Don't Cross The Street In The Middle, In The Middle, In The Middle, In The Middle, In The Middle Of The Block.

I love Canada's walking man pedestrian signal. He looks so jovial and excited to be crossing the street.

It's Cold, eh

So this is my first time in Kitchener, and to mark the occasion they decided to give me that extra special Canadian type of cold weather. Now don't get me wrong. I am not really complaining. In fact it adds a note of authenticity to the whole experience of going to Canada in December. And frankly nothing could be worse than the time we went cross country skiing in -14 degree wind chills so take that Canada!

So far everything has gone well. Kitchener is a cute little town with plenty of places to eat. Yesterday I experienced my first Vietnamese submarine sandwich. Very tasty. There doesn't seem to be much to do that is of interest, but then again it is a bit too cold to go explore much. The Centre in the Square Theatre is a nice facility with a huge pit. In fact I would go so far as to say too big. I'll try to get a picture which shows what I mean. Our replacement drummer did a fine job last night, and she turns out to be a really nice, interesting person. The show itself was a bit rough given the week off, but hopefully we will redeem ourselves today.

So far so good. We'll see what today has in store, eh.

Back To The Land Of Poutine And Curling, eh.

Once again I find myself behind in the blog by about a month. And once again, I am having to jump ahead in the sequence because I am in Canada for a week. I guess that I don't have to, but it is a convenient way to communicate with the family since I don't have a cell phone that works in Canada. Plus it keeps me inspired to work on the blog, and who knows maybe I'll catch back up!

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So it is currently 2009 29 December (to do things in the proper Canadian way), and I finished my Christmas layoff and flew to Toronto. My flight was actually on an airline called Porter, which I had never heard of before. They seem to be a more upscale Canadian version of Southwest. They even fly out of Midway. After getting to the airport and having a mild heart attack at seeing the luggage scales weighing in kilograms, I discovered that I misunderstood the luggage allowances. You can check two bags for free but the "combined" weight can only be 50 lbs, meaning all of the careful packing and weighing of my bags last night was worth nothing (even if I had been weighing in kilograms!). I ended up having to pay anyway. Oh well, thank goodness for reimbursement!

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Otherwise, everything else today went smoothly. The new security scrutiny did not really delay me any more than usual. I actually had two hours to sit at the gate and tell myself I did not need to go find something to eat. The flight was on a twin propeller type plane, but aside from the vibration and noise that was fine. Porter actually gives you a little sandwich and salad for free, and they use really glasses. Going through customs was pretty easy. Unlike everyone else in the Wizard company, I flew into the Toronto City Centre Airport. So not only did I have a great view of Toronto when I got out of the airport, I had a car waiting to whisk me away to exotic Kitchener, Ontario. Now that I am here. I'm going to go explore, eh.

Christmas Around The Country

To say that I enjoy Christmas decorations would be a huge understatement. To say this would only add insult to injury given the section of my parent's basement which houses my four Christmas trees and ornaments. To make matters even worse, I have not had anywhere to put up those trees for the last two Christmas seasons, but I digress after all I chose to do the touring thing! Anyway, I have enjoyed the last two years getting to see how various towns decorate for Christmas, and here are some highlights:

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Wilkes-Barre, PA

Binghamton, NY

Elmyra, NY

New Orleans, LA

Baton Rouge, LA

It took me several attempts to get this picture!


Knoxville, TN

Owensboro, KY

They had a little winter carnival thing right by the theatre. Sadly, I did not get to go to the Scooby Doo Fun House which is just to the left of the Road Work Ahead sign!

Christmas at Graceland!

The decorations weren't as retro as I had hoped, but they were still fun!

I loved this because it reminded me of Mom and Dad's Christmas decorations.

And of course, Chicago, IL

The Chicago Christmas tree was not as spectacular as in years past, but I guess that is a sign of the economy.

Thankfully the Art Institute Lions were still sporting their wreathes!

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I hope everyone reading this had a good Christmas.

Aurora

Having pulled off the successful Thanksgiving scam, I went back to tour somewhat refreshed. It is sad what even just one day away does! Our next stop was the Paramount Arts Center in Aurora. Now interestingly I have actually been to the Paramount. It was years ago after we first had gotten into musical theatre. I discovered that the tour of Cats was going to be playing in Aurora, and not knowing any better I had to see it just in case I never again got the chance. Well little did I know that to this very day Cats would still be touring (in fact I know at least three people on the tour currently)! But on the plus side, I did get to see the Paramount which is actually very cool.

As for Aurora itself, there is really not much downtown except the Paramount and the Casino. Our hotel was actually out in Naperville so we really did not get to explore Aurora itself. And that was fine.

A Thanksgiving Detour

Last year for Thanksgiving, the Wizard of Oz company was in Philadelphia, PA for the holiday. It turned out to be one of the highlights of last year for me. Several of us musicians got up early to harass the actors as they marched by in the Thanksgiving parade, and then ran back to the hotel to watch them perform on TV. We had an intimate Thanksgiving dinner at an Irish pub thanks to several company members going home to New York. Best of all, I got to do some Black Friday shopping in Philadelphia!

This year we left Elmira, NY and ended up in Toledo, OH for the holiday. That sounds a bit random, but Cassie who plays Dorothy is from Toledo. Her family arranged to have the entire company over to their house for a Thanksgiving meal. A group of more than 30 actors, musicians, and crew crammed into a stranger's house? No thanks.

Since Toledo is only about 4 hours from home, I decided to rent a car and surprise Mom and Dad. Making my plan even more perfect was the fact that the next tour stop was in Aurora, IL. So I got my car and drove to Jamie's house and spent the night there. That way I was successfully able to pull off the surprise when everyone came over to eat! Then the next day, I got up early for a bit of Black Friday shopping and drove the rental car to Midway. From there I was able to take two trains and end up rejoining the tour at our hotel in Naperville.

My Heart's On Fire For Elmira

Two days in Elmira, NY...There was nothing interesting to do so therefore I did nothing interesting. I can now check Elmira off of the list of midsized New York cities, and also look forward to my return for Beauty and the Beast.

At least the courthouse looked different than the courthouses in all the other New York towns we have visited so far.

One day before the show, I was trying to get a picture of this mural. A few minutes after taking the picture, an usher walked up to the pit to ask who was taking the pictures. Now sometimes I get hasseled by self important ushers when I take pictures so I was at the ready to put the usher in his place. Instead of telling me off though, he actually gave me a print of the above mural, and was all excited to tell me about how the theatre was recently renovated! Very cool.

Binghampton...How Many Duplicate Towns Are There In New York?

When we boarded the bus Sunday morning in Wilkes-Barre to continue the tour, we did not know what awaited us in Binghamton, NY. This particular day was that most dreaded of things: the drive into a matinee performance. Which means that we left early enough in the morning so that we could be to the next city with enough time for a matinee performance. As scary as that may sound being one of the musicians, I cannot imagine being on the crew. They had to load out the set Saturday night, get on the bus, sleep a couple of hours, and then load the set into the new theatre. You would not think it to look at our set, but it is apparently very unfriendly to touring and therefore takes longer to load in and out than it really should. That is why we did not know what would await us. Would the crew pull through? Or would we be performing in a black box? To their credit, the crew was finished before we even got to the theatre having been sleep deprived and all! I've said it before. I could never do it myself, but I have great respect for the crew!

The other reason why I was unsure what to expect is the fact that I have now been to a few of these medium sized New York towns, and did not see how this one could be any better. Binghamton was for all intents and purposes the same as Utica, Schenectedy, Syracuse, etc. We were downtown, but nothing else was. It was Sunday which makes being in a small downtown even more difficult because nothing is open. Well that is not true. The CVS was open, but thank goodness the company provided catering before and between the shows. Otherwise we wold have been eating snacks from the CVS!

It was a little bit weird to be playing in a theatre that is my high school's colors.

One day I would like to find a purple brick road. That would make me happy.