On Tour(ing)

So the American Shakespeare Center On Tour’s Piercing Eloquence Troupe has set off into the world! Provided that, by ‘the world,’ one means ‘the mid-south eastern coast of the United States and also Ohio.’ It continues to amaze the majority of our troupe that we have not actually been on tour for most of our lives, but rather a week. This has lead to much discussion, culminating in Raffi sitting on the floor of Ginna’s hotel room crying, “The Road knows no time!” Though in fairness, I agree with him. Also, I too was sitting in the floor.

I’ll go over a few highlights of the venues we have visited thus far, and I think memory may prove a very able filter for weeding out the things that are less interesting. For even if I wrote with any kind of timeliness, who would want to read about how exactly I injured myself at each load-in, or what passes for a salad at the fast food chains that are our chief sources of sustenance? And if anyone would read it, I’m not thoroughly certain that it would be the best usage of their time—which is not to say I deem my blathering a worthy expenditure, even as it stands.

Veritas Vineyards, September 12:

We performed our 90-minute cut of Taming of the Shrew in a large ballroom-like space with our audience seated around dinner tables. I recognise the necessity and the merits of the 90-minute version, but it’s less fun for me, as the only scene that I am actually in from start to finish is also the only scene that is completely cut. Interestingly, in nineteenth-century productions of Shrew the Lucentio/Bianca subplot was often completely cut or severely trimmed down, so perhaps I’m only getting what comes to me, being, after all, from the nineteenth century. I do not, however, confuse our production with a nineteenth century production, chiefly because of my delightfully ridiculous blue and pink paisley dress. And turquoise high heels.

The kind Veritas folks fed us afterwards with some of the dinner set that had been set aside, and more than one of us made a comparison between our hungry selves and the players in the opening induction scene being invited to the buttery. I was thankful that we were not truly mirroring this scene in the play, in which case I, as the servant in that scene, would have had to play one of the servers who were kept afterwards to wait for us whilst we licked clean the pans. And as much as I love writing ‘-Soto’ and ‘-Keep an eye on the one in the red beret’ on a yellow notepad, eating crème brulee is far preferable.

Weyers Cave, Virginia, September 14:

We were fortunate enough to inaugurate a brand-new beautiful black box theatre (unintentional alliteration, I swear) with our full version of Taming of the Shrew. Though I know some people already have a different preference, it was my personal favourite time that we’ve done Shrew so far. We had a number of company friends in the audience, as we were not too far from Staunton, and everyone in the audience seemed to have a great time.

I think I particularly relished it because I was so thankful to have all of Bianca back again. I in my own weaknesses have struggled with developing a spiritual connection to a character who has been given a few more farcical moments than those I generally have played in the past; I tried harder than ever to connect with her spirit in this performance, and felt a noticeable breakthough, at least from within. Naturally, it still needs a lot of work, and it remains a task that I look forward to working on for a year. I am actually thankful for the difficulty I have had in finding this connection, because I have been shown the difference between having it and not having it, which has, I think, proved its importance and perhaps even the truth of its existence.

Also, when Lucentio and Hortensio were about to fight each other in the Latin and Music Lesson Scene, they pulled in opposite directions, causing Hortensio to fall down, which really upped the stakes of the whole scene. I can only say this now without guilt because Johnston was not actually hurt.

I believe this was also the birthplace of the Unofficial I Love Evan Hoffmann Club, the Official Club, I think, having been founded some years before by Evan’s fiancée. Evan told me a couple of days later that he received an email from a girl in the audience at this venue that read something like ‘You were funny. You’re cute. Do you have a girlfriend? PS. You reminded me of the turtle in Finding Nemo.’ I told him I was sure it would not be his last such email. Except for, perhaps, the bit about the turtle. O Fandom! The rest of us can only imagine what it must be like to have people whom you have not met request to friend you on myspace.

Lawrenceville, Virginia, September 15:

Another performance of Shrew, this time in a cavernous auditorium that was not particularly well-populated. When we started our pre-show music, there were only three people in the audience, a number significantly outweighed by the on-stage members of Fancy Bred (the name of our band, many thanks to the delightful & ready wit of Alisa Ledyard). More people eventually showed up, but no one was particularly eager to sit on the stools on stage until Chris and Chris and their purple pants had wheedled throughout much of the pre-show speech. What’s an American Shakespeare Center show without some kind of thrust staging, after all?

I clearly remember my relief when eight gentlemen who had been sitting in a different time zone in the back row loped up to the stage. This was very kind of them, as the width and low altitude of their pants attested that they were far cooler than any of us (except maybe Johnston), especially those amongst us who would describe ‘the width and low altitude of their pants.’ Bianca had fun flirting with them, and they flirted back. It was kind of awkward when we saw them at the pizza parlour after the show, and they were so obviously cool and we were so obviously nerds. Or at least, I was.

Due West, South Carolina, September 17:

We were actually housed in nearby Abbeville, South Carolina, which is my personal favourite of the places we’ve stayed so far. We stayed in the Merchant-appropriate ‘Belmont Inn,’ a gorgeous hotel that is a little over a hundred years old. The furniture in the rooms was all old-fashioned, and the front parlour and dining rooms appeared to have genuinely antique furniture. The best part was the veranda with potted palms and white wicker furniture, opening onto the town plaza. There are some pictures at the Belmont Inn website, if you are so inclined.

One of the rooms in the Belmont Inn is apparently haunted; Chris Johnston stayed in that room on tour last year, and said he felt like he was being watched while he was sleeping. Raffi and Paul were lodged in the haunted room this year, and had no similar experience, as far as I can tell. Perhaps the ghost only watches over someone if they don’t have a roommate.  Rejected haunted-room-related activities included making an entire short horror movie using Paul’s digital camera, and me coming into the room at 3 AM with white make-up and standing on a chair until Paul woke up.

We performed Merchant of Venice for the first time since the preview at the Blackfriars Playhouse, which had been two weeks prior. Aforesaid preview was also three weeks after we had done our second of two dress runs at the end of our Merchant rehearsal process. Ahhh, repertory! The day of the show, I remember saying to Ginna, “I am afraid of this show. ‘Nervous’ does not suffice. Afraid.” I also recall rejecting the nearby Mexican restaurant on the grounds that Mexican food, before a show of which I was afraid, did not sound advisable.

Those of you who know me well enough will know that I don’t usually get very nervous for shows.  But the time lapses between performances allow in all kinds of brain farts that are less likely to crop up if you’ve done a play within, say, the last three weeks. Usually, when one opens a play, one has done that very play the previous evening, and you can trust that you will probably remember very basic things, such as blocking. And lines.  Not only do I talk quite a bit in Merchant, but I am not aided by having four lines in the courtroom scene that begin “Therefore” and two that begin “Tarry,” and I also have to try to remember when it is “The court awards it and the law doth give it,” and when it is “The law allows it and the court awards it,” or when it is “He shall have nothing but the penalty” versus “He hath refused it in the open court” versus “Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture.” Lines are very rudimentary things to be concerned about, but the fact is, no matter how often I went over them, I muffed them up a bit in the preview and it terrified me because I’m so used to lines being as deep in my body as my own breath. I’m also struggling with balancing a number of more complicated things in this play, which did not lead to my general ease, and consequently did not lead me to have Mexican food.

However, the show itself went well enough, or at least better than the preview. It went well enough that we were all able to rejoin to the Belmont Inn’s bar afterwards, ostensibly to relax, but inevitably to talk about theatre.

If anyone has the attention span to have read thus far, I congratulate you; I am going to post this in the interest of putting something up, and also because it would be too LUDICROUSLY long for a single post, were I to bring it to the present date. I hope to catch up as soon as I can.