Surrounded by water (and images of Anne of Green Gables)

This should be a quick one, as it's already later than it should be and i've got an early morning. Just a note to let all you avid fans out there know i'm still kickin'. Alive and well and, for the next seven hours, living on Prince Edward Island.

They've got us staying at the fabulous Inns on Great George, and due to what i can only assume was either an availability issue or some serious misunderstanding of our importance, castmate/roommate Marlon and myself have been given a freaking house all to ourselves. Three nights in a townhouse with a full kitchen, dining room, master bedroom, washer/dryer, all modcons. We really don't want to leave, but sadly, we've run out of schools to visit on this bonny wee isle.

It hasn't stopped raining since we've been here (i guess the constant watering explains the lush green of all those rolling hills). The show continues to go well, despite the occasional whine of feedback on the P.A. Now and then i sense some negative vibes amongst the team, but that's probably inevitable given the amount of time we're spending around each other. Everyone else is out partying together right now, so obviously on the whole everyone is getting along. (I elected to stay in for the sake of getting to bed at a proper hour -- guess that plan didn't work out).

I really can't believe i'm not sick to death of this show yet. I'm used to doing a play three, maybe four times over the course of a week. We're at a dozen or so thus far, and i'm still enjoying every one. Travelling around, staying in hotels, seeing different places all the time, all of this should be great -- and it is, but it takes its toll in a way, and some nights home feels really far away. But no matter what else is going on, i know i have at least an hour or so of peace and focus while we're on that stage.

We've seen quite a bit of this island while driving around the past couple of days, but i wish there had been more time to get to know this place. One more place i'll be hoping to see again some day.

Tomorrow, bright and early, we get on a plane for Labrador - another place i've never been. We've been told to expect cold weather. I'll let you know.


Enjoying the gentle breeze outside the truck while on the bridge.



Well, i'll be damned -- it really is red!



Obligatory shot of hotel sign. (The lobby of this place always smells like pie. It's like visiting Nana, if Nana had a friendly, uniformed staff.)


The street we're on. Charlottetown has a few nice old buildings...


...like this one: Province House, Birthplace of Confederation. (It's a block away from me right now.)

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!

You Wake Up in Moncton. You Wake Up in Tracadie. You Wake Up in Saint John.

Well, here i am, back in Moncton again, having spent a long weekend in Saint John.

Our last two shows of last week were on Thursday: a French show in the morning in Tracadie, and then an English show in the afternoon in Miramichi. I remember virtually nothing about either of these shows, except that the Miramichi school (which wasn't actually in Miramichi but rather someplace called Sunny Corner) was the first one so far that hasn't had a proper theatre. It still had a stage, but it was conveniently located at one end of the school cafeteria. The steady hum of the pop machines and fluorescent lights were the first real challenge we've faced in the audio department; thank goodness for Soundman and our trusty collection of hands-free microphones.

The plan had been to stay Thursday night in Miramichi, but instead we made for Moncton as soon as the last show was done, and i hopped on a bus for home. I got into town just in time to catch the end of a gathering at the SJTC loft; they were screening some DVDs of Second Stage's greatest hits. I missed most of that, but still had a chance to see and talk with quite a few theatre friends. Any opportunity to catch up is a welcome one, these days.

The rest of the weekend was pretty low-key, but a good time. All indications are it'll be the last time i'll get home before the tour's done. Last night (Saturday night) there was still more reunioning with friends at Elwood's; there was a show going on that was quite well-attended and all the acts i saw were very good, but i didn't stay very late.

Finally, this afternoon, i drove back to Moncton as a part of a sort of mini-convoy. The Theatre Company had rented a big truck to transport some materials into town for an upcoming production, and so i accompanied the rental truck back to Moncton rather than taking the bus.

So now i'm sitting on a bed in the Rodd Parkhouse Inn in Moncton. It's an hour or so past when i should have been in bed, but i feel like i've been going nonstop for days, and forcing myself to wind down for sleep is sometimes a little tricky.

I'm looking forward to getting back to doing shows. The longer we go between performances, the more this whole thing starts feeling surreal again. Being on-stage, preparing, performing -- those things i understand, those things make sense. All the other stuff that's built around it: sitting here in a hotel room, so far from home, driving countless miles from one school to the next and one province to the next...this still seems strange to me. Not bad. Just strange.

Our last French show in NB is tomorrow morning right here in beautiful Moncton, and then in the afternoon we're doing the show for the original Money People, the bigwigs who are funding this whole affair, at their head office. To some degree, this performance is to demonstrate to them that they haven't been wasting their money on us. So, no pressure there.

Actually, i'm not worried. The feedback we're getting from all sides (Director, schools, and previous avatars of the Money Gods) has been really positive. We just need to go do what we do, and i'm sure they'll like us just fine.

And if not, well, the headset farm is right where i left it.

Sweet dreams, everyone.