Since my blog is all about traveling with Tallulah, I thought I should include an entry about exactly how I manage to cart my cat around the country. 

I was extremely nervous about the prospect of trying to bring my cat on tour, especially since I had never toured before and didn’t really know what to expect. The thought of leaving Tallulah behind broke my heart though – when I adopted her I made a commitment to her and there was no way I was going to go back on that commitment just because a job had come up. And, being that she was young enough to handle it, I thought I’d give bringing her along with me a shot. 

First plane flight to Detroit

As I said though, I was very nervous about it. I am so grateful to my friend Ruth, who brought her cat with her on the “Dame Edna” tour, for all the helpful advice she gave me about how logistically to manage it. I also had a number of conversations with Brian, who at the time was traveling his two dogs on the Spam tour.

I was so afraid that at some point in the travels Tallulah would either get out of a hotel room, freak out on an airplane or be incredibly miserable. Luckily, we have been with “Spamalot” for five months now and at Hartford Stage for a month before that and none of that has happened. I have a very well-adjusted, well-behaved, happy cat traveling with me who sleeps next to me at night, talks to me when I get home, and makes me laugh every day.

On the beach in Fort Lauderdale

On the porch in Naples

So here’s the lowdown on how Tallulah travels:

Sherpa bag

First of all, she has a kick-ass cat bag – its the Sherpa Delta Deluxe bag. It’s a great bag for a number of reasons – it is made to fit under the seats in most airplanes, it has three flaps that roll down to conceal the cat almost entirely (which is good when sneaking her into hotels and restaurants), it has a loop on the back side of it which allows it to sit on top of my suitcase with the loop over the handle of the suitcase, and it has locking zippers (which is good when your cat figures out how to unzip the bag with their head, as Tallulah has). Since we started the tour, I have been collecting patches and pins from all our stops and decorating Tallulah’s bag. She is a very well-travelled cat!

On the bus to Tampa

We travel mostly by plane and bus. Ruth had suggested that I get some Bach’s Rescue Remedy and feed Tallulah a dropper full before getting on a plane. Bach’s is made for humans, to control stress, but you can give it to animals as well. I give Tallulah a dropper full about a half an hour before we leave the hotel to fly – it keeps her mellow. She’s such a mellow cat anyway and I don’t have any trouble with her making noise, so if we are only traveling by bus, I don’t give her any of the drops. I think it helps with stress on the plane though.

On the sleeper bus to Hartford

Flying with a cat is pretty easy – I have papers from the vet which say she is healthy and all her shots are up to date, but I have never been asked to show them to anyone. I always check the website of the airline we are taking before we go in case they happen to be very strict about pet papers. Some airlines say they need papers which have been given to you by the vet in the last five weeks – but so far we haven’t flown on any of those really strict airlines. Most airlines also charge a fee for flying with a pet – usually it’s about $80. At the airport, the most stressful part of the day is going through security. I have to take Tallulah out of her bag and carry her through the security area, while her bag goes through the x-ray machine. She is generally very calm and good, but if it happens to be a loud and crowded day at the airport, she can get a bit spooked. So far she hasn’t gotten away from me yet and I have also escaped any battle wounds. She usually just clings tightly to me until we are through and she can climb back in the bag. On the plane, she is happy to be under the seat. She usually just sleeps and doesn’t make a peep. No one usually knows I have a cat with me.

On the buses, I make sure we sit far away from anyone who is allergic to cats. I usually unzip the top of the bag and leave it on the seat next to me. Tallulah sometimes sits up and looks out the window, but generally she stays in the bag. From Tampa to Naples, I drove a rental car, so Tallulah hopped out of her bag and slept under the passenger seat the whole way.

Karl, our company manager, has been very accommodating in booking Tallulah on company transportation – a lot of the cast have dogs, and while some people drive the tour with their animals, others have to make their own airplane reservations as there are too many animals to book all of us on the company flights. Since I usually travel with the crew and Elaine is the only other crew member with a pet (her dog Tahzah), Karl goes ahead and books us on the company flights even though we have animals. The buses are generally not a problem, and usually there are quite a few pets on board – Callie and her cat, Oscar, and Angelina and her dog, Missy, among others.

Food and litter for a week

Each company member is lucky enough to get a trunk which can hold up to 200 lbs of belongings, which travels on the trucks with the set to each city. I keep cat food and litter in my trunk and only travel enough food in my suitcase to get us through a week, plus litter, litter box, liner, cat toys, door scratching post, food and water bowls, placemat, dustpan and brush. One of my suitcases is a rolling duffle, and has a bottom compartment which is perfect for all my cat stuff – it all fits nicely and is kept apart from my clothes, which I like. I wash out the litter box every travel morning and pack up all the cat things right before we leave. Tallulah has gone up to eight hours without access to a litter box and has never had an accident. She’s such a good cat. I have a wee wee pad in the bottom of her bag just in case, but so far, no accicents. Knock on wood.

Food bowls and placemat

Litter and dustpan/brush

Cat toys on the table

Cat supplies go in the bottom compartment

For buying supplies, if I happen to have a car in a city, I will just find the local pet store and go there and pick up stuff. But more often that not, I just order food and litter online fromPetco and have it delivered to the theater – they are very fast and I usually have my order within a couple of days of submitting it. 

Tallulah in her collapsible cube

On top of the cabinets in Tampa

At the table in Tampa

Keeping warm in Memphis

Under the covers in Atlanta

In Detroit

In Atlanta

In Philly

Snoozing in Atlanta

Hiding under the covers in Philly

So that’s how Tallulah travels. If anyone ever considers taking their cat on the road with them, I say DO IT. It’s the best decision I’ve made in a long time. I mean, look at that face! How could I leave her behind??

That being said, the opening night in Hartford was not so smooth. The local stagehands are notoriously difficult to work with and run the theatre 100% by the book. The head carpenter at the Bushnell (the theater where we are playing) is the son of the guy who used to be head of IATSE (the stagehands’ union) and who wrote the pink contract (the contract which our crew works under)… so understandably union rules are strictly enforced here. Which is fine, but sometimes the stringency can just be kind of a pain in the ass. Like, there’s a rule in this local that local crew have to match road crew 1:1, so for instance, since we travel with three hair crew, we have to have three local hair crew. We usually only use one local hair person, so here in Hartford, we have two locals who sit and do nothing for the whole show and get paid for it. And we were made to hire a projectionist, who does nothing, since all of our projections are run through the light board. C’est la vie. That’s how it is here in Hartford.

So aside from the crazy union stuff, the Tuesday night show was just kind of nutty. There is no room on stage right so everyone was tripping over each other and running into scenery over there. Then the campfire prop literally caught on fire and the local pyro guy figured the best way to put out the fire was to STOMP on the prop, breaking it into pieces. We have no back-up campfire and it is costing us $2000 to replace. You would think the PYRO guy would know how to maybe use a fire extinguisher?? Also that night, the Black Knight scene went to hell when one of the arms wouldn’t fall off, and then one of his legs fell off too early. It was just one thing after another until the show ended.

The demolished campfire

Luckily things have gotten better – we’ve gotten used to the space limitations and the local crew are actually doing a great job. The rest of the week has been relatively smooth.

We had an opening night party at Hot Tomato’s which is a restaurant near the theater and which had a really delicious Italian buffet. The sweet potato ravioli was amazing. 

The rest of the first week was really low-key. I ordered groceries which were delivered to my apartment, and tried to stay in most nights. I even made it to the gym a couple of times this week!

Brian (who was the original 1st ASM on the tour) came to visit on Sunday. It was great to see him – he hung out backstage during the shows and a big group of us went to dinner at Trumbull Kitchen between shows. After the evening show, about fifteen of us went out for drinks and appetizers at Vaughn’s, which is the bar that I spent a lot of time at with the cast of “A Christmas Carol” when I was in Hartford in November. On Sunday night I ran into Patti there – she was one of my PA’s on “A Christmas Carol”. It was so nice to see her! I’m hoping to catch up with her and my other PA from “A Christmas Carol”, Alex, sometime this week.

On Monday, Brian, Ryan and I had a really suburban day. We went to the mall, ate at Pizzeria Uno, bought groceries at Trader Joe’s, hung out at Starbucks and then watched a movie at my apartment. It was great! It was nice spending time with Brian – I miss him so much! Luckily he is coming to Houston for a week to cover Ken’s vacation, so we will have more mall days to come! 

Today I got a facial and a pedicure at a great spa called Oggi right behind the apartment building I am staying in. Who knew there was such a cool place in downtown Hartford? It was incredibly relaxing and my skin is all soft and smooth! Man, I love a good spa day!

We have rehearsal every day this week so I’m sure this week will be just as uneventful as last week was, but I’m okay with that. And especially with all the rain we’ve been getting (a “nor’easter” they keep saying on the news), it’s nice to just stay inside. 

We’ve been rehearsing Graham, our new swing, at Hartford Stage’s rehearsal studio – it’s so surreal being back in that space with “Spamalot”, when just a few months ago I was there with “A Christmas Carol”. So much has happened in five months! 

Here’s a couple of photos taken in Trumbull Park which is across the street from the apartment building where I am staying:

And here’s a few of the Capitol building, which is right across from the theater:

Here’s Taza in the lounge part of the bus:

Ryan and Chris at Yum Yum Bankok

I spent last Monday and Tuesday in New York with Tanya and Michael. I saw “Spring Awakening”, which I loved, and had drinks with Richard Rauscher afterwards, who is one of the stage managers, and a good friend. I also had dinner with Christopher and Ryan. It was a goodbye dinner, as Chris moves to LA at the end of the month. I will miss him so much – I don’t know what I would have done without him when I first moved to New York – he gave me a place to live, and an instant community of friends. I love him to pieces and can’t imagine what NYC will be like without him.

It was nice to get back to New York for a couple of days – I visited my storage unit and saw Andrea briefly, as well as also having dinner with my dear friend Patty, who is in town rehearsing the second tour of “Jersey Boys”. It was so great catching up with Patty and seeing one of her latest knitting masterpieces – a striped ribbed sweater called “Tubey”.

Goodbye donuts from Naomi

Last week was filled with rehearsals for Julie Barnes, who opens tomorrow night in Naomi’s track, and also for Graham Bowen, who is our new swing/ass’t dance captain. No sightseeing for me! We all went out for sushi on Saturday night to bid Naomi Kakuk goodbye. She is one of our original female ensemble members, and will be sorely missed. In her final performance last night, the two girls who do the “tap cross” with her during “Jew Song”, didn’t enter, so Naomi had a solo tap cross (which was a total surprise to her) – it was a great moment.

So now we are in Hartford. It is so surreal to be back here – and I’m staying in the same apartment building as I did for “A Christmas Carol”. It seems like no time has passed since I was last here – I can’t believe that four months have gone by. I think the next two weeks are going to be a bit of a hibernation for me – after Memphis, Atlanta, Baltimore and Philly, I am ready to not do any sightseeing and just stay in and knit, read and watch movies. I need to catch up on some sleep and relaxation!

Here’s Taza in the lounge part of the bus:

Ryan and Chris at Yum Yum Bankok

I spent last Monday and Tuesday in New York with Tanya and Michael. I saw “Spring Awakening”, which I loved, and had drinks with Richard Rauscher afterwards, who is one of the stage managers, and a good friend. I also had dinner with Christopher and Ryan. It was a goodbye dinner, as Chris moves to LA at the end of the month. I will miss him so much – I don’t know what I would have done without him when I first moved to New York – he gave me a place to live, and an instant community of friends. I love him to pieces and can’t imagine what NYC will be like without him.

It was nice to get back to New York for a couple of days – I visited my storage unit and saw Andrea briefly, as well as also having dinner with my dear friend Patty, who is in town rehearsing the second tour of “Jersey Boys”. It was so great catching up with Patty and seeing one of her latest knitting masterpieces – a striped ribbed sweater called “Tubey”.

Goodbye donuts from Naomi

Last week was filled with rehearsals for Julie Barnes, who opens tomorrow night in Naomi’s track, and also for Graham Bowen, who is our new swing/ass’t dance captain. No sightseeing for me! We all went out for sushi on Saturday night to bid Naomi Kakuk goodbye. She is one of our original female ensemble members, and will be sorely missed. In her final performance last night, the two girls who do the “tap cross” with her during “Jew Song”, didn’t enter, so Naomi had a solo tap cross (which was a total surprise to her) – it was a great moment.

So now we are in Hartford. It is so surreal to be back here – and I’m staying in the same apartment building as I did for “A Christmas Carol”. It seems like no time has passed since I was last here – I can’t believe that four months have gone by. I think the next two weeks are going to be a bit of a hibernation for me – after Memphis, Atlanta, Baltimore and Philly, I am ready to not do any sightseeing and just stay in and knit, read and watch movies. I need to catch up on some sleep and relaxation!

We travelled to Philly on Monday – it was only  a two hour bus ride from Baltimore. Because I had Tallulah though, I had to sit in the way back of the bus since a couple of cast members are allergic to cats. I tried to get some knitting done but was starting to feel carsick from being lurched around back there, so I had to stop and just look out the window. Luckily my cat was perfect as always and very quiet. Callie’s cat Oscar, on the other hand, howled loudly from the moment she brought him through the lobby of the Radisson until he was settled on the bus and buried underneath her parka. The Radisson doesn’t allow pets, so Elaine and I had been trying to hide ours in the lobby that morning while we waited for the bus – we were afraid all would be discovered when Callie brought Oscar down howling, but luckily no one from the hotel said anything.

I am staying at the Club Quarters in Philly – I was pretty disappointed with my room when I first arrived – not only was it very small, but it also had only a tiny sliver of a window, so it was also very dark. I had specifically requested a bright room, and this is what I ended up with. After speaking with a number of unhelpful people who work there, I finally found a girl who was willing to help me, and after sticking it out in the dark room for a few days, I was able to move into a corner room this past Saturday that has four large windows and is great. I love it, love it, love it. I also went to Urban Outfitters and bought a few new scarves to drape over the furniture and a bright lightweight bedspread to cover up the drab hotel one. The hotel is in a great location – Chestnut between 16th and 17th, right in the heart of all the great shopping. And, it’s only a few blocks from the theater. So now with my lovely bright room, I am very happy. 

So Monday was all about laundry and grocery shopping and then Tuesday was spent at the theater all day loading in. Tuesday night we had our “opening night”. All was going fairly smoothly until Act 2 when Jaki, one of our asst. wardrobe supervisors, fell to her knees and started puking into a trash can stage right. She’s been sick for about a week, but had started feeling better – then was hit again hard on Tuesday. She spent the rest of the show basically leaning over a trash can in the wardrobe room. Since Jaki usually teaches the changes to the locals on stage right on opening night, I had to jump in and pinch hit. Todd, who is here to replace Mike (the wardrobe supervisor) for a couple of weeks while Mike is away, is fairly unfamiliar with Jaki’s track, so didn’t really have any more knowledge than I did. I started asking the locals if I could see their cue cards and tried to interpret the cues the best I could to get them through the show. Somehow we made it through without any major mess. Phew. It was exhausting though. 

And now poor Jaki has been out the whole week. She finally went to the hospital on Saturday to get some fluids and food in her system. Hopefully she will be feeling better soon. The poor wardrobe department has had a time of it lately. On top of Mike having to take off for a couple of weeks and Jaki being sick, many of the cast caught a nasty flu bug this week and have been out, meaning that we’ve been throwing understudies on who have never performed those parts before. Trying to costume them has been an adventure in itself. Eric Hayden made his debut as Galahad on Friday, and the poor guy has such skinny legs that the Black Knight legs kept falling off of him. Fran and Todd had to work some major magic to make that costume fit his body. 

Tuesday night after the show, the presenters in Philly threw us an opening night party at Ted’s Fontana Grill. The food was excellent! The bison burger was my favorite. We were all so tired though, that most of us just grabbed plates of food, and then ate while staring out the window. No one even really had energy to talk.

The theater where we are playing – the Academy of Music – is really beautiful. After playing such an intimate house in Baltimore, though, it has taken some getting used to. It is very tall with many tiers – I think it used to be an opera house. It looks a bit like a coliseum inside. Here are a few pics:

The local crew seem worlds better here than the crew we had last week. They all are pretty on top of their game. We had one small problem of the guys on the fly rail, which is up above stage right, looking down into the girls’ quick change booths during the show, so our traveling crew built a “privacy” curtain for the booths on Wednesday to curtail that problem. One of the local dressers told me that they have the same issue on every show – the guys can never resist peeking at the girls changing. Can we say grade school, anyone?

Wednesday, which is usually the first opportunity for rest and for exploring the new city, was a two-show day. No rest for us!

Thursday we had a full company brush-up rehearsal. Saturday was a big day – Mike Nichols, Eric Idle, Casey Nicolaw (our choreographer), as well as a number of our producers and general managers, were coming to see both shows, so Thursday was spent going over music notes with Ben (our musical director/conductor) and dance notes with Callie (our dance captain), in preparation for all the bigwigs seeing the show. 

Then Thursday night after the show, we had a party for our first anniversary. It’s hard to believe the show opened a year ago already! The party was at a restaurant on Walnut Street. We all got dressed up (it was so nice to see the crew in ties and dresses!) and went for food and drinks, and pretty soon after that the dancing started. Along with our regulars, Paula and Darryl, who can always get the party started, we discovered that our new swing, Nigel, is quite the dancer as well! Also, Robbie, one of our swings, put on quite a show, and Pia was also in fine form. She and Robbie were hilarious together as she must be at least six inches taller than him, and with heels on, even taller than that. My camera was taking some funky pictures in the low light, but here are a few:

The original cast and crew still with us

Ben and Jamie

Ken and Karl

Pia and Robbie

Michael with Jamie and Paula

It was definitely a fun night and well-needed after a busy few days. 

Friday was my first opportunity to see anything of Philadelphia, and of course, it rained ALL DAY! I did go out for a long walk, and got soaked, but it was nice to be out exploring, nonetheless. I walked all the way down Walnut Street to where all the historic buildings are, including the Liberty Bell (which is inside, so I haven’t seen it yet), and then cut down to South Street, which is a lot like Haight Street, or St. Mark’s, and I walked along there back to the area where I am staying. I also hit two yarn stores along the way – Loop and Rosie’s Yarn Cellar. Both were fantastic. I bought some yarn in Rosie’s for two projects I have planned, and I want to go back to Loop. I was a little overwhelmed by their stock, and need to go back with a list.

Here are a few pictures from my walk:

City Hall

Independence Hall

First Bank

Cemetery

Magic Garden on South Street

Saturday was the day we had all been gearing up for. We set up  a waiting room for Mike, Eric, et al. with the small evian water bottles that Mike likes (and which are not easy to find, by the way!). They all arrived around 1:00pm. I tried to just stay out of the way. The matinee was surprisingly smooth after the chaos of the week. We had a note session following the matinee which lasted until about 5:45pm, at which time I had to haul ass over to my hotel to move into my new and improved room. Mike and Eric seemed very pleased with the show and gave very few notes. Casey had more notes, mostly about being more specific in the dance numbers and not letting them get generic.

The evening show technically was not as smooth as the matinee. Patrick, who plays Lancelot, forgot to properly clip his flying harness before entering as Tim the Enchanter, so we had to fly him in and clip him, thus delaying his entrance a few beats. We had notes again after the evening show and Mike said “Does everyone know Tim was late entering?”. Um, yes. Patrick admitted to forgetting to clip the harness. All in all though, Mike and Casey were overjoyed with the evening show and the way everyone had implemented the notes from the afternoon. Esther, who is our Lady of the Lake standby, and who is taking over for Pia when she leaves, was on for the Lady that night, so it was great for the creative team to see her and for her to be able to get notes from them. The funniest note that came out of the whole day, though, was in regards to the Carmen Miranda fruit hat that Chris Sutton wears as Herbert in the number “His Name is Lancelot”. The hat is supposed to have a banana strategically placed to make a joke at the button of the number when Herbert slides between Lance’s legs. Mike said that the hat was all wrong, there needed to be work done on it, that “it was all leaves and not enough dick!”. Hilarious.

So we finally left the theater close to midnight on Saturday, relieved that the day was over. Sunday, fortunately, was only one show. We bid goodbye to Kevin Burrows, one of our original swings, who is leaving the tour. Most people headed to New York for the day off, where there is a Spamalot tour reunion planned for tonight with all the former cast members. I decided to stay in Philly and rest and try and see a bit of the city. I am planning to go back to NYC next Monday and Tuesday though to catch up with friends.

So that was the crazy week. I’m glad it’s over and I’m sorry for being out of touch! Happy first week of Spring!

There has been a lot of hanging out in bars since we arrived here. The Radisson, where we are staying, has a pretty cool bar, so most nights we have been there, but there is also a great pub called Maggie Moore’s across from the theater where we have hung out a few times. The presenters here threw us an opening night party at Maggie Moore’s, where we all got complimentary shepherd’s pie as well as free drinks. There is a big Irish population here in Baltimore as far as I can tell with Irish pubs a-plenty, and the approach of St. Patrick’s Day is definitely felt. 

Keith, Steve and Tony at the Radisson bar

Maggie Moore's

Last week I did quite a bit of walking around and exploring. The waterfront here, called the Inner Harbor, is a great shopping area and loaded with restaurants. The Aquarium is also there as well as a number of old boats which you can tour. The big Barnes and Noble (which I mentioned in my first Baltimore post) is also at the Inner Harbor, housed in an old red brick power plant building.

Fell’s Point is to the east of the harbor, and is filled with fun pubs and restaurants. There is also a cute yarn store there called A Good Yarn, where I picked up some yarn for a hat. Fell’s Point is filled with beautiful brick townhouses – and I looked online this morning, and rents are cheap! Only about $1000 for a two bedroom!

A Good Yarn

Fell's Point

Irish bars in Fell's Point

Fell's Point

Harbor

On Friday, Ryan and I went to check out the Mount Vernon neighborhood. There are tons of historic buildings there as well as the original Washington monument, which we climbed 228 steps to the top.

Washington Monument

Cool old church

View from the top of the monument

The weekend was filled with four shows, which mostly went well. The theater here is really great in many respects. It is a large house, but intimate, so the audience feel very close, which is a good thing after all the mammoth performing arts centers we have been playing. The crowds have not been quite as raucous as the rock star houses we had in Atlanta and Memphis (who knew the south was filled with such Python fans?), but they have definitely been having a good time. The local stagehands here have been a challenge, very forgetful and a bit on cranky side, but luckily, so far, no huge mishaps backstage. Jaki and I butched it up and struck a piece of scenery the other night when the local carpenter was nowhere to be found, but other than that…nothing too tragic.

The clocks changed on Saturday night and with an early show anyway on Sunday, we were waiting to see who would be the one to miss the call. We thought it was strange when one of the actors, who is normally very early, hadn’t arrived at the theater by an hour before the show. Sure enough, shortly before half hour, that actor called in sick. Now, it is really bad form to wait until half hour to call in. If you’re going to do it, you should make sure you call in at least an hour and a half before curtain as that is when all the production departments are in readying for the show. For this actor to call in a half hour before curtain was very discourteous, to say the least. Her understudy had only had a half an hour to get herself ready, as well as the wardrobe crew, who had to run their asses off to change out all her costumes to the understudy’s. All this for what? Because this person woke up too late to spend two hours on make-up? Lame. AND said actor was back for the evening show on Sunday, so it was fairly apparent that there was no sickness involved in calling out. I’ll say no more about that.

Sunday night a group of us went back over to Fell’s Point to go to a bar called Bertha’s, which is known for it’s mussels. They give away bumper stickers that say “Eat Bertha’s Mussels”. Well, we got there, and wouldn’t you know, they were out of mussels! We had a good time anyway, with our crazy bartender Michelle. There were also a couple of old drunk Irish guys down the end of the bar that kept yelling “Ni!” all night once they heard we were from Spamalot. There are bumper stickers all over the walls of the bar that people have created by cutting up the Bertha’s stickers to say something else. Tony made one for us.

Tony making our sticker

Crazy bartender Michelle

We finished the night at the Cat’s Eye Pub, where we listened to some good blues musicians play some tunes.

On Monday I headed to the Aquarium, which was not quite as impressive as the one in Atlanta, but did have dolphins, which I love.

Then I checked out the ‘hood of Federal Hill, which like Fell’s Point, is chock full of beautiful brick townhouses and cute restaurants and businesses.

Monday night was made complete by a delicious dinner at the Rusty Scupper, which is right next to Federal Hill Park. The crab cakes were amazing.

Yesterday I headed back to Fell’s Point for the third time with Ryan to get some sushi and check out the Baltimore Tattoo Museum. It was way cool! The museum is actually part of a tattoo shop and is a small display of the history of tattoo art in America, with bios on some of the prominent artists over the last century and examples of their work. Very cool.

After the museum, we had a bit of time to grab some coffee at the Daily Grind, a coffee house in Fell’s Point, and for me to catch up on a bit of knitting. I am desperately trying to finish the cable skinny scarf I am working on before we leave Baltimore! There are a ton of great yarn stores in Philly and I am looking forward to buying some yarn for some new projects there.

So we have a few more days left in Baltimore and then on to Philadelphia. I am planning on heading back into New York for a day or two at the beginning of April to see friends and catch a couple of shows…will be strange after being away for almost four months! 

We flew in yesterday morning – it was probably the crappiest travel day so far. The airport in Atlanta was beyond crowded and so we spent an hour in line for boarding passes and then security. Then, waiting to go through security, all these airline personnel kept cutting in line – I have my doubts that they really had planes to get to, they were more likely just abusing their VIP status. Security was also very harried and loud, so Tallulah was understandably freaked. Luckily she didn’t poop on me like she did in the hotel in Atlanta when Steve delivered and dropped my trunk, literally scaring the crap out of her.

THEN, when we finally reached the gate, thinking we had some time to grab a coffee, they starting boarding the plane – 45 minutes before the scheduled departure. What?

The flight was fine, but as I had caught a cold a few days before in Atlanta, I spent the whole flight wiping my nose. Luckily the sinus pain wasn’t so bad despite the altitude – I only had a bit of discomfort as we landed.

We got to the hotel (the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore) around noon and dropped off our bags as we were unable to get into our rooms until 3:00pm. I went with Suzanne, Pam (hair sub), Fran and Jovon to get lunch at Mo’s – I had a delicious crab cake! Tallulah was covert in her bag under the table – my “video camera” bag.

We got back to the hotel around 1:30pm and most of the others were able to get into their rooms at that time. Of course, my room was still not ready, so I camped out in the lobby. Jaki came by at one point and felt my head and said I was burning up. By that point, I was basically feeling like ass. I was so congested and just wanted to get into my room. Finally around 3:00pm I got the key to my room and went up, only to find that the room had only one tiny window that looked directly into the office building next door. Now I’m not too picky about my room, but direct sunlight is a huge must for me. I cannot deal with dark rooms. So, I went back downstairs and the front desk said they could switch my room, but I would have to wait another 30-45 minutes. FINALLY, around 4:00pm I was able to get into my new and improved room, which is a corner room and LOVELY. It is smaller than the first room and only has a full-sized bed rather than a king, but it has two windows and looks out at the city. I love it.

I forced myself to leave for a bit to go to the grocery store as I also lucked out and got a small fridge and microwave in my room. The grocery store, Superfresh, is great! Very new and clean, and good produce!

Then I took a quick walk down to the Inner Harbor to go to the Barnes and Noble. I wanted to see if they had two knitting books in stock that I have been eyeing. The Inner Harbor is really nice – it’s basically a bunch of restaurants and shops down by the waterfront. The Baltimore Aquarium is also there.

I took a couple of snaps:

Barnes and Noble had the two books I was looking for! “Fitted Knits” and “Lace Style”. I bought them both as they have such beautiful patterns in them, and because I really need two more knitting books to cart around with me!!

When I got back to the hotel, Jaki stopped by with a care package for me – she brought me chicken soup, some tylenol PM, tea, Theraflu, Shower Soothers and a bottle of whiskey! Isn’t that the nicest thing? I love the crew girls on this tour – they are the bomb. 

Here are the girls at breakfast back in Atlanta:

Me, Fran, Penny, Elaine, Jaki and Suzanne

I ate the chicken soup for dinner, took some tylenol PM and made a hot toddy with tea and whiskey, and was OUT by 9:30pm.

This morning I felt like a new person!

The load-in has been going so well today. The theater here in Baltimore is intimate yet there is adequate space backstage, so no crossover woes here. I haven’t taken any pics of the house yet, but here’s a couple of the front of the building:

In fact, we had so much downtime today, that Kitty and Baby were dressed and ready for Baltimore in no time.

We arrived in Memphis last Monday and my first impression was that it seemed a lot like Detroit – sort of run down, a lot of empty storefronts, not many people on the streets. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it – I had envisioned a much busier urban area. I went and grabbed some lunch with Ken and Jovon on Beale Street and then spent the rest of Monday at the hotel, exhausted from the travel (I had gotten up at 4:30am that morning in order to drive to the Fort Myers airport at 6am. Ick).

Tuesday was load-in at the Orpheum Theater on Beale Street, which is a beautiful old theater, which supposedly is haunted by a ghost named Mary, who was killed by one of the trolley cars at the turn of the century.

On Tuesday load-ins, stage management and company management usually have a “load-in lunch”, and this week was no exception. We headed down to Rum Boogie on Beale Street for some eats… and we had some special guests…Kitty and Baby!

Ken with Kitty and Baby

Kitty and Baby are two characters in a painting that was found in the theater in Toronto – Ken has travelled them ever since, and Rachel and I took to dressing them up, starting with Santa hats at Christmas. I then made them beachwear for Florida. I knew they needed something special for Memphis, so I brought them to lunch with us so that I could take them for a costume fitting at Walgreens afterwards.

At Rum Boogie, I also noticed that amidst all the autographed guitars everywhere, was one signed by Chris Cain, who I did “Thunder Knockin’ On the Door” with ten years ago at San Jose Rep!

After lunch, and a successful trip to Walgreens, Kitty and Baby were dressed for Memphis.

We added two new set pieces to the show this week – a revised Camelot hangar, and also a new Mudcastle. Both are pieces that have been in the show all along, but needed to be downsized in order to travel more efficiently. Our original Camelot hangar and Mudcastle have both gone to Vegas to be in the production there. Both of our new pieces seemed a little cheesy at first as they are smaller than the originals, but when seen onstage under lights, they both actually look really good. The Mudcastle is especially painted well, and I think it looks much more like the castle in the Spamalot logo than our old Mudcastle.

Here’s Ryan with the new Mudcastle:

Tuesday’s opening went pretty well. There are still some growing pains happening on stage right, which I supervise the first three nights in a new city. Our stage right prop guy is new and has never run props before, so he is still getting used to his track backstage, and although he is trying to be helpful with the local prop hands, because he still doesn’t know the show that well, he tends to confuse them. All will be fine, I know, but right now I feel like I am constantly putting out a whole lot of little fires. It’s good for me though, because it really means that I have to know stage right inside and out.

Tuesday night after the show, Jovon, Ryan and I went to Westy’s for some food and drinks. I had the best jambalaya ever. I kept meaning to go back there again but never got the chance.

The wreath on the balcony is where MLK was shot

Wednesday I headed over to the Civil Rights Museum with Rick. It was incredibly intense – a lot of reading all about the really bad things this country has gone through and instigated throughout the years, with plenty of pictures to accompany the stories. The most incredible part of the museum, though, was seeing the spot where Martin Luther King was shot. The museum is actually housed in the Lorraine motel, which is where Dr. King was assassinated. You step into the motel room where he stayed and look out the window onto the balcony where he was shot down. Then you go to an annex across the street and stand where the assassin stood, and look out the window at the view he had when targeting Dr. King. The whole experience gave me chills and made me really ashamed for all that has happened between people of different races in this country. It really made me appreciate how far we have come since the civil rights movement, but also how far we still have to go. 

This week in Atlanta I am going to try and make it over to MLK’s birthplace and the museum that accompanies it.

Wednesday night was a blast as we celebrated Patrick’s (Lancelot) birthday at BB King’s. We listened to some amazing blues music and then explored some other bars on Beale Street.

BB Kings

Thursday was a trip to Sun Studios, where Sam Phillips discovered and recorded such acts as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. It is a tiny place, very much like the Motown Museum in Detroit, but has such an amazing history. We had a great tour guide, who told us all about Elvis showing up there as a teenager, wanting to make a record. We toured the studio and saw the spot where Elvis recorded, and the piano that Jerry Lewis played.

Tony and Amy at the soda counter

Jeff as Elvis

The whole group

Sun Studios

Thursday after the show I went out to Mud Island to see Ben (our conductor) and Christopher Gurr’s rental house. It was amazing! The whole neighborhood was filled with very tony houses and mansions, and Ben and Christopher’s rental was no exception. It was impeccably decorated and very comfortable. Unfortunately it was very cold (it was in the 30’s all week), so we couldn’t take proper advantage of the beautiful porch, but you could just imagine sitting out there sipping mint juleps. 

Graceland

Friday was GRACELAND! No matter how big or small an Elvis fan you are, Graceland is not to be missed on a trip to the south. The house is not extravagant or huge, but feels comfortable and absolutely like a little time capsule from Elvis’s life. You can really imagine what kind of a person he was from his surroundings and you also begin to understand what enormous accomplishments he made throughout his career – especially when you see the hundreds of gold and platinum records that are on the premises. When you reach his grave site, it is all the more moving because you’ve had a glimpse into a life that was so huge, that it seems impossible that he could have died so young.

       

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Saturday between shows we went over to Rendezvous, a famous BBQ rib joint that has been recommended to me (and everyone else!) by so many people. The ribs are prepared with a dry rub and left on the grill for two hours. They were delicious.

The group

Justin in his chef hat

Finally, Sunday between shows, the ladies in the theater guild in Memphis prepared us an amazing potluck spread of so many Southern goodnesses, I can’t even begin to list them all – fried chicken, corn casserole, brisket, baked beans, mac and cheese, collard greens, banana pudding, and on and on. It was unbelievably good. I have to say, this week of eating has been one of the best I’ve had in a LONG time. Southerners really know how to eat. I said that we should have had a weigh-in at the beginning of the week and then again at the end. Would have been funny to see how much we had all gained!

For all the eating though, this was the first city since I’ve been on the tour, that we’ve stayed close enough to the theater to walk to work, and have not needed cars. I have loved getting out and walking again, and so despite all the barbecue, I actually feel more in shape this week than I have in a while!

We left our mark at the Orpheum theater. Backstage…the theater has a tradition of all touring shows painting and signing a mural of their shows…here’s ours (painted by Vera, our props head).

And so this morning, we bid adieu to sweet Memphis and took off for Atlanta, which is where I write from now. I look forward to two weeks here exploring more of the South…

More soon from Memphis…no time now…off to see some ducks…

I will miss you madly! Thanks for all the fun, laughs, late night drinks at Cheesecake factory, trip to Disney, keeping me company at the call desk, and for all the guidance… I LOVE YOU!!!!

We arrived here on Monday and I met up with Brian for dinner at a really good Mexican place on 5th Avenue South, which is the “downtown” area of Naples. It is an upscale street filled with restaurants and boutiques. We wandered around a bit and then headed home to get some rest before load-in in the morning.

Tuesday I met Jovon Shuck, our new ASM who will be taking over for Brian. He seems really nice – I sort of feel for him that he has to learn the show in a theater where we are only staying for a week. I was lucky to learn in Detroit where I had four weeks to get really comfortable with the show before we moved next and I had to teach a new crew the show. Jovon will have a week before having to teach stage left to a new crew in Memphis on Tuesday. 

The theater here in Naples is really small – only about 1500 seats and is designed to be a concert hall, so we are very cramped backstage. The proscenium is also very low so our drops don’t fit all that well in the space.

Along with Jovon, we are also training a new stage right prop guy, Steve, as Josh is leaving to join “The Color Purple” tour. In addition, six of the eight local wardrobe crew here have never worked backstage before. Needless to say, the first night was a bit chaotic backstage…but, we met Judge Judy afterwards! She’s a resident of Naples.

There’s not much in terms of sightseeing here in Naples, but yesterday I did head out to the beach, which is stunning. I also felt unusually attractive in my swimsuit as everyone on the beach was over seventy!

It was eighty degrees here yesterday which made for an amazing beach day, but unfortunately I fell asleep and ended up with quite a sunburn. Oh well, I had to make the most of my last beach day for a while. It is supposed to snow in Memphis next Thursday – that will be quite a shock to all of us after being in shorts for a month.

The condos here are so nice that we have all mostly been hanging out here at the resort. Plus driving around here is maddening because all the old people drive so SLOWLY! It takes forever to get anywhere! Tuesday night I went next door to Karl and Ben’s for margaritas and Wednesday night Ryan and Brian and I drank beers on my porch. We look directly out on to the golf course from our patio. At nighttime it is so tempting to streak naked out there. I was talking to Callie, who lives above me about that and she laughed because she and Amy, her roommate, had had the exact same thought. Maybe some debauchery will be had before we leave on Sunday…

Finally, we now have a Spamatruck!

We travel with eight trucks full of scenery, props, costumes, trunks, etc. and now one of the trucks sports the logo! Pretty cool, right?

Tampa is a lot more urban than Fort Lauderdale – not quite as idyllic and resort-like. We are staying in an Extended Stay hotel by the airport which is actually really nice. A lot of the cast are staying at the hotel across from the theater called the Ashley Plaza, which has been dubbed “The Bates Motel” because it is so dumpy. I’m glad I decided to stay at the other hotel option.

The weather here has also been a lot more chilly than in Fort Lauderdale, which has definitely been a bit of a downer for everyone as we were all so happy in our t-shirts and flip flops a week ago!

I’ve mostly been laying low since we got here and resting up from such a busy two weeks in Fort Lauderdale. Last Wednesday was Pia’s (our “Lady of the Lake”) 30th birthday, so we did all go out that night and celebrate at a bar called The Blue Martini. Here’s a couple of pics:

Me and Piper

Siobhan and Matt

Kevin and Paula

Pia and Jamie

On Friday I drove over to Clearwater Beach to see what the Gulf Coast looks like. It was really beautiful, but COLD! So I only stayed a little while.

Then the big event of the weekend was the Gasparilla Festival, which is a Mardi-Gras-like event that is celebrated starting at 11:30am. “In this annual re-enactment of Tampa’s historic pirate invasion, the Gasparilla Flotilla – led by the Jose Gasparilla, teeming with pirates – heads up the Seddon Channel towards downtown Tampa. When the ship docks at the Tampa Convention Center, the Mayor surrenders the key to the city of Tampa to the Captain.” The pirates then launch a victory celebration in the Parade of Pirates. 

We, unfortunately, were in a matinee when all the official events took place, but some of the actors threw in a couple of pirate references during the show, which was pretty funny. When we broke for dinner, I definitely saw a lot of people on the streets dressed as pirates… here’s one blurry picture I took from the car:

Brian’s replacement was hired this week. He starts with us next week in Naples. I will miss Brian so much when he goes! Hopefully the new guy, Jovon, will be just as nice.

Yesterday was our day off and Brian, Ryan (one of our stage carpenters) and I headed off to Disneyworld. We had a great time, but I think it deserves it’s own entry, so look for pictures from Orlando next time…

Fort Lauderdale beach

Well, as Tallulah told you in the last entry, we did hit the beach on our second day here which was amazing. Tuesday was spent loading in the show all day with a performance that night and then yesterday we were at the theater all day doing a photo call and shooting b-roll before the show that night. You know what, though? When you come to work at a place like this…

Broward Center

…it hardly matters that you have to be at work all day rather than on the beach.

Seriously, when you walk out the front door of the theater, this is what you see:

And we are getting paid to be here?

The interior of the theater is gorgeous as well – very modern, but classy.

We have tons of room backstage which made for a very smooth first performance, and all the dressing rooms and offices are on the same level as the stage, which is nice after Detroit, which was six levels (all those stairs!).

Also, outside the wardrobe room is this amazing courtyard where we can hang out:

And you can walk down the river from the theater to a number of great bars and restaurants with outdoor seating. It’s really nice. Fort Lauderdale is supposedly the U.S. equivalent of Venice in that it is built on all these waterways. I’ve driven by a number of “streets” which are actually not paved streets, but waterways, and houses are built along the waterways, and people dock their boats right outside their houses. Amazing!

There’s also lots of good shopping here – there’s a huge outlet  mall near our hotel which is enormous. I went there today and didn’t even make it around half of it.

The only drag here is that our hotel is a little on the dumpy side. It’s under construction so we are awakened by banging at 8 o’clock every morning. Oh well, I guess it’s a small price to pay for being here in such a beautiful place.

Mary (one of my oldest and dearest friends from high school) arrives on Saturday and stays through Wednesday. We are going to the Everglades National Park on Monday. I hope we see some alligators!

Cute cat picture of the day:

Mom made me get up really early yesterday morning and drink some really yucky herbal drops and then get in my bag. We went in the car with her friend Rick to the Detroit airport which was really loud and scary. It was especially scary when Mom made me get out of the bag to so it could go through the x-ray machine. I didn’t like that, but we had had a talk before we left for the airport about staying calm, so I did. I just clung to Mom while she carried me through and then I got back in the bag.

Then we went on another airplane. It was a longer flight this time than the one from New York to Detroit. I had to stay under the seat for almost three hours! Mom did leave the zipper open a little though on the top of the bag so I could at least see her the whole flight. We flew past Cape Canaveral on the way down here and Mom wanted to lift me up and let me look out the window, but there was a big man in the middle seat so she couldn’t get my bag out from underneath without causing all kinds of trouble. So I stayed there until we landed. But here’s picture Mom took of Cape Canaveral so you can see what it looks like:

After we landed and the big man moved out of the way, Mom lifted my bag up onto the seat and let me look out. I met Keith Reese who is the production carpenter on Mom’s show. He was sitting behind us. The lady sitting next to him kept sneezing and giving me dirty looks. I think she might have been allergic to me.

Then we went to get the luggage. It took a long time to come out, so Mom let me out of the bag for a few minutes. A bunch of people came over to pet me and tell me how cute I was. It was so embarrassing. 

Then Mom got the rental car and we went for another ride. It was so nice out – 80 degrees! So different from Detroit! Mom rolled the windows down and I could see palm trees and blue sky! We went to a hotel called the Amerisuites last night, which was kind of a dump and smelled funny, but it was okay because it was only for one night. Me and Mom were real tired from getting up so early and traveling so we slept for like 10 hours!

Then today we had to move to another hotel. The only problem was that we had to be out of the Amerisuites by noon and couldn’t check into the other hotel, the Las Palmas, until 2! So, Mom took me to the beach.

At first I stayed in my bag.

But the beach looked so pretty….

I tried to peek out the best I could.

Mom was bugging me cuz she kept taking pictures of me cooped up in the bag while she got to enjoy the sun!

Finally she took pity on me and unzipped the bag so I could at least get some fresh air!

Kris! You will never believe how many seagulls there were! I thought there were a lot of birds to look at out the window of the Residence Inn in Michigan, but that was nothing compared to all the birds I saw on the beach!

There were also a lot of people on the beach in swimsuits! It’s weird because it’s January and I know in New York it’s usually cold in January, right? And it was really freezing when we left Detroit yesterday, but here it’s like summer! In fact, Mom says it is high season here. It actually gets too humid in the summer here for it to be any fun, so January is when people come and visit. Lucky for us, right?

Finally, right before we left, Mom let me all the way out of the bag for a few minutes.

Kris – it was the best ever! I love the beach!

Now we are at the Las Palmas hotel in Sunrise, Florida. It took a while to get checked in because the room ended up not being ready until 3:30p, but I got to meet some more of Mom’s friends while we waited. I had to pee so bad, though! But I was good and didn’t pee in the bag. I waited until we were in the room and Mom had the litter box set up. Now I’m exploring the new room and trying to find all my new hiding places. It’s a pretty nice hotel, and there’s some kind of soccer convention going on  and all the soccer players are staying here too, as well as all of Mom’s coworkers. Mom says the soccer players are cute. I don’t know what she’s talking about.

Mom has to go to work tomorrow so I will probably just nap and look out the big window. Mom’s friend Mary comes to visit on Friday. That will be fun – one more person to give me some loves when I want them.

I miss you Kris, I wish you were here to see the seagulls with me.

Meow, 

Love Tallu

The tour started upstairs in the “gallery” where such artifacts as Michael Jackson’s fedora and rhinestone glove were on display, as well as some costumes belonging to the Temptations, many photos of the Motown artists, and album covers, including one of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, which was released on Motown Records. 

Then we were taken through Berry Gordy’s old apartment, which was part of the upstairs of the house. If you have seen the movie “Dreamgirls”, Curtis’s studio at the Cadillac dealership is based on Berry Gordy’s studio at his house in Detroit. After touring through the apartment, which still has Gordy’s old furniture in it, we went downstairs to the waiting area and recording studio, where all the famous Motown artists once recorded music. 

The control booth

Here’s Adam at the piano once played by Stevie Wonder, among many others.

Then Frank, our tour guide, made all the girls get up and sing “Stop, in the Name of Love” a la the Supremes, and then the boys had to get up and sing “My Girl”. 

After visiting the studio, we then watched some footage from back in the day of some of the Motown artists. It was really fascinating and I would definitely recommend the tour to anyone visiting Detroit.

Then we went on a 45-minute wild goose chase looking for Mexican Town, which we finally found, and finished off the break between shows with some yummy enchiladas!

Three more days ‘til Fort Lauderdale!

Rick and Brian the dog

The company spent last night partying at a room at the Residence Inn in Troy. I think the photos speak for themselves as to how the night went. A good time was definitely had by all.

Wishing everyone a very happy 2007!

Jeff and Kevin

Lance and Jeff

Me and Brian

Amazing food spread

Robert and Darryl

The Girls

Dancing on the bed

Me and Tony

Piper, Robert and Siobhan

Jake, Jeff and Esther

Under Mitchell's kilt

Here’s an example of a page from my call script, during the “Camelot” number, where you can see light cues and things called off words and counts:

It can definitely be a mess if you lose your place or get behind!

I spent quite a few shows watching the show and listening to Ken call the show, and practicing by the video monitor outside our office. Here’s my little practice station at work with my fake cue lights written on pieces of paper and taped to the side of the road box.

And at the hotel I made a practice station out of a box and would listen to the show on my i-pod and practice in the kitchen:

But now I can let all the practicing go and just call the show for real – phew! Ken usually calls two shows a week and then Brian and I will call three each. 

Here’s the real call desk:

Well, we have a week left in Detroit – the time has gone by so quickly! We leave for Fort Lauderdale one week from today. Yesterday I went to Greektown with Rick, Adam and Ben (Ben is our conductor and Rick and Adam are his associates) and also Karl (our company manager). It was such a fun area of downtown Detroit! It is an area full of Greek restaurants and a casino. We went to one restaurant, the name I can’t remember, and had some yummy combo plates of lamb, spinach pie and other goodies. We also had some flaming cheese for an appetizer.

Here is a picture of the main drag with all the restaurants:

And a photo of the boys after we finished dinner:

Ben, Rick, Karl and Adam

 It was such a great area and I’m so glad I got a chance to see it before we leave. On Wednesday we are hoping to hit the Motown Museum between shows, which is the last touristy thing on my list for Detroit. It should be especially fun to visit after seeing “Dreamgirls” last weekend which is based on Berry Gordy and that whole era.

Tonight we have another show and then a party at the Residence Inn to celebrate New Years. Wishing everyone a happy 2007!

With the band boys and Karl

Crazy Christmas house

So I had a fairly mellow Christmas, which was nice. On Christmas Eve I went out for steak with Christopher Gurr (Bedevere), who I’ve known for almost ten years now, believe it or not! He is the boyfriend of my friend Karen, who I used to work with at San Jose Rep. It’s so great to be working with him all these years later! We were also joined for dinner by Robert Petkoff, who plays Robin, and his wife Susan. It was a delicious dinner, but the strange Michigan blue laws came into effect at 9:30pm when all the wine was taken away from our table! Apparently from 9:30p on Christmas Eve through all day Christmas (and on Sundays), no alcoholic beverages can be purchased at retail stores or restaurants. I had heard about this, but didn’t think they would take our half-full glasses away from us at the table!

Christmas day was spent hanging out with Tallulah at the hotel, watching movies and practicing the call of “Spamalot” (which I have to do for real on Thursday), and then last night I met up with a couple of people to see “Dreamgirls”, which was fantastic, and so perfect to be viewed in Detroit, as that is where the story is based.

This is how Tallulah spent her Christmas:

On my way to the movies, I stopped by this crazy house on 12 Mile Road that Brian had told me about. If you thought the house in National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation” was bad, check this out:

Pretty amazing, right?

Last week I did a bit of exploring nearer to where we are staying in Troy. Tanya had told me that there was some good shopping in Birmingham, which is about a ten to fifteen minute drive from Troy, so I went over and checked it out. It is such a cute area!

These pictures actually don’t do it much justice, so you’ll just have to trust me that it was a nice welcomed place to walk around after the desolation of downtown Detroit.

On Friday night, we all went out to karaoke to celebrate Naomi and Kevin’s 30th birthdays (they are both ensemble members). The bar was hilarious – very redneck crowd. They were of course a tad intimidated by the singing chops of some of our group.

Tony knocking one back

Piper, Esther and Rick

And finally, today of course I got in my first, and probably not my last fender bender. I scraped a pole in the parking lot at Barnes and Noble and the whole back bumper fell off the rental Camry. What a piece of crap! I managed (after quite a bit of trouble) to shove the bumper in the backseat and get it back to Avis to trade for another car. But unfortunately not in time to make it downtown to see the matinee of “White Christmas” that I was hoping to catch. Oh well.

I hope everyone who reads this had a fantastic holiday!

We were hoping with a name like “Mario’s”, that maybe the buffet would include some decent italian food. Instead we got this:

Barbecued weenies

That’s right, y’all, BARBECUED COCKTAIL WEINIES. Perfect, right?

So we finally had to just laugh about the whole evening and give in to the pure tackiness of it and just live it and have fun. Of course leave it to Paula and Daryl to make that happen. They got everyone dancing, and put the locals to shame.

So that was our opening night in Detroit! Pretty hilarious.

By the way, I finally had a chance to take a picture of our stage door via gas station:

Fisher Theater stage door

The brown door in the background is indeed where we enter to go to work. Again, perfect.

Karl, Rachel, Brian, myself, Jeff and Ken at the casino buffet

The next highlight of this weekend in Detroit was dinner Saturday between shows at the Buffet at Motor City, one of the casinos. It was a blast – Ken, Brian, Rachel and I and our two company managers, Karl and Jeff, headed over there and partook of the enormous food spread. It was actually really good, especially after a week of sandwiches. It was nice to have some warm food.

In fact, the buffet was so good, that even international celebrities like Santa Claus eat there:

Santa Claus at the casino buffet

The boys also got in about fifteen minutes worth of gambling before we had to head back to work. Ken won $65 and Brian won $90. Pretty good for fifteen minutes!

With Karl, Rachel and Ken

On Sunday, Brian, Rachel and I gave Ken his Christmas present – a chocolate fondue fountain that he has apparently been talking about since the show was in Boston. Rachel went out and bought all the ingredients for the chocolate sauce and things to dip in it and we set it up between shows in our office. It was a hit!

Paula, Jamie and Chris test the fountain

Penny and Aidan try it out

Last night was Rachel’s going away party, as well as the going away party for Bradley Dean who plays Galahad, Brandi Wooten who is one of the swings, and Marcus who mixes sound. It was sad saying goodbye to all of them – Brandi and Bradley were with the show when we did the rehearsals in NYC last winter so I met them then, and Rachel has been with the show since rehearsals for the Broadway company. We went to a billiards club in Royal Oak (near where we are staying) and there was a fun cover band playing. 

The cast dancing away

Brian, Rachel and Jeff (Patsy)

Scott playing pool

It was a really fun night…and actually the evening before Rachel and Esther hosted a wine and cheese party in their rooms at the Candlewood, which was also very fun. I forgot to bring my camera to that party, though, which is a shame because Paula, Jamie and Brian all brought their dogs over. Five dogs in a hotel room! Pretty funny – they were really cute, everyone was fawning all over them.

Tony Holds, who is a friend of mine from the Trailer Park Musical, came into town on Saturday to join the company as the new Galahad, taking over for Bradley. I’m so glad he’s here -  a familiar face, and another “new kid”. He’s also a really fun person and I think will be a great energy to have around. 

I also got to experience my first “shot night” on Sunday! Every Sunday, someone in the cast hosts “shot night” in their dressing room after the show. This past Sunday it was Patrick (Lancelot) and Robert (Robin), and we all did shots of Southern Comfort and lime. Woo-hoo!

Rachel left early this morning to go back to New York, so now the job of 2nd assistant is all me. Yikes! I feel really good about the deck track, though, and now I just have to learn to call the show! I watched last night from the sound board, which was great, since I haven’t seen the show since Boston. I’d forgotten how funny some of it… well most of it, is. 

So now its my day off and I’m off to do laundry. More soon!

City Knits

Well Detroit is everything I thought it would be! The theater is in the downtown area, which is really rundown and empty. I was surprised to see that there aren’t even really any restaurants around – I would have thought that people going to the theater would need places to eat but I guess not! The Fisher Theater, where we are playing, is luckily in a building which also has a few shops and places to get food, so it is not an entirely inconvenient location to be performing. There is actually a pretty good coffee shop in the building as well as a post office, deli and funnily enough, a really great yarn shop called City Knits which of course makes me really happy!

Fisher Theater

Tuesday was my first day of work. Rachel and Lee (our drummer) picked me up at 7:30am and we headed towards Detroit from Troy, the suburban town where we are staying. We immediately hit traffic – welcome to Detroit! We managed to get to the theater shortly after 8:00am though, so were not too late for our call. The stage door for the Fisher is accessed through an old gas station – how appropriate is that? Our crew and the local stagehands had been up all night loading the show in. Ken, the PSM, had also been there all night, so needless to say, everyone was not in the finest of moods by the time we got there, for lack of sleep. The load-in actually went really well though and everything was in ahead of schedule. Rachel went through all my responsibilities for load-in with me, which mainly entail getting the dressing room areas set up with cots, valuables bags, and signage, and setting up the houseboard, getting water stations set up, the call desk set up, ordering office supplies, setting up our desk areas, and getting the stage ready for actors – putting down white tape where needed and touching up the spikes. 

The Fisher Theater presents an interesting challenge as it is very tight backstage. We have no crossover on deck, everyone has to use the basement to get from stage right to stage left, so we had to do some strategizing to figure out how to make that work with quick changes, etc. The wing space is also really tight, so much of the scenery and large props are hung in the air and it is a jigsaw puzzle in figuring out when things can be set-up and where to put them when they come offstage.

The show that night was an interesting experience. “Spamalot” travels with two carpenters, two prop staff, and one flyman…so in each city local stagehands are added to round out the crew. They spend all day Tuesday loading the show in and then go into running the show that night with no rehearsal. The two ASMs split the deck for the first three nights in a city – one on stage right and one on stage left, and we basically have to talk through the show as it goes with the new stagehands. It was a bit nutty the first night in Detroit as we had not only 2 local carpenters and a local props person on each side who were learning the show, but also two new ensemble cast members doing their first performance as well as a bevy of local wardrobe crew who were running the show for the first time. Couple that with a theater that has no backstage space and it made for a bit of chaos! It was really fun though to see how it all works backstage. Everyone kept saying it was the craziest first night they’ve had jesince they were in Toronto, which was also a very small theater. I had quite a few people come up to me at the end of the night asking me if I had signed a contract, and would I be coming back the next day! They thought the first night might have scared me away…not likely! 

I wish I had some good pictures of the interior of the theater but even with a flash the ones I have taken are still very dark. It’s quite a sight. Very seventies. Just think gold. Everywhere. Seats, walls, everywhere. Wow. Hopefully I will be able to get some decent pictures before I leave. The one at the top of this entry is about as good as it gets for the pictures I have taken of the theater so far.

It has been great seeing the old cast members again and meeting all the new ones who have joined the company since I did rehearsals with the show last winter. And the crew all seem really great. Everyone has been very welcoming.

So tonight we “marry” the deck, which means only one deck stage manager and the crew are essentially left to their own devices in many cases. So we’ll see what happens. Hopefully no train wrecks. I will shadow tonight and tomorrow and then start running the deck alone on Sunday. Rachel leaves Monday and then I start to learn to call the show.

In terms of sightseeing, I went the giant Somerset mall on Wednesday with Rachel and Rick. It is enormous! We went intending to Christmas shop and instead all we got was a Charlie Brown Christmas tree for Brian (the other stage manager) from Urban Outfitters. It’s a great mall though…I’m sure I’ll be spending some more time there. It’s funny how much you appreciate the mall after living in the city for some time.

Here’s Rick and Rachel in front of Santa’s Castle at the mall:

Rachel and Rick at Somerset Collection

and an interior shot of the mall:

  

Car where JFK was shot

Then yesterday, Rachel and I headed over to Dearborn to the Henry Ford Museum, which is amazing! We unfortunately got there only an hour before closing so only really took in the highlights, but hopefully I’ll have a chance to go back. Henry Ford was a big collector of American artifacts and the museum is filled with some really amazing objects, which include the chair which Lincoln was shot in and also the car in which JFK was killed.

There were also a lot of really cool cars:

 

And the Weiner-mobile:

And lots of other fun things:

There is also a ton of info and exhibits on all of American history, from the Civil War to civil rights – they have the bus that Rosa Parks rode, and all kinds of other bits and pieces from American history. Very cool. They also had a mock-up of a teenager’s room from 1987 that looked just like mine did, with a Cabbage Patch Kid and Depeche Mode poster and other fun ‘80’s memorabilia.

There is also a car factory tour and a reproduction of a historic American village, which I did not get a chance to see, but hopefully if I go back I will. 

Ford Museum

So that’s about it for my first few days in Detroit – our “opening night” party is tonight. I’m sure there will be more stories to come…

Then…the xray machine. I had to take her out of the bag at the loud wack-a-doo airport and carry her in my arms through the doorway while they shot her bag through the machine. Did she try to get away or even squirm? No!

Then, while we were chilling in the seats by our gate, I let her poke her head out of the bag and assess her situation. Again, did she try to get away – no!

Tallulah on the plane

Then…the big test…the actual plane flight. First, I was thrilled to find that her cat bag fit perfectly under the seat – there would be no drama about trying to wrench it under there. (p.s. She was also not weighed at the airport. Phew!)Then, once again, all through take-off, the flight, the landing….not one peep out of that cat. As we were taxiing to the gate in Detroit, I pulled her bag into my lap and let her stick her head out the top and look out the window. It was very sweet.

Now, we are here in Troy at the Residence Inn which will be our home for the next four weeks, and there has been no hiding or wailing. Just a very curious kitty checking out her new digs. Have I mentioned that MY CAT IS A ROCK STAR! I am so excited that she seems to be taking to this traveling thing so well. And I have to say, she was a good distraction for me today on the plane, as well. I didn’t even get nervous for this flight…which is a rare and wonderful thing for me, and I hope the trend continues!

So here are a couple of snaps so far:

Coming in to Detroit

And some snaps of our little studio at the Residence Inn:

It’s actually quite cozy and I scored a fireplace. The only drawback is that it is on the ground level near the street, so a) I can’t walk around naked unless all the curtains are drawn and b) I hope I don’t get broken into and c) we don’t get much light. On the other hand though, the street noise is good – it reminds me of Manhattan! And the fireplace is an awesome bonus.

It’s not too cold here yet – in the forties. I’m stocking up on some logs though for the fireplace – it will definitely get some use, even if for only the ambiance.

So tonight I am having dinner with Rachel and Rick, my car buddies (Rachel is the girl I am replacing and Rick plays keyboards in the band) and then have to be at the theater in downtown Detroit at 8am for load-in. Should be exciting – my first load-in on the road!

Was a bit sad leaving the apartment in Wash Heights this morning – even though I know its only for a little while. It did make me realize how much I do love New York City and even though it gets me down sometimes, there really is no other place like it.

Oh look, Princess Lulu has found her new spot:

Princess Tallulah

All clean and ready to travel!

      ]]> http://justtravelingthru.wordpress.com/2006/12/07/disaster-area/ Thu, 07 Dec 2006 18:23:39 +0000 Francesca http://justtravelingthru.wordpress.com/2006/12/07/disaster-area/

Packing it up

I’ve been packing for days and this picture is still what my room looks like. I am literally buried in boxes. I really can’t wait until it is all taken away to storage. As much as I did miss certain items the last time I put everything in storage (for 2 years, when I first moved to NYC), it was also sooooooo nice to be unencumbered with stuff for a period of time. I’m sort of looking forward to that again, although the pile of junk to be sent out to Detroit to go in my trunk keeps growing. I’ve gotta get that under control today.

So I got my teeth cleaned yesterday and bought a few last minute things. I ended up walking around the city for like four hours yesterday and was exhausted by the time I got home, so I collapsed in front of the TV and did what any respectable human being would do, watched four hours of “Grey’s Anatomy”. Bliss!

I also called the Residence Inn in Troy, Michigan to try and weasel a room with a fireplace out of them – and found out that I don’t have a reservation. Awesome. A couple of panicked emails to the “Spamalot” company manager, and hopefully that is all ironed out. I will have to call them back today and check.

I also spoke with Rachel Wolff on the phone – she’s the girl I am taking over for – and made plans for dinner with her on Monday night in Detroit. She and I and Rick Bertone (keyboard player) are sharing a car while we are there, which will be fun. Rachel and Rick are both great – I only wish I got to spend more than one week hanging out with Rachel before she leaves! We talked about going to the Ford Museum, the Motown Museum and the huge mall in Troy, all in the first week before Rachel leaves. I’ve decided that I need to find a movie theater and just go and see movies in my free time the rest of the time we are in Detroit. What else will there be to do? Although Tanya tells me there is a great yarn store in the shopping center attached to the theater, so maybe I will actually get some knitting done, too.

What are shoe-ins?

Tallulah went to the vet on Tuesday and is all checked out to fly, health certificate in paw. She also lost a pound! Thank god, she was getting to be kind of a chubbers and I was afraid she might get kicked out of the cabin at some point for being too fat.

Had some good-ass steaks on Tuesday with Tanya and Michael at an Argentine restaurant on 46th Street. Yum! 

I also realized on Monday that I had somehow lost my ATM card between Hartford and NYC. Of course. I lost my passport and green card right before I moved from SF to NYC, so it makes sense that I would lose something similar right before leaving for the tour. Luckily it was express UPS-ed to me on Tuesday so I am ALL GOOD!

Now, enough procrastinating and off to do more packing…