Nancy's First National Tour

Blog Installment June 13, 2011

2011-06-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hello, it has been quite a while since I have written. The tour actually had a month layoff. Wow, how wonderful to be back home and back in New York City, at least for a little while. It was wonderful to reconnect with acting class teacher and fellow actors, my singing teacher as well as family and friends. Luckily, I was able to participate in a reading of a new play by a fellow acting class actor turned playwright. It took place at Sardi’s and we had a full house. It was a fun role and a fun evening, we even had 16 hours of rehearsal!!! Then it was back on the road.

The tour restarted in Norfolk, VA for a week sit-down with eight performances. It was interesting to get back to work daily after having had four weeks off. We also had smaller audiences until Saturday afternoon. Which brings me to my topic of conversation tonight: Audiences and how they influence the actors, the show and the energy.

There are various Acting and Singing Teachers who have voiced theories about Energy and how it affects performing: the performer and the audience. I was taught that there are three circles that emanate from a great actor: one that circles the actor’s self, one that includes the cast and the third that goes out to the audience and then comes back to the performer. Another voice teacher from the UK, Patsy Rodenburg, wrote a book and included this quote about circles of Energy: “

Second Circle

is The Energy of Connecting. People who operate in this circle have real presence. People who operate in this circle give out energy but also receive it back. These are the performers who literally change our lives when we listen to them. You feel they are connecting directly with you personally even although you may be one of a very large audience. They connect. These students are the ones who give back energy to you and we emerge from our studio feeling as if we have not been working at all. If only all our students could be like that, we say.”

There is definitely a circle between the audience and the performers that create a natural high. It is truly amazing, but it does happen. Just such an experience happened to me the last show on Sunday night in Norfolk. Usually during the 5 show weekends, I have been very tired by the last show Sunday night. It has taken more focus and more of my own energy to give the audience the show they came to see. However, Sunday night in Norfolk I felt like I was flying and fresh as a daisy! The show flew by and was a hit from the first moment I stepped on the stage. The audience laughed at all of the funny moments and sent back energy up onto the stage so that all of us could give one of our best performances of the tour. I wasn’t the only one who was flying at the end of the show… This also happened for the entire week in Tempe, AZ. I don’t know why, but every audience in Tempe was excited to be there and really loved the show, sending energy pouring back to us onstage, which of course then poured back or circled back to them, creating incredible theater for us and for them. Friends who were in the audience that week said they had never seen such a great performance of “FIDDLER”. We are very lucky that our troupe of actors have come together as a family. We have traveled together, had a Seder together, celebrated Thanksgiving together, laughed and cried together!! This has made us a village in reality, not just onstage. I really believe that the energy and love that is passed around backstage crosses the “Fourth Wall” into the audience and when the audience is receptive, it creates a moment of great theater and great energy. I have been very lucky to have been a part of this group and had these terrific experiences as a performer. The best part of all of this is that for some synergistic reason, the entire cast has figured this out at the same time and all of our last nine shows have had that incredible energy circling from the cast to the audience so that the laughs and cheers from the audience have really fueled us onstage. What a life I lead!!!

Blog Installment April 21, 2011

2011-04-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

Cooking is one of my pleasures in life. For those of you who know me, cooking for 10 people for dinner, 40 for a Seder, 50 for a Sit Down Bar Mitzvah or surprise 50^th Birthday Party or 70 for an Engagement Party is not unusual for me. Being on tour does not allow one to be able to cook as we don’t have kitchens in our numerous hotel stops. We are lucky to sometimes have refrigerators and microwaves! Many a night I am at the ice machine, collecting ice to save my perishables! Some of our cast members have coolers that go on and off of the bus!

I might have mentioned this in another blog, but I thought it would be fun to tell you about the two times I have prepared food for the cast/crew/musicians with help from other cast/crew/musician members.

The first time was at Thanksgiving. We of course, were in Ottawa, Canada for the week of Thanksgiving. We had 8 shows there with not a lot of down time. However, we did have mini kitchens, i.e. stoves and refrigerators and microwaves and pots and pans! The hotel was going to cater a Thanksgiving Dinner for all of us, but our company manager thought it would make the holiday more meaningful if a few of us could also cook our favorite holiday dishes/desserts. So we called the hotel and found out that even though we had the kitchens, there would only be three available and they didn’t have the right pots or mix masters that we needed. Peter, that wonderful man, was driving up from New York to stay with me for the week. Guess what? I had him fill the car with pots and pans and mix masters and the Cuisinart and every baking need you could imagine! I baked a cheesecake, stuffing and chocolate mousse, our company manager borrowed my mix master and baked two different kinds of pies, another cast member came to use my kitchen and we made some candy. Others contributed bread, veggies, a salad and an appetizer. So it felt nice to have some homey touches to the day. Some of the other cast kids had family join us as well. A nice day, we had a show that night and over the weekend we had two shows Saturday and Sunday. With a little ingenuity and a lot of fun, the holiday was extremely meaningful for all of us.

The other holiday event with food that I helped organize took place on Monday, April 18, the first Seder for Passover. Now this is a little more complicated as it grew into a huge event. Let me start by saying we were in Green River, UT on Monday night as a stopover, we did not have a show that evening. We had been in Albuquerque the weekend before. They did have a Trader Joe’s, but it was not in a Jewish neighborhood and they only had Matzoh and Horseradish. Remember, there are no kitchens at the hotel in Utah and I only have an hour between when we would arrive and when the Seder would begin! It was a conundrum. Should I just do blessings and pass out Matzoh and bless wine and sing a couple of songs? Where would we get hard boiled eggs? Matzoh Ball Soup and Gefillte Fish were definitely out of the question. There were no kosher for Passover noodles and microwaved noodles taste yucky to say the least. I got some Mushrooms/Asparagus/Chicken Stock/shallots/Mushroom Soup hoping someone would be able to put them together for us to eat. Now I have to back up.

I wanted to have a Seder, but it was looking dire. I had no Hagaddahs, no music, no food, no kitchen…..who would come? What would I do? What parts of the Seder to make it more enjoyable for people who had never attended a Seder? I had a couple of ideas but needed to do research. In Albuquerque I talked to a few of the cast and the company manager to feel out when would be the best time to do a Seder and we all decided that Monday night would work before people went off to do their individual thing…The hotel actually had a separate breakfast room with tables and chairs. So that was a go. There was a microwave in the lobby, which was a go. I went back to Trader Joe’s, bought Horseradish, apples, praline pecans, walnuts, and dates for Charoseth that we would put together Monday once we reached Logan. Sunday night after two shows, I went on the computer and started hunting for Hagaddah prayers and songs for the Seder. I was especially looking for a parody of “Clementine” that deals with the four sons, which we use in our Seder at home. I was thinking our “Russians” could be the sons and Father. Well, what do you know? There were several parody songs about Passover, all to very well known Musical Comedy Songs. This is a Musical Comedy Troupe. Hey, Hey Hey, we’ve got a show! I did the opening number with back up dancers, I had everyone take a blessing, Hebrew and English, 3 kids did the four questions, the musicians played saxophone, guitar and mandolin. Several of the cast and the violinist helped make the charoseth; our Yente, Birdie, made the Mushroom Machel for our festive meal. The hotel front desk lady let us have hard boiled eggs that were in the hotel’s refrigerator for Tuesday’s Breakfast!! Lots of the kids brought wine. What a day! Pictures and Videos were taken. It was a wonderful event, everyone loved it and we all were able to feel like we had had a celebration of a holiday that means a lot to us. It was our very own Anatevka Seder…..Tradition!!

Blog Installment April 13

2011-04-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Dear Reader! Here are some fun facts from February 28 and April 4

Our totals to As of 2/28/11

MILES DRIVEN: 20,310

MILES FLOWN: 2,021

STATES VISITED: 33

PERFORMANCES: 126 (including 2 previews)

CITIES VISITED: 74 (including 11 stopover cities)

As you can see, the totals are really starting to add up. So, let the adventure continue...........

Before we left Tempe, April 4:

MILES DRIVEN: 24,082

MILES FLOWN: 3,249

STATES VISITED: 38

PERFORMANCES: 162

CITIES VISITED: 85 (including 13 stopovers. That means we performed in 72 as of

April 1)

Then there were 2 in Santa Barbara, 1 in Bakersfield, 4 in Modesto bringing the total up to 169 performances.

For the last three days we have been traveling on the bus: 500 miles the first day, 488 the second and 380 today…..driving through 4 more states---

Tonight will be performance #170!!

As you can see from the above facts, we are presently on day 3 of a three day bus ride to get us from Modesto, CA, where we had 4 performances in three days, to Greeley, CO, where we will perform tonight!! Monday we had an 8 hour bus trip, Tuesday a 7 hour trip and today will be a 5 hour trip. Several of the cast members took this time to stay in one place and relax, flying to Denver today and getting to the theater before the show. I, however, am sitting on the bus with twenty other cast and orchestra members. Before we break in May for our layoff we will travel to Pueblo, CO; Albuquerque, NM; Logan, UT; Reno, NV; Medford, OR; Tacoma, WA; and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!!! Not bad for two and a half weeks, huh???

I am so sorry that I have not been diligent about keeping my blog current. Sit back, relax and I will explain what has been happening.

The last time we were together, it was January and we had just performed a wonderful show in West Point, NY. As I wrote at the time, we were heading out to many places where I had “friendly laughs” in the audience. When we arrived in Easton for our Wednesday night show, it was canceled as a blizzard was moving in. So my lovely supporters came Thursday night instead. Thank you to all my wonderful friends and in-laws who braved the snow and cold weather to share an evening with me. It was great to see you all and know that you were in the audience!! The last Saturday in January saw us in Waterbury, CT where I not only had friends in the audience, but also my niece and nephew who are currently Freshmen at the University of Hartford. I was so thrilled that they could be at the show!! February 1 we were in Roanoke,VA. Not only was a friend of mine there who had gone to High School with me, but also one of my Sunday School Teachers was there, talk about support!!! I knew they were in the audience and even though I had a fever and chills, the show went on with me in it!!! It was great to perform there and such fun to see old friends!

Our schedule in January and February was quite intense as I have mentioned several times. We didn’t have any time off, except for bus travel until February 4. By this time, however, I was starting to become ill. The flu that I had in Roanoke was just the start. The next day I went to an Urgent Care Facility and saw a doctor who was very concerned that I was extremely dehydrated. He started me on meds and lots of fluids. However, the reason for my dehydration, long hours on the bus, heating systems in a different hotel every night that were very drying, new theaters every night with different ventilation systems: all of this contributed to wearing me down more. By February 15, I was very sick and went to another doctor who told me I should not perform that night and put me on other meds. We were now in Cincinnati for a two week sit-down. I had been looking forward to this for a month as Peter was to join me here for the second week, plus we would be in one theater and one hotel for two weeks, heaven!! I did call out for one show, but then went back to work. The good news was that by Friday, I was starting to hydrate, the bad news---I developed a bad case of bronchitis. By Saturday night’s performance I could no longer sing. Of course, I found this devastating, but went back to the doctor who recommended that I take a medical disability leave for three weeks, get myself well and then get back on the tour! So I did!! Everyone in the Cast and the Administration was wonderful to me and I couldn’t wait to get healthy again and back to work!

I rejoined the tour in San Jose, California where I had lots of “Friendly Laughs” in the audience. We were also there a week, then a week in Thousand Oaks, then a week in Tempe, AZ. I must say Tempe, AZ has been the best week of the tour as far as performances have gone. The audience wanted us there! A FIDDLER Production had not been there in 15 years and everyone was absolutely thrilled that the show was performing in their city for a week. Every show was sold out. We later learned that there is a large Russian Jewish Population in the Tempe area as well as lots of Chicago Jews who travel to the Phoenix area for the winter. The administration at the Gammage Theater in Tempe is also quite terrific. They had organized several events for us including a luncheon with the Theater Donors. Five of us from the cast as well as our conductor went to this event. What a lovely day. The host and hostess were so lovely and all of the people there were so genuinely happy to meet us and tell us how much they enjoyed the show or were looking forward to being at a performance. It makes such a difference when there are now faces to an audience. There is a closer connection. Also, it doesn’t hurt when the curtain goes up, the fiddler starts fiddling from the roof, and the audience goes crazy applauding!!!! We had performed 150 shows and that night in Tempe was the first time that had happened. What a boost for all of us! Also that week my friend, Craig Bohmler, who himself is a wonderful composer of classical, orchestral and musical theatre genres was in the audience. He was blown away by our cast and our production, so much so that in his interview the next day for the local PBS station, he bragged about us on air!! I am so proud to be a part of this show! This cast and orchestra and crew are so extraordinary.

It is hard to believe that only two and a half weeks are left before our Spring Break. We will be home the entire month of May. Well we are coming into Greeley, Colorado for our night’s show. More later…..

Blog Installment April13, 2011

2011-04-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers.

We are presently on day 3 of a three day bus ride to get us from Modesto, CA, where

we had 4 performances in three days, to Greeley, CO, where we will perform tonight!!

Monday we had an 8 hour bus trip, Tuesday a 7 hour trip and today will be a 5 hour trip. Several of the cast members took this time to stay in one place and relax, flying to Denver today and

getting to the theater before the show. I, however, am sitting on the bus with twenty other cast and orchestra members. Before we break in May for our layoff we will travel to Pueblo, CO;

Albuquerque, NM; Logan, UT; Reno, NV; Medford, OR; Tacoma, WA; and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!!! Not bad for two and a half weeks, huh???

I am so sorry that I have not been diligent about keeping my blog current. Sit back, relax and I will explain what has been happening.

I rejoined the tour in San Jose, California where I had lots of “Friendly Laughs” in the

audience. We were also there a week, then a week in Thousand Oaks, then a week in

Tempe, AZ. I must say Tempe, AZ has been the best week of the tour as far as

performances have gone. The audience wanted us there! A FIDDLER Production had

not been there in 15 years and everyone was absolutely thrilled that the show was

performing in their city for a week. Every show was sold out. We later learned that there

is a large Russian Jewish Population in the Tempe area as well as lots of Chicago Jews

who travel to the Phoenix area for the winter. The administration at the Gammage

Theater in Tempe is also quite terrific. They had organized several events for us including a luncheon with the Theater Donors. Five of us from the cast as well as our conductor went to this

event. What a lovely day. The host and hostess were so lovely and all of the people there were so genuinely happy to meet us and tell us how much they enjoyed the show or were looking

forward to being at a performance. It makes such a difference when there are now faces

to an audience. There is a closer connection. Also, it doesn’t hurt when the curtain goes

up, the fiddler starts fiddling from the roof, and the audience goes crazy applauding!!!!

We had performed 150 shows and that night in Tempe was the first time that had

happened. What a boost for all of us! Also that week my friend, Craig Bohmler, who

himself is a wonderful composer of classical, orchestral and musical theatre genres was

in the audience. He was blown away by our cast and our production, so much so that in

his interview the next day for the local PBS station, he bragged about us on air!! I am so

proud to be a part of this show! This cast and orchestra and crew are so extraordinary.

It is hard to believe that only two and a half weeks are left before our Spring Break. We will be home the entire month of May. Well we are coming into Greeley, Colorado for our night’s show.

Here are some fun facts from February and April:

Our totals to As of 2/28/11

MILES DRIVEN: 20,310

MILES FLOWN: 2,021

STATES VISITED: 33

PERFORMANCES: 126 (including 2 previews)

CITIES VISITED: 74 (including 11 stopover cities)

As you can see, the totals are really starting to add up. So, let the adventure continue...........

Before we left Tempe, April 4:

MILES DRIVEN: 24,082

MILES FLOWN: 3,249

STATES VISITED: 38

PERFORMANCES: 162

CITIES VISITED: 85 (including 13 stopovers. That means we performed in 72 as of

April 1)

Then there were 2 in Santa Barbara, 1 in Bakersfield, 4 in Modesto bringing the total up to 169 performances.

For the last three days we have been traveling on the bus: 500 miles the first day, 488 the second and 380 today…..driving through 4 more states---

Tonight will be performance #170!!

More Later.....

Blog Installment January 23, 2011

2011-01-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hello. This installment will have two parts tonight. The first is about performing for family and friends.

I just finished performing at the Eisenhower Hall at West Point. The Hall has 4400 seats so that all 4400 cadets can be seated for an event at the same time. It is the second largest theater on the East Coast after Radio City Music Hall. Tonight we had almost 3,000 people attending our show. A Fabulous Audience. I was lucky enough to have 25 family and friends attend. Which leads me to my first topic tonight: the road and family….pluses and minuses: as we go to all these far flung cities I am able to see friends and relatives that I might not ordinarily see—big plus; being far from family and friends so they have to travel great distances to see me perform and even then as lovely as that is, one cannot visit long as the hotel or bus awaits—big minus. It is one of the things that I find the hardest about being on the road: being so far from family and friends and not having people who know you in the audience on a regular basis. Now I must say, it is gratifying beyond words to have people stand and cheer for you during bows who only know you as “Golde”, however, the real treat is when you have people who know you forever stand and cheer when you are “Golde”!!!

Friday night we were in Lowell, MA and my son and his wife were there; tonight was West Point where I had 25 in the audience who knew me; Wednesday and Thursday of this week we will be in Easton, PA. I will have friends at both performances. Friday and Saturday we will be in Waterbury, CT where I will also have friends and family at the Saturday matinee. February 1 we perform a show in Roanoke, VA where I will have a friend from High School attend. So these 10 days are very special for me. I was very excited Friday and tonight and I imagine that I will also be very excited to perform all of the other show dates I mentioned since “friendly laughs” will be in the audience. We will also be in San Jose, Tempe, Vancouver, Reno, Medford, OR: I will be fortunate to have friends and family be in the audience in all of these cities. I am quite excited to see them as well as have them share the experience with me. I think that is why this week is so special. My children and immediate family and dearest friends were able to make the trip to see me perform. By the way, they all had to travel a minimum of an hour to see me perform; some traveled 2 hours to get to the venue. This is friendship, familial love and incredible support for me. It also adds to our relationship. They are on the journey with me at this particular moment in time, so their understanding of my routine, of the show-including the cast, crew and orchestra, of what my routine consists of for the moment—all this becomes clearer to them. Almost everyone tonight asked me where we perform next. As I reeled off the next week’s shows they were 1) amazed that I knew the schedule so well and 2) that we had 7 more shows to do in 5 different cities/ 3 different states and that I didn’t get a day off ( a Golden Day) until February 4!!! Monday, January 31 is just a travel day, no show that night. So quickly I can give them a rundown of what my life will be like for the next week. They can better understand when I am a little nutty and don’t remember to write or call. Of course, I now miss them more because I had a few minutes to see their lives again. But I think it is wonderful when someone like me can have an evening/a 10 period like I am having so that those who mean so much to me can share this journey for a little while and we can travel together for a few hours.

As I write this I realize that everyone in the cast has the same situation again and again. Each night someone in the cast says, “I have so and so in the audience” and we all rally together to give the best show possible for that family member or friend. It makes it more special for all of us to know that someone has a “friendly laugh” in the audience!! When one is far from loved ones and far from home, it is the little things that make it feel like home. We all jump on the bandwagon to be able to feel a part of someone’s family, helping us feel less homesick ourselves. Interesting dynamics. Of course, I have mentioned several times that our cast has really become a family. I think this also gets reemphasized when “real” family members show up and we all rally around them, taking a little bit of home back to the show or the hotel or the bus with us.

The second part of this is because of a story I was telling one of my friends tonight….In Lowell, MA on Friday night we did not have our Tailor Shop. It wouldn’t fit in the building. So the tailor shop scenes took place on a semi-bare stage. In Lowell, we also didn’t have several of the scenery drops that we usually have. When we get to Springfield, MA, we will not be able to have the House Set onstage and so will have to use the Tailor Shop instead. We usually find this stuff out 20 minutes before we hit the theater. Our stage manager sends a message to our company manager, who is on the bus with us. She then reads the agenda for the evening’s show- location of dressing room, whether there is a Green Room or Rehearsal Room, what time the company meeting is, the times for Sound Check and what is in the show…..including sets, drops, orchestra pit and people….Sometimes we are warned ahead of time, i.e. Springfield, MA. But generally we don’t know what we are walking into until we get there. There are some theaters, such as Eisenhower Hall, where we have everything in the show, lots of wing space and crossovers, an orchestra pit, etc. Other times, we have had to have a remote pit, not fun—I will talk more about that in a minute- we have not had certain set pieces or as we had in Kingston, Ontario, the House could never entirely leave the stage, so we were constantly walking or dancing around it…..made for some awkward moments. Depending on the severity of conditions it also makes for a longer load-in/load-out for the crew. Several times in the past few weeks, our crew has been exhausted as the load-in took longer than usual. They are amazing people who work very hard for very long hours!! I and the entire cast thank them because without our crew and the locals who help them, we wouldn’t be able to do our job. Fiddler Crew, I salute you.

Another salute goes out to the Orchestra and Conductor, again without whom, this show would not be the great show that it is. I was mentioning remote pits. What is a remote pit? Usually there is an orchestra pit right in front of the stage, either a few feet below ground or level with the seats. However, occasionally and luckily very occasionally on our tour, theaters either don’t have a pit or they have sold seats in the pit to have extra money. Then the orchestra must be in another place-voila…remote pit. For our orchestra this has been a windowless room and a basement room, both without heat!!! This of course, raises another issue: costly instruments need proper temperatures to keep them from being damaged. This temperature is at least 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit!!! We have been playing in some very cold venues. Space heaters have even been brought into the orchestra pits in the theater so naturally the remote locations needed space heaters as well. This is a huge concern as not only the instruments, but also the orchestra members’ hands and fingers need to be warm. Another little note about orchestra pits. If the pit is level with the seats it is usually difficult for our Mandolin Player and Clarinetist to get up onstage during the wedding. Yes, they actually wear mikes and dress up in Beards, Hats and Wedding Coats as they become part of the Anatevka family wedding ceremony in Tevye’s Backyard!!! We really miss them when they can’t join us onstage. This happens especially when they are in the remote pit as it takes too long to get up on stage. The best is when the pit is a little below stage with a hidden door. Then they have easier access to the stage. I think they have not been onstage with us 4 or 5 times so far. Jake, our Cymbal Player/dancer/Nachum the Beggar, is on his own at those times.

Well, we have discussed lots of fun topics tonight. I got a little carried away with myself. It is now time for bed as I have an early bus call tomorrow: 6:30am for 7am wheels up!!

Good night, and of course as usual…..more later…..

Blog Installment January 20, 2011

2011-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

Hello, Happy 2011 to you all. I hope this finds you all enjoying Winter.

Well, I just got off of a 10 hour bus ride. To say that every bone aches would be an understatement. But let me backtrack. I left you as I was heading to Schenectady for a week “sit-down”, ah Heaven is staying in one place!!! Sammy did show up and was with us for the week. In fact, we had rehearsals for two days and notes almost every day, refining and adding business, changing blocking and actually learning how to get great laughs!! The man is a genius when it comes to knowing audiences and what works onstage. I love working with him and told him so!! His family came to see us perform on the Friday night show. John and I had fun changing some of our routines. Of course, every night we had shows while all these changes were happening. So of course, I would have to write down the changes and make sure that I was able to remember them while doing a show I had already performed 66 times. Muscle memory gets in the way, but I succeeded. We had some great laughs during rehearsals trying to get everyone to do new things. But we all accomplished wonderful stuff and the show got better and better. The audiences in Schenectady are very theater savvy as shows have been performing here for years before they go to Broadway. We had several sell outs and the other houses were 80% full. Incredible!! The house management was quite happy as were we. It was such fun to get great laughs in places that had not had laughs before!! I feel like a half rock star now as I also get some cheering when I come out for my bow. John is clearly the rock star of the show, but it is great to have to hold while the audience laughs at my lines!! I am really enjoying the stillness that is necessary to deliver many of my funny moments. One is never too old to learn this craft; it keeps one on their toes and makes for very memorable adventures onstage. I cannot tell you how great this cast is. I hope you don’t think I am redundant, but even Sammy had praise for us, and he doesn’t praise lightly. The bottle dancers are excellent, every night they stop the show; “To Life” is another crowd pleaser as well as “the Dream” and “Do You Love Me”.

I am not the only actor who benefitted from Sammy’s direction. The entire cast has grown in their roles and continues to meld into a vibrant and interesting village, seething with character and drive and enthusiasm. The Stage lights up with the energy everyone brings to their roles and the applause at the end of each performance has grown exponentially with cheers and standing ovations galore. We are all so happy to be onstage together and it shows in the performances.

This caring and good will carries over into our day to day interactions as well. Since Schenectady, we have been in a different city almost every day, we had an occasional two nighter once a week for the past two weeks. But we are traveling long distances on the bus and then have a performance. Get home, sleep in a different hotel every night, get back on the bus, travel for 5-6 hours, (except for today which was 10 but there is no show tonight, thanks be to the Gracious Higher Being!!) then perform, go home, sleep in a different hotel, get back on the bus, etc….for 2 weeks this has been our life. Not very much fun. But today Nicole announced on the bus that this was the best bus group ever and I second that!! No one complains, no one whines, everyone smiles a greeting and is totally supportive of each other. It is amazing. And I salute everyone of my bus mates.

We did have a wonderful time in Charleston, SC, Sixty Degree weather and blue skies, as well as wonderful audiences. We had the morning free yesterday; in the afternoon there was a rehearsal as we got an addition to our company—a new male swing. We were and are thrilled as punch as this will hopefully help out when people are sick and need to call out. I think I mentioned how difficult it was when everyone started getting sick in December and Aaron had to go home as he hurt his foot quite badly. Our male swing, Patrick, was admirable, sometimes doing up to three different characters in one show. He is amazing!! Anyway, the new swing, Cort, is terrific and debuted last night as one of the Russians. He is already a wonderful addition to our Anatevka family. Back to our free morning: with the beautiful weather, I decided to walk to lunch at a restaurant that was a mile away from the hotel. As I was walking I realized first that this was the first day in weeks that I had seen the sun and secondly, this was the first in weeks that I was able to walk somewhere without having to get back on the bus within 15 minutes or an hour…we usually have a 15 or 20 minute pit stop in the morning, an hour for lunch and another 15 minute stop if the trip is longer than 5 hours. Otherwise, we barrel through to our hotel. Please see other blogs for more details of bus trips….I relished the walk and the sunshine and eating in a grown up restaurant that was not a chain or fast food. It is remarkable how the simplest things become so important and relaxing.

We are on our way now to Lowell, MA (my son will be at the show there), then Portland, ME Saturday for two shows, and then on to West Point, NY where I will have a crowd to see me. I can’t wait to be able to perform for my family and friends. It will be so very nice to have people I know and love in the audience!! Then we have one more 6am call (we had several very early calls this week with long distances to cover) and then the distances get shorter and we can sleep a little in the mornings. This will make for happier campers I think. We are all anxiously awaiting a ‘sit-down’. I think I explained that in an earlier blog. Anyway, it is exactly what it sounds like. We actually stay in one place for a few days. Toledo, OH will see us for four or five nights in early February. In mid-February we will be in Cincinnati for two entire weeks. We will even have a Golden Day in Each of these cities. Golden Days are VERY SPECIAL. It means No Travel and No Performance!! We don’t get many of them, but we certainly appreciate them when we do have them.

I hope you all have a good weekend and if you get to a show, please let me know. I would love to see you before or after!!

Good night and more later…..

Addendum January 2, 2011

2011-01-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year again. I realized I needed to tell you something else. We have all been waiting for the Fiddlerontour.com website to post the cast list and update the Itinerary. Well, the Itinerary still has not been updated, however, the cast list and bios are up!! Please go to http://www.fiddlerontour.com/ and check out "Cast". It is quite exciting to see, especially since we have been on tour since September and it just got posted! Also I am posting a url for a 30 second commercial that is being aired on local stations advertising our cast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85AT94NhDO4

I am hoping this will work from the blog, otherwise, you can cut and paste. I am also going to try and talk to some of the younger cast members who are more computer savvy and see if I can start posting some pictures as well as words. Making the blog more interesting for my wonderful readers.

Well, good night and rest well.
And as always.... More Later....

Blog December 27, 2010; continued January 2, 2011

2011-01-02T20:02:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. If you are snowbound, I hope you are warm and having a nice cup of hot chocolate!! We are sending out holiday cards and already packing for the next leg of our tour!! In fact, I need to go out this Thursday and buy some new luggage as mine was much too big during the last trip and my carry on must have wheels. I think we discussed how uncomfortable it is to have to schlep a carry-on on one’s shoulders!!

Anyway, I left Tampa December 14, 2010. I was supposed to arrive in White Plains, at an airport 15 minutes from my abode. However, the airline fairies had other ideas. I landed at LaGuardia but my luggage landed in White Plains and was delivered at midnight. The nice part of all of this is that I was at home and had plenty of medicine, clothes and toothpaste.

Hello again, happy New Year!! It is now January 2, 2011! An entire decade has begun since the last time I started to write this blog. My how time flies. Speaking of flying time, my three week break has indeed flown by and I will be meeting my Anatevka family tomorrow at LaGuardia Airport to pick up our bus which will bear us all up to Proctors Theater in Schenectady, NY. We will be at this theater for an entire week, 8 shows!! Wow, I will be so happy. Sammy Dallas Bayes, our director will also be there. We will have two rehearsals with him. I am most excited about this. It is such a treat to have the director come back after the company has had a chance to grow into a show. Usually a director is with you for two weeks, if you are lucky, to rehearse and block a show. Then they leave, never to be seen again, and the cast continues with the Stage Manager taking over giving notes and comments to keep the intention of the director alive and well. We also have a Conductor in the pit every night who has a great vantage point and can inform us when we change things in the wrong direction. We were also lucky as a cast in that the Assistant Director was able to see two shows while we were out in Kansas and he gave us notes and worked on some parts of the show that were growing in a different direction from the Director’s intention.

Actors want to grow into a part and there is a famous statement, “Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. The Imaginary Circumstances are usually set up by the director- characters are to head in his direction but get there on their own, with some hints and helpful advice along the way. Also, as the cast melds together and becomes more familiar with blocking and lines, the story unfolds in a different manner, with more ease and believability. Actors relax onstage and feel more as they are living in Anatevka more truthfully and more fully. Now the director will see this and hopefully be able to help us further this truth with more—more emotional truth, more directional intention and more fleshing out of the characters themselves so that they become more three dimensional- thereby making the audiences’ experience more enjoyable. I will let you know how it goes.

Well, I have to go finish packing my new luggage. Oh, That was a hoot. The salesman at Innovation Luggage was a delight. I bought luggage, took it home, packed, unpacked as it didn’t fit, took the luggage back, looked at more luggage, explained more about my needs and more about the routine, he sold me some gadgets to make my life easier and two new suitcases which hold my stuff for the trip and I am taking less this time out!!! So a good time was had by all.

I also have been busy baking some cakes for the cast and crew. I figure we will all be in the mood for goodies as we haven’t eaten enough this holiday season….Oy! But seriously, one of the things I think most of us missed on this tour is homemade goodies, be it cooking or baking. Certainly we all went crazy at Thanksgiving when we could cook and bake. We are also looking forward to Passover, as we all really want to have a Seder to celebrate the holiday together as a village. We will plan to make that happen in Reno, Nevada if the stars line up correctly!

So enough for now. I have to get some sleep as tomorrow is the big day. It will be wonderful to once again be with my Anatevka family. Although I must say the lay off went by too quickly. Of course, there is never enough time to do all the things that need doing. Plus I had a wonderful Hello/Goodbye Party at my house a few days after I arrived. I cooked and baked for that as well. That was so much fun to see people I hadn’t seen in a year! (I don’t know if I have told you, but I have been working steadily as an actor since March 29, 2010 out of New York. So I have missed Family Get-togethers, vacations with Friends and social events that have been going on in the last 9 months. I will also miss the upcoming events for the next 5 months, so I felt a party was in order.) I thank everyone who was able to make it up my steep hill to my house. I missed those who couldn’t be there, but hopefully I will see you once the tour is over.

Start the engines folks, 18 weeks of bus and truck, here we come!!

More later…..

Blog Installment December 7, 2010

2010-12-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

Hello, I have not written to you in while. Please forgive me. I have been a little busy. When I left you, we were in Ottawa, Canada. I did get to the Tea Shop, in fact I went so often in the short time we had left that the lovely waitress gave me a free cup of tea my last visit there. Their scones were delicious and they had a ginger/carrot cake to die for. I bought several teas that I am sure I will enjoy. You may have noticed food is very important to me. I tend to dwell on it quite a bit so I think this blog will be about food. I have had some wonderful meals in Ottawa. You have to understand, most of the time on the bus we are VERY limited as to time and restaurant choices. We tend to stop off the highway where the only options are fast food. Unfortunately, I have never been a fan of fast food. I remember when we lived in Singapore, my son Jason was 7 years old at the time and only wanted to eat Chicken McNuggets. There was such marvelous and exciting food in Singapore, but he only wanted American Fast Food. OY!! Thank goodness he has outgrown that and is now quite a connoisseur of good food. He and his wife Laura are famous in our family for knowing the best places in Zagat’s! But I digress….

Ottawa was a treat for all of us on many levels. We were in one place for an entire week, no bus calls at 6:30am, no rushing to the theater and being there for three hours pre-show for meetings and sound checks. Days where one could sleep in or explore or eat out or in, (there were rooms with full kitchens. I baked a cheesecake and chocolate mousse and stuffing in mine for our Thanksgiving Feast. Please reread Blog Installment November 27 if you need to refresh the memories of that day. Thanks.) Several of the cast went to a Parliament Session which they found fascinating. Very different from the

, but similar to the British Parliament. The Building even looks like a miniature of the one in London. Quite beautiful. Peter and I explored Chinatown. They have a lovely new gate for Chinatown that the Chinese Government sponsored. The Chinese sent over artisans to build it!! Fun. We found a Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in Pho. They have several different varieties. Pho is a type of broth with beef in it. Quite delicious. I had a chicken soup with veggies and dumplings. Very different flavor but also very delicious and reasonable as well. We then went to the Hong Kong Supermarket and bought lovely fresh shrimp noodles, ginger, veggies and tofu so that I could make a soup for our dinner another night. To be independent and able to actually cook!! Another night we went to the East India Company. There are several of these located throughout Canada. There was one in Winnepeg, but I didn’t have time to go there. Anyway, Peter had the buffet which was chock full of wonderful varieties of meats and veggies and breads. The chef made our garlic naan right at the buffet, delicious!! Since I have such limitations with food, the waiter kindly suggested two dishes that were superb. A butter chicken dish with a white sauce and a vegetable dish that was so very good. Of course, with my memory I can’t remember what they are called. But if you are ever in Ottawa and go to this place, give me a call and we can discuss the menu!! Hee, Hee….

Another big hit in Ottawa is the Market. This is located behind the Hudson Bay Company Store beginning on

George Street

. It extends for a couple of blocks. It is chock full of wonderful eating places, bakeries, cheese and tea shops! Peter and I tried the Moroccan Restaurant. I had chicken, he had lamb; we both had veggies and a stuffed eggplant that was so delicious. It had big chunks of garlic, red peppers and onions and a little olive oil. It was sublime. Of course, there was also a bakery that had truffles which I bought for Peter and a visit to the Tea Store was a must. Another store that we visited on Sunday was La Bottega, also in the Market area. It is an Italian Deli/Supermarket. They make sandwiches to order using imported Italian products. When I say it is like being back in Italy, I mean it. The smells, the products themselves, the crowded store. We had sandwiches made to go. I got a prosciutto with mozzarella and olive oil on their Focaccio bread, lovely!! Peter had Roast Beef also on Focaccio. We were both so very happy. Unfortunately our time in Ottawa came to an end. Monday morning bright and early, Dave was there to meet us and begin our journey back down the entire United States. We went from Ottawa to Hamilton, another very cute little town in Canada near Buffalo, NY. Then on to Cedar Rapids, Iowa via an overnight in Michigan City, IN (no good food choices here). However, in Cedar Rapids a party was hosted for us by the donors of the Presenters Organization at a restaurant called Zins. What a lovely night. The food here is delicious!!! We had hors d’oeuvres that were very tasty: sliders –which are just mini hamburgers with different toppings; roast beef with horseradish topping on bread; two different kinds of finger size pizzas; a cheese platter with fruit and crackers; an Italian wedding cake, an apple cake and ginger snap cookies---top notch cuisine!! Also, a lovely atmosphere. Then on to Knoxville, TN via an overnight in Greensburg, IN (again no good choices here for food, I had shopped at a grocery store on one of our stops and bought things to microwave in my room.) Knoxville, however, has several lovely places to eat and a wonderful downtown to explore. We were all quite upset that we only had two evenings here to look around and explore. Luckily we have a stopover in Knoxville during our second leg and most of us have already planned which restaurant we will try when we return there. Life’s small pleasures.

You can just start to imagine how important it becomes: finding places that have good food to eat. Nourishment is very important for anyone, but it becomes a high priority for all of us when we are expending such huge amounts of energy dancing and singing and acting onstage for three hours, sometimes twice a day, day after day—especially when we have a five show weekend!! Also remember, we don’t get many days off. We travel during the day and then perform at the next venue. This week we started in Morganton, NC then went to Opelika, AL, both had no choices for food except a Waffle House and fast food. Luckily on our travels we had stopped at a Kroger’s Supermarket. Have we discussed Supermarkets??? Some are great, some aren’t. Some have organic food sections, some don’t. We of course have been in such tiny places that the only thing they have on the shelf is pig’s feet and pickled beets!! One store we stopped at only had cases of canned goods. I don’t think there was even a live produce section there. It was quite terrible. No wonder obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in this country. But let that lie for another day….

Speaking of weight and food—there is another aspect of Tour that I have not mentioned—our Wardrobe Weigh Ins once a month. Talk about stress inducing….the weigh ins usually take place after we have partaken of a large dinner!! The wardrobe department is trying to manage costumes for 28 people. We only have one wardrobe person traveling with us and he cannot possibly be altering costumes left and right as people might gain and lose exorbitant amounts of weight. Hence the weigh ins, just to keep track of everyone and make sure that someone isn’t losing too much or gaining too much. Meanwhile everyone in the cast starts to go crazy worrying about how much weight they have gained….A new scale was purchased for this last weigh in. I lost 6 pounds which was very good as I had gained them last month!! It just keeps one mindful of that part of our job as well. Keeping our shape that was originally hired!!

We had a wonderful show tonight in Gainesville, FL at the University of Florida Curtis M. Phillips Center. We had a sold out crowd, 1750 people came to see us perform and were on their feet at the end. It is a gorgeous theater and the audience was terrific! Lots of fun was had by all.

Well, we are approaching our denouement for this leg of the trip. We have a show tomorrow in Daytona Beach, one in Tallahassee on Thursday and then three shows in Tampa Saturday and Sunday. Monday, December 13 we all fly to our various homes for a well deserved three week vacation!!! I realized today that I have not had a vacation since March 29! I have gone from Job to Job for that past 9 months. What a lucky girl I am!! But I really will enjoy not having to learn a new part or get up at 6:30am to catch a bus or run to rehearsal. It will be very good to recharge my batteries and have some voice and acting lessons so that the next leg of this journey will be even better than the first leg has been. We are all very excited as Sammy Dallas Bayes, our director will be with us again for a brush up rehearsal before we begin our public performances at the Proctor Theater in Schenectady January 4-9, 2011! Sammy has not seen us since Chattanooga. I am thinking he will be very pleased with our village of Anatevka. We have all grown as characters, as actors, as an ensemble and as individuals. We will see….

I will miss all of my wonderful FIDDLER Family, but I wish them all a very Happy Holiday Season and a Healthy New Year filled with more adventures and fabulous performances. Enjoy the holidays as well. Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas and a very special Happy New Year!!

Don’t worry. I am sure I will have more to say before we head out for our homes….so More later….

Blog Installment B for November 26, 2010

2010-11-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

Just a little side note to let you in one some of the antics that occur before a show. I don't know if I have mentioned the laundry situation and wardrobe etiquette. We have a wonderful Wardrobe Master, Jay and his fabulous Wig Lady, Sonia. I have five costumes with four different outer layers for different scenes in Act 1 and 2 as well as two head scarves and a 'shaital' or wig for Sabbath and the Wedding scenes. All of the married women in the show have wigs for Sabbath and the Wedding and all the females have to cover their heads as we are portraying religious Jewish Women from 1905. The men all have beards or wigs and beards to put on as well as lots of different types of hats and head coverings as well. Since we are a small company, we have men who double as Russians and Jews so they are constantly changing costumes during the show and adding beards and taking them off...We have all of the costumes in gondolas behind the stage in the crossover so that we can all be changing quickly. For the dream scene, I have to wear socks over my stockings, a night cap and a nightgown. Well of course, the socks go in my laundry bag, which has my mike belt, my bra, underwear and stockings- all get washed each night. There are three sets as this allows for rotation and time to do the laundry! Early on, my socks were always ending up in one of the other cast members' laundry bag. Last night my bra was missing. Jay and I talked about it and thought it might have been left in Huntsville. I told him, "it also might show up in some one else's bag like my socks!!". We laughed, he gave me another one and I went off to change. Lo and Behold, here comes Andrea, "I think this belongs to you..." She had my bra in her laundry bag. I of course went back to Jay and he laughed. I go back to my dressing room, look in my laundry bag and lo and behold....NO SOCKS!. I of course go running back to Jay, laughing...."No socks!" He laughs as well and gives me one of the extra sets for the boys. OY, what a fun time getting dressed. Who knew......Life on the road, living the dream. One doesn't realize how hard all of the crew works to make sure we have everything we need to make this show happen and appear seamless. Thanks Jay and Sonia and all of our crew and dressers who work so very hard behind the scenes making this show a reality!!

I am really off now...More later....

Blog Installment November 26, 2010

2010-11-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving a Day Late. Time flies when you are having fun and we are certainly having a great time in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada!! But let me take you back to Monday:

Monday we flew out of Huntsville, AL as we had to get to Ottawa for a show Tuesday night. Since there are so many of us, the group was divided up into two—one group left at 8:30am and my group left at 1pm for the airport. We had a 3:30 pm flight. Our first leg was to Chicago with a connecting flight to Ottawa. We sat on the tarmac for two hours. Chicago O’Hare was having difficulties because of Tornado Watches and Severe Thunderstorms. The pilot felt it was better to wait on the ground in Huntsville than to be circling for an undetermined time around Chicago. Our flight attendant, Doug, was not so sure this was the right answer. He was not happy to have our group on board. He constantly was checking our seat belt connections, if the overheads were closed, running down the aisle as if the furies were after him, tripping and falling over Frank’s big feet which were stuck out in the aisle, yelling at Birdie to take her rubber chicken off of the window!! The pilot brought us back to the gate to refuel. We were hoping to be able to disembark, but no --we went back out on the tarmac and waited another hour!! We finally were in the air: here comes Doug again, running back and forth, lifting people’s blankets and scaring them to death: “Are you seat belts fastened? Take that chicken off of the window!” “No drinks for you, we have to wait until we are in the air!” OY, he was certainly entertaining. We decided he had too nervous a disposition to be with our group!

At one point during our wait on the tarmac one of the flight officers walked the plane to make sure we were all okay. He stopped to talk to me and I of course asked about our connecting flight and told him we had a show in Ottawa on Tuesday evening. He was a lovely gentleman and announced later over the loud speaker that we would make our connection as it too had been delayed out of Chattanooga, TN into Chicago. Originally it would have left at 7:15pm, but was delayed to 8:35pm. We all applauded. (All of us felt some sort of intervention going on as we had started this journey in Chattanooga; someone or some other being was definitely looking out for us. Maybe Tevye was making sure all was well….. if we didn’t take off and make the connection, we would not make the show time.)

We landed safely in Chicago, grabbed something to eat for dinner as it was now after 6 pm. We go to the gate and see that our plane still has not arrived. We do board a little late, head out of the gate only to be told that we will be held on the tarmac as Ottawa is socked in with fog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least this flight attendant was pleasant and allowed us to have drinks while we waited. Now we got worried again as it didn’t seem like we were going to make it out of Chicago, but low and behold, the pilot announced we would take off. We were the last plane to make it out of Chicago!!! So we all felt we were under someone’s watchful eye…..we got to the hotel around 2am and everyone was extremely grateful. What a night/day/night….Ironically we all wanted our bus. In fact, at one point on the Huntsville Airport tarmac, we were asking to call Dave our bus driver and just drive to Ottawa!! Who knew we would want to get back on the bus more than anything??!!

Meanwhile, my husband Peter drove up to Ottawa with a car full of baking and cooking utensils and gadgets from my kitchen back in New York. Thanksgiving Dinner was planned for 2pm Thursday and the hotel was catering for us. Troika, our employer was giving us a feast!! However, since we wouldn’t be with our families, Nicole and Birdie and myself felt we could add some dishes to the mix and make it feel more like a ‘family celebration’. We had sent out lists of inventory and menus and asked who would like to contribute. It was lots of fun. Mixmasters and Cuisinarts and mixing bowls and spatulas were being taken to different rooms and apartments and used to create delicious desserts and side dishes!! When we gathered together in this lovely restaurant at the hotel, there was indeed a feast to be had!! Everything was absolutely delicious. Birdie had made a shrimp/avocado appetizer, a fabulous salad and a roastedcorn dish; Suzayn had made bread; Nicole made roasted garlic, coconut cream pies and bourbon chocolate pecan pies with whipped cream; Clay made frozen Oreo bites; I made stuffing, chocolate mousse and cheese cake. The hotel had made the rest: Butternut Squash Soup, Turkey, Salad, Two vegetables, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie. A veritable Feast!!!! Tom, our Rabbi in the show, gave the benediction before the meal. As he was delivering a lovely non-denominational prayer, “We thank You for having work in these difficult times, we thank You for family and friends and my phone is ringing”….certainly lightened the moment and of course, could only happen to us!! Everyone was dressed up, and everyone was there. Some of us also had family and boyfriends attending as well. It was a lovely day. Then of course we had a show that night. A perfect holiday.

Just to mention we are performing in the premier theater in Ottawa, the National Arts Centre. It is a large complex which is quite gorgeous and has several venues under one roof. We are in the Opera House, truly a magnificent theatre. We have had very full houses and the audiences have been wonderful. Standing ovations yet again folks. This show is just the best!!!

Well, I have to go exploring as I have been busy cooking and sleeping so I must see a little of Ottawa before we depart on Monday. There is a tea shop that is supposed to be grand! So once again, more later…..

Blog Installment November 17, 2010

2010-11-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

What a lucky bunch we are….having such wonderful people together doing something we all love, having incredibly gorgeous weather while the rest of the country has rain and yucky stuff going on…It seems the bad weather comes in after we have left a place. We just spent three nights and two shows in Melbourne, Florida. In my last blog I quickly mentioned a little bit about our stay. You will recall this was after our 12 show, 10 day, 8 city, 5 state marathon!! EVERYONE went and had a massage at the Hotel Spa. We all got a Fiddler Group Discount and the staff came to our shows. They really enjoyed it.

To back up a bit, we pulled into Melbourne Monday afternoon from Panama City. Now remember, we had been in Biloxi on Friday and a gorgeous beach in Pensacola on Saturday, so we had been starting to have beach time already. However, these stops were just overnight and we had a show in Pensacola so we only had 2 hours on the beach between getting off the bus and getting back on the bus to go to the theater. So now it is Monday, November 15 and we pull into Melbourne. I immediately went to do laundry as I had held out until now because I knew we would be there for more than two nights. This was a deluxe hotel laundry as they had more than one machine. We had actually been in another hotel where there were several machines. Real laundry luxury. Our bus driver, Dave actually took a bunch of the kids to do laundry at a real Laundromat one of our golden days. But enough about laundry!

Everyone else found out about dinner….the hotel has a beautiful deck right on the beach; the food is not bad either. Of course, I had eaten sardines and miso soup in my room while I was waiting for the dryer to finish. When I went back to the laundry room our violinist, who is a spectacular player by the way, told me they were all eating on the deck downstairs. So naturally, I went down and sat on the sofa facing the ocean for three hours!! It was heavenly. At one point all of the cast members came by and said hello. What a lovely evening. The next day we all had appointments with the spa. I went in for a massage, a manicure and a pedicure. That night the conductor told me I had never sung so well, so refreshed and relaxed!! I think we should have a masseuse every month or so, especially after we have had long bus trips through so many states!!

Today we have a travel day to Macon, Georgia on our way to Huntsville, AL. It started like any travel day. I slept for the first few hours on the bus. We stopped in Valdosta, GA off the highway at a mall. Most of us went into Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch. The salad bar there is great. (I had never been in one of these restaurants before.) We only have an hour for lunch so we all went back to the bus. However, instead of loading up and getting on our way, we had a flat tire. This is the first time anything untoward has happened to the bus. Our Fyedka, Ben, has been making a video of all of our stops with Kimmy, one of my daughters-Sprintze. They were interviewing people as to what they thought about the flat tire. I put on a funny accent and told them some sort of nonsense. And then of course, I started laughing. Well this is all on film folks and will probably be on YouTube soon for your viewing pleasure!! One of the other cast members, Kirk, also took some wonderful pictures of me laughing.

My laughter has become something of a happening. One night we were back on the bus after an especially grueling performance. Something struck me as funny and I started laughing. Well anyone who knows me knows that I have a very operatic laugh. (In fact I have messed up comedians’ timing at Comedy Clubs with my laugh!) Well, this particular night, I couldn’t stop laughing. Whenever I thought I was finished, someone would say something and I would start all over again. Needless to say, within a few minutes, the entire bus was laughing!! A lovely way to end the evening. Well, of course, now every time I start to laugh, everyone else starts laughing, very therapeutic.

Meanwhile back at the flat tire event, while I was laughing, the bus driver called to have the tire repaired and an hour later we are on the road to Macon. Very efficient. Just another day in the life of a working actor who is living the dream! Just to let you all know, we arrived safely in Macon, GA at 5:45pm. Andrew and Dennis and I had a lovely stroll through a little of the cute downtown area on our way to pick up take out Thai food for dinner.

Early morning tomorrow, 7:30 am luggage for 8:00am wheels up!! And we are on the road again…..we have a 5 show weekend in Huntsville, Alabama…..then we fly to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for the week. Wowie, zowie, a whole week in one place. What will we do??? Besides 8 shows and a Thanksgiving Dinner??? Who knows??? More later……………….

The good, the bad and the star: The dressing rooms. Blog Installment 11/16/10

2010-11-18T18:22:00.000-08:00

Hi again. Hope this finds everyone well. The last time we talked the cast was on the West Coast of Florida. We are now in Melbourne, Florida on the Atlantic Side and back in the Eastern Time Zone, for a few days anyway! We all needed a day off as the travel schedule has been rather grueling to say the least, but yesterday the crew, cast and production team all had a day off after traveling for 8 hours! Today most of the company had massages and played in the ocean. A wonderful way to relax and unwind. Last night we sat on this beautiful deck of the hotel eating from the restaurant and listening to the waves hit the shore. Pure heaven!! Tonight’s show was to a full house and we really gave them a good one, I think.

Anyway, back to dressing rooms….When we were in Detroit, I had my own dressing room, which was spectacular. My own refrigerator and bathroom. It was so lovely to be able to just gather my thoughts and get ready for opening night. Since then, I have either been in a dressing room with one other person, two other persons or the entire female cast. Now sometimes the dressing rooms have been on stage level and other times they have been in the basement and one time it was on the third floor!!! Needless to say it is always an adventure to see what the dressing room configuration will be like….a few times we were so squeezed in that one could not move the chair or have enough room to move elbows!! Once there was only one toilet for 12 women, a little ridiculous!! We had to take numbers to go to the toilet!!

Tonight however, I walked into the theater only to see that I had my own dressing room. Not only that, there was a TV, a refrigerator, a black leather couch and a corner shower stall in a huge bathroom attached. I am telling you, I really felt like hot shit!! It was such a wonderful feeling to have my own space to prepare for the show. People walked around outside and I was in my own oasis. The laundry lady had also laid out my clothing to change into. It is amazing how little things like that mean so very much. It really makes the moment special and I really appreciated it. The good news is I have it again tomorrow night!!

Well this is short as I have to go to a party. John, our Tevye has a gorgeous suite at the hotel overlooking the ocean. He has graciously invited the cast and crew for a party. I have to take the chips and guacamole!! More later…..

Blog Installment, Sunday, November 14, 2010

2010-11-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I am sitting looking out at the Gulf of Mexico from our beautiful hotel in Pensacola, Florida. I walked the sandy beach yesterday in both Biloxi, Mississippi and in Pensacola, Florida and had a great show last night. The audience was not to be believed. The cast can’t figure out which has been our best, we have had so many great audiences!! The theater was another gem in Pensacola and from the stage, it looked to be a full house!

I have to comment on how great our stage and wardrobe crew are! We get to sit on a bus all day and then perform at night, but then we come back to a lovely hotel and sleep in a non-moving bed for the night. Our crew loads everything out after a performance, all the props, costumes, wigs, sets, lights, sound on to three or four forty foot container trucks and then they load themselves onto a bus and head out at midnight or so to the next destination. They sleep on the bus, their bus actually has beds on it, but still it is a bus. Once they arrive, usually very early in the morning, they then have to Unload everything once again and set it up for the evening’s performance! If we have a matinee, their load in time gets cut down and must be done much quicker! Amazing is too mild a word for them. They always have a smile on their faces and they are the best crew to work with. We are so fortunate that they really know their business and take very good care of us and the show!! Thanks and cudos to all of the Fiddler Crew of 2010-2011!!

Needless to say, all of us will be looking forward to staying in one place for a little while!

Not much else to say today. I want to go walk on the beach one more time before wheels up at 11:30 am today. We have a show in Panama City this evening and then on to Melbourne, Florida for three nights, and two shows. Oh, I think I mentioned another member of the cast who plays our Rabbi, Tom has been keeping Updates of all of our experiences during this tour. He had some interesting facts about the last 10 days that I wanted to add here:

“Since October 1st, we have driven 2969 miles through 13 states and 1 Canadian province, performed the show 12 times in 7 different theaters and racked up enough Holiday Inn frequent flier miles to house the entire Chinese Army for a fortnight.

Since Springfield, Missouri on October 15, we have travelled 2385 miles through 3 additional states, performed the show another 12 times and, again, have racked up enough Holiday Inn frequent flier miles to house all of the homeless people in Amarillo for a week. (There are a lot of homeless people in Amarillo, surprisingly enough?)

So, that brings our totals to date: (As of 10/31/10- we have gone further now folks!!)

MILES DRIVEN: 5354

MILES FLOWN: 860

STATES VISITED: 16

PERFORMANCES: 22

CITIES VISITED: 21 (including 5 stopover cities)”

Tom also had a copy of one of our reviews from Lincoln, Nebraska:

Timeless classic ‘Fiddler’ sparkles

BY ELIZABETH GOVAERTS / For the Lincoln Journal Star JournalStar.com | Posted: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 11:45 pm

"Fiddler on the Roof" is one of those rare, timeless works of art that speaks to us as effectively today as it did when the musical opened on Broadway in 1964.

It's the story of Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman in Anatevka, a village in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, and his struggle with the impending upheaval of life as he knows it.

In the touring production at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, John Preece played Tevye with an authentic weariness. Tevye has been beaten down by life and poverty, but is anchored by his strong love of his family and his traditions. He struggles heroically to adapt to the changing times, but, inevitably, cannot let go fully of what he knows and give in to the unfamiliar. This is the irony of this morality tale about the evils of hate and prejudice that displace Tevye and his family from their beloved Anatevka. While he valiantly attempts to accept his daughters' decisions about their lives and the young men they love, his own prejudices are too deeply held and cause him, in the end, to reject his daughter Chava.

"Fiddler on the Roof" is full of some of the most memorable songs written for the stage, and it's the score by Jerry Brock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick that are the centerpiece of the show. Songs such as "If I Were A Rich Man," "Sunrise Sunset," and "Tradition" live beyond the context of the show, and stand alone as masterpieces in and of themselves.

The original Broadway production was directed by renowned choreographer Jerome Robbins, and director/choreographer Sammy Dallas Bayes has lovingly reproduced Robbins' original dances for this version. The choreography was expertly executed, most spectacularly in the euphoric "To Life" and in the series of wedding dances which culminates in the famous "Bottle Dance."

This seasoned cast is consistent and tight throughout, with notable performances by Preece, Kevin Stangler (Perchik), and Nancy Evans as Golde. Despite the fact that this cast has performed this show hundreds of times, favorite moments in the show, like Hodel, Chava, and Tzeitel singing "Matchmaker Matchmaker," are even better than remembered, thanks to the sparkling enthusiasm of these talented performers. Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to see this timeless classic for yourself.

More later…..

Blog Installment November 10, 2010

2010-11-14T07:18:00.000-08:00

12 shows, 10 days, 8 cities, 5 states

How about that? This was the plan last Tuesday when we started our evening performance in Fort Smith, Arkansas. We knew that we would have that schedule to look forward to….Our next stop on Wednesday was Tyler, Texas. Then on to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Thursday. Friday we stopped in Birmingham, Alabama for a 5 show weekend! This means we had a show Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Monday we departed to perform in Montgomery, Alabama. Here our spot light operator had a hand injury and had to be taken to the emergency room. This meant we had a new person doing the follow spot for the first time. It was very interesting to watch the spot moving all over the stage looking for the actors! Luckily, the guy was a quick study and before too long, things were back to normal onstage. At the same time, we had no pit, so our wonderful conductor and orchestra were in a remote location meaning we had monitors on stage left and stage right and up on the balcony railing. This was most traumatic for our conductor as his monitor feed kept breaking down and he couldn’t see us!!! Many of his musical cues are based on our staging and what we are doing at a particular time. So to say the least, this raised his stress level; as well our sound guy and head carpenter were tireless throughout the show in trying to get a monitor down in the remote location to function. Needless to say, the performance went off without any glitches and the audience gave us a huge standing ovation!!! Everyone in the cast was really on their toes and watching the monitors like crazy. The audience didn’t realize anything unusual was going on!!

This issue also made our sound check before the show longer as we had to make sure monitors were working as well as microphones. Thankfully our spot guy just sprained a finger or two and was back with us for the next night which was Tuesday in Oxford, Mississippi at Mississippi University or “Ole Miss” as they like to call the school. We had a sell out crowd that was just amazing. In fact, all of our audiences this week have been terrific!! Of course, we again had some excitement onstage as one of the scenery fly –ins literally flew in and kept dropping down. Dancers had to bend down to go under and luckily our Fruma Sarah, who is on another actor’s shoulders reaching almost 12 feet, was in front of all of this!! So thank goodness no injuries, just lots of excitement!! We are presently on the bus; our bus call this morning was 6:30am for luggage and wheels up at 7am!! We are presently heading back to Lafayette, Louisiana for a show tonight. Tomorrow is Shreveport and then we are through with this segment of performances!! We get a day off to travel; we stop in Biloxi, MS then head over to Pensacola, FL where we will stay on the beach. We have a show Saturday there and then Sunday it is Panama City, Tuesday and Wednesday we perform in Melbourne, FL, then on to Huntsville, Alabama for another 5 show weekend. However, we are all very excited as after this madness we fly up to Ottawa, Canada where we will have 8 shows. However, we will be staying in one place for 6 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No early morning bus calls, no packing and repacking, no lugging and schlepping. We cannot wait! It is so interesting that the performances have become the constant in our lives. Actors sometimes get nervous before a show as they don’t know what to expect from the theater, audience, stage crew….we are so delighted to just be back onstage and not on the bus or lugging suitcases or worrying about where we will find food or when to do our laundry, that our shows continue to be joyous and full of energy and good fun!!!

I realized when I was talking about our extended sound check that I have never talked about that part of our process. Every time we get to a new city, which of course has been practically every day, we need to have our sound man, Deniz, make sure our sound system is working and appropriately acoustic for each venue. Many a time we wait onstage silently and patiently for him to get rid of the “ring” or “feedback” which can cause untold problems if not addressed before an audience gets there. The sound check starts with each individual member of the orchestra, then various combinations until they are all playing together. We also have a clarinet and mandolin onstage during the wedding, so they put on their mikes and head up to the stage for their sound check there. Once that is complete, Deniz starts working with the various actor solo numbers, moving toward the big group numbers, “Sunrise, Sunset”, “Sabbath Prayer” and ending with “Tradition”. All of this takes about an hour. My husband Peter was at our opening show in Detroit and he couldn’t get over how great the sound system was!! Everyone sounds super and Deniz and his assistant, Chrystal are top notch!!!! This is also a great time for the cast to be doing stretches and sit-ups and our arm lifts!! We have been complimented several times on our sound check etiquette. Some casts find it difficult to stand still and silent for the five minutes or so it takes the sound man to adjust the system. Every time we rock.

On that note, I must compliment the cast and orchestra. Our conductor got a message from Harvey Fierstein. He had worked with our conductor on the National Tour last year and had friends who saw our show and reported back to him that we are wonderful!!! He wanted to call and congratulate us and let us know. What a huge compliment! We are all so happy about this. We work very hard so it is super that people are recognizing the talent and camaraderie that has been established among us. Our chemistry onstage is electric and we are now functioning like a village and a family! Quite extraordinary. Our conductor who has worked with lots of different casts in lots of different productions is constantly telling us how unique we are in our ability to not only get along with each other, but how we bring that wonderful closeness onstage and no matter what gets thrown at us, we are always up to the challenge. Fiddler Cast of 2010-2011: I salute you!!!!!!!!!

October 31, 2010 Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hello, it has been awhile since I was here writing to you. We have now performed in 16 cites, 7 States and 1 Canadian Province!! There isn’t a lot of down time on this tour and this blog business is harder than I thought. My sister did warn me….Well, I did learn a good lesson. I don’t know if you remember, I tried to write an installment one night a few weeks ago, had several versions as the computer keyboard is touchy and erased several of my versions until finally it was 3 am, I was frustrated and tired and just wrote a shortened version. Now I am using Word Documents so I can save my work as I go along and not have it vanish into the netherworld of cyberspace. Well enough of; that let us journey along the highways of America on a bus shall we?

OY!! Riding on a bus for 8 hours is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever done. I thought I could sleep anywhere. I have been known to fall asleep sitting in uncomfortable positions in a car. This is not so easy on a bus. If you happen to be thinking of going on tour, make sure you negotiate in your contract that you will have the bus seat plus the seat next to you as well so that you can stretch out. Even with that I have to extend my legs into the aisle at times. Some of the others who have a seat mate end up sleeping on the floor. Muscle cramps and a sore back are everyday occurrences. Then, of course, we have to get off the bus and go perform!! I am painting a rather absurd picture, but most of it is true. In reality, the Company Manager, who is great, arranges for us to arrive at our destination with two hours to spare before we have to be at the theater. Thus, we can hit the exercise room, stretch, take a shower or a nap or go find somewhere to eat, all before our 5pm company meeting.

You see, every venue is different. Stage left might have a large wing or no space at all. We have a very large house and a tailor shop that live in the Stage Right Wing. Some nights, we get to the theater to find out that entrances have to be adjusted as there just isn’t space for people and set!! We will be in a theater this week that has no pit for the orchestra. That will be an adventure. Anyway, back to the schedule. We get to the theater; have the meeting where they tell us changes to the show and where everything is-i.e. costumes, mikes, props, bathrooms. Next is Sound Check. Whenever we get to a new venue, which this week will be everyday, Deniz and Crystal, our fabulous Sound Team, have the orchestra and the actors do a sound check. This is very important as each house has different acoustics. Sometimes there is reverb that needs to be addressed, sometimes it is monitors out of place, always it is what we will sound like in the venue. They do a terrific job!! My husband, Peter, was at our opening in Detroit at the Fabulous Fox Theater, built in the 1920’s and you wouldn’t believe all the greats who have performed there and signed the wall (now including our cast!!). Anyway, Peter said the sound was so great. After sound check we have a half hour to get something to eat or rest or start to get ready for the show.

In rereading what I have just written, I realized I should probably tell you a day in the life:

If we are heading to a new venue our schedule looks like this:

A time for luggage drop off for the bus, a half hour later we depart. Most mornings if we have a long bus ride, the day starts at 7:30 am or 8:00am. We have also had some 6:30am starts!! After a performance the night before!! This is not the life for the faint of heart!!

On the bus trip, we stop for 15 minutes every two hours to stretch, hit a bath room and have an hour to eat a meal. If it is a short ride, under 5 hours, we don’t get a meal stop as we will eat once we reach our destination. Once we arrive at the hotel, there is usually 2 hours before bus call to go to the venue for the stuff I mentioned earlier. If we are lucky enough to be in a place for more than one night, we don’t have to be at the theater until a half hour before curtain. These days are great as one can sleep late, see some of the surrounding countryside or just do one’s own thing!

Laundry is another task that becomes part of the learning curve. When to do it, where, how to fit it into the schedule, how to pack so you have enough clothes without taking multiple suitcases out of the bus for one nighters…..Most of the hotels we are staying in have one washing machine and one dryer. If you take too long getting to the laundry room, the line is quite long and your day is taken up doing laundry. Some of us now have our laundry bags on the bus and immediately hit the laundry room before we even go to our hotel room! During the rehearsal period, when we had meetings about what to pack, large numbers of underwear were mentioned!! Since we have such a large number of one nighters, and we are on and off the bus nearly everyday, it does become difficult to schlep large suitcases on and off the bus, so most of us have figured out how to pack for two or even three weeks at a time, find that laundry room and keep wearing the same clothes. In fact, today is a GOLDEN DAY, meaning we don’t have to travel AND we don’t have a performance tonight. So today the Bus Driver, Dave who is so fabulous and kindhearted is taking the bus and anyone who needs to do laundry to the Laundromat. The hotel’s machine is not working…..Thank goodness I did Laundry a couple of hotels ago!!

Seeing America from the bus is interesting. From my perspective a lot of the uniqueness of areas has been lost due to the standardization of building malls and fast food joints. They are everywhere. The scary thing is if one has been sleeping on the bus and wakes up once the bus stops, looks around, it looks the same as the last stop and one starts to wonder have we just gone in a circle. The same stores, the same fast food, boring!!!!!!!!!!!! For variety one day, our Company Manager had the bus go on smaller highways instead of the Interstate. We passed through smaller towns that did have personality and local shops. In one such shop we had a wonderful experience. They were having the local Lions Club meeting, so there were several older gentlemen sitting discussing various events for Paducah, Texas. As all 28 of us converged on the bathrooms and shop, some of the men started talking to us. One asked our Music Director a great question, “Are y’all traveling or are you going somewhere?” to which our MD responded, “Yes.” Then another gentleman asked another cast member what we were doing, he was told we were part of the Fiddler on the Roof National Tour traveling throughout the US and Canada to which the gentleman from Paducah responded, “That’s nice. Most people who come through here are either lost or on the run!” Tells you how out of the way and small this place really was.

The other wonderful thing about America is how nice everyone is. Wherever we have gone people have gone out of their way to be nice to us. We have had wonderful experiences in terrific restaurants and hotels across Middle America. We begin our Southern Experience now. We leave Texas tomorrow and head for Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida with a quick trip into Arkansas. All of our audiences have been terrific, cheering and clapping and continuing to give us standing ovations. As we were getting on the bus, two sisters ran over to us one night after a show in Amarillo, Texas. They were cute as could be; the younger one was no more than 10 years old. She was jumping up and down in her enthusiasm about the show. She said we were “Awesome!” Both sisters thought we were terrific and really enjoyed the performance and wanted to tell us. It was so special to see how we affect our audiences, especially young children!

We also have local crew members and local dressers to help us with the costumes. There is not a lot of time to talk or socialize with these people, but they have all been so terrific and kind and I would like to publicly thank them here. It is a very hard job they do. The crew, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, travel by bus overnight and get to the venue before us. They instruct the crew and dressers as to what the night ahead will bring. Most times it is just for one performance. Luckily we just had three shows in Lubbock, so we all could get used to the routine at this theater and by the third show, things were really rocking!

Well, is seems I have covered all I wanted to say this time around. I want to go spend some of my valuable “GOLDEN DAY” hours in the exercise room and then out to dinner with some members from our orchestra! Happy Halloween to all and to all a good night.

Blog posting, Sunday, October 03, 2010

2010-10-31T12:54:00.001-07:00

Hello, I am now riding through Tennessee on the BUS! I will now take the time to write a more complete recounting of our time so far.

First, we had our second preview last night in Chattanooga at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium. We had about 1700 people last night. What a wonderful crowd, we got a standing ovation. A friend of one of the cast members who has seen many incarnations of FIDDLER said this was one of the best casts he has ever seen and predicts we will only get better and better!! Yesterday, Sammy, our director, had us in early, fine tuning scenes and dance numbers, making sure we were in better positions for sight lines for the audience as well as having more fluidity in the scenes. Dialogue was helped along with more background information. Ken, the Assistant Director/Assistant Choreographer, gave great advice and counsel to us, adding more flavor and depth to our characterizations. It paid off, the performance was so much better.

I have said it before, and I will probably say it again throughout the next 9 months, this cast is exceptional. Every person, now including our clarinetist, mandolin player, violinist and trumpet player (they are on the bus with us as well as the merchandise lady and our Company Manager, Nicole) is incredible-very talented at what they do as well as being very interesting nice caring human beings! I am so lucky to be a part of this cast. Our Tevye, John Preece is a veteran of 9 National Tours and yet he is so supportive and wonderful to be with onstage, generous with his talent and with his humor! Our conductor, David Andrews Rogers, or DAR as he likes to be known has gone off to Singapore for a quick gig as part of a Musical Festival Celebrating Rock Musicians of the 1980’s. We will miss him, but Nathan will take over the baton. He is our rehearsal and pit pianist. Very talented!! DAR will rejoin us in Lincoln, Nebraska and will then be with us for the duration.

All of us this morning felt as if we have graduated from a very intensive course on building a top notch show and are now ready to spread our wings and perform on our own. Ken and Sammy as well as Suzayn, our Stage Manager and all of the fabulous Design Team were very much in charge during our Tech Week. The actors were very secondary to all of the various people and things that had to be accomplished during our marathon 9 days in Chattanooga. Luckily we had two performances or previews for audiences there. Now we are heading to Detroit to open on Wednesday, October 6, 2010. Sammy will meet us there and we will have more rehearsals where he will further refine our performances.

The crew is traveling separately in three 20 foot container semis! They had a load out last night and will load in to the theater on Tuesday. All of the costumes are in large gondolas as are the props and sets. It is quite amazing to see all of the thousands of articles of stuff that we use boxed up and sent on its way. Last night was hilarious in that we were trying out best to get out of costume and quickly give laundry, shoes, wigs, costumes, makeup and other various sundries to the appropriate person, who would then pack it up and load it on the correct gondola. My dressing roommate, Birdie, who plays “Yente” in the show, said it reminded her of a hospital room where the nurses keep coming in to take temperatures or straighten up while the poor patient is trying to sleep. We of course weren’t sleeping, but trying out best to get organized, yet having constant interruptions. Anyway, it all got done.

I haven’t mentioned the wig person, Sonia, a lovely young woman who is very calm under pressure. I have a quick change right before the song “Sabbath Prayer”. For those of you who are not theatre people, a quick change is a costume change that has to occur on stage or in the wings as there is no time to get back to the dressing area. Usually it occurs in less than two minutes hence “quick change”. During the two days of rehearsals before the previews, I was not making it back on in time for my entrance. A scene is constructed in such a way that there are cue lines when an actor must be walking onstage in order for their next line or next action to be on time and not cause a huge gap with others standing onstage doing nothing….So since I was late both rehearsals it was a little disconcerting for me to say the least. At one point the director told the actors to start calling for me and adlibbing. When I finally got on I told them I couldn’t find my “Shaitle” (Yiddish for wig). Since we didn’t want this to happen during the actual performance, it was decided that we would have a quick change rehearsal. When we first started we finished in two minutes. Our Wardrobe Master, Jay, who is really on top of things, helped us figure out what comes off first and how to best get the dress on quickly. There were two people helping me and we practiced the moves 5 times and got it down to 50 seconds! Not bad, Huh?? Needless to say, I was on time, even early waiting for my cue for both of the previews. Every new theatre, and there will be 80 of them, will have a new dresser assisting me as well as Sonia, our wig lady helping me. Luckily Sonia will instruct the new dresser as to the sequence of events that have to happen to make the quick change work. Thank goodness, Sonia will be there and Jay will keep his eye on this as well. Ah, the life. Oh I didn’t mention that the quick change takes place behind the house on stage next to Tevye and his dresser, he has a quick change as well and there are four brawny stage hands back there waiting to move the house for the next scene, a little crowded. Oh, and we can’t let the audience see us!!! But we are getting it done.

Well that is enough for one day. I will let you know how the bus is in the next installment. We will be stopping for lunch soon.

More later…..

October 1, 2010

2010-10-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

Well folks this is the third attempt at this. Everytime I finish a post and try to do spell check the damn computer goes wonky and I lose the work. I am tired and want to go to sleep. I wanted to fill you in on what has been happening this past month and I did, but I didn't hit save in time! Oh well. Here is the third attempt.

Quickly, the past four weeks have been very intense, lots of rehearsals, lots of learning things about the characters, show, props, sets, people we are working with and each other. We were in New York for the three weeks from 10 am until 6 pm Monday through Saturday. Sammy Dallas Bayes our director and DAR, our musical director kept us very busy learning choreography for the big dances, learning the scenes, the music and the set changes. OY the set changes. Most of the actors have to help move the set pieces.

We had a much deserved day off on September 22 and on September 23 we all flew to Chattanooga, Tennessee for our Tech Week. Tech week is very difficult for actors in that we are no longer the most important thing on the stage. Now we have to add the design team, the sound team, the set team, the prop team, the orchestra and the costumes. Each day brought another piece to the puzzle that is the "Show". We as actors just stand around waiting for the sound man to get rid of the hum in the sound system, waiting for lights to be adjusted or waiting for a set piece to be moved or learning where we go for a quick change during a scene or what the clarinetist will do during the "Bottle Dance"! It is quite exciting to see the show come together in layers like this. Each day brought a new piece to make up the whole. Our cast is very talented and our Tevye, John Preece is exceptional. He is a wonderful colleague. In New York when I had no idea what I was doing, he dragged me around and made sure I was always in the right place. Now we have fun onstage with the lights, costumes and sets! Our Village of Anatevka is really becoming a reality. Each person in the cast is terrific and brings a unique talent to the show. It is a pleasure to work with them and watch them grow as performers. We are so lucky in that we all have wonderful senses of humor and get along very well onstage and off. I think this is very important as our journey is just beginning...on a confined space for several months...the bus.

But I digress. Tonight was opening preview with a live audience. It was a wonderful audience. We made them laugh and cry and we got a standing ovation! I think we have a hit! It was so great to perform for people after all of our hard work. Now we will continue to have fun and create magic every night.

Now I have to go to sleep as I have a 12:30pm rehearsal and another preview tomorrow night.
Good night and sleep well. Will have more to say later....Thanks for listening...

September 6, Ten o'clock

2010-09-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I, of course, have not told people about this blog as I have been a little busy. But I will write a new episode as I will let you all know about this and if you are in fact already reading my nonsense, I want to give you more fodder for contemplation!

This past week, rehearsals for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF began in New York City. It is a very exciting show, with lots of wonderful dancing and singing as well as a dynamite story! As I told you in the first installment, I will be playing the role of "Golde" on the National Tour. Anyway, I still had 8 shows to do at the Mac Haydn: SHOWBOAT, my role, "Parthy'. I had to drive three hours each way to get to and from rehearsals and to and from the shows!! It was an experience. Fatigue sets in very quickly. But as my director up at the Mac Haydn told me, "You are a working actor, get on that stage!!". It worked. I woke up and actually had a wonderful show. All the intense work I am doing with FIDDLER helped me get more focused so that I could bring more to my role as "Parthy"! I had such a good time applying things I had learned in rehearsals in FIDDLER to a role that I had already performed 16 times. "Golde" is still so new for me, I am just getting off book. (For the non actors who might read this, Off Book, means one has learned their lines and can now concentrate on the blocking and emotional life of the character.)

As of Sunday night, SHOWBOAT has closed. It was wonderful fun. I worked with terrific people. The director was also in the show and whenever we were onstage together, I was in heaven!! In fact in one of the last performances I found new emotional depth for one of the dramatic moments and was able to reach new depths of feeling onstage. It was glorious. I was thrilled that we had such a hit show.

Now, to the point I wanted to make with this installment:
Rehearsing while living at home vs. rehearsing at a theatre out of town. I have never really thought about logistics when one is rehearsing a show in New York versus being out of town and only having to concentrate on the work. Although I love being at home and sleeping in my own bed at night, it takes much more concentration and discipline to live in your own home and get to rehearsals on time, study what needs to be done, do laundry, interact with family members, cook dinner, clean the house, run errands and somehow have "Life" interfere with one's concentration. When one is on the road, the rehearsal process is everything. One still needs to eat and do laundry, but there are no other distractions. Also, cast housing is usually accessible to the theatre, not an hour away! Now last week was an exception to this formula as I still had 8 shows from another contract. We still have two weeks left in New York before we take off for Chattanooga. The director hopes to have the entire show staged by this Friday. We all work very hard from 10 am to 6 pm, getting the show on its feet. Of course, I must head home, cook dinner, clean the kitchen and then get to work studying and reviewing blocking, songs and dialogue from the day's work as well as look ahead to be learning the next scene/song/dance!! "Golde" is in several scenes, lots of dialogue and lots of dancing! In fact, I have to go learn the song Anatevka now.

Thanks for listening. Have a good night. More later.....

Tuesday, August 31

2010-08-31T21:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Travelers,

There is a wonderful Chinese Proverb that says "A Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." In 2007 I took the first step in this journey. I went to my first audition for theatre, not Opera. For those of you who don't know, I am a classically trained opera singer. I had the pleasure of studying with very talented and famous people, who taught me integral knowledge of music, performing, use of language and emotional commitment to text! Roles such as "Cio-Cio-San" in Madama Butterfly, "Violetta" in Traviata, "Rosalinda" in Die Fledermaus, and "Fiordiligi" in Cosi Fan Tutte were some of my favorites to perform. "How could you crossover", you ask? "Why would you stop singing Opera?" I am no longer in my 20's and I really didn't want to sing Wagner!! Plus, I am a funny person....and most of the parts I was singing were tragic! Also, performing is performing....whether one is singing opera or portraying a Shakespearean Character or rendering a monologue, enacting a comedic part with physical comedy or enacting a tragic part with pathos. One learns from various classes, teachers, live performances and life experiences. It has become very clear to me in the last four years that all we do connects and helps us become better at our craft of acting/singing/performing. And to be honest, I have always wanted to sing Musical Comedy professionally. Who knew most of my jobs would be straight plays? Wow, what fun I have been having....But I digress....In 2007, I started auditioning for various roles with various companies in New York City. I was very fortunate to meet wonderful directors, producers, casting directors, and other actors and I got jobs!! In fact my first job was in Tony and Tina's Wedding, lots of improvisation and lots of hilarity and fun. Next came Tale of the Allergist's Wife, another comedy where I was the lead. There was no music. Gosh it is hard to learn lines when one is used to marrying the words to music. I had to develop an entirely new way of approaching memorization! Luckily I have wonderful singing and acting teachers who help me constantly to perfect and tune my techniques! Sorry, I am digressing again....

Yesterday was the first day of my present journey, which is why I started this blog. I am going on the National Tour of Fiddler on the Roof for the next nine months, I will be "Golde". This is really a dream come true for me. I am so very excited and thrilled to be working with outstanding people. Our director and music director, company manager, stage manager and all of the cast are top notch. It is a thrill to be in the same room with so many talented people. We have already started staging the big company numbers. What a fun show this is.

My main reason for having this blog is that I won't have much spare time on this trip. I already miss you all as I have been on the road since last April. Again, for those of you who don't know, I went to the UPTA in Memphis, TN in February and proceeded to get four jobs! Thanks to wonderful directors and producers I have had a fantastic spring and summer, performing in three different cities, in four different shows. I was also offered two more jobs this fall which I sadly couldn't take as I will be on the road as "Golde"!! So since I find that time is fleeting and there are never enough hours to call and write all the wonderful people that I know and love, I figured this would be fun. I can share some of my experiences and keep in touch at the same time with lots of people without having to send out email blasts, which can get to be too formulaic. We will be on a bus traveling all over the country. I will probably discuss eating, (for those of you who know me, you know how much I love to eat!), sleeping on a bus, doing laundry at odd hours, theatre etiquette, hopefully funny happenings along the way....

I will also be letting you know where we will be performing. Since I know people all over the country and we will be in most of the contiguous United States and Canada, I would LOVE it if you can make it to a performance. Please let me know so that we can meet after the show. We will have an 8 piece orchestra!! Heaven! No tracks on a CD player that doesn't work....that was another show....we ended up singing a capella!

Okay, I think I have to end this now. Stay tuned, there will be more entries. I apologize in advance if I don't report each day....I am old you know and I do get tired, but I will try and at least add a tidbit or two each day. We are attaching this to my website, so you can view pictures of past performances and there are mp3's with me singing as well as videos of work I have done in clubs, on TV and on the Web.

Good night and as a dear friend always tells me...."More Later!"