Highs and Lows - 10/26/05

Canton, NY - It's been a wild and wacky two days since last I wrote. Often the tour is a great deal of fun, but sometimes it has its down sides. For all the wonderful times I had while in New London, the first few days in Canton have been dreary.

First off, the weather. Beginning with the drive out of New London, the weather has been pretty miserable. Yesterday, which was our day off, was nothing but temperatures in the upper 30s and rain, rain, rain. Cold and rain. I hate that. But I have bought myself a lightweight polar fleece to wear under my windbreaker, and that has helped a great deal to stave off the rain. There was little to do yesterday but seek shelter from the storm, which I did in the St. Lawrence library. The student center is also a very nice building, but can of course become noisy. I also spent yesterday moving from my original location 2 miles outside of town (where I was sleeping on a couch) to a home in Canton, where Alyssa also has a bedroom. So now I have a bed and bedroom within a nice house, a much better situation. The housing and scheduling situation her has caused much stress, but it appears things are settling down now. Chris and Greg originally had housing that had Chris on a couch and Greg on the floor, but they also have been moved to a better location. Our contact person here just wasn't on the ball, but after many calls to Staunton we appear to have everything under control. There is still no actual schedule but we do know when all the shows are to be performed, and Dan and Olivia are doing a great job keeping our workshops on time and functioning. We did Much Ado on Monday night, which went very well (except our discovery space curtain got sopping wet in the U-Haul and was unusable). Tonight is Planet followed by Richard III on Thursday. We have not done R3 since i've returned, so it will be my first go at that show. The troupe hasn't done R3 since Maryland, I think, and before all the wackiness there was talk of scheduling rehearsal for a few scenes, but I've no idea if that will still happen - maybe tomorrow afternoon. With all that Carie has had to deal with these past few days, I think rehearsals have been the furthest thing from her mind, even though she'd want them to be foremost. So the week is full of performances up to Sunday's matinee, and then to Massachusetts, where I will get a chance to meet up with my daughter in Framingham.

I haven't said much about the time in New Hampshire, because I've sort of lacked the opportunity to write and post, but I must say it was a splendid five days up there. Our host, Andy, was a very nice man who owns 118 acres in the New London area, and lives in something of a recreation of a castle. He has bear and moose on his property as well (we never got to see his place). He escorted us to every venue, and apparently he is one of a few people trying to build up the New England Shakespeare Ensemble. We were part of their marketing effort, and attempt to showcase high-quality Shakespeare to the area and get them excited about having WS in their region. The New London Inn was a very nice place, with extremely comfortable beds and large DVD/TV players. The downstairs had a restaurant and two fireplaces where you could relax and read, play chess, etc. All of the venues were very nice, with the one in Lebanon NH being the most modern and easy to perform in. They were all converted opera houses, and one could readily see how touring all these turn-of-the-century opera houses used to be a good gig. The towns - Lebanon (home to Dartmouth, I believe), Concord (the state capital) and Newport - were all pretty classic New England towns, with lots of old houses and buildings and stoneworks. Most of the audiences in these venues were seniors, with some of the high school students from our workshops in attendance as well.Like always, it's tough to bring in those 30/40somethings you'd like to attract as well. I was sort of surprised at how few New England accents I actually heard!

The time off was great as well, because the weather while in New London was perfect. Kevin and I took a hike to Lake Pleasant on Thursday last, about 2 miles from the New London Inn, and then Jessica and I unexpectedly climbed Mt. Sunapee on Friday, a hike of a little less than five miles with an ascent of about 1400 feet. We were hoping to find more of a ridge trail for even hiking but found only the one trail up to the top. I am in the process of trying to get the movies to my personal web site so you can view them, but it is taking a bit more time than I thought because the St. Lawrence network is rather slow, whether wired or wireless. The two shows Saturday proved challenging after that hike. but I got through them with the help of a little Ibuprofen. All the craziness broke out on Saturday when the cargo van crashed, and Sunday through yesterday proved to be quite wild. I'm sort of OK with everything myself, actually; not feeling too stressed at all. But of course I did not have to deal directly with any of the hassles between the van and the dysfunctional Canton contact.

So now I'm in Canton, and at the moment all is well except for the weather. St. Lawrence in a nice campus, and the ASC has a following here, having played here for at least 10 years I think it's really nice to be able to watch as the veterans of the troupe greet people they have seen over the past three years as if they were old friends. Alyssa stayed with the family we're with last year, and when we arrived late Sunday night it was as if she never left, just walking to the back door of the house and letting herself in. I got to talk with a guy who runs a nursery, and he came dressed in his work clothes, long grey beard flowing, and his clippers attached to his belt in a leather case. He gave us a mini-lecture on the plants that appear in Shakespeare's plays, with particular attention to a European fruit whose name at the moment escapes me. A lot of "North Country" types coming to these shows, with one older couple - early 70s - who have been coming for 10 years. As I say, kind of nice.

As for myself personally, I did receive a clean bill of health from my doctor last Sunday. All my test results came back normal with one small exception, and even that was only minimally high. All that's left now is to get the MRCP, which is essentially an MRI of the liver and pancreatic area. This will take the place of the ERCP (thankfully). So when I finish this leg of the tour, I am immediately getting into the car and heading up to NY. It will be Thanksgiving dinner at home, which I will definitely enjoy. Then back to Staunton to do Christmas Carol.

Seems as if this catches everyone up for the moment. Oh yeah, the World Series! I stayed up last night to watch almost all of Game 3. After the Sox scored their final runs in the 14th I went to bed, risking that Houston would not score 2 or 3 runs in the bottom half. They threatened, but no runs scored. That got me up late this morning (10:00 AM), too late to join the gym crowd. Ah well, I'll get back on that treadmill soon. The walk from the house to the campus is a good stretch, and all the walking around during the day should make up for it. No booze and the low-fat diet still in order, although last night I blew that because the dining hall had a baseball special night. Hot dogs of all sorts (New York deli, brats, Michican foot-longs, Chicago whites) and all the fixings and trimmings; onions, relish, Cleveland brown mustard, sauerkraut, red onions, chili topping, beer nuts, crackerjacks. I could not resist. Still alive today, having eaten a baked chicken breast, brown rice, cold beans and a banana for lunch (no breakfast). I mean, ya gotta live!

So before I sign off, here's the new game spreading around the troupe (try this at home): Wanted (name); settled for (name); got (name). Here's an example: Wanted Wilford Brimley; settled for Christopher Lloyd; got Tom Loughlin. Everyone in the troupe has had their shot, and we all get a big laugh out of this game. Another example: wanted Julia-Louise Dreyfuss; settled for Janeanne Garofolo; got Alyssa Wilmot. Wanted Tom Hanks; settled for Leonardo DiCaprio; got Greg Phelps. You can all play: use the comment section below to send us your examples! Go wild!

-TWL