New York City - some pics

This will be a sleepy post, as I write this following a long slog drive from New York City, all the way through Pennsylvania, and to our pit-stop overnight destination a funny little town called Hagerstown, Maryland. Its 10pm and 2 out of four cars have now checked into another anonymous looking motel, and ordered fajitas from the place next door. In the background, the whoops and cheers of the televised Democratic Convention in Denver - Michelle Obama has just caused a stir with her new hairstyle - these events are produced by broadway professionals, never seen anything quite so theatrical! 

SO - what a whirlwind since the last post in Waterville. We have since left our mark in Bath, Maine - a beautiful and rather quaint town on the East Coast, where we were hosted by a very close and eager community (most of whom had visited their counterpart Bath, UK). Another long drive from New Hampshire, we arrived in Bath and created our playing space in an old disused church, come community centre(er) - it looked more like a masonic lodge than a church. 

Our show was received with such enthusiasm. The whole community turned out, with supper packs, picnics and rugs, and an absolute commitment to playing in our identity fair. We had a chorus of Dolly Partons competing in Mr and Mrs Ephesisos competition, and the winner, (happily in role as Henry VIII) led the crowd in a rendition of 'I'm 'Enery the 8th I am...' to mark his success. The pre-show event finished on a mass Zorba dance (see photo above), and we then had to try and cram in more chairs to accommodate the growing audience. The show went down really well - the cast did brilliantly well to adapt to quite an intimate space, and (dare I say) a significantly older audience. We were all generously hosted, and when re-united the next day to pack up and leave we all had amazing stories to share about breakfast treats, trips to the beach, sleeping next to ashes of dogs no longer with us, staying in a house where the bathrooms were doorless, and admiring an original Andy Warhol over blueberry muffins. 

It's so wonderful to stay at people's homes when touring - it's really where you get the true story and flavour of the place. Very interesting watching the politics change from state to state for example. And the smokers in the group were amazed that as we drove through Pennsylvania to find a diner where everyone smoked inside - smoking ban hasn't reached them yet! 

On the move again, we set off to spend our free day in the BIG APPLE. We arrived at our hotel in Stamord Conneticut at midnight after a very long drive (9 hours), and were delighted to find an indoor pool which we were allowed to use if we were silent. So within 5 minutes of arrival, we were in swimsuits jumping in, playing silent swimming pool games and bringing in Paul's 21st birthday! A few hours later, and not much sleep, we were all on the train to New York City - a 40 minute ride in from Stamford. 

It was so wonderful seeing everyone's face as we emerged at Grand Central Station - especially those who hadn't been to New York before. Everyone broke off to do different things - go up to the top of the empire state building, shop, go down to visit Ground Zero - and we met up again for lunch at a great retro diner in Union Square, opposite NY University. Everyone was busy sharing their purchases, stories and photos (of dogs wearing sunglasses for example). 

I saw a fantastic an off-broadway musical - 'Title of Play' about 4 nobodys in New York trying to get their musical onto Broadway. The whole show is about them creating the show that we are watching - Will and Grace style, the best of tight American comedy and finesse. Loved it. Lots of the crew went to see 'Spring Awakening' which seemed to be met with mixed reviews...

And to finish off a very full day, we all met up at a cabaret bar called 'Don't Tell Mama' just off 42nd Street, and within minutes, we had taken over the place, belting out the show tunes and sending up Emma Filby to sing with the pianist, which brought the house down. By 1 am I was escorting 18 very tired and overwhelmed people back onto the train and home. 

Next stop - Virginia! 

We are all missing home and our loved ones, and send love to anyone reading this (as I presume that you are connected to us in some way and care about our travels!)

Cheerio!

Emma xx (and here's a little video clip of our pre-show in Bath, Maine)