Our first week of tours!

Hello Hello!

Monday
We all show up at 9:30am, get into costume, and head out for our first day of tours! The groups are small, but all runs smoothly, and it's great fun! The tour is written and constructed in a way that makes it seems as though the actors are just folks in town who happen to be walking by and get swept into the tour- the audience seems to dig it, and it allows for some spontaneous play. The whole tour takes about an hour, and it goes by quickly for all involved. We give two tours per day, usually switching roles within the tour to mix things up. After each of the tours, we rehearse additional scenes that we will eventually launch into as if they are part of our daily lives here in town, and finales, which will close out each day- three different ones- one that is a women's suffrage rally (in which I, as the pompous misogynistic doctor, play a major idiot), a town debate about the pros and cons of becoming confederated into the rest of Canada (again, I make a huge fool of myself), and a "rehearsal" of a production of PIRATES OF PENZANCE, as presented by the Cariboo Amateur Dramatic Association (our favorite finale, as we get to play a bunch of horrendous actors, and I get to wear my eyepatch as a moustache [see photo, and also note my facial hair growth]). There's a "Day before your birthday party" at one of the local houses, with all of the usual drunken antics expected of a bunch of actors...

Tuesday
An early morning hailstorm starts the day (see photo), but the weather quickly clears, and we have another great day of tours & rehearsal. As the pompous windbag doctor, I am quickly becoming the butt of all jokes, which is fine by me, as it means that I can get away with saying truly outrageous and preposterous things, and the audience just eats it up- it definitely bodes well for the months ahead! Tuesday night is the official Birthday party for our director, Matthew. We eat, drink, be merry, and play a terrific game of Celebrity- a charades-type game where you have to gues the names of famous people- I am occasionally stumped by references to Canadian Politicians, but otherwise hold my own against a bunch of rowdy Canadians.
Wednesday
More touring and rehearsing- we have our first school group- a group of twenty-five 10th grades (or as they call them here in Canada, grade-tens). They're very receptive and well-behaved, and we have a great time together. Rehearsals are going well- the long speeches full of obscure Victorian words are a bit tricky to memorize, but I have been given full license to huff and puff, stutter, and bellow to my heart's content. The evening is one spent working on various Dell'Arte projects and correspondence, as well as watching episodes of FIREFLY- a western/sci-fi adventure series that aired for about 4 months on FOX- a fun little show.
Thursday
In the morning I get my official Dr. Watt costume (photo coming soon), and we have another great day of tours. We start the morning with a group of seniors who are all really into the information and presentation, and then halfway through the tour we are joined by a group of 5th graders, which makes for a very interesting group. It's a pretty ace group of actors I'm working with, and aside from a couple of bellows by yours truly to keep the kids quiet, we handle the odd mix with aplomb, and everyone (ourselves included) enjoys themselves. In the evening I meet with the swordfighting group led by Todd, one of the local actors, and have an absolute blast! We get about a 20 minute primer, and then suit up and have at each other for a good hour- 5 of us in the middle of the street, going after each other with bamboo training swords- awesome! We part ways, exhilarated and exhausted, with more than a few welts to show off... The rest of the night is spent at home, working on odds and ends, and finishing up the FIREFLY series. We have the day off Friday, so I'm up way past my normal bedtime...
Friday
A day off! I sleep in a bit, and then head into Quesnel with Jacqueline & Matthew for some errand running. On our way in we see an adolescent Black Bear eating along the side of the road, and about a minute later see a Grizzly Cub- bright gold and gorgeous! Too cool. We get into town, hit thrift stores (I find some excellent spice jars and some AWESOME Medical trays- perfect for some Grand Guignol shows down the road) and grocery shop, and
head back into Wells. Weather all this week has been spectacular- bright, warm, and sunny days- the snow won't last long! Tomorrow we're back to touring...

Hope all are well- feel free to post comments or email me with questions!

From the middle of nowhere-
Tyler