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!

Images of the day

(top left) Rehearsing on the beach at Waterville Valley 

(below left) Stopping on our journey today to admire the view in beautiful New Hampshire, at the foot of the White Mountains.

(top right) Teoni and Lucy have a shock at the Bear warnings at the Condo!

(right) Our first morning in the USA! Newport Vermont - just across from the Canadian border, near Montreal. Freshly filled up with coffee and bagels, and ready to set off.

Day two on the Big USA Tour

After a much needed sleep at our first 'super 8 motel' (first of many along the way), we set off on our first daytime road trip - from Newport Vermont, to Waterville Valley in New Hampshire. A stunning drive towards the white mountains, incredibly lush countryside, and our convoy of four people movers seemingly the only ones on the highway. The sun shone, our spirits were high, and we were entertained by signage along the way warning us of moose and bears. 

A little more confident driving now - our designated drivers are Emma, Heather, Phil, Emma Filby, Lillie, Justine and Craig, all braving the huge roads, the right hand drive and the satellite navigation systems that play alarming noises everytime one crosses a state border or a rest stop. Always a shock. In the small hours of last night, we crossed the border from Canada to USA. The border police seemed a little shocked to have been woken from their snoozing to a sea of yellow T shirts, excitable but tired faces and strange English accents trying to explain the purpose of our visit" "We've come to bring Shakespeare from England" - as we pressed our fingerprints into the security system devices. Luckily, and $120 later, they let us in. Relieved, particularly after our earlier scare at Montreal airport when we were all skipping towards our luggage to discover that Iaonnis (our resident Greek cast member) hadn't made it through - he'd been taken off for 'questioning', returning to us twenty minutes looking rather shaken.  Ah well, glad we got him, and forgot the first aid box which is still circulating the carousel at the airport. 

We arrived into the valley at lunchtime, agog with the breathtaking views of the mountains, lakes and streams - a ski resort in winter, and a outdoor pursuits holiday resort for new englanders in summer. Folk drive two hours up from Boston to stay in luxury condominiums, hike, swim, play golf, and take boats out on the lake. Picture perfect! With a population of under 400, this is smallsville, and the natural beauty is strangely coupled with a disney style purpose built town square - white mock tudor buildings, twee gift shops and ice cream parlors make it feel like toy town. We were met with exuberant welcome from our hosts here at 'Shakespeare in the Valley' - a summer long festival which has up until now featured a resident company of players (www.shakespeareinthevalley.com) run by Donna Devlin. They are therefore very excited to welcome their first international company, and once we do our turn on Tuesday and Wednesday night, we shall watch their latest production of 'All the World's a Grave'. !

And so, after a productive day of rehearsing down at the resort - perfect setting for the play - we rewarded ourselves with a meal at the Kyote Grill - great food, but like most things, all supersized. We feel like borrowers holding the double sized coke cans, and bags of potato chips. 

And now, I sit here in our condo, listening to a raging electric storm, and watching Heather, Lucy, Jodie and Teoni slicing up hundreds of chicken pieces ready for our pre-show banquet. Jodie and Heather have stocked up from Walmart - I think we will contribute to the recovery of the credit crunch.                         

And now to bed - to pray for a dry day - our show is outdoors, and apparently today is the first day of sunshine in three weeks. So think of us for our first US show, at 4.30 tomorrow (US time!). 

Bye y'all for now xx