Blog Installment January 20, 2011

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

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

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

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 US, 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

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

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

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……………….