University of Wisconsin Madison

Given the fact that our previous stop in Madison was in the freezing cold of December, I decided to skip exploring The University of Wisconsin campus then. But since the weather was beautiful in June, I took full advantage of the situation. I found the campus to be quite nice.

This is the University of Wisconsin Union Building.

It was quite sunny that day.

I think that it goes without saying at this point that I prefer Bloomington over just about any college town. Madison included!

Performance 200

Our 200th performance occurred in Rochester. We had a cake.

(Well perhaps the bakery was busy that day!)(The camera phone snapshot does nothing for the cake either.)

Eastman School of Music

I would not trade my time at Indiana University for anything, but occasionally I wonder what it would have been like to attend a different music school. Eastman is one of the few others I would have considered. Now that I have been to Rochester, I'm glad that I never really seriously considered Eastman. I really enjoyed the large campus experience at IU and of course I love Bloomington!

Eastman is a very prestigious school, but it is very small and stuck in the middle of Downtown Rochester. I'm not sure if it is true, but I heard that the Eastman students have to travel to the main University of Rochester campus for the general ed classes. No thanks.

It's Not My Fault

I tried to on two different occasions in November four years apart from each other!

Rochester Memorial Auditorium

Coolest Doorman Ever

One of the few experiences that I had yet to have on tour was to meet a particularly memorable local. Being in the orchestra, the musicians really don't really interact with the locals at the theatre. At the Rochester Memorial Auditorium, I ended up talking to the doorman at the stage door, and he turned out to be really interesting. He has worked at the theatre forever, and has more stories than one could take in during a week long engagement. Also instead of painting wall tags, at the RMA Bob the doorman takes the program and makes poster board creations for everyone to sign. Here are some of them:

And of course best for last!

Rochester - A Tale of Two Cities

After my brief excursion to Boston, it was time to get back to tour. So I met up with Brett Monday morning and we picked up a rental car to drive over to Rochester. It just so happened that this particular Monday was Memorial Day. It also just so happens that Brett's parents live in Schnectedy which just happens to be halfway between the two cities. So Brett invited us over for a cookout on the way.

I had never been to Rochester before, and all that I knew about it was that Eastman School of Music was in Rochester. Well I think that is all there is really to know about Rochester, or at least Downtown Rochester. Downtown is for the most part dumpy and depressed. There are many closed down shops, and not many restaurants. But the funny thing about Rochester is that just when you have given up on it, something appears to make you think maybe it isn't so bad.

Above is the official sign welcoming people to Rochester. Sadly the image below seems more fitting.

As you walk around you see the river flowing through Downtown and think, "oh that's nice." Well until you actually look at the river itself!

Mostly the architecture in Downtown Rochester is uninteresting (or even down right imposing like the above shot), but then occasionally you find a nice little gem of a building.

The above building would almost make you think that you were in Paris, but then the building below takes you right back into America.

And Now For My Final Thought

By far the highlight of the trip was seeing Jerry Springer the Opera with Joelle. I had seen the show once before in Chicago and this production was even better. Joelle was as fantastic as Brett said she would be, but the rest of the cast was good. Brett and I had onstage seats which made the experience even better. Now if only NETworks would tour Jerry Springer the Opera!

I normally scrunch down in pictures, but even scrunching I still look like a giant next to Joelle!

Historic Boston

All throughout Downtown Boston are various historic sites. They are all connected by what they call the Freedom Trail. It is literally a painted line on the sidewalk that connects all of the sites. I made Brett walk the trail and here are some of the more interesting sites:

Statue of Samuel Adams (shouldn't he have a beer?)

Faneuil Hall

Old State House

Of all the stops along the Freedom Trail, we only stopped at the Paul Revere House. As weird as it sounds, it reminded me a bit of being in Lucy the Elephant in Atlantic City!

Boston's Theatre District

Sadly Spring Awakening was the only show playing in the Theatre District while I was there, but I did walk around and take pictures of the other theatres.

The Wang Theatre

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The Wang is one of those theatres that has a lobby that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the auditorium and stage house set off of the street. I'm glad that I walked around to the side because the front is ugly!

The Shubert Theatre

The Wilbur Theatre

The Majestic Theatre

Opera House