Snowy St. Paul

Well, the title isn't completely accurate. We did have the sun for 1 and 1/2 days, but the rest of our stay here has been rainy or snowy. It's not even Halloween yet!

But, I've managed to get a taste of the town. I think the most unique place so far has been an old dining car called Mickey's. It's been in business for over 70 years and operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In fact, it's on the National Register of Historic Places. My girlfriend and I had breakfast there one rainy Minnesota morning: blueberry buttermilk pancakes for her and a Denver omelette with hashbrowns for me. WOW! It was so good that our stomachs ached afterwards. Good thing I took waited a half an hour before going to the gym :) If you are ever in town, you should definitely check this place out. Sit at the bar so you can watch the guy cook everything on the griddle and multi-task like a banshee (amazing) and watch the middle aged waitress look busy no matter what she's doing. For all you actors, this is a great place to character study!

I'm looking forward to our next stop: Nashville, TN. I have a lot of family in that area, and it looks like I'll get to see a pile of them!

Stop One: St. Paul, MN

We arrived on Monday to a fresh blanket of snow. Wow, that is a change from the balmy 70 degrees we were enjoying in NYC. But I have a feeling we will be experiencing many a harsh temperature change (going from Toronto to Tampa in February.....I prefer this change :).

Our theater here, the Ordway, is beautiful and quite large. Though it is not the largest we will play on tour, it feels quite a bit bigger than the Paper Mill. There are small lights that line each balcony. When you are gazing out "over the Prairie" from the stage, as we do in the show many times, there are times it looks like you are gazing into an endless starry sky. The staff here is great. We have new dressers in each city, so you never know what you're going to get. But my dresser, Dale, is ON IT! I have one full costume quick change to do in about 15 seconds, and it went swimmingly well.

Now we begin to explore the city. St. Paul is connected by a series of "skyways" from building to building, so you really don't have to walk outside at all. Although, I enjoy the crisp air. I hope to get back over to Minneapolis for at least a day to remember all the places I got to know last summer during the previous PRAIRIE run.

Pulling on my parka and out OUT THE DOOR!

One Chapter Closed, Another Chapter Begins

It is official: PRAIRIE in New Jersey is closed. But the show lives on!!!! We just finished a 5 week run at the Paper Mill Playhouse tonight to another sold out crowd. It's great to be in a show that is so well received by the audience. But there is nary a moment to rest, for we are packing up and heading OUT WEST.

Our first stop is St. Paul, Minnesota. We originated this show last summer in Minneapolis, which is only a hop, skip and a jump from St. Paul. It will bring back a lot of great memories. On the abrasive side, it snowed there the other day. Really cold weather is not high on my priority list at the moment. I just hope for some nice sunshine. Any kind of weather is bearable if there is a little sunshine :)

I am also looking forward to a moment when I am not exhausted....I feel it on the horizon...but where or when?...I don't know.

LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!!!!

(Oh, some good news: During a talk back with the audience today, someone asked about the possibility of a Cast Recording. Our lead producer in the audience was there and yelled out, "It's Coming, It's Coming".....I hope he meant it! I'll certainly post if that happens.)

THE PRAIRE IS OPEN!

It seemed to have taken a real-time journey out west, but we finally got this puppy open! There was much celebration in the small town of Milburn. They shut down Main Street, set up bails of hay, and the party spilled out onto the street.

As always, the opening night crowd was fantastic. It is full of friends and family, and of course a critic here and there. You can really feel that almost everyone really wants the show to be good and everyone to do well. Luckily, since many of us (myself included) have lived with this show for over a year now it wasn't as crazy as our first opening in Minneapolis. Though we probably had just as many changes, there was something comforting about knowing who our characters were and having lived in those lives for a little while before. I had a lot of fun, though I was DOG tired.

Two dear friends of mine got to come and celebrate at the party afterwards. Although, it is hard to hangout with friends and family because there are so many important people that want to give congrats or take a picture or even introduce themselves for the first time. If you remember back to the first rehearsal description when I wrote about the 100s of people in the room that were a part of this show....well, they all came to that after party and wanted to say hello :) But "networking" included, it was a very nice party.

DAY BEFORE THE SHOW, Y'ALL

So, it is the night before we open. We have just finished another full week of rehearsals on top of a regular show week. But we will keep the energy up as high as we can for the opening night show. In fact, opening can be very exciting, so I don't think it will be a problem. Many friends and family members will be in the crowd tomorrow night, so it is always a generous audience. We will probably get applause and laughs in places we have never gotten :) But, we have had some really great responses already. All I know is that people really seem to be enjoying the story, some pleasantly surprised, some ecstatic...and if there are any others, they drove off before they got to tell us :)

Ok.....

Cards for the cast and creative team: check

Outfit pressed and ready for tomorrow: check

New lines and blocking memorized: I hope so!

Good night sleep: checking that right....now.....

If YOU BUILD IT....

Well, the people came and went.....and they seem to like it so far! :) The show definitely feels different than our run last summer, but in a good way. It is wonderful to see all the little girls in the audience dressed up in their prairie dresses and bonnets. They are SO CUTE! And most of their mothers grew up watching the show, so they are extremely excited to see Melissa Gilbert. It really is amazing how far her influence has reached. The TV show and books have touched upon something pure and innocent that pervades humanity. It seems there are only wonderful memories attached to the Little House name.

There was a fella here yesterday that has been a primary school teacher for years and always has his class read "Farmer Boy", the book about Almanzo. Naturally, I thought that was quite astute of him :) I wonder what I would have thought of the book if I had read it at a young age. One set of parents said they came because their son got tickets as a birthday present from his girlfriend and he recommended it to them. I asked him how old his son was....29! I love it! See, even dudes can enjoy this show, hah!

Labor Day

We didn't get the day off (it's a US holiday today), but they did give us a BBQ on our dinner break. I suppose it's the next best thing, right? It really is beautiful out here in this part of New Jersey. I hope some of my NY friends are able to come out and see the show. It's a pretty easy commute.

Tomorrow is our second 1o out of 12 (1o out of 12 hours) day. We will probably get a run of the show in by the evening. We BETTER, because our first audience is on Thursday. Gideeyup!