Week #5: Birthdays and Wildlife...

Well, the past 10 days started slow, and ended in a blaze of activity! Sunday through Wednesday were all pretty much "Business as Usual" with tours, swordfighting, informal gatherings, and the like. Then things started to get interesting...

THURSDAY
I had the day off, so spent most of the day working on BABES IN TOYLAND, which is progressing very nicely. Then I headed into Quesnel for some grocery shopping with Stu and Chris. Wow food here is expensive! One of the downfalls of living in an isolated environment, to be sure! On our way home at about 9:30pm, we saw a bunch of deer, a couple of black bears, (or rather the rear ends of a couple of black bears, as they bolted as soon as they heard the car), and then, about 1/2 a KM outside of Wells, came around the corner and saw two gorgeous GRIZZLY BEARS! They were spectacular! HUGE, golden, lounging on the hillside outside of Wells, without a care in the world- spectacular. We passed them a couple of times, and then headed into town. I was up late in preparation for the next day...

FRIDAY
My Birthday! Earlier in the summer, I had the brainstorm of making a cake entirely of MEAT. So, that's what I did. I put it together like your typical layer cake- recipe as follows:
TYLER'S MEAT CAKE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS

Ground beef mixture, acting as a "mortar" between the layers- including

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 3 large cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2T Oil
• 1t dried oregano
• 1/2t dried thyme
• 2t ground cumin
• 1/2t black pepper
• 1t salt
  

(Mix all ingredients of the Ground beef mixture in a large bowl, making sure to evenly distribute the spices)

Other ingredients:
2 large round steaks, tenderized
1/4 lb of Sliced ham
1/4lb of sliced pepperoni
1/4lb of sliced Canadian bacon
1/2 bottle of cheap beer


-In a cast iron skillet, lay in the following layers, making sure to cover the entire pan:

1. First (bottom) layer: 2 lbs Round Steak. Be sure to tenderize thoroughly with a hammer, your fists, or a bone from your last kill.
2. Second Layer: a thin layer of the ground beef mixture
3. Third Layer: 1/4 pound of sliced ham
4. Fourth Layer: Ground Beef Mixture
5. Fifth Layer: 1/4 pound of sliced pepperoni
6. Sixth Layer: the remainder of the ground beef mixture
7. Seventh (top) Layer: 1/4 pound of Back Bacon/Canadian Bacon

-Once all the layers are packed into the skillet, slowly pour in half a bottle of cheap beer.
-Cover, and place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees.
-Cook for 1 1/2 hours.
-Let sit for 5 minutes, then slice and serve as pie
-(There will be a lot of liquid in the pan, making for a delicious gravy)
I was prepared for an unmitigated disaster, but let me tell you that it was DELICIOUS! Flavorful, tender enough to be cut with a fork, and filling, it's definitely a permanent addition to my recipe books! I enjoyed it for lunch along with Stu and Chris, and made deliveries of pieces to various other folks in town. A birthday tradition from now on, to be sure. Other than this culinary masterpiece, my birthday was pretty quiet, and I spent the evening cleaning and getting the apartment ready for Kate's arrival... Big thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes from around the world!

SATURDAY
On my bike ride into town, I was fiddling with something on my handlebars, and looked up to stare right in the faces of a couple of Grizzly cubs on the other side of the road! Too cool. I continued to ride, which spooked them, and they took off into the swamp. I think this was the healthiest reaction for both of us. After that excitement, it was it was the official GRAND OPENING of Barkerville, which included rides on the beautiful new stage coach, the launch of the new waterwheel, politicians wandering the town, and the opening of two new shows at the Theatre Royal. The theatre had a huge shindig dinner, but the pricetag ($50) was a bit steep for the other town performers, so we had a "We Wish We could Afford to Support the Theatre" party right next door to their big party, complete with formalwear, delicious foods, and party games! We caroused into the late evening, and then I returned home to do final preparations for Kate's arrival.

SUNDAY
No bears on the road this morning, but some definite animal excitement in town! One of the horse teams for the freight wagon, Fred & Sadie, were particularly skittish, first being spooked by a man with a couple of loud plastic cases so they reared back and had to be gotten under control by Marty, their driver. Next, they had to change course on a street in town, and nearly collided with our changing cabin, being stopped only when being expertly handled through a junkyard of old mining equipment and plowed into a row of trees on the banks of Williams Creek. Finally, the presence of a piece of canvas in the road caused them to change course and freak out a third time, this time in Chinatown and headed towards the center of town. Marty saved the day one more time by somehow guiding them between to cabins and up onto a hillside, again, narrowly missing two historic buildings! Needless to say, Fred & Sadie were retired to the corral for the rest of the day, and Marty was supplied with a bottle of whiskey.
The rest of Sunday was relatively uneventful, until I flew to Vancouver to surprise Kate on her birthday! I had received an email from Jessica, Kate's sister, saying what a great surprise it would be for Kate for her to see me a few days early! Her parents very generously bought me a ticket on their air miles, I coordinated days off with 3 different people and a ride to Prince George (2 1/2 hours away) to the airport. I was originally supposed to catch the 8:25 flight down, getting me to Kate's place at about 10:30pm, but got to the airport in Prince George early enough to catch the 5:15 flight, called to let them know I could get in earlier, was picked up at the airport by Brian, a friend of the family, and we drove immediately to the Japanese restaurant where they were having a birthday dinner for Kate, and gave Kate an excellent birthday surprise- the kind where it's so out of the blue that she couldn't quite figure out what was going on for the first few seconds. Once the excitement had died down, we (Me, Kate, Tom & Trudy [her parents] her sister, Jessica, Jessica's boyfriend Daryl, and my driver, Brian) enjoyed a spectacular meal of sushi, sashimi, tempura, and other Japanese delights. We headed back to Kate's parents' house, opened some birthday presents (including a smal herb garden, DVDs, and a straight razor...) Then it was off to bed, all of us very happy with such a successful birthday surprise!

MONDAY
A day spent running errands in Vancouver. Kate had a Doctor's appointment, we hit some antique stores looking for a pair of historical eyeglass frames for Kate, met with her friend Alexander for lunch (I had french fries and fried calamari- the fries were OK, the calamari tasted like old tires dipped in batter), paid a visit to Kate's grandma, and for dinner one of Braidwood's pieces de resistance: roast beef & Yorkshire pudding- incredible! After dinner we relaxed, I boxed some digital guy on their Nintendo Wii, and then headed off to sleep so we could be well rested for our day of travel back up the next day

TUESDAY
Kate's birthday! After Kate's car was finished at the shop, we drove back up to Barkerville (1 hour by plane, 9 hours by car) stopping in Cache Creek to pick up Chris, who had been visiting his girlfriend. We arrived in Wells around 8:30, and spent the rest of our night unpacking and moving Kate in.

WEDNESDAY
We biked into Barkerville for a day of tours and rehearsal for Kate. She met the whole crew, met up with friends from when she worked here 2 years ago, and started drilling the tour. On our way home, we saw the two grizzlies lounging around in the swamp just outside of town- sheesh they're big animals! Then it was off to a meeting about the weekly cabarets that will begin happening mid-July, then to the Wells elementary school (15 students total) for their end-of-the-year concert and awards night, then back home for a late dinner. The most exciting news of the day was that Kate will be able to return to Vancouver on Saturday to attend two of her very good friends' wedding, which she thought she was going to be unable to attend.

THURSDAY
So that bring us up to today! Kate headed into Barkerville for continuing rehearsals, and I'm enjoying a relaxing day off- shaved for the first time with my straight razor (nerve-wracking but fun), did some email catch-up, and have an afternoon of writing ahead of me... It's great to have Kate up here, although we of course miss all of our friends to the south. Have a great Mad River Festival opening, Blue Lake crew, and break lots of legs!

Until next time...
Tyler & Kate

Week #4: In full swing!

Hey all!

This past week flew by with lots of tours and rehearsal, but we are now spending all day in costume, wandering the streets. I'm still amazed that this is actually a job- aside from having to memorize lines and be nice to people, it's basically days of wandering around, chatting with people, and enjoying the town! People so far have been great- from the huge groups of schoolkids racing around town on a "historical scavenger hunt" to the pair of Dutch tourists who probably weighed 150 pounds total but ate their weight in food at the Chinese restaurant, to the totally off-the-wall woman from California who tried to get me to marry her so she could finance her gold claim and grabbed my butt while we took a group photo- the quality of the days are definitely dependent on the patrons in town that day! Weather has been all over the place, some days of 90 degree heat, pouring rain, and huge winds. Wildlife has been out and about as well- just this morning there were a pair of grizzlies wandering through town (I've yet to see one while biking, which is at once disappointing and nice), moose, deer, Barkerville's resident rodents, the Columbian ground squirrel, or colloquially, whistlepigs, the gorgeous horses that operate the stage coach, mosquitos and no-see-ums, from which I have already received lots of itchy bites, and the most exciting, a local dog that wandered by with a mouthful of porcupine quills whcih we ended up having to wrestle to the ground and have 3 of us hold it down in the middle of the street in the pouring rain while a fourth pulled over 50 quills from its mouth.
Time not working has been spent writing an adaptation of BABES IN TOYLAND, working on Dell'Arte projects, swordfighting (which I am slowly becoming better at, which means that I am now eligible for receiving some sharper blows, but am not hesitant in doling them out, either!), hanging out with folks here in town, and working on a few side projects... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8_i731VD-8).

I had a couple of requests for photos of us in costume, so they're included! More shots of us in action to come...
Until next week!
Tyler

Week #3: Our final week of rehearsal

As life here isn't exactly chock full of excitement, I have a feeling that this blog is probably going to be updated weekly, barring amazing and exciting events...

Sunday, May 27
We begin rehearsals with our newest cast member, Chris, who is playing Mr. Thompson, the newspaper editor, and Dr. Watt's arch nemesis in the Cariboo elections (which historically, is totally inaccurate, as they were never in Barkerville at the same time, but hey, drama always wins over fact, as the media is always so quick to remind us!). Rehearsals, coupled with 2 tours a day leaves s pretty wiped at the end of each afternoon, bu as our time with our director, Matthew, is limited, we plunge boldly on. Sunday night is a relaxing one, spent reading BABES IN TOYLAND, which I'm adapting for a holiday show this fall.

Monday, May 28
More rehearsals and tours- we have more school groups, which are usually fun, provided we have them in the morning! If they're scheduled for the afternoon, it's like giving the tour to a bunch of zombies, as they're all crashing from the sugar highs of lunch and all the candy they've bought in the morning... Otherwise, they're usually pretty good, the only issues arising being traffic control (which we are very quickly figuring out, and if Prancer, the town cat, goes waltzing through- we might as well institute a "feline shut-down" rule. Monday evening is another sword fighting session, with bigger welts and bruises as we all become a bit less hesitant with the swords- nevertheless, it's another great time, although
I can barely walk afterwards because my legs are so sore from 2 hours of lunging! Afterwards, I get together with Jacqueline and Lynnette to run lines, and then it's off for a hard night's sleep!

Tuesday, May 29
Tours and rehearsal, Tours and rehearsal. The big excitement is in the evening. Around 6pm I'm sitting at my computer, working on the program for the Dell'Arte MFA Thesis Projects, and the dogs across the street are barking incessantly. Now this is not an uncommon occurrence, as they are quite psychopathic, so I continue to work. Half an hour later, my neighbor asks me if I saw the GRIZZLY BEAR THAT WAS WANDERING DOWN OUR STREET! I say I didn't. I now pay a bit more attention to the dogs.

Wednesday, May 30
The weather gets consistently hotter each day, and I foresee a summer spent mostly in my vest in shirtsleeves, as just an hour in the heat gets me sweating, and we're expected to be on the street eight hours a day! I feel a bit sorry for the girls, whose costumes aren't quite as layered as ours, and whose apperance is far more dictated by the Victorian standards of dress. Naturally, we gentlemen encourage them to walk around in there bloomers and corsets, but I'm afraid it would cause just too much of a scandal... We enjoy one tour with a school group and one with a group of older folks, and continue to rehearse. Jacqueline and I enjoy a nice bike ride home through the increasingly blooming scenery, and I spend the night putting the finishing touches on the Thesis Program.

Thursday, May 31
It's hot on the street by 9am, and we bake during our rehearsals and tours. In the evening, park administration holds a "get-to-know-you" party at the Long Duck Tong, Barkerville's Chinese restaurant. The food is delicious, and FREE, making it doubly good, and the meeting that follows is pretty standard- everyone stands and introduces themselves, the bigwigs put forth some goals for the summer, talk about bear control, and read off a nice letter from a man whose relatives were very well known in town, singing the praises of the actors and interpreters in town- my boss, Faith, is very pleased, well, as pleased as she can get (she's a bit of a lioness- when she's happy, she's happy, and when she's not, she is NOT.) I bike home, check in with Kate after the opening night of her thesis project, and hit the hay.

Friday, June 1
It's our final day with our director, so after the morning tour, which is a GIGANTIC crowd of about 20 adults and 70 schoolkids, and which we do three-handed, as Lynnette is off for the day, we then rehearse hard in the HOT sun. Our afternoon tour is a skunk, (aka no one shows), so we do a bit more rehearsing, and then go and have ice cream and beer at the newly opened HOUSE HOTEL in town, celebrating our last day of rehearsal! Our director, Matthew, heads out that night, and we are officially on our own! After a great raft ride through the swamp outside of Wells, with Todd and Sasha & Lena (two of the workers at the St. George Hotel, I spend a quiet night at home, talking with the family, catching up on some emails and watching SAW III.

Saturday, June 2
As I have the day off, I wake up late, putz around the apartment for a bit, and then catch a ride into Quesnel with Jacqueline for some errand-running and grocery shopping. Who knows what the evening will hold? It's very strange that three weeks ago I was walking into this place for the first time, as it already feels like home! Great folks, spectacular scenery, and great fun. I'm only sad that more of you can't make it up here to experience it first hand, and that it's so remote that I can't be with folks for the important events that are happening elsewhere!

Special HAPPY GRADUATION to my brother Soren, and a big CONGRATULATIONS to the M2s, for a succesful opening of your thesis projects!

Until next time-
Tyler