I've never heard him say a word against Akron

Greetings, gentle readers! I am presently in Detroit, having traveled here from Akron, Ohio, where we performed this morning. The show this morning actually went beautifully. We performed at Cuyahoga Falls High School, which has a theatre in it that seats 1800 kids. It's a beautiful space, and we had a crew that consisted of theatre students and a couple of temps. We ended up having to unload in the rain, which presented some problems for us, since the ramp got nice and wet, and Schneider's shoes lacked something I like to call traction. There's nothing like watching a guy get yanked down a ramp on his ass by a road case full of lighting cables.  Despite that life-threatening wake-up call, we managed to get the truck unloaded without any injuries, and finished setting up an hour and a half prior to the show, so plenty of time to relax and hang out. The show itself was really good, even though we were performing for a lot of high schoolers, who have a tendency to be a little cooler toward the show than the middle schoolers. But they loved us, and the load out was as easy as the load in was difficult and deadly. The rain had stopped and it had gotten nice and sunny and warm. The drive to Detroit (shudder) was easy and uneventful, so all in all, its a nice way to end the day. Tomorrow we are to play at a Scottish Rite, which always sounds to me more like an event than a building. We played this Scottish Rite last tour and all I remember about it is waiting for someone to actually show up to unlock the doors and tell us where we could load in. Suffice it to say, I am NOT looking forward to performing in Detroit tomorrow. 

As we get to the end of the tour, I have to look back on this whole thing, spanning both tours, since they all seem to blend together and I've had no more than a couple of weeks between the two. It's been a hell of a year, traveling all over the east coast and south doing this show. The physicality of the show, the intensity of it, and the nonstop nature of the tour. I've got a hell of a lot of memories, whether it's the merry-go-round of cast members from last tour, shutting down the dance floor of Bar Bar in Savannah this tour ("Go white boy, go white boy!"), standing in a hotel hallway a few weeks ago, hearing a man in a nearby hotel room talking very loudly to someone about having sex with them ("I'm gonna mark that ass, boy!") to hearing some OTHER people having sex in the next room in Milwaukee last tour (or as I like to call it, the beginning of the end....) wandering around lost in Charlotte, NC, convinced that the hotel was just around the next corner, last tour's cast rallying around Stephanie, determined that she would not be fired, staring with awe and terror at both Ollegra and J Blue, and of course, losing the top of the truck. The swings between the highs and lows of this job are staggering, but I think a tour like this is something every actor should do at least twice. Once when they're in their twenties, early in their career, and again after they've been working for a while and have more experience and more knowledge of the business. I think it's also useful to do a job where you are likely to be surrounded by people significantly younger than you, for a couple of reasons. If you play it right, you have an audience to take in some of that experience and knowledge you've accumulated. But you have to not act like you're a freaking sage with all the answers. Just be willing to let people know what you've learned. But don't act like you're testing them. That's the best way to keep people from listening to you. But the most important reason for doing something like this once you've advanced to certain ages, is that you can get infused with the enthusiasm that younger actors who haven't accumulated the experience you have can bring to a job because they also haven't accumulated the cynicism that many of us get in this business. This has been rather long-winded and the upshot is I think that doing the tour wasn't a mistake, even the second time. I really have enjoyed the experience, even the first time. (For different reasons, and I will admit not as much as this time, but I DID have a good time the first time, and met some really wonderful people in that cast) There's also a certain sense of accomplishment you get when you complete one of these tours. A lot of people, when they start a tour for the first time, have a tendency to focus on the road trip aspect to it, and they miss the fact that all that traveling is a) tiring and b) work. They also don't realize that for the most part, you don't have the time or the energy to see the places you perform, other than the area around the hotel and the venue itself. I love traveling, and I wish that we did more multi-day performances so that we got a chance to experience the places we went. That's the biggest disadvantage I see in the way they book. Of course, our amusement is not the worry of the company. You also learn stuff about yourself when you do a tour like this. I've learned that while I don't mind the traveling and the living on the road, staying in a different hotel every night, I have a problem with the fact that (with this theatre at least) some attention to doing things in a way that might promote a more efficient and less cumbersome way of touring are ignored in favor of just making sure the bookings are there, regardless of how appropriate the space is. And they have a tendency to hire stupid people. Not all tours are like this, and most theatres are non-profit as opposed to FOR profit, so they may do things differently. So all in all, I like touring, I'd just like to do it with a theatre company that's a little less bass-ackward.

Anyway, that's all that's fit to type here tonight. We are in the home stretch, and I am going to miss these people, watching Bob slowly rise from the back seat of the van on long drives with his coat over his head, emerging with a confused look on his face, as if asking, "Are we still driving, and why am I here?", Alice running off school grounds as quickly as possible after a private performance so she can smoke, Carol coming close to breaking the sound barrier when she drives the van, exploring the varied coffee establishments with Flo, Schneider's relaxed leprechaun smile when he gets drunk, and arguing with Ted about...well, anything we can come up with, much to the chagrin of EVERYONE else. I will not miss Levitt, who will, by the way, be spending this coming weekend with Kato, whose tour has now ended. That means the cast will have a whole two days without having to deal with her, and maybe she'll be in a better, more focused mood when she gets back. And that is as far as I want to consider what's going to happen this weekend....(shudder times two) Anyway, that's it for tonight--wish me luck tomorrow! We're in Detroit, we'll need it. (Especially since Ted apparently said the name of the Scottish Play today on stage as we were breaking down, trying to help a student deal with memorizing it. He did not break the curse, so there's every likelihood that this post may be my last. So vote for Pond in 2012, if only posthumously! Pond--Because it's Time for the Undead...