My Old Kentucky Home - 9/27/05

Murray, KY - I probably should not be blogging this time of night, since I have an 8:00 AM call tomorrow for Much Ado, but I haven't really put up a post since we bugged out of Shreveport. So I'll try to catch everyone up and do it succinctly.

First off, I should thank all the kind people in Shreveport who put us up and got us out: Patty, Steve and Heather (Heather Peak is a former S2 member herself, and her opening of Lysistrata got canceled as well). Also, a big thanks to all the M.Litt students at Mary Baldwin College, and especially Centenary graduate and Shreveport native Mary Beth, who was trying to hook us up with some of her people before we finally decided to bug out. Glad you're thinking of us.

Turns out that the eye of Hurricane Rita did go right over Shreveport, and there was some damage as well, but overall the city escaped real major damage. Based on what I read in the Shreveport Times online, we were in an area of the city that did lose electricity and had much tree damage.

The trip from Shreveport took us through LA, AR, some small part of TN and KY. Murray is located in the very southwest corner of Kentucky, and the county in which Murray resides is a dry county. Did not see much during the trip, but did pass through a mighty poor section of rural Arkansas. We also went through Hope, AR, birthplace of Bill Clinton, but we took the bypass rather than go directly through downtown due to time.

The weekend was actually quite boring. Apparently Murray State University practically shuts down over the weekends. There is a large commuter population and that seems to bring things to a screeching halt. A few of us wanted to take a road trip to Nashville, which is only about two hours from here, but all the car rental places closed at noon on Saturday, and none of us were really functioning until after 1:00 PM. So basically I sat in the Faculty Club for two days puttering around. I did go to Penny's and bought some new luggage, as the strap on my equipment bag broke off and trying to drag around my stuff at one in the morning was a nightmare. Sunday I also sat around, accomplished a little bit of work, and watched football and listened to the Yankee broadcast. Pretty much wasting time. I did walk to Applebee's and got a steak dinner. Highlight of the day.

Monday I got checked into the Best Western, and then we loaded in our stuff. Carie and I had a talk about Scrooge for Christmas Carol preparation, and that was about it. I was so tired Monday night that I fell asleep at 9 PM. The bed at the Faculty Club was small and none too swift. I also had a bit of a stomach ache most of the day Monday, not really sure why.

Today we did a matinee of Richard III and the mostly high school crowd was respectful, not quite as rowdy as the Centenary matinee crowd. They did participate in the parapet scene, and that was fun. But they got there late and the pre-show was lost while they all found seats. The show went well enough; Carie did not give a full report after curtain and I got no notes. But we did sell our first Shakespeare Action Figure - complete with removable quill pen!

Our contact person here, Warren, is a great guy. I basically just returned from a reception he threw at the Faculty Club, and he really enjoys having us here. He's a professor in the English department, continuing the pattern of us meeting English people and not theatre people. Tomorrow we do a matinee of Much Ado and an evening performance of Planet.

And that's been it. I've been doing some thinking about life on the road, and it's funny how already I seem unable at times to remember where I am. I went to Wal-Mart today and completely lost track of the fact that I was in Kentucky until I heard the accents again. It is actually quite difficult anymore to get that feeling of being in a different place. We do travel through the landscape, but by the time we settle into the next stop it looks much like the last stop - motel, Mickey D, Burger King, Wal-Mart, etc. Shreveport did have a certain uniqueness to it, but unfortunately we left before we would have had that day off there. I wanted some crawdads pretty bad!

But I will save those ruminations for another time. I filled up the trip to Murray by working on videos and burning a backup CD. Soon I will have all my movies converted and ready for the movie page for all of you. Check out the snake adventure when it's ready - great fun. I have some of George and the troupe jamming as well. On the way to Ohio I think I'll try to crank out a more meditative piece and see if I can get away from all this reportage. A bientot.
-TWL