First Show Etc

Dear Anna,

Today was our first show and it went surprisingly well. This set is SOOOOO much easier to load in and out than CLASSICS! ever was. We got there at 7am today and were completely loaded in before 840am. Pretty great. The show is also a lot easier in some respects--I do practically nothing in the first act and I love it. I like the show itself for the most part as well...we do have some clunker moments but eh...it is what it is!

We decided to stay in Asheville for the afternoon because ... well ... Hickory has nothing. So we spent about 3 hours bumming around cool-ass Asheville. Had lunch at WoolWorths and took in some really great art there as well. Walked outside--enjoyed the sun and beautiful weather as well as perusing all the shops. There are TONS of drifters and hippies downtown including one man who said "Alms for the poor...and help my fund to run for Mayor of Asheville!". Interesting... :) On our way out we found a dude painting the church on the street--I took a quick snapshot and it actually came out pretty well!

Here are some pics from the day. It is poker night here in Hickory amongst the cast and that will be the most exciting thing here I think!

PEACE

Asheville, NC Day!

Asheville Weekend Roundup and Pictures

Dear Anna,

And so touring begins. We spent our first day driving for about 14 hours--but we did manage to have a good time going it---no major complaints which was nice. We woke up the next day to start our journey to Asheville, NC. I bought a Magic Bullet (food processor thing...don't be dirty...) from the infomercial and yes everyone made fun of me but I don't care cause IIIIII got 2 of them and a juicer AND a blender for both! SO THERE! :) George and I wanted to have breakfast at the "Johnny Appleseed" restaurant that was attached to the hotel but the good ole slow ass southern service only allowed us to have OJ and the free apple fritters. SO SAD...but we managed to eat later on. We then took crazy pictures with the out of control Johnny Appleseed statue. Truly Incredible.

We made our way to Asheville after about 6 hours. I drove for almost 5 of them and it was great fun. The day was beautiful, we had good music and everyone was in a great mood. That is the way I like it!

We partied the night away on Chamber's bill--they gave us 80 bucks for food and booze. Laura's dad arrived today and brought us some interesting stuff. He brought us beer, booze, bought us dinner (from which I am INCREDIBLY full) annnnnnnnnd gavbe us HOMEMADE MOONSHINE! HOLY CRAP! It was made with peaches in it and was not half as bad as I thought it was going to be. We also went for a walk in the woods in the mountains which was positively splendid if I do say so!

All in all a really great start to the tour.
First show tomorrow--early EARLY load-in but the drive after is less than 2 hours so no biggie!

See you soon!

PEACE





Dear Anna,

Asheville Picture

OH LORD PICTURES

Ohhhhh Uphams!

PIIIIICTURES

Tour Route...etc

Dear Anna,

Here is the schedule for ENCORE! II's route as I know it thus far...


FEB:
26-Asheville, NC
27-Hickory, NC
28-Fayetteville, NC

MARCH:
1-Norfolk, VA
2-???
5-Atlanta, GA
6-Macon, GA
7-Montgomery, AL
8-Albany, GA
9-Birmingham, AL

12-???
13-Jacksonville, FL
14-Coconut Creek, FL
15-Ft. Meyers, FL
16-Tampa, FL

19-Augusta, GA
20-Columbia, SC
21-Savanah, GA
22-Orlando, FL
23-Miami, FL

26-Rome, GA
27-Huntsville, AL
28-Jackson, TN
29-Nashville, TN
30-Memphis, TN

APRIL
2-Jackson, MS
3-Hattiesburg, MS
4-Lafaylette, LA
5-Baton Rouge, LA
6-GOOD FRIDAY NO SHOW

9 and 10th-Austin, TX
11-Houston, TX
12-Dallas, TX
13-Shreveport, LA

16-Bowling Green, KY
17-Indy, IN
18-Aurora, IL
19-Milwaukee, WI
20-Elkhart, IN

23-Pittsburgh, PA
24-Hagerstown, MD
25-Frederick, MD
26-Wilmington, DE
27-Philly, PA
30-Charlottesville, VA

MAY
1-Baltimore, MD
2-Trenton, NJ
3-Bridgeport, CT
4-Boston, MA

7-Lancaster, PA
8-Tarrytown, NY
9-New Haven, CT
10-Boston, MA
11-Providence, RI

14-Portsmouth, NH
15-Albany, NY
16-Brooklyn, NY
17-Englewood, NJ
18-Allentown, PA

21-Brooklyn, NY
22-Englewood, NJ
23-???
24-???
25-Concord, NH

26----END OF TOUR

So that is the basic schedule for now. Subject to change at any given moment.
I will hopefully have pictures up soon...maybe later tonight. Pics from rehearsals AND from a lil thing we like to call party at Uphams one night :) Gotta love it!

Time to pack...I leave tonight to stay in Boston and we hit the road tomorrow morning at 9am for a HOT 10 (plus) hour drive to New Market, VA! HAHAHA!

ON THE ROOOOOOOAD AGAIN----

PEACE!

Tech Week...

Dearest Anna,

Tech week has begun...it is not as much of a hellish time that I thought it would be--which is really nice. I don't know if I wrote this here but we actually switched roles 5 times...or shall I say that I have 5 new roles and the other boys have a bunch of new ones as well. It has kept us on our toes at least!

First dress rehearsal is tomorrow and I think we are just fine...but of course you can never know, right? The storm of the century has hit Boston as well and so tomorrow may be a bit of a mess. Currently the outside of my apartment here in good ole Orient (racist) Heights the ice is securing itself to the sidewalk and street.
Speaking of racism...Beau says of Orient Heights..."JUST BECAUSE IT IS ON A SLANT..."---AWFUL!...he'd fit right into our cast. We have named our van "The Bigot Mobile" full of the "Bigot Briggade" and the truck.........is......AUNT JEMIMAH.

WE ARE ALL GOING TO HELL! And we like it...Aunt Jemimah should fair well when we are TOURING THE SOUTH!

I am going to post pictures Sooooooome Dayyyyy----I swear! But the internet connection in my apartment is a stolen one (ooops...!) and isn't strong enough to publish the pictures. So you get just the words...DEAL! :)

In other news...spent the weekend at Rhonda's place with a bunch of the cast members and had a hell of a time. Got nice and screwed up and proceeded to play Hide and Go Seek in the mansion that she stays in...I hid in the bathtub...twas funtimes. The next day Rhonda made me take the dead frozen cat out of the cathouse with her----TERRIFYING! and HYSTERICAL...

OY!
About a week until we get on the road...canNOT wait for the day!

I think that is it for the updates at this time...

PEACE!

no pics...

Dear Anna,

no pictures tonight...I know you are very sad...but blogger is not working properly.

goodnight...

PEACE

hmmm....

pictures will be posted at a later date...the thing doesn't want to work


grrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

One Week Left Before Tech...

Dear Anna,

It is about time I blogged again. I have switched over to the "new" blogger and I think I likey! Soooo...First off...above you will find pictures from the past few weeks including rehearsals, the set and fun times off the clock (SLEEEEEEEPOVER!).

The past few weeks have been fun. We've all been settling in and getting our bearings and it seems to be going well. ENCORE 1 has left for the road (are you there Andrew? are you reading this?) and now we will get the full attention of Pat and the rest of the office etc...can't tell if that is a blessing or a curse! I do love Pat though...and found out that her snoods are made personally for her by a friend!!! AMAZING!

We have another run for "the producer" this week we think...god only knows. We'll be fine...we work hard and have a good time overall. I think the tour will be a blast in general to be honest.
Had some fun times at "The Connection" by Andrew Station as well as having a sleepover at Jill's place. Overall...a good time had by all---foreshadowing the times we will have on the road.

Time for bed!

"THAT's A LIE!!!!!!!!!!"

-Peace