10/27/13: Stony Brook, NY

Back in Long Island.

I worked out of Carle Place (Long Island) for three years - so I know my LIers and its good to be back.

Especially since we had a fully sold out house for the show!  The venue was really great to us too - very nice and set out a fun Halloweeny Hospitality spread for us.  And the crowd was great too.

Didn't really get to see much of Stony Brook - walked over to the Apple-bees near our hotel for some dinner before we went in to sound check -but true to form on One Nighters, the town is still a mystery to me.

Show-wise, we've hit a stream of theaters that are just to small to totally fit our show (I think we've had ONE full out show since we started back up) -so that's always interesting.  One thing about theatre - you never know what the next day brings.

10/25/13-10/26/13: New Brunswick, NJ

Even though we were only here for 2 days - it feels to me like we were here longer.  Maybe thats because we are so close to home - in fact many of the cast members commuted back and forth from the city for the show.  Though I stayed here in the Jersey side for the whole time.  

Both Amanda (Grandma) and Aaron (Caveman) are from NJ so they had tons of friends and family at the shows, which made it all the better.  I even had a guest make his way down.  One of my 'kids' from when I directed/taught children's' theatre back in Tampa is now going to AMDA (my college) in New York - Nothing makes you feel older or prouder really lol.  But he had a free night and was able to have his Uncle drive him over to the show last night. That was cool.  We went out to a diner afterwards and talked a bit about the show and AMDA and things.  Lots of fun.

We also got a visit from Jeremy Schinder and family - Jeremy was one of our Pugsleys who left the tour after our stint in Asia - so it was nice to see him and his family again.  Jonathan Ritter, who taught all of the choreography for the show to us back in rehearsals also stopped by to see us.  Lots of reuniting going on in New Brunswick.  

The crowds here were fantastic too - which always makes the shows more fun.  After our first show here on Friday, the venue threw an opening night mixer for us to mingle with some of the patrons of the State Theatre.  That was fun - I always like meeting people who support the arts (and make my job possible).

I'm also loving the feel and look of fall all around - definitely my favorite time of year.  

Well, its back to 2 one-nighters before we sit down for a bit at our Halloween stop.  On the bus to Stony Brook, NY right now actually - getting ready for our sold our show tonight!

10/24/13: Indiana, PA

One Nighters - You gotta love them.

This was our first day of driving into a show that night in a long while.  I gotta say too that I wasn't expecting much out of Indiana, PA - who even knew there was such a place.  BUT as it turns out, there's a pretty nice college there - which is where we played.

The audience was very receptive too - there were alot of excited audience members tweeting about going to the show that night all day, which is always cool to see.  I love Twitter - I think its a great way to connect with the people seeing our show in a very real and direct way.

After the show, we had the opportunity to do a talkback with about 25 college theatre students - and that was my favorite part about playing here.  I love when we get to do things like that - especially with theatre majors, since the info I can pass on to them is very relevant.  They had some great questions, not only about the show but also what touring is like and what its like work (or try to work) in the industry. Very cool.

Sadly, we didn't get to see much of/any of the town since we are leaving early tomorrow to head to NJ. BUT we did have an AHS: Coven viewing before bed - and OH MY GOODNESS - that is getting good ya'll!  Love this season so far!

10/21/13-10/23/13: Kalamazoo, MI

Getting to Kalamazoo was really a great way to start the almost Halloween countdown.  In truth, I celebrate Halloween all month long with a daily movie tribute BUT now that we're about a week away...

First thing we did when we arrived at the hotel, was to rent a car and drive over to Jackson's Underworld - a great Haunted House attraction (and the only one nearby that was open on a Monday night).  It was alot of fun.  You can tell that they put alot of thought into the rooms and some of them have really awesome special effects that they've definitely spent some dough on.  I absolutely love going through spook houses and was so glad to find one on tour to goto.  Hopefully we'll find another - maybe when we sit down in Wilmington, DE for Halloween week :)

Other than the haunted house, we didn't get to spend too much time in Kalamazoo - though we did run into the Kalamazoo Dept of Zombie Removal at the grocery store (LOL).  Got to do a little gaming in our downtime - introduced the group to a new one that I picked up on break: Invasion - the Alien Invasion Game.  Its absolutely ridiculous LOL - basically Martians vs Carnies.

Our 2 days of shows were alot of fun - but with nothing too significant to report.  Next a one nighter in Indiana, PA!

10/14/13-10/20/13: Louisville, KY

Our first full week back.  And it was incredibly smooth - thank goodness.

We actually couldn't have had a better city to re-open the show in.  Louisville was phenomenal!

When we first got into town, I wanted to head straight over to my favorite place - Hillbilly Tea - for dinner but they are closed Mon/Tues so I had to wait.  Instead we ended up over at a place not too far off called Doc Crows.  It was a BBQ joint and Raw Bar - and so delicious.  I had a few oysters, a baked potato stuffed with the most amazing brisket I've had outside of Nashville and this to die for sunday (lets just say it had cinnamon dusted pork rinds, candied bacon, bourbon sauce and a whiskey soaked cherry...).  Some of my other foodie highlights were stoping by the historic Brown Hotel (where the movie Elizabethtown was filmed) and having the Hot Brown - a Kentucky classic which they invented. Its basically an open-face turkey and tomato sandwich covered in creamy béchamel sauce and bacon.  So Good. I also finally made it to Hillbilly Tea - and had their pulled pork over cornpone, which was also outstanding.  Finally, on our final night in town I went with some castmates to a place called Sidebar - which was serving the most sinful spiked chocolate shake that I've ever had.  Not a good stop for the diet but a great one for the tastebuds.

There was also a ton to DO in Louisville.  It is the home of the Louisville Slugger factory - where they make all the bats for the NBA and most of the ones you can buy out at the stores as well.  They have a cute little museum and factory tour where you can hold some historic bats and then take a swing in a batting cage as well.  They even give you your own mini bat as a free souvenir.  Louisville is probably MOST known as the home of the Kentucky Derby - held at Churchill Downs every year.  So we took a half day tour of the Downs as well.  It was cool to see the horses running on the track up close - they do practice runs all year round.  The Kentucky Derby is actually only one of about 800 races they run on that track a year - and while you'd spend near 14K for a seat inside on Derby day - you can go (in season) and and spend $35 to have the same experience on any other day - kinda wild.

Our week of shows were very well received in Louisville - they are a big theatre town (which surprised me) and have a number of professional regional theaters in town.  The audiences were just great - and the local crew was fantastic as well.  The venue itself, the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts - was a lot of fun to be in as well - one of the ONLY theaters that actually keeps the stage cool during shows (not just the audience) so I didn't have to worry about heat stroke the whole week (lol).  They also did some amazing promotion for the show.  One of the local breweries, BBC, actually made a yummy concoction called Lurch's Lager.  They were selling it in all of their locations around town and threw an opening night party for us at their brewery where we got to sample it and then take a tour of the brewery where its made.  They also worked with the city to have a BUS CAMPAIGN!  The entire family got their own busses with their photo on the back of them.  They took us out to the river one afternoon to do a photoshoot with our buses - and it was awesome.  I felt like Carrie Bradshaw (without the puddle splash).  Very swanky.

All in all we had a great time in KY - and are sad to see it go.  But on we charge - off this time to Michigan - Kalamazoo to be percise!

10/10/13-10/13/13: Binghamton, NY

And we're back!

After a much MUCH needed 5 week break which I spent down in Tampa visiting my parents, sister, best friends and my God Daughter - I am ready to get back to the world of the Addamses.

And it started off with a bang - of course.  A bunch of the cast were flying into Binghamton from all over the country - about 9 of us had a connecting flight together from Philly on US Air.  So we waited around the gate for a bit - since the plane was delayed.  They made an announcement that the plane was going to be coming in very soon and to stay near by as they would have a quick turnaround.  It was a crazy day to fly with storms all over the US.  They had already canceled one of the 3 flights to Binghamton and put all of the other riders on standby for our flight and the one after (at 9PM).  Well, when the plane came in and they started to board - they (for whatever brilliant reason) decided not to announce it over the loudspeaker.  Instead, they herded the people who were sitting right in front of the gate onto the plane - let on standby people and took off - leaving us there.  Ridiculous!  The 'manager' though I doubt he was the highest up person I could have spoken to even though he said he was - since he was too incompetent to even look me in the eye when he was lying to me...Insisted that they did everything right and was happy to fly us out tomorrow.  Which of course was not an option - so the show rented us a hug van and we had drive 4 1/2 hours to Binghamton instead of a 30 min plane ride (sigh).


When we made it, we were rushed right to the theatre to begin sound check - which went very smoothly.  The next two days were filled with Technical Rehearsals - we have a number of new crew members joining the team and needed some refresher runs ourselves to get back into top show condition.  But they went very well - and our 2 preview performances on Sunday were great.  It was sooooo nice be back in front of an American audience again.  Asia was great - but some of our jokes are just very USA based - and the laughs were all back.  I couldn't stop smiling all day.

Binghamton itself was interesting - I didn't get to see much of it - as we were in 10 hour rehearsals for 2 days and then did a double show - but it seems like a typical college town.  The cool part was that its the boyhood home of Rod Sterling from The Twilight Zone.  One of the premiere episodes (Walking Distance) was inspired by the antique carousel that lives over in one of the downtown parks - they even filmed it there in the park. Very cool.  They also seem to have a number of (slow) but tasty restaurants around - but watch out on Sundays - the place is boarded up like a ghost town - only one place to eat in the whole town and it only serves breakfast and closes at 2.

Anyway - we're off to Louisville KY now for our OFFICIAL re-opening and a week long sit down - I can't wait! Snap Snap!

OH I've also started a bi-weekly youtube Vlog called LIVING OUT OF SUITCASES - you should check it out!!

8/20/13-9/5/13: Macau

And so our time in Asia draws to an end with our final stop of the 2013 Asian Summer Tour - Macau.

If you've never been to Macau - think of it as a very spread out Las Vegas.  There are tons of incredibly grand, ornate and fairly gaudy Casino Hotels spread out over both of Macau's island areas - but to be fair, they are not nearly as 'touristy' or gaudy as the ones in Las Vegas.  The rest of Macau is a mix between Portuguese and Chinese cultures - and you can find many little restaurants and shops throughout the area.  But the main thing to do in Macau (besides see us) is gambling.

Not being much of a gambler myself, I decided to spend my first golden day while in Macau...in Hong Kong!  Hong Kong and Macau are very close to each other - just one 45 minute ferry ride separates the two.  In fact, on the tourist sites for both countries - they list tours and attractions for the other - so they are kind of synonymous.  My fellow cast-mate, Aaron and I took the ferry over to Hong Kong and made our way to Lantau Island - which is home to the world famous, Tian Tan Buddha (the Big Buddha) - the worlds largest outdoor seated Buddha figure (112 ft tall).  To get there, you have to ride on a cable car system the takes you OVER three different MOUNTAINS.  It was incredibly exhilarating and absolutely terrifying to be so high and basically held up by a wire.  But the view was comparable to nothing else - even on a misty/foggy day like we had. Before we headed up to the Buddha, we took a tour of a small fishing village located nearby the site.  It was pretty cool to see how they live - which is very, very simply.  Apparently the village is thriving and supplies Hong Kong with 90% of the dried fish products that they use - and Chinese cooking uses ALOT of dried fish. Next we hiked up to the top of the hill where the Buddha sits.  There were alot of stairs and it was hotter than Hades BUT it was worth it to see the Buddha up close and see the view of the village sitting  below it.  It is one of the top 10 Buddha figures to see/pilgrimage to in the world (and one of the top 5 in China) - so I highly recommend a day out there if you are in Hong Kong.

Back in Macau itself, I did take a day to walk around and see some of the hotels - the MGM Grand, The Oriental Mandarin, the Sands and a few others.  Some of them are just breath taking - especially at night.  Another day, a few of us went out to the ruins of Saint Pauls College - Macau's most famous landmark.  All that is left of the college is literally one wall.  But it is so magnificent that you'd think that the wall was erected to be a monument to begin with.  Its quite a site - especially since it sits right in the middle of the windy, cobblestoned, store lined streets of central Macau.  The architecture alone is worth taking a trip out that way.

However, the best part of Macau had to be my trip to a little, out of the way restaurant called Fernando's.  It is homemade Portuguese food at it's very very best.  My mouth is watering now just thinking about it.  A group of us took some cabs out that way - you drive for about 20/30 minutes and end up on a winding, deserted, jungly road that spits you out right at Fernando's door.  The restaurant itself looks like a little hole-in-the-wall place (doesn't even have A/C).  We ordered family style (which is what I suggest if you go - so you can try a bit of everything).  There were mussels and shrimp and chorizo and chicken and suckling pig and veggies and flan and fruit - and best of all - THE DRUNKEN STEAK.  It had to be the best steak I've ever had in my life - ever - I seriously mean EVER.  Add two carafes of Sangria to the night and it was heaven on a plate - literally.  

Show-wise, we were performing at the Macau Cultural Center for two weeks.  And boy did they go all out with promos for the show - the most impressive was the Grand Staircase that led up to the front lobby and was painted with our show logo.  Very cool.  Audiences here were, as they were in all of Asia, incredibly appreciative - though quiet.  This was the first place in Asia where we ran into the quiet audience that we'd been expecting the entire run - which is funny because its the one place in Asia where I thought we'd have the more rowdy crowds....with it being IN Macau, which is gambling central and so close to Hong Kong - which is the New York of Asia.  But the venue was nice and the so were the crowds and the locals.  Not to mention the pool at our hotel - the most luxurious one yet - complete with water slide! Not a bad way to end our stay in Asia.

And so Asia comes to an end (for now). The saddest part will be leaving behind some of our cast and crew who will not be returning next season with us: Jeremy, Phish, Alicia, Eric, Jim and Josh.  We will also loose Kit, who was our Asian liaison for this leg of the tour.  Brittany, our makeup department head, made sure she went out in style though and made her up as an Ancestor for one of the final shows.  We'll miss you!

There have been some absolutely amazing times with absolutely amazing people that I will never forget - there have been some less than spectacular times that I also won't be able to forget.  All in all, though, I'm glad that I had the experience and the chance to bring joy and the American art of Musical Theatre to a continent that I never thought I'd see.  Though after 11 months of straight touring, I'm very excited for my 5 weeks at home.  See you in October!  America here I come!

Celebrating our 200th Show and the end of our Asian Tour