Sunday, February 10, 2013

2/4/13-2/10/13: Rochester, NY

It seems like we've been doing this show for years already - funny thing...Officialy this was only our first real week!

Opening week in Rochester went pretty well all said and done.  8 shows that had the audience laughing and clapping - even the reviewers seemend to enjoy us.  Though it was not without its challenges.  It was our crew's first time packing up the show from our Tech space, where it was built and had been living for 3 weeks straight, putting into 3 trucks and unpacking and rebuilding it in a new venue.  They did an amazing job too - considering the adventure started out with their tour-sleeper bus breaking down 40 miles outside of New Haven.  For you non-touring folks out there - the crew generally 'loads out' the show right after the final performance in a city, then gets on a sleeper bus (a bus with about 12 bunk beds built into it) and crashes as they drive through the night to the next city.  When the wake up, they go straight to the theatre and 'load in' the show to the new theatre (possibly having an hour or so...or less between the time they finish and the show that evening which they will have to run) all before they get to see their new hotel room....that is if its not a one nighter and do it all again that evening.  Its a really tough job sometimes and one that I wouldn't want - dont get me wrong...they are paid well for their services...but they definately earn it in stress and long days.  The other issue they have to deal with is working/teaching a new 1/2 crew every city.  It takes more people to fully run a show then could financially travel with the show to every city - so a group of 'locals' from the local IATSE union will come in and learn the show as its being loaded in and assist the permanent crew with all the tasks involved in running the show.  This leaves some room for new 'surprises' every night - as learning a 2 1/2 hour show to perfection probably takes more than the 30-60 mins they have to learn it in.  But thats the fun of live theatre backstage I guess ;)

We hit a few other challenges in Rochester as well.  The Noreaster that snowed in NYC definately hit us.  The last part of the week, the roads were icy and snow piled high on the sides of the street.  Though the folks of Rochester are pretty much used to this kinda thing and it didnt seem to affect our audiences much.  I also went through a bought of (unfortunately timed) food poisoning.  Luckily the brunt of it hit right after a show and throughout the night at my hotel - unluckily - the next morning we were called into the theatre for a 5 hour 'B-roll footage' video shoot.  A 'B-roll' is a collection of vidoe that highlights fun portions of the show - its basically the footage that will be given to all the local TV stations to run promos for the show or to show during press interviews, etc.  I hope the footage I was in turned out seeing as how ideally I'd have been sleeping the rest of the poison out of my body and not singing and dancing...time will tell.

I did get a chance to explore a little of Rochester during the week though - which was great.  We were staying in the downtown area - which is often the case with a touring show becasue thats where the theatres are.  It turns out that we were staying very near to the house were Susan B. Anthony lived for a good portion of her life - so a few of the cast went and took a tour of the house and education center.  It was really interesting, as I actually didn't know much about her life before I went.  I was very interested to find out that she was friends with Frederick Douglas, who also lived in Rochester.  She was also arrested for voting in an election - and fined $1000 (which was un ungodly amount back then.)  She was a very inspring figure in history and I was glad to have visited the facility - if you find yourself in Rochester, stop by - the docents are very knowledgable and are always happy to show folks around.

We also frequented Dinasaur BBQ - a restraunt featured numerous times on the Travel and Food networks...with good reason.  The food was --- grrrreat!  This is the second location though (there's also a third in Harlem that Ive never been to...) - the first being Syracuse.  So we'll be stopping in to compare the original to this one when we're in town.

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