Moncton. Shoot. I'm still only in Moncton.
Well, the New Brunswick leg of our whirlwind Atlantic tour is now officially over.
The last French show of the tour (until the very last day, that is -- apparently there are Francophones in Newfoundland. Who knew?) was this morning, right here in scenic Moncton. It went reasonably well, except for some technical nastiness involving bad feedback noise throughout the show. We chose to blame the sub-par acoustics of the venue - another cafeteria space with a stage at one end. (What's with that? Do these schools do a lot of dinner theatre?)
Sound issues notwithstanding, we (cast and crew) did fine, and the show went reasonably well. The audience, however, was a disappointment. The students and faculty alike seemed to have come down with a serious case of the Mondays. It's an all-Francophone school, and when we got there, one of the teachers (apparently unimpressed that our programs were printed in both official languages) started demanding assurance from us that no English would be spoken in the presence of the students. Having set her mind at ease that we weren't there to subvert Acadian culture, we were allowed to proceed, but the students weren't enormously responsive. We did what we could, but all in all it wasn't our best show -- which was a shame, really, since today also marked the return of our dear friend and erstwhile pseudodirector, the representative from the Money People whom you may recall we met at the end of the rehearsal period. The technical glitches we ran into during the morning show were apparently enough to put her in a bit of a foul mood, which in turn had Director on edge all morning.
All this was leading up to the Main Event of the day, which was the afternoon show. No group of drowsy schoolchildren, this one. This was for the biggest of wigs, the Money People's Money People, the handsome, well-coiffed head of the very Corporate Body to whom we owe this dream job.
I didn't know who any of them were, of course. They were just another audience, albeit an older and better-dressed one. But the point of the show was to demonstrate to them that this project is, for them, money well-spent, and that they should perhaps consider more and larger tours in this region in the future (that's the great thing about high schools: they keep coming out with new audiences every year). This was why Money People were in attendance this morning, and why Director's head looked like it might pop if anything went wrong.
Fortunately, nothing did.
Despite the Money Lady's best efforts to stress us out before showtime by walking around glowering, and Director's quavering grip on her nerves, and the fact that the auditorium was a conference room not much bigger than a classroom, despite all these things, the show itself was a rollicking success. We were right on our game; the sound was pristine, the audience was attentive and receptive, and the performances were, of course, brilliant. Turns out grown-ups are as happy to get out of the office for an hour as students are to get out of class, and the wigs got to hear exactly what they wanted to about how well the students in general respond to the show and the messages cleverly hidden therein. Afterwards, Director was beaming, obviously pleased with how it had gone off (this thing is her baby, after all), and even Money Lady told us we made her proud. It was beautiful.
But seriously, it was a good way to kick off the week, and finish off the province. Enough even to cheer me up after finding out i'll shortly be losing some of my clothes. Oh, yeah, that thing.
Once we get to Newfoundland, we're going to be in a different vehicle that won't be of Moby Truck's gargantuan proportions, which means we're going to have even less room onboard than we do now. Translation: no room for big bags. So, my bare-minimum number of shirts and socks is getting pared down even more, as the whole cast will basically be living for a week or two out of whatever we can fit into airline carry-on luggage. So...that'll be fun.
Speaking of fun, we hit the Big Bridge tomorrow; first show outside NB is Wednesday. Castmate Meryl, a native of the land of Red Mud and Red Pigtails, is beside herself with excitement. Too bad we're only there for two or three days.
Forecast for tomorrow calls for a 70-85% chance of photos of Confederation Bridge. Man, i hope they have the Internet over there!
The last French show of the tour (until the very last day, that is -- apparently there are Francophones in Newfoundland. Who knew?) was this morning, right here in scenic Moncton. It went reasonably well, except for some technical nastiness involving bad feedback noise throughout the show. We chose to blame the sub-par acoustics of the venue - another cafeteria space with a stage at one end. (What's with that? Do these schools do a lot of dinner theatre?)
Sound issues notwithstanding, we (cast and crew) did fine, and the show went reasonably well. The audience, however, was a disappointment. The students and faculty alike seemed to have come down with a serious case of the Mondays. It's an all-Francophone school, and when we got there, one of the teachers (apparently unimpressed that our programs were printed in both official languages) started demanding assurance from us that no English would be spoken in the presence of the students. Having set her mind at ease that we weren't there to subvert Acadian culture, we were allowed to proceed, but the students weren't enormously responsive. We did what we could, but all in all it wasn't our best show -- which was a shame, really, since today also marked the return of our dear friend and erstwhile pseudodirector, the representative from the Money People whom you may recall we met at the end of the rehearsal period. The technical glitches we ran into during the morning show were apparently enough to put her in a bit of a foul mood, which in turn had Director on edge all morning.
All this was leading up to the Main Event of the day, which was the afternoon show. No group of drowsy schoolchildren, this one. This was for the biggest of wigs, the Money People's Money People, the handsome, well-coiffed head of the very Corporate Body to whom we owe this dream job.
I didn't know who any of them were, of course. They were just another audience, albeit an older and better-dressed one. But the point of the show was to demonstrate to them that this project is, for them, money well-spent, and that they should perhaps consider more and larger tours in this region in the future (that's the great thing about high schools: they keep coming out with new audiences every year). This was why Money People were in attendance this morning, and why Director's head looked like it might pop if anything went wrong.
Fortunately, nothing did.
Despite the Money Lady's best efforts to stress us out before showtime by walking around glowering, and Director's quavering grip on her nerves, and the fact that the auditorium was a conference room not much bigger than a classroom, despite all these things, the show itself was a rollicking success. We were right on our game; the sound was pristine, the audience was attentive and receptive, and the performances were, of course, brilliant. Turns out grown-ups are as happy to get out of the office for an hour as students are to get out of class, and the wigs got to hear exactly what they wanted to about how well the students in general respond to the show and the messages cleverly hidden therein. Afterwards, Director was beaming, obviously pleased with how it had gone off (this thing is her baby, after all), and even Money Lady told us we made her proud. It was beautiful.
But seriously, it was a good way to kick off the week, and finish off the province. Enough even to cheer me up after finding out i'll shortly be losing some of my clothes. Oh, yeah, that thing.
Once we get to Newfoundland, we're going to be in a different vehicle that won't be of Moby Truck's gargantuan proportions, which means we're going to have even less room onboard than we do now. Translation: no room for big bags. So, my bare-minimum number of shirts and socks is getting pared down even more, as the whole cast will basically be living for a week or two out of whatever we can fit into airline carry-on luggage. So...that'll be fun.
Speaking of fun, we hit the Big Bridge tomorrow; first show outside NB is Wednesday. Castmate Meryl, a native of the land of Red Mud and Red Pigtails, is beside herself with excitement. Too bad we're only there for two or three days.
Forecast for tomorrow calls for a 70-85% chance of photos of Confederation Bridge. Man, i hope they have the Internet over there!
posted by alex at 11:30 PM
1 Comments:
I hope you have a great time travelling abroad, as it were. ^_^ Break a leg, and all that jazz. I can't wait to hear all about it.
See you when you get home!
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