snowshow

just finished the second show of the day and the fifth in 48 hours. i am tired, but better than i feared - voice is still intact. don't have another show until wednesday night in ohio. will spend all day tomorrow on the bus. may have trouble because it started snowing when we went to the theatre at 5:00, and is still going strong. roads may be bad.

sheboygan

did two shows today in a beautiful theatre. lady told me i made her cry... that's a good thing - have two tomorrow in wisconsin. things are going well for me - feeling good.

first morning bus ride

here is the first morning - getting settled on the bus.

grand opening

tonight was opening night in galesburg, il. it was a great show. gotta get up early. have two shows tomorrow in michigan and two on sunday in wisconsin. galesburg is the birthplace of a favorite poet of mine - carl sandburg.

thanks...

had dinner at the radisson hotel restaurant down the street. ohboy. spent the rest of the day resting and packing up. bus leaves at 5:30 am.

thanks for following along.

showtime

this was our last day of rehearsal. we did a final dress-rehearsal this afternoon, had an hour break, and did a "preview" show for a small audience tonight. both went very well. it's a very good show. i am glad to be done with rehearsals - ready to get on the road. i feel pretty good - just tired.

welllllllll... did a run through this afternoon and fixed some problems - went well.
did a full dress rehearsal tonight - went well... mostly. first serious reminder of how tough this show is - and it's much more active than last year... wore me out. gotta get up and do it again tomorrow - the last day of rehearsal - better get it right... eek.

longhardtech

first day at the "preview" site. worked through the show, doing all the scene changes until they worked okay. finished at 9:30 - just got through the show once. tomorrow will be harder.

otd

this is a short clip from rehearsal... just goofing around, i held the camera while they did the scene around me...

brrrrrrrr

moving

this is a view of the cityscape on our way home to the hotel
justin the driver









the back of my head, riding in the van... shot by little olivia





we are done with rehearsals at the warehouse. i have two days off, because they couldn't get in the preview venue till monday. the show is going very well. we haven't worked with most of the props or any of the sets or costumes, so next week will be hectic moving our work at the warehouse to the stage.

moving along

nothing particular to report... working hard.
to the point now where we mostly "run-through" the show, stopping only to fix problems. i am "off-book", which means i know my lines... didn't have to ask for a line today. that's good. the show is good. different from last year. would be interesting to see if someone who saw it last year thinks it is different. words and songs are the same, but most of the blocking is different.

it was 17 degrees here last night...

saturday

this is me sitting next to noah (boy scrooge) during a break, with justin (fred) looking on.

today went very well. finished blocking act two - the last scene and the "finale"... ran through lots of stuff today... tiresome, but glad it's going well.
updated the schedule on my website - nothing special, just specifics - not doing any of the "maybe" shows and lost one that was on there.

day off tomorrow... ohboy.

workworkwork

hey - busy day. most of act two is blocked. we ran through it alot. i think it is going well. the new director is changing almost everything from last year. that's a good thing. it's going to be a good show. i am sorry about the lack of pictures. the two people who took most of the pictures last year are not here this year.

act 1...

what a day... finished blocking act one - marley's ghost and ghost of christmas past - then had lunch hour - then worked another scene a while - then ran through act one without stopping. we will do the same with act two in the next two days. my body and voice are worn out.


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my turn

started blocking the show - went real well. the new director is doing things quite differently from last year - i'm happy to be busy... and will be very busy from now on because i am in every scene except one.
weather was cold and rainy and snowy all day - might snow overnight. it's cold out there.

short rehearsal video

this is a video bit of rehearsing the "tavern" number...

monday

this is an area where we can sit while others are rehearsing. we have couches and chairs, a refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker...
beyond is the rehearsal area and alot of the stored show stuff.

a rehearsal of one of the song/dance numbers.





had a costume fitting this morning - yes, i will wear all the same costumes as last year... need some new long johns - i wore them out crawling around the floors. sang all the songs in the show today in their correct order, then danced all the dance numbers.

chipping away

we have sung all the songs and danced all the dances. we haven't blocked the scenes yet - haven't done any "spoken" scenes yet. worked the last two of my songs today and they worked on dances. nobody is taking pictures of anything yet. my camera is having trouble with the basement lighting - not getting good results, but will keep trying. i have tomorrow off - will relax and work on lines. monday we will sing through all the songs and review the dances, and tuesday we start blocking the show.

songanddance

finally did some real work today. sang most of my songs (do the rest tomorrow), and blocked the fezziwig dance, which i have a bit in. cold cold here - snowed off and on all day. tonight it is drizzling rain. supposed to be highs of 30 for a few days.

it's beginning to look alot like...

this is what i woke up to this morning... you can click them to get bigger pics and see the little white fluffy details. life in the big (northern) city.

there is no news from yesterday because i didn't go in. they let me off after i spent the first day mostly watching. there are some song or dance numbers that i don't participate in, but am on stage for. they can rehearse those without me, and there is a "prologue" in the show that i am not in. we don't start with "marley was as dead as a door-nail". they have been working on that scene. once we start my scenes, it will be the other way around, 'cause once i get on stage, i pretty much stay there.

day 1

first rehearsal went well. sang songs then did dance numbers. I wasn't actually in most of the day's stuff, but have to stay for the ride back to hotel. rehearsing in the same building as last year, in a huge room in the basement of a warehouse.

hotel is good. continental breakfast had waffles, cheerios, donuts... all high on my list... and there was some stuff that's good for you too.

room has a refrigerator in it, and i asked for a microwave and they brought me one - very good news. walked to a shopping center (2 miles) before rehearsal for groceries, so i'm doing good.

minneapolis

i'm already behind on blogging... i was so tired last night. flights went well. the first plane was tiny, itty-bitty, it was small. i don't go in till this afternoon. gonna go see the continental breakfast.
more tonight...

jets

time for my second year as scrooge in the tour of "christmas carol".

it is monday night. i get up early and go to the airport. first flight to denver, then to minneapolis. i will be there around 4 pm. rehearsals start wednesday afternoon. tour opens on the 28th in illinois. there is a schedule and some cool pics of some of the venues we will be playing on my website.

some of my friends from here are talking about coming to see the show in mississippi in december. that would be great... nice to have people in the audience... but geez, what a long drive.

see you tomorrow at the hotel...

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