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)

Video Clip - Waterville

A little taster of how our audiences responded to us in Waterville Valley...

(And now I've worked out how to post videos, I shall try and improve the quality!)

Back Online - Last days in Waterville

This post comes to you after five attempts of uploading - but I think the bears were chewing through the wires in Waterville, and I kept losing the pages! 

So here we are, in an internet cafe in Bath, Maine, having lunch and preparing for our evening show. 

But - before reporting on the present, I must catch you up on our last day in Waterville. 

Our second show was much better attended, sunnier and we had relaxed more into the American way! Our audience were once again up for the identity swap, and entered into the proceedings with zest. 

The following day saw our first rest, and (despite warnings from Heather and myself) most of the crew threw themselves off mountain bikes, and kayaked in the lake with the leaches. Heather and I chose the safer option of swimming, sunbathing and going to Walmart for supplies. The evening's entertainment was supplied by our host company, and their production of 'All The World's A Grave' a 20 strong company led by old school-style actor manager Donna (pictured above with her dog at our pre-show), and a play which attempted to merge all the 'best bits' of Henry V, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello and R & J. I just about stayed with it until Lady M crawled on with a Hamlet soliloquey, and Hamlet killed Juliet over a stolen handkerchief. One needed to be quite up on their Shakespeare to keep up with this rendition's tricks and turns, reinforced by three witches using dialogue from all plays. Lots of corsets, doublets, thunder boards and passion. And we were invited to the after show party, hosted at a beautiful mansion in the hills, where our companies merged, swapped stories and emails. Somehow Paul and Sophie managed to find their way into the Ferrari in the garage for a photo shoot. Luckily, the key was locked away.

And then back on the road again - to head South to Maine. My car led the way with trusty sat nav, and Phil's car followed - only to find it was taking us the treacherous mountain route - real road swiftly turned into dirt track, and steep gradient - not ideal for our automatic people movers designed to cruise control along the flat highways.  At worst, we had all the company pushing my vehicle out of a ditch, at best, we cheared and whooped when we finally emerged out onto a normal road. Phew. 

4 hours later, with mud spattered cars and shredded nerves, we arrived in Bath - Maine. More on this to follow....Got to run back to the theatre to prepare for the show, and have run out of time. But - quick summary of Bath Maine:

It's 88 degrees

Most ate lobster last night

The show has sold out

We are being hosted by amazingly generous people...

More soon!

Emma xxx

Second Show in the Valley!

The First Show!

The First Show!

A crazily hectic day yesterday in preparation of our first ever US performance! After the all night torrential storms, we were relieved to learn that the weather would clear by 3pm in time for our outdoor events to start at 4.30pm! The marquee tent that we had hoped to perform in had miraculously disappeared, and we were left with a stretch of grass, framed by a breathtaking view of the lake and mountains and lake. So - we had to work out magic to turn the place into Ephesisos - our Greek Island setting for the play. We had been told we had the run of the resort, we could use everything - so we did! 

After a rehearsal run of the show in the morning, we got to work in our teams, preparing food for the pre-show, Heather busily cooking and transporting 60 portions of chicken kebabs, humous, greek salad...creating our playing space, flying flags and bunting, and hanging black drapes from trees to create a makeshift changing area, and setting up a cafe in the town square.

The show invites our audience to become someone else for the duration of their stay - arriving as 'holidaymakers' to the island, the newcomers are kitted out with new ID - a mask, and a breast plate depicting their new persona. They might be Homer Simpson, the Queen, Madonna, Kylie, or actors from the show - the concept being that they are empowered to play, lose themselves and experience a flavour of the theme of confusion and identity loss in 'The Comedy of Errors'. Once checked in, our resort host dishes out their new ID. Unsure how it would go down amongst our new American audiences, we were delighted by our first audience:

"I want to be Kylie!" shrieked one woman grabbing at her new ID, and Dolly Parton proceeded to sing through her canon throughout the pre-show event. Sharon Osbourne was reunited with Simon Cowell, and had a heated argument over the chicken kebabs, and a 6 year old girl from New Jersey became Tina Turner, enjoying her new large hairstyle! It was a hoot! A local bike shop owner was so taken by our crew, he lent the cast some bikes to wizz around the town square to whip up more audience, and promptly shut up shop to come and watch. He became Homer Simpson, entering into the pre-show games with gusto! 

Demetri (Paul Taylor Mills) and Brook (Lucy Gill) led our smallish audience in a 'baywatch' run down to the beach to do aqua aerobics - a prize for the person who waded boldly into the sea (Homer Simpson claimed it), and then back over for food and more fun, before the show began. 

By the start of the show, we had about 30 in the audience, all game and playing amongst one another and with the cast. They clapped and whooped through the first half, putting their masks on when the Duke came in, as instructed, and staying engaged throughout. The cast did brilliantly - considering a rather bitter wind blowing over the lake (we covered our audience in beach towels, and cut the interval in case they left!). 

All in all - a great start to the tour! We have another show today, which we will be sharing the the Shakespeare in the Valley casts and crew (A young American company who have done little else but try and convince our crew to buy them alcohol and go skinny dipping in the lake)

That's all for now - until tomorrow. Sending love and wishes from the mountains, and fingers crossed for today's show. 

Emma xxx

Preparing for our first performance in Waterville Valley

Top left - Rehearsing in town square

Top right - writing new script for the introduction of our newly ignited identity fair (How will the Americans take to our fun and games, and pretending to be someone else?)

Left - the lakeside gazebo in the town square, which will, in a few hours be home to our pre-show BBQ banquet!