful, with a glint of tears in the eyes. As Friar Francis says in Much Ado:

For it so falls out,
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours.

although I think we all knew what we had in some measure.

So Jim had to get back to Ames, and I went back to the Kleisaths, where Maggie was kind enough to give me the keys to Steve's Mazda Miata. The day was gorgeous and warm, so I dropped the top and took off over the county roads of the area, up and down the rolling hills of Southwest Wisconsin. Man, was that fun. Not only was the day beautiful, but the scenery was gorgeous, and Wisconsin's famous "dairy air" was in full aroma. I had seldom seen the area in anything but spring and summer bloom, so driving around in mid-March was a new experience. You can see so far and so wide that it's breathtaking. I could have driven for hours and hours, but I contained my enthusiasm and restricted myself to the Grant/Lafayette/Iowa county areas north and east of P'ville. My final stop was The Mound, home of the famous "World's Biggest M." The Mound now has a staircase going to the top (not in my day), so I climbed to the top for the view. I used to go there often with Jim or Paul or Mic on evenings with a 6-pack and perch there on an outcropping, talking, contemplating the stars and moon, the view, etc. It was a tradition to go up the mound on July 4, because from that vantage point you could see every fireworks display from every town within a 10-mile radius on a clear day. You can check out my picture page for some shots from the mound, one of which now graces my desktop.

For most of the rest of the time I simply stayed and ate and conversed with Maggie and Steve, who are two of the finest souls ever to grace the planet. They've become good family friends, of course, but I think at times I'm more like a wayward son to them. They adopted me and my family the first year Ann Marie and I were there. Ann Marie and Maggie both were La Leche League leaders, and both had Girl Scouts (the Kleisaths have three girls, all Girl Scouts along with Jenna). So they made some natural connections, and Ann Marie got in with a bunch of other mothers from the area. Maggie was a member and past president of the Ann Hathaway guild, a group composed of women who supported the festival and did things like "adopt an actor" and have them over for dinner. They also made tarts for sale at intermission for each show, and the actors used to get the leftovers during the second act. Their youngest daughter, Katie, was on her way to South Carolina for spring break, and their second daughter Beth and her new husband Joe came down from LaCrosse to visit me (Becky, their oldest, lives in St. Louis with her husband Craig and their new son William - guess who he was named after?) So I relaxed by staying with them for the most part. I watched the World Baseball Classic, and also took a side trip to Dyersville, IA and the Field of Dreams, the location for the movie of the same name with Kevin Kostner, Amy Madigan and James Earl Jones. Then, on Monday afternoon, the company came by to pick me up, and here I am in Waverly.

So that was my excursion into the mists of my past - a happy, joyful time mixed with a wistful longing for friends and experiences now fading fast in my rearview mirror. This acting business, for those of you reading this blog who might be thinking about this profession or finding yourself struggling in the midst of it, is in many ways an itinerant one. We wander from place to place, from city to city, from job to job. On this tour I have felt this wandering feeling moreso than at any point in my career, traveling from venue to venue. The adventuring is fun, but there is also that longing to return "home" to Staunton (which really isn't anyone's "home" at all, but the best we have at the moment). I've been a very, very lucky person in this business, because in my career I've been able to find two theatrical homes; one in Platteville for eight wonderful seasons, and one in Buffalo NY for almost 17 years. I like having a theatrical home, and I think in many ways it's something a lot of actors long for; a place to hang your hat, get steady work, and call it "home" at the end of the day. Spending four days in my former summer home has been a wonderful feeling, offering a sense of familiarity, place, and peace. While it may be true that you can never go home again, catching pieces of it glinting in the late winter sun across miles of vista is not a bad substitute. -TWL

Rainy Days and Wednesdays - 3/8/06

Pella, IA - Two rainy days have produced little to do except blog. Yesterday I took a walk to downtown Pella, sat at Smoky Row coffee house with Daniel, went to campus for lunch, and then the heavens opened up with rain. So in essence I got stuck on campus. Fortunately the student center cafe had a TV, so I picked up the World Baseball Classic. Saw the Dominican Republic beat Venezuela and USA beat Mexico. Dinner, R3 and bed essentially finished up yesterday.

Today it started raining again in the AM. My only agenda had been to go downtown and take the pictures I couldn't take yesterday, but with the rain I sat it out. Right at this very moment the rain has let up, but I ended up watching the Syracuse-Cinncinati basketball game with Tyler, my roommate here in Pella (who's also got nothing to do but blog). We are both Syracuse fans; remarkably, he's been following the Orange since he was a kid growing up in Syracuse and going to high school right near the campus. I've been an Orange fan since my days in Oswego, so it made for a good match. I should have gone on the hotel treadmill in the morning, but did not. Syracuse won an exciting game with 0.5 seconds left on a walking 3-point shot by senior Gerry McNamara. Now I have the WBC on again; Panama v. Cuba, with USA v. Canada up next at 3:00. Andrew came down to the room, so I gave my camera to Sarah and she will take photos of downtown for you to see. It really is a cute downtown, with the new mixed nicely into the old. There is a very nicely done mini-mall in the center of town, an historical village, the nearby Red Rocks dam area for recreation. I have it marked in my mind as a place to return for a small vacation while traveling someday. Places like these are also retirement possibilities; small town with tourist appeal, small college to teach some adjunct courses, probably nice houses for little money and low taxes. Not for awhile, though.

The shows have been taking a beating lately, it seems. Carie has been less than satisfied with our latest efforts. I have been trying to find some new wrinkles in my characters to breathe some new life in them (and fight the boredom), but apparently it's coming out as "unfocused." Personally, while onstage I do not sense any lack of of effort by anyone, so it's a bit hard to see where this lack of focus is, because nothing specific is being mentioned. Yes, we are tired; yes, we have done these shows for a long time; but without some specific notations I am not sure how to proceed. I know in R3 last night I tried some new approaches based on the space (more intimate approaches to vocal work, more of a sense as Hastings that I do suspect something is up after my scene with Catesby, more of a "thug" character for my citizen in the battlement scene, more of a "quiet, slow strength" for Oxford in terms of physical movement) to see if I could find new wrinkles in each character; perhaps that experimentation appears as "unfocused" in some way. And even though the show last night came in on time at 2:05, it seemed "slow." There are always so many factors to take into account when you travel to so many venues, play in such different spaces from day to day, have such different audience responses from venue to venue, that it's often difficult to find the true cause of why any particular performance might not be up to snuff. Chatting with people at the merchandise table led me to believe the non-students last night enjoyed the show; three people came up to Jessica to congratulate her work on Margaret. But today, it seems resting in the room and taking it easy might be the best way for me to have a very focused show with Planet tonight and then get a good R3 in at Platteville before our "break."

We are getting an unintended long break in Platteville, because the high school performance I helped to secure at Platteville HS has fallen through. The principal felt he had to cancel after his faculty told him they had too many tests scheduled on Friday, which is the last day before their spring break. So we may do a workshop at the college on Friday, but no show. The company will move to Madison for the duration until Monday, when we travel to Waverly IA, but I will be staying in Platteville with good friends from my days at Wisconsin Shakes. A home environment, good friends, good food, Leinenkugel beer and hot tub - I could do worse. -TWL

Cattle to Corn - 3/6/06

Pella, IA - After a 535-mile trip from Stillwater to Pella, IA (yes, it's the home of those famous Pella windows) on Sunday, we are now in the midst of our residency at Central College. The college is a very quaint place, with nice brick buildings, set amidst a small town which features its Dutch heritage. There is a big tower in the middle of town celebrating the tulip, as well as many windmills. I haven't had the time to take any pictures yet because today was pretty filled up with activities and load-in. Central College had brought in some high schools for workshops in the morning and Much Ado 90 minute in the afternoon. After that I hung out at the student center doing emails and trying to get all the scheduling done for Platteville, then dinner, then back to the Amerihost Inn on the edge of town.

My day off in Stillwater OK was pretty good, if I say so myself. The morning started off well, with breakfast downstairs at the Ranchers Club. This was their idea of a continental breakfast: a ham/mushroom quiche, bacon, hash browns, orange juice, and of course the usual fruit, yogurt, bagels, etc. But how a place like that can serve such a nice breakfast and have such weak coffee is beyond me. Then off to do the company laundry with Daniel. Usually I do not like doing the laundry on my day off, but it was the best opportunity to make sure the laundry was fresh for Pella. The earlier you do it, the better. The laundromat was a combination of a bar and laundry, with a big-screen TV, a pool table, and what appeared to be beer taps. They may have taken taken the taps down on Sat. morning, but I have a feeling that the name of the place - Suds and Duds - was something of a giveaway. We had to go out and get some decent coffee however, so we walked over to the Hideaway and loaded up. We found out when we got back that we weren't supposed to bring back drinks from outside, but by that time our laundry was about done so we folded and left. Then we walked over to Eskimo Joe's, which is supposedly the most famous bar in Stillwater. It was, however, too crowded to do what we wanted to do, which was eat lunch and watch the West Virginia-U-Cinncinati basketball game, so we walked across the street to some dive and sat there and watched the game. It was pretty clear from the outset that the bartender was unprepared to serve anyone anything beyond beer, but we tried. We order a pork sandwich, which came in hot dog buns. All the soda was warm, and we weren't drinking beer, so I settled for a bottle of water. At least we had a clear view of the game. As soon as the game was over, we left that place and headed back to the hotel. Daniel went to work out, and at 2:00 I went over to the baseball stadium for another dose of Cowboy baseball. The day was alternately sunny and overcast, but nothing beats a day at the ball park. As I was watching the game, Chris Seiler calls me up and ends up joining me at the ballpark. So we have a great day watching the Cowboys beat up on UCal-Northridge 8-2. Had it not been for two throwing errors by the Cowboy catcher to third base, the Cowboys would have shut out Northridge. The catcher made up for it, though, by hitting a two-run homer later on, a good long poke to the left-center wall. After the game, Chris, Daniel Tyler and I went back down to the Rancher's Club for the Oklahoma steak experience, and boy, it was quite the treat.

They served us in teams, with a lovely young lady as the head server. All the servers were students in the hospitality program, learning the craft of fine service dining. The first thing we get are warm napkins. Then the wine steward comes over to ask about our wine selection for the evening. This we left to Daniel, our troupe wine expert (he has serious connections in the Napa Valley :-) ). He picked an excellent Zinfandel, nice and robust and dry. We went in for appetizers: crawfish cakes, huge shrimp, and an antipasto. All were excellent. Salads next. Then we had a sorbet to clear the palate. The the main course, a 12-ounce Oklahoma strip steak, medium, with chipolte yams and grilled veggies. The steak was very tender, spiced ad grilled well. Dessert was one slice of french silk pie shared three ways. Each one of these items was brought by a different person, and the ensemble was wonderful entertainment. We talked and laughed for two-and-a-half hours, and dropped some serious cash in the end. But as a change of pace from dining hall food and fast food, it sure was worth it. After dinner, back upstairs to catch the upset of Duke by UNC, packing, and sleep. Pretty good day off. The evening's only bummer was that Tyler got sick during dinner. He got a pretty stiff headache, so bad he couldn't eat his steak (he ate it later on the way to Pella), and I gave him some aspirin to relieve his pain. I think his previous night of drinking had finally caught up to him. I understand eight Maker's Mark and Cokes will stay with you quite awhile.

But it seems as if my body is running down a bit, I think. All during the OK stay I felt my body being slightly sore and stiff. I worked out only once, but after the workout I felt tired. In fact, I've sort of had a fatigued feeling for some time now. I don't quite know what to do about it, exactly. I keep thinking maybe the old body has reached its limits, and I'm a little nervous that some of the weight is creeping back. So I've cut back a little on food and still have to find ways to work out. I'm thinking of walking to the campus tomorrow, about 1.25 miles I believe. It's not as if I've been that physically busy, but perhaps sitting in the van and traveling takes more out of me than I think it does. Who knows.

I also have to admit that I am trying to find ways to fight boredom. My last day off was very good, but I am beginning to feel boredom creeping in. At first I wasn't able to identify it as such; it was just an "off" feeling, almost like being slightly depressed. But then I realized I wasn't listening to my podcasts, having a hard time reading books, XM radio was the same day after day (as is the news), and getting-in-the-van-traveling-stopping-at-a-truck-stop-pissing-traveling-eating-lunch
-pissing-getting-to-the-motel-unpacking-sleeping-loading-in-doing-a-show(s)-
loading-out-getting-in-the-van....was also become just a tad old. Admitting I was bored was actually a good thing, because now I can figure out ways to fight it. And perhaps this is an occupational hazard of touring. I mean, you have to expect at some point that things will become routine and - well, boring. So I have to find something to break the boredom. I've heard there are some interesting water towers in Pella to climb. Maybe..... -TWL

Oklahoma OK! - 3/2/06

Stillwater OK - The lonesome prairie. Home on the range. Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains. Cowboy up! Howdy, pard'ner!

After a quick ride from Russellville we arrived in Stillwater OK and the campus of Oklahoma State University, the Cowboys. Having graduated from the University of Nebraska I feel as if I'm in enemy territory. Not only is this our farthest stop west, it's by far our biggest college/university venue to date. We also have North Carolina State on deck in a few weeks. We're lodged at the Atherton Hotel, an on-campus hotel which is pretty posh. This evening we performed Much Ado to a nice crowd of people at the Seretean Center Concert Hall, which is a recital hall holding about 500 people. Tomorrow we do an NEA matinee of Much Ado, and then an evening performance of R3. We also have our day off in Stillwater, which is good because there is a lot right around the edge of the campus (and from the looks of things the campus IS downtown Stillwater). Our other choice back in January was a day off in Pella IA, which is our next stop. Thank god Stillwater won out.

As soon as we arrived Daniel and I had laundry duty, so we went to do the company laundry, accompanied by Kevin and Olivia. Kevin went to the Creative Lab home office, which is in Stillwater, to have his Zen player repaired. During our laundry session we also went over to a nearby Japanese restaurant and had some sushi. It was good, but not outstanding. You can bet your bottom dollar I will have a steak here in cattle country before I leave, though. Despite the fact that this is a college town, there isn't much open after 10:00 PM except the bars, so getting food has been problematical. There is a real nice fancy restaurant in the hotel called the Rancher, and that's where they served continental breakfast this morning, which was more than continental. It was eggs, bacon and hash browns, with coffee (which was weak) and orange juice, yogurts, breads, etc. Pretty nice, actually. I went down to the lobby not really dressed, thinking it was a standard continental breakfast, and when I walked into the Rancher I felt totally underdressed, as there must have been a dozen suits in there of one kind or another., having their power breakfast. Deans and the like. Yikes. A place like this makes me realize how small SUNY Fredonia really is; not only that, but the absurdity of calling Fredonia a "university" when placed next to OSU. OSU is a university; Fredonia is a college.

Today I did not do too much to fill the day up. I have a single this stop, and usually that allows a bit more freedom of movement. So I ate breakfast, got dressed and went out in search of better coffee. I found a place called The Third Place and got some coffee, but I have since found out there is a Daily Grind here (not the same as the Virginia chain) which has better coffee. I sat there, browsed the web and email, wrote some people, and set about writing more descriptions on my Flickr Photo Page, which I have been so negligent in doing. I hope to catch up on more of that tomorrow. A workout on the treadmill, a few phone calls, a short nap, and the show. That's the day.

I like the plains states. I was thinking about that as I sat in the van on the way to Stillwater, reading Proof and Amy Goodman's latest book The Exception to the Rulers, which Daniel bought and has lent me (we are both sort of addicted to the Democracy Now! podcasts). The first view of the prairie came at a truck stop at the beginning of the turnpike turning north towards Tulsa. There was a field with a center pivot irrigation setup in it, and it brought me back to Nebraska days. I recall when I first moved to the midwest I didn't like it, but after three years I found it had grown on me, and I have a fondness for it whenever I return, almost as if there's a "home" sensation to it. I like the big skies, the wide-open vistas, and the people. The midwest somehow seems to have a genuine sense of living life to it that I find missing in the east sometimes, especially in the cities. Although I am not planning on it, I could retire to the midwest easily. Upstate NY has that same open feeling about it as well, which I like, but that sense of pioneer spirit is missing from NY. Upstate NY is more placid, more settled, while the plains states still strive to keep that rugged pioneer spirit going. Being someone who has always valued that sense of freedom, I think that's what attracts me about the plains states the most.

Something else has seemed eerie to me lately as well, and that has been the almost total lack of winter for me. There was some little snow in Staunton in December, some snow during my two weeks home in January, but other than that I have not seen hardly any snow anywhere else; not in MN, IA, IL or any of the states we visited in January-February. We've had cold temps, but no snow. In fact, yesterday it was at least 82 degrees in Stillwater when we arrived (today only 61 and rainy/cloudy). My seasonal bioclock is all screwed up due to this. I have to keep reminding myself in my head that it is only March 2, even though it feels like May down here. The lack of a winter is not too difficult to take, but it's still strange and eerie to me. I feel guilty as I look at weather reports from back in Dunkirk (where maybe 6" of snow fell today) and I can't imagine seeing that much snow. Of course, in the next week or so we head back to iowa and Wisconsin, where reality may slap us right back in the face, but then we go back south again, and by the end of March it's back to Staunton. Will I actually manage to escape a winter? I've suffered less from SAD this year because of it. Hhhmmmmmm......

That sort of brings you up to date, actually. A lot less to write when you don't wait a week to catch up on the blog. I think everyone at this point feels happy and well. One thing is certain; we love the hotel! Guys back in Staunton - book this gig again! That's the word from the road. I might even have a chance to see the Cowboys play some Div1 baseball on Saturday if it doesn't rain. Spring training, the World Baseball Classic - things are coming alive! -TWL

Small Worlds - 2/28-3/1/06

(NB - If you've already read Part I, skip down to Part 2 below - TWL)

Huntsville, AL - Well, not exactly. It's more accurate to say that I'm on Interstate 40 in Arkansas, heading to our next destination from Huntsville. Hawk viewing is a popular sport today as we go through AL, MS, TN and AR on this trip. But close enough. Hunstville was a mix of many things, so much so that it's hard to know where to start. I guess, when in doubt, nothing gets you going like a chronology of events. So let's start there.

Tuesday 2/21 - A travel day from Monroe NC to Huntsville AL. The route took us through a chunk of road we've already passed, through Atlanta and Birmingham and then up to Huntsville. It was an unusual route in that we had to go a bit south in order to come up back north. No real east-west routes were available through the very southern foothils of the Appalachians (as I guess). Huntsville is a city which has as the foundation of its economy NASA research and a large militray base. As a consequence, the University of Alabama-Huntsville is a college which concentrates on the sciences and engineering. We were hosted by the English Honors program. Our lodgings were on campus, in a complex called the Bevil Center. What was really sweet was that the space we played in was in the building right next door, a large open space reminiscent of Lee Hall in Fredericksburg MD. They set up platforms for us, and it was a pretty wide and live space. Jessica was my roommate for this stop, so we moved in and went over to the university center to explore the space and get a little food. Later that evening we went to a movie sponsored by the student Democratic group entitled Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices. The documentary itself was of questionable quality but it got its point across; so well, in fact, that Jessica has sworn off going to Wal-Mart for company supplies or any other reason. My wife has been all along a Wal-Mart boycotter, and I think after this film I'll have to join her. The clinchers for me were Wal-Mart's deliberate use of government social services as a subsidy for not providing living wages or health insurance to its workers, and images from the Chiese factories where Wal-Mart makes some of its goods. Also, I should mention how little the billionaire Walton family returns philanthropically to society - a total of $6,000 on one recorded year. For me the realization that all this is deliberate corporate policy, and not just an after-effect of being large, seals the deal. Finding Target stores has replaced finding Wal-Mart stores on the road.

Wednesday 2/22 - This was sort of an all-around lazy day. The weather was none too good; rainy all day. I found the fitness center and went down there in the morning to get on the treadmill. Lately it has been hard to find a place to exercise, and I had begun to worry I was putting on a few of those pounds I had lost. But I weighed in at 192, so I'm maintaining but still haven't cracked that 190 barrier yet. It was a great fitness facility, with very nice treadmills, a track, and a very interesting stretching cage. There was a pool there as well, but I did not see a hot tub. I think the one they had was outdoors, and it was too cold to go out there. After my 35 minutes on the treadmill and some laps around the track, Jessica and I signed out the van in the morning and went food shopping with our per diem. We had a microwave and refrigerator in the room, so doing some shopping keeps us from going to restaurants. I grabbed some bananas, chocolate milk and three Healthy Choice dinners, plus a bag of pretzels. We did treat ourselves to some sushi across the street. The afternoon went by sort of surfing the net and making last-minute preparations for my Friday presentation. We loaded in around 5 that afternoon and started off the run with R3 that night.

As I mentioned in my last post, this is a "season ticket" stop, with S2 having been a regular feature for maybe 15-16 years here. So there's a devoted following among faculty and the Huntsville Literary Association. So our audiences for all three shows were very receptive and looking forward to each evening. They also book in some local high schools, but unlike other venues the high school crowds come in the evening. RIchard's audience was small but receptive, and the show went well all around. Jessica and I were running very low on merchandise, but nonetheless we did pretty good business with what we had. But it was obvious from doing the first show that people were ready to visit the merch booth. A beer and some pretzels rounded off the day.

Thursday, 2/23 - Off to the fitness center again for a workout. I walked over with Daniel, who has been pushing himself extra hard on the bicycle lately. I did 40 minutes this day, burning off about 300 calories. After showering and eating lunch, I went over to the University Center to meet with Dr. Jerry Mebane, the man who runs the Honors program and sort of coordinates our visit. He is a very kind and mild-mannered gentleman, soft spoken in a sort of Southern gentleman way. He's a Renaissance Lit guy and has been at UA-H for going on 20 years or so. He was kind enough to take my presentation and load it on his computer, so we tested out all the equipment and had a nice chat. He gave me some idea of what to expect. After we finished I went back to the room and took a nap, as I was sort of beginning to feel some tightness and fatigue from the workouts. A Healthy Choice dinner, and off to the theatre!

Much Ado that night went very well. It was the largest of all three audiences, as this was the show the area high schools had booked the most. They had to drag in chairs to seat the overflow of people who showed up, so the place was packed. I think it's safe to say that we had the audience eating out of our hands during the show, as they were with us every minute. I think the thing that all of us like best about the show is that we take the audience on quite a roller coaster ride, moving from hilarity to pathos to hilarity. This audience really, I think, came with us on this night through the whole journey, and that made the evening very satisfying.

Following the performance the Honors Society sorority, Sigma Tau Epsilon, gave us a reception at a building which was a former one-room schoolhouse and is now an art gallery. They cooked up some mean food, all right - fired chicken, fried catfish, ham, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs and an assortment of salads and such. They topped it off with a trifle, which is a combination of pudding, cake, sherry and fruit. Actors being actors, we naturally stuffed ourselves. I sat down at a table with some faculty members and other adults, while the rest of the troupe mixed in with other attendees and the sorority members. The students, of course, gave us tips on where to go in town for fun and amusement and offered to accompany us. More on that later. And there was this great 80-year-old southern belle who put on quite a show for everyone in the place, Full of compliments, and apparently still living the high life. If Blanche DuBois had lived to be 80 she would have been this woman. After the reception, a beer (no pretzels) and sleep.

Friday, 2/24 - As I got up, had coffee and prepared to go to the gym, Jessica suggested that we go take a hike up on Monte Sano State Park. We were thinking of doing that on Saturday, our day off, but the weather report indicated Friday was going to be the better of the two days. We both needed to do laundry as well, so the plan became gathering the laundry, using a drop-off service (which I had never done before; $1 a pound, and I had 12 lbs. Turns out to be a bit more than doing it there, but you pay for the free time). After "breakfast for lunch" at Waffle House (Jessica's first visit), we went to the park and had a very good hike. Jessica had gotten directions from a hiking web site about some rock cuts (simiar to Panama Rocks for Fredonia readers), so we set off there. although we did not know it, we missed the first trail head and hiked tothe bottom of the saddle, where we found ourselves on the Mountain Mist Trail. The area has some 60 miles of trails through state lands in the are. Given that we started from the wrong trailhead the directions we had were wrong for us, but we didn't realize it until we came upon three people hiking down from the ridge. The man who set us on the right path was maybe in his late 60s and it was obvious he had just come out of the hospital.Both the back of his hands had IV bandages on them, his ears were bandaged and he had other hospital marks about him. But he was quite friendly (recognizing our northern accents) and asked if we were in the area as cultural ambassadors. When we told him what we were doing, he laughed at the inadvertent accurateness of his guess, but thought it was too much for an old redneck like himself. He set us on the right trail for the rock cuts, and soon we found ourselves there. The actual area was small but interesting You can check out the canyon movie here. Then back to the van and home by 3:00, where another nap beckoned. The walk was a fine substitute for the treadmill, and quite preferable.

That night I gave my pre-show lecture before Return. It went over very well, I think, and was fun to do. I got some laughs here and there. Members of the cast popped in and out to offer support but couldn't stay the whole time. If you want to see the Powerpoint presentation, just click right here, but be warned it's a 3.9MB file, because I did not bother to re-size the photos I used. The show itself was a hoot. There had been some concern that it would not be well-attended because the title is not well known and the public service ad in the local paper had not gotten published. But we pushed the show the previous two nights, and as a consequence there was a good-sized audience there. Musically it was one of the best we've done in a while, and the audience just enjoyed the hell out of it You could see the knowing nods of the boomers in the audience as each song began. We did an encore at the end of the show, and usually Jessica and I do not participate in the encore to make sure the merch booth is staffed for those people who do not stay through an encore, but this time no one left, so Jessica and I went back on the stage and danced Pulp Fiction style. Then we went back to the table and damn near sold almost everything else we had for sale. I don't have a final total, but I am sure we did close to $600 worth of business in the three days. Not too shabby. Then load-out, notes, picture, beer and pretzels, and sleep.

Saturday, 2/25 - Day off. I really didn't have any firm plans for the day off, so I sort of ended up floating with the tide all day. All I really knew was that I had a craving for a cigar, so I was going to try to get one somewhere. In the morning I called home to chat with Ann Marie and catch up on family doings, then spent some time helping Daniel out with some computer issues. The most well-known attraction in the area is the NASA Rocket Science Museum, and I had thought I was going to go there, but as it turned out I got in the "going downtown" van, so I spent the better part of the early afternoon walking around downtown Huntsville. There are some nice architectural structures, but apparently downtown Huntsville doesn't open until after 5PM on Saturday. It seemed to be one of those downtowns where, if the businesses aren't open, nothing else opens. So Daniel, Jessica and I sort of moseyed about looking for someplace to eat. The only place open was Humphrey's, a restaurant/bar which has live music, so we went there simply due to lack of other options. For lunch I had two Angus Beef Hot Dogs with Chow Chow and Bertman Ball Park mustard. We hung out there until about 4:15 or so, when Andrew and Sarah came downtown with a van to rescue us.

Now, our next stop needs some context. I had been looking for a place to buy a decent cigar, and when I was in the process of looking for a tobacco shop I ran across an ad in the Yellow Pages for a hookah bar. I have never been to a hookah bar, so I figured since all of this touring is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, I wanted to go to this hookah bar. I managed to talk everyone else into a trip down to this place. Others had had the hookah experience, so I knew i was going with some seasoned vets.

The place was named Hipocratease, and was not quite what I was told a classic hookah bar should be. In New York City, apparently these places have throw pillow on the floor and some sort of Turkish atmosphere. This place had a faux-hip-modern-70s look, and in addition to renting hookahs also sold cigars and massive amounts of porn. It was a bit bizarre as a mixture, to be sure. But we found a small corner in the back and sat down for a smoke. Those who partook enjoyed a shisha (which is basically a flavored tobacco) which I think had apples and raisins in it. You place the shisha in a bowl, cover it with aluminum foil, poke holes in the foil, and place a hot coal on top of the foil. Then you smoke through the water pipe. It had a very smooth, fruity flavor, and was a mild smoke. Very relaxing. The place happened to have a wireless connection, so I took out my Nokia 770 tablet and hooked up to WFUV Radio in Mew York City, which happened to have a George Harrison set playing, complete with sitar. Uncanny. I also found a nice little cigar, so I had the two going at once. Needless to say after about an hour or so my urge for tobacco was completely satiated.

(This is a long post, and I am now getting ready for bed and a 6:45 AM call tomorrow. So, to be continued...)

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PART 2

Russellville, AR (3/1) - Where was I? Oh yes....

Then we went off to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Nothing special there, good food, but I did see some sort of font which was exuding dry ice from it. I could not figure out how it was being done, but it was really pretty interesting, and I have to find out how to get one.

So it's now about 8PM or so, and we lose Jessica and Daniel and pick up Kevin. It's Andrew, Sarah, Kevin and I as we head downtown. The ladies from Sigma Tau had tipped us off to a place called Flying Monkey Arts, which turned out to be a converted factory now used essentially for young artists. It had a second floor which basically contained books, a series of artist studios, a scooter track, and several neat little nooks to sit down, read and chill. The place had a very eclectic and youthful feel to it. There were many young people there, and it was nice to know there was such a wonderful place for them to hang out and create what they wanted. Every city should have one of these, and it was sort of interesting to come to a place like Huntsville in the middle of the "backwards" South and find such a cool place for teens.

The downstairs had a performance space to it, basically a stage and a poor sound system, but nonetheless something that could host performance art and music acts and such. The performance they had that night was the Sex Workers Art Show, which was a collection of performance art by former sex workers. It was somewhat interesting, but for me it was also slightly boring. The younger ones seemed more interested in the work than I was. I took some pictures and some movies (I haven't uploaded stuff yet, but keep checking the pictures and movies links on the right sidebar to see when they go up) so you could get a taste of the show, but you should be warned it's for "mature viewing" and rated "X." But this group is playing some pretty good places like Bard College and other venues, so they must have something going for them. I just felt that many of the performances made their point in less than 5 minutes and became repetitive quickly.

Then we ended the night over at Humphrey's again, listening to Microwave Dave play the blues. The Sigma Tau girls were there to keep the young folks company, while I happened to talk with some faculty members from UA-H who had seen the shows. Nice to have some people my own age to talk to. Unfortunately at one point I lost my glasses, so now I'm working on a spare pair. And that was my day off in Huntsville!

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Here in Russellville we have done two NEA high school shows, one in Alma AR and the other in Russellville. Not too much to say about them other than they went well. The Alma gig was in a beautiful performance space which wasn't more than 4 years old, and we could not figure out why it was there. It's not like the area is heavily populated, but in the summer there are probably a good number of tourists, since this is Ozark Mountain area. The Russellville was in a converted space which on the outside was all boarded up and looked abandoned. It was some sort of day care/child care center that had an auditorium re-designed as a concert hall, and the bussed in maybe two English classes to see the show, so it was a small audience. Other than those two gigs we have had the days to ourselves. I was so tired on Monday that I couldn't bring myself to do much but go food shopping and hang out. I tried my best not to go to sleep (our call had been 6:45 AM) and was sort of successful. Lately I have been combining some workouts with shows, and it seems that I'm getting a little stiff. Yesterday, upon coming back from the show, I took a long walk around the Bona Dea Trail, which is basically along the woods and swamps formed from Lake Dardanelle. The lake is a dammed river, pretty nice for boating and such. Along the walk there were plenty of box turtles sunning on logs, some geese, bullfrogs, and I also spotted a heron.

I've also gotten the troupe a gig at Platteville High School to substitute for two other NEA gigs we lost. That was good, because the troupe will get March 10 and 11 off. This leg of the tour has seemed longer that the last, in the sense that we've traveled farther for fewer venues, and a break will be a good thing.

You may be wondering, having read this far, why the title is "Small Worlds." Well, although it took this much writing to get there, my original thoughts for this post had to do with a feeling lately of how small your world gets on tour. When you lose the sense of your geographical location after awhile (Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas - what's the difference?) you sort of get the feeling that the country is way smalller than you think. Traveling in the van every day to go somewhere also compresses your world. Seeing and knowing only the 11 other people on tour with you makes the world seem smaller as well, because no matter where you are in the country, those same 11 other people are there with you.

What also makes the world seem small is realizing that, when things are not going so well in your larger world, you can't escape to deal with it. It can be strenuous psychologically at times when company members have difficulties at home with family or friends and they can't simply leave to be with them or help out. Everything has to be done by cell phone, and at times you just feel helpless in those situations. That feeling of wanting to leave and be with your family or friends in distress, but not being able to leave and having to go on with the tour - and those same 11 people - is, I think by far, the hardest thing you have to deal with while out on the road. Maintaining your balance, maintaining your cool, and maintaining your sense of perspective and work ethic all are tall orders under this kind of pressure. It's also hard to stand by and be just an observer when one of the company members has some situation going on they are trying to attend to, because there's little you yourself can do to help other than offer support. So even though you're traveling across a very large country and seeing so many interesting things, in some ways going on tour eventually compresses your sense of your reality to a few small things and a few people. In our "real lives" we all have a wider scope of activities, family and friends, and squeezing them all out to be with just these 11 others sure is a tall order. I think it's at about this time on the tour, when the novelty has worn off, the grind gets long, hotels all seem the same, and you long for a home-cooked meal, that this feeling of a small, closed world becomes apparent. We have 30 days to go for the winter leg, and while I am sure we can make it, I am also keeping my fingers crossed that this "small world" feeling doesn't make us all too crazy. Edges can get frayed, small things can look like major disasters, but I think we're all smart enough, aware enough, and good enough not to let things grow too extreme. I do my best to keep a positive attitude and a smiling face, because there is still a lot of fun to be had, and for me, despite this feeling of compression, it's all part of the whole experience, and when you sign up for an experience like this, you take the bad with the good. Nothing in life is perfect, no gig is absolutely ideal (as is no job), so for me, it's all part of the package. I like to pay attention to the happy moments; Olivia biting my shoulder, filming Alyssa's butt, hiking with Jessica, Daniel's sarcasm and wit, Sarah's smile and laugh (she now has a blog too!), Greg's steadiness, Tyler's craziness, Chris' crustiness and music, Kevin's "Periwrinkle"-ness, Andrew's edifications, and Carie keeping it together. When you make the effort to see the good in people rather than the eccentricities and weaknesses we all have, it makes the world just that much larger for me. And having a world of creative people with large hearts and a willingness to even do this sort of thing and bring these shows around the country can be as large as you let it. -TWL

Some Easy Breathing - 2/20/06

Monroe, NC - First off, I must make a correction to my last post. Our Fearless Leader, SuperDude himself (a.k.a. Artistic Director Jim Warren), is fanatically attached to my blog. He eagerly anticipates every posting, anxiously awaiting news from his devoted junior dudes out in the field carrying the ASC banner. Upon reading my last post, he noticed a factual error and immediately corrected me. Because I have sworn loyalty in blood unto my kind and loving head dude, I must now inform all two of you who read this thing that, under the touring rules, our travel limit on a day where we have no show to perform is 10 hours, not 8 (as I so incorrectly reported), or 500 miles. We have not exceeded that limitation. Please forgive me, O mighty SuperDude, lest I be banished forever from thy dude-ly sight! :-) (Note to the uninitiated: "dude" is Jim's favorite word. I fear that one day, upon returning to Fredonia, I will inadvertently call my new Vice President for Academic Affairs "dude." That's how often I now use the term.)

So - having pissed and moaned in the last post, with this one I am most pleased to report that things on my end have been rather pleasant these past few days. The remaining stay in Daytona Beach was very nice. R3 went over as well as Much Ado, although there was one sort of intense woman in the audience who had something of a one-person audible running commentary going throughout the show. Every time Richard opened his mouth to say something she would call out "Liar" or something similar. She really hated Richard, and had no hesitancy in letting us all know about it. Quite Elizabethan in many ways. So we all had to work through that. During the battlement scene when Buckingham convinces the citizens of London to acclaim Richard as king, Tyler (who now has his own blog), as Catesby, went up into the crowd towards this woman. Undaunted, she threatened Tyler with some sort of vague bodily harm. Hard looks were exchanged, but nothing ensued. Quite a weird incident. And kudos to Olivia (whose birthday is today as I write this), who came up with a brilliant suggestion to close off the rather open space in which we performed by having some black expandable travelers brought into the space for us. Exits and entrances were rendered much easier by this piece of genius. Speed Week did not pose as much of a problem as we thought it would, either, but it was too bad that I did not get much of a chance to explore the raceway area. I tried to sit out in the sun to get my neck a little redder but only succeeded in burning my baldness. And of course, on top of some good performances and good audiences (in particular the theatre students there, who fight against all odds to provide theatre to the local engineers and mechanics who make up the student body), the relaxing setting of the Atlantic Center for the Arts was wonderful. Even though the second day was not as bright and sunny as the first day was, the air temperature was still pretty warm, and it was invigorating to be in the semi-tropical lushness that is Florida. I don't know what it is about the state, but every time I go there I get this tremendous urge to retire! All these little communities welcome those 55 and older, so I've got one more year to go and I'll be of age. Not quite like hitting 21, but it has its own special charm.

So into the van again this past Friday and an all-day journey to Monroe NC. We have just completed our tour stop at Wingate University, yet another small, private, religious college, and here again the lodgings were good - a Hampton Inn with all the nice amenities (wireless, breakfast, etc.) This particular stop had a day off in between a Saturday performance of RTTFP and tonight's performance of R3. So I decided to rent a car for the weekend, and got a great deal at the local Enterprise about half a block from the hotel. Chris and Daniel both rented cars there as well, so they gave us a "company deal" of $20/day. Not bad. So on Sunday I decided I needed some serious solo time and took off in the car for some adventure. I spent the morning and early afternoon at King's Mountain National Military Park/State Park. It's the site of a famous Revolutionary War battle, and has between the national park and the state park adjoining it a 16-mile hiking trail, of which I did a little less than 8 miles. The trail went through some hilly terrain and followed a small creek in which I saw some blue heron. The park was deserted for all intents and purposes, and I saw not one other human being during my hike, for which I was most grateful. There was one beautiful spot at which I took a moment to breathe and be still. Then in the afternoon, I drove over to Charlotte and took in an exhibition of The Dead Sea Scrolls on display at their Discovery Place science museum. The exhibit itself consisted of no more than 12 small fragments of the scrolls, but even to behold those small fragments was a wonder to me. I was so surprised at the tiny script I saw, thinking about the men who sat for hours writing these scrolls. Of even more wonder was to see such an ancient fragment of the earliest known copy of the Hebrew Bible handwritten. Their very presence in your eyes, dim as they are, just touch off an echo in your mind and soul which reverberates over the 2,000 years gone by from their creation, and you wonder if modern humanity will ever again see a group of people so singly dedicated to a calling higher than themselves, in similar fashion to these Essenes. You are struck at once with the thought of how far we have progressed and advanced technologically, yet how little we have progressed and advanced spiritually and ethically as compared to the Qumran community. It's somehow also analogous to doing Shakespeare with original practices as opposed to modern practices; have we really advanced the theatre in modern times, or is the past really the heart and soul of the art?

It turns out that Charlotte has a very small downtown, because I ran into my fellow travelers while looking for a restaurant in which to eat. So Tyler kept me company for dinner (although I made him talk about his SUNY Purchase experiences to my son Eric, who had his second audition for Purchase this past weekend and was stressing about it), and then we joined the rest of the group at a nearby Irish pub. Olivia was celebrating her birthday, and we heard a nice Irish traditional group, but I cut out early because I was hoping to catch a moonrise. The sky turned out to be too cloudy, however, so I ended up just driving back to Monroe after the end of a pretty nice day off.

I have been kept busy during non-working times these past few days preparing a lecture for our next gig at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. This is another "season ticket" stop, and they have a tradition of giving 30-minute presentations before each show to those interested in attending. The lectures prepare the audience for what they're about to see, and are generally given my UA-H faculty. Planet, however, posed a unique situation in that no one there felt qualified to speak on the show, so they asked if a member of the company could do so. Due to my oh-so-high standing as a college prof on sabbatical I was summarily pressed into service as the lecturer for RTTFP, so I get to do some yakkity-schmakkity later this week. I'm preparing a Powerpoint presentation, so when it's complete and done I will put in online and you, o faithful reader, may peruse it if you are so inclined. I also got my taxes somewhat done so as to complete the FAFSA form to get financial aid for Eric's continued education (while Brian graduates! Yay!).

Anyway, the past few days have been the complete opposite of pre-Daytona; restful, not overly busy, good shows, almost all good houses (Sat. evening at Wingate was a very small but very enthusiastic crowd, as we've had other places), and a good day off to boot. From here it's on up to Alabama and back into the Midwest as we approach the halfway point of this winter leg. We have much travel left ahead of us, going from here all the way up to Platteville in WIsconsin before we return back down to TN, NC and WV and eventually nearer to home. But one full day of travel to spend three or four days in one location is something I will easily take in stride every time. My poor sore behind is extremely grateful for these few days of easy living! -TWL

Never Miss A Chance to Piss- 2/15/06

Daytona Beach, FL - Traveling 500 miles in a day can really take it out of you, I've found. Not so much physically, although there is some of that, but psychologically as well. In Florence SC, where we had a one-night gig at Francis Marion University, the whole experience of touring became somewhat surreal. I've sort of felt as if I've had no real grasp on a sense of place these past few days. A quick visit to Due West, SC and Erskine College, and then another 9-hour trip got us to Daytona Beach FL, where we are housed at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, has reinforced the feeling. The ACA is a small artists retreat center, where master artists such as Paula Vogel, Arthur Kopit and other visual and performing artists stay as master teachers for Associate Artists who come to perfect their craft with the master artists. It's a nice place, but removed from any sort of conveniences such as stores or a nice beachfront. I don't know, but lately I get the feeling that we're getting housed at all these out-of-the-way places by design or something. Not only that, but it seems our gigs are all so widely spaced apart. After we finish here we have two more 9-hour trips facing us; from here to Monroe NC, and then from Monroe to Huntsville AL. We are not supposed to have any trips which last more than 8 hours according to the rules, but these trips, according to Google Maps, will take between 9 and 10 hours. You've got to piss at every stop.

The first two long days on the road since last I wrote in this blog took us from Monmouth IL in the heart of the great plains, through the Appalachian Mountains by way of the Great Smoky Mountains, and out into the Pee Dee River country of South Carolina. There's a very different feel you get when you cross the country in this manner, because you know that everything is going to be seen from a car window, and you'll have no opportunity to stop, take in a rest stop with a view, have a nice lunch by a riverside, etc. You're just a prisoner of the van, gawking as you pass. I do my best to whip out my camera and take a passing movie or picture, but the experience can be frustrating, and the view from the rear of the van is not always that good. You're just on the go, with the hellbent intent of getting to your next destination, not to luxuriate in the beauty of what you're traveling through. This passing-through feeling is what gives me that surreal feeling, because I never get the time to stop and let the scenery and beauty of what I'm traveling through soak in. Even choices for rest stops are puzzling. Sometimes when we have a chance to stop in a small location with some scenery we pass it by, only to stop at some MallofAmerica location which is like any other along the beaten path.

The stay at Florence was somewhat depressing, in that we drove all that way to do one performance of Planet on a Saturday evening to a somewhat small and reserved crowd, and then got a day off in Florence. Florence is not a place where you want to spend your day off, as it is economically depressed and ugly. The Red Roof Inn goes up there as one of the top three most horrible places we've stopped. It had absolutely no amenities of any sort, and was situated at the opposite end of town across from a crummy mall. Sarah ended up getting sick and covered with red welts of some sort (the diagnosis was scabies, but I am not sure that's the case because no one else got it). Kevin, Jessica and I traveled to Hartsville on Sunday for a hike in the Kalida Gardens of Coker College, about 20 miles from Florence, which was very pleasant. You can see pictures on my Flickr site (check the badge on the sidebar). We also ate at Pat's Restaurant, which featured a down-home Southern Sunday buffet (ham, turkey, pork, greens, lima beans, mashed potatoes, hush puppies, fried okra, and incredible sweet potatoes). I also went out with Alyssa and Greg to see a 10:25 showing of Brokeback Mountain at the local movieplex. The film, I thought, was beautifully shot, but the central characters, to me, were not really engaging. I was neutral about them throughout, and I never really understood why they loved each other beyond a physical attraction. I think the movie's popularity rests more on the fact that it's brave enough to depict gay cowboys and is getting something of a pass as far as character development and plot is concerned. My $0.02. We were the only people in the theatre watching that movie, and we were the last three people to leave the moviehouse, with everyone staring at us as we left. I did manage to have breakfast in three different places: the Huddle House (bacon and eggs), the Waffle House (Philly cheesesteak omelet), and the International House of Pancakes. IHOP won the breakfast war, as the whole grain pancakes I had were really good. But I was glad to get out of Florence.

Then we got to Due West, where I recorded my last audio blog. Again, I have to scratch my head, because we stayed in Abbeville, one of the quaintest little towns I've seen in a long time, and did the show in Due West, about 20 minutes or so away. But we left Florence around 11:30 AM, arrived in Abbeville about 3:00 PM, have to leave by 4:50 for Due West, do the show to another small, but this time enthusiastic crowd, load out, get back to Abbeville where everything is now closed (as was most of the town's restaurants and coffee shops in the afternoon; Monday seemed to be the town's "day off"), sleep in this quaint hotel, and leave at 8AM the next morning. In other words, we stay three nights in a lousy location, and practically do not get to see or stay in a nice location. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! The fates have not been kind in this regard, only exacerbating that surreal feeling.

Then the 9-hour trip to Daytona Beach.
On the way we ran into an accident where a tractor trailer flipped, and we waited on the side of the road for about 35 minutes. We got in last night in time for dinner at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's dining center, and then off to the artists complex. I happened by sheer chance to occupy one of the corner rooms (everyone has their own room here), which is bigger than most since it is designed for handicap access. It's a nice set-up, with refrigerator and work space. For some reason everyone had received the impression that this was going to be some sort of "hippie commune," with rustic cabins and barns and such. Far from it. The rooms are modern and nice, and the actual artistic complex has wireless internet around it. The complex has a sculpture studio, painting studio, music studio, dance studio, small theatre and library, with a commons room and administration buildings. Today the temperature got up into the mid-60s with plenty of sunshine, and I spent all day before the show preparing my lecture for UA-Huntsville, checking email and the web, and relaxing in the warmth. I got a bit of sun on the top of my head, as I neglected to wear a hat. Not enough to burn, but enough that I should take precautions tomorrow.

The show itself this evening was Much Ado, and it went over very well. Unlike the last two performances, it was a large and enthusiastic crowd. The space itself is awkward, with no exit stage right, a carpeted hard floor and a steeply-raked audience. We solved the entrance/exit issues, and the audience was very much with us throughout the show. One funny incident was when Tyler got stuck underneath the stage left onstage seats while hiding during the first gulling scene. He actually got stuck underneath the seats to the point where he had to have the audience members get up from their seats to set him free. Of course, his grandmother, who drove all the way from Boca Raton to see him, was in the audience to watch him make a fool of himself. He brought his saviors out onto the stage fro a round of applause. The Embry-Riddle theatre students were there in force as well, complete with embroidered polo shirts, sitting in the front row, and they were loving it. I'm always glad when theatre students come to see our plays, as it's so important for them to see outside theatre.

Tomorrow ought to be an interesting day, because we are here in Daytona during Speed Week and the running of the Daytona 500 (another bit of scheduling genius from the powers that be). They tell us that traffic tomorrow will be impossible, and that if we are not at the university by 2:30 PM (which is situated pretty much next to the racetrack) we will never get there between 2:30 and 5:30. That's because they route all traffic away from the race track and many avenues become one-way in the wrong direction. So instead of another relaxing day at the arts complex it will be a rush to get to the university for that night's show (R3). Not too bad, though, because the university campus is pretty nice. I just have to remember to get up early tomorrow to do laundry or wait until I return from the show that night. I also want to film a movie tour of this complex for you all.

So on the whole I won't get to see much of Daytona Beach. I'm not really a beach person, although Kevin and Jesssica hung out at the beach today while others did workshops or went to the gym to work out. I took a walk this morning and did get to see some bayfront, but not really beachfront. But as I say, lounging around this complex in the nice weather was very pleasant. I am thinking at the moment of renting a car for the next day off in Monroe NC so I can get a little sightseeing in that is not restricted to the 20-mile limit of the vans. And I also have to prepare for the next two long rides. How do I do that? XM Radio and podcasting, baby! "The Office" gives me a very quiet, subdued place to pass the time. I download three or four podcasts (On The Media, Democracy Now!, Major League Baseball Radio and the Leonard Lopate Show are my staples), and get my XM radio rolling. BBC in the morning (or XM Public Radio if BBC is dull), MLB Home Plate in the late morning/early afternoon, and podcasts from mid-afternoon to destination arrival. It works; time does pass more quickly this way. I might also get a new audiobook as well. I've finished Will in the World and need something else.

And of course - I never miss a chance to piss! -TWL

Too Pooped to Write - 2/13/06

The Oatcakes play Opryland - 2/8/06

Monmouth, IL - Well, it's official - I can now boast that I have played Opryland. Well, at least in the Opryland Convention Center. It's not exactly downtown Nashville, but 'twill serve. It was a hectic 48 hours, to be sure, but the 30 minutes we got to play were a lot of fun.

We got to the gig in Fairmont, MN, and it was pretty good. The Opera House there was a nice little venue, your usual typical renovated opera house. The manager/TD, Rick, was friendly and helpful. He gave us a brief history of the place while we had a catered lunch (the food was SO midwestern!). The place apparently was slated for demolition and was saved with, I think, 10 hours to spare. It's a good renovation but not quite as complete as the Fredonia Opera House. One interesting feature, though, was the fact that the whole basement office/reception area had been dug out by hand by volunteers. Only a tunnel had existed before. That's dedication. The show itself - Planet - was met with enthusiasm by normally staid Minnesotans. There were an unusual collection of "buckle bunnies" in the audience (women who wear large rodeo buckles on their jean belts), and I hadn't thought that southern MN was cowboy country. There were some guys having a hard time sitting, but mostly it was a good-time audience. Rick actually arranged for a collection of women to rush the stage when Greg sang "Young Girl," and that was a funny sight to see all these kids and middle-aged midwestern housewives rush the stage. Greg said later it was probably the closest to being a Beatle that he's ever going to come. I was disappointed that the stay was so short for me, because the town of Fairmont is apparently bordered by four or five small lakes, and I would have liked to take a tour of the town. The downtown area looked immaculate, a postcard of a midwestern farm town. There were fish houses out on the nearest lake I saw, right out of Garrison Keilor. Some of the company had never seen ice fishing houses nor pickups on a lake, so it was pretty new and astounding to them to think that a lake could freeze so hard you could drive a truck onto it.

The reason that I did not get to see any of Fairmont was because the next day the Oatcakes had to fly to Nashville for our American Bus Association breakfast gig sponsored by the Virginia Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Oatcakes (the name taken from my character Hugh Oatcake, a member of the watch in Much Ado) consist of myself, Greg, Alyssa, Jessica and Chris, and our assignment was to play about 30 minutes of the music from Planet for this convention. The Virginia CVB apparently had called up the ASC and asked about providing some entertainment for their breakfast, and so Bill Gordon and the crew back at Staunton gat the five of us to do this gig. It meant essentially giving up our day off in Fairmont to make the trip and then re-join the group here in Monmouth IL at Monmouth College. So we got up at 6AM Sunday morning and took two plane rides to get to Nashville. We arrived about 3 PM or so, met our contact Barbara from the VCVB, and hauled our stuff over to the Opryland complex.

This complex was something else. It is a HUGE hotel and convention center, and I mean huge! We only got to see a small part of it, the Presidential Ballroom area. It all stands on land which was once an amusement park called Opryland, but is now mostly this convention center and a large shopping complex. The location we played in was huge, seating about 800 people. But they had it all going: two large video screens, a complete sound system, three wide-screen teleprompters, and all sorts of vari-lighting. We locked our stuff up there and then went out to dinner at the Applebee's in our own hotel, right across the street. We met a great shuttle driver who turned us on to a new line of busses he was developing for tours such as ours, as well as his daughter, Tenessee Amber, who's a bluegrass entertainer. I did manage to squeeze in the Superbowl, most of the first half in the restaurant, and the second half up in my room. But I was beat, so I turned the game off with three minutes left and went to sleep. Wakeup time was 5AM next morning, and all the travel can wear you out. (PS - although I have positive feelings for Pittsburgh, I think Seattle was robbed blind in the game. The refs were simply too present in that game.)

So up at 5AM, meet in the lobby at 5:30, and over to Opryland for a 6AM soundcheck. Of course normally we don't play with amplification, but in this case we needed it. The sound guys were a little mystified that we needed so little, nothing but mikes for voices and instruments. During our soundcheck, while I was drumming, one of the brushes for the snare drum exploded, and of all the things we brought (including a backup guitar), we did not bring an extra brush. So we had to improvise and taped up the tip of a drumstick to mute it a little against the other brush. The broken brush threw Alyssa into a small mini-panic, but once we finally got onstage she recovered and drummed well in her percussion tunes. We finished the soundcheck by 7:45, had breakfast, got into costume, and went out at 8:15 AM to play through our set. It was very weird to be playing with a light show behind us, spotlights on us when we soloed, and then catching us up on the big screens out of the corners of our eyes. I had my guitar too close to the mike at one point and garnered some serious feedback, but overall the gig went very well. I was most surprised by the fact that people were actually paying attention to us. I had expected that we would be providing some background entertainment while everyone else was schmoozing and networking, but I was quite wrong. They listened to us, which added a bit of pressure to be as good as we could. I think in the end I heard it reported that we were a success because often at these things people walk out after they've finished eating, but almost no one left while we played. Everyone connected with the VA CVB seemed most pleased. Then we packed up our stuff, got our ride to the airport at 9:15 AM, and spent the rest of the day traveling to Monmouth IL, where we arrived at 5 PM about 7 minutes ahead of the rest of the company. I went over to the local Country Mart, grabbed a Healthy Choice meal, some chocolate milk and sweet crunch peanuts and a yogurt, and headed off to my room for an exciting evening of food and TV. I did get to see on HBO the movie I, Robot, but couldn't bring myself to watch The Upside of Anger, so I settled for three episodes of M*A*S*H on Hallmark and then sleep.

Monmouth is another typical midwestern town, about 45 minutes south of the Quad City area in southwestern Illinois. The college is a small Presbyterian college of about 1800 students, but many new buildings. I've mostly spent my free time during the day catching up on email, doing some internet window shopping, and getting back to some exercise routine. I did my laundry this morning and now I'm sitting in a nice coffee shop located in the library. The show last night was Planet with Much Ado tonight. We had a small but appreciative audience. Apparently theatre students at this college cannot get out of class to go see theatre, once again demonstrating the small-mindedness of much theatre thinking. But we did have some theatre students in the house last night, and they invited the company downtown for a drink. I went as designated driver. Fortunately (from my perspective) the closing time in this county is midnight, so we got back relatively early. I kicked Tyler's ass in pool, but then subsequently got my ass kicked by Daniel, who so far appears to be the troupe's best pool player. He made one shot on the 8-ball which actually amazed me. He had called the shot originally, but scratched in executing it first, and technically lost the game, but I had him set up the shot again because I did not believe it was a shot he could make. Damned if he didn't sink it! So I laughed, bowed in homage, and offered to fill his water bottle for a week.

I did get to see a bit of downtown in passing, and there appears to be a small traffic circle in the middle of town with a monument to something or other. I also found out that Monmouth is the birthplace of Wyatt Erp, and had I some access to transportation I would have gone down to visit his birthplace, but I have to walk everywhere and there was too much to get done. I did want to walk downtown, but once again the day seems to have gotten away from me in ways that often I can't account for. Even now I am rushing to get this written so I can get outside and take some photos of the campus while it's still daylight. Although call is still 90 minutes away I have to eat dinner, take those photos and get to the theatre. If the hotel we were staying in had internet service I wouldn't be rushing so much, but I can't even get dial-up service because I have no local access number for NetZero. So doesn't that seem like a cue to finish this off? -TWL