AMPUTATION!

So, I had to do a special blog dedicated to a very special event that happened on Tuesday. I carried out my first (and probably last) amputation on the streets of Barkerville! We had been talking about it all summer, and decided it was high time to do it. Events unfolded as followed...

I planned the event the night before. As we would have no time for rehearsal, I carefully planned each beat, and put myself as the main instigator of the event so I could orchestrate it as it went along. I spent the night before making the bloody and assembling the needed tools, and got to the park in the morning ready to go. The victim of the operation was one Billy Houser (played by Stu Cawood), who is one of the historical figures in the town who actually had his leg amputated. So the scene started with myself, Mrs. Bowron (Kate) ad Madame Bendixon (Jacqueline) having a picnic in the clearing. Suddenly the stage coach pulled up with a moaning Billy HOuser in the back of it, suffering from a major bloody leg. We quickly carried into the tent, and upon close examination, I decided the only course of action was to amputate. I gave Mr. Houser a a good hit of ether, sent Madame Bendixon off for my bone saw, and proceeded to examine the wound. Kate was my effects master, and expertly executed a spurting artery as I was trying to examine the leg. Mr. Church (Tod) came in with an axe, which I nearly used on the wrong leg, but Madame Bendixon arrived with the bone saw just in time. I then proceeded to saw through his leg (which I had replaced with a stick), being spurted by more blood from Kate, and finally, proceeded to snap the leg off and put it into our picnic basket. Then all that was left was to cauterize the wound with a hot frying pan (which we put on a damp sponge so it steamed and produced a hissing sound- delicious...) and attach a new, fake leg, and Billy was good to go. It was a huge success, and I even made one of the bystanders, the 10-year-old daughter of the stagecoach drivers, faint dead away. She was horribly embarrassed, but I was secretly elated- my first fainting!

Needless to say, we're waiting to hear what the higher-ups have to say about it. They'll probably be all ornery about it, but everyone who watched thoroughly enjoyed it!

More soon!
Tyler

Back on the net!

Well, it's been another three and a half weeks in history! The park's busy season has finally hit, with huge groups of tourists on our tours, lots of the same questions over and over again, and the occasional exciting happening in the park. The diversity of folks we have visiting here is truly remarkable- some days we have fantastic groups of fun, funny, smart people who laugh in all the right places, are bright-eyed and enthusiastic, and make the job a real treat. And then there are the other types of tours, or "mouth-breathers" as we like to call them, in reference to their slack-jawed, dull-eyed, 4 beats behind you kind of look who you'd just love to body slam or french kiss, just to see if you'd get any reaction out of them. My guess is that you wouldn't.

Some highlights from in the park over the last couple of weeks:
-The Victorian Dinner! This was a seven-course meal that was auctioned off as a benefit for Barkerville, and was held in the Wendle house- one of the "domestic" displays in town (meaning it has a full-time person baking, cleaning, and answering questions in the "oldy-timey days"). Kate & I were the designated the hosts, and we proceeded to have a delightful dinner with two couples, with seven full courses and a different sort of alcohol with each course. Normally, I don't imbibe, but thought if ever there was a time to try, this was it! For those of you awaiting a spectacularly drunken finish, I'm sorry (and glad) to say that, aside from the world being about one degree slightly askew, we managed to maintain our sense of decorum. The dinner is supposed to last around 2 hours, but we ended up walking out after 4 hours of merriment, much to the chagrin of the kitchen staff, who were secretly begging and then threatening us to end it!

-MACBETH! After weeks of rehearsal, we hit tech week gloriously unprepared and under-rehearsed for the performance. After some nail-biting dress rehearsals, everybody put in the extra hours, and the show was a smashing success! Kate was delicious as a blind witch and Fleance (see photos), and I played a wounded soldier and Macbeth's psychotic right-hand-man Seyton, and got my fill of gore as I slit Banquo's throat, stabbed MacDuff's son to death, and then killed his mother by stabbing her in the head with my ball point pen (see photos). I got to do lots of fun effects and blood work, and perfected my recipe for a basically TOTALLY washable blood! The show was well received and well attended , although we were all EXHAUSTED after working in Barkerville all day and then doing a two hour show each night.

-The Burlesque Cabaret! Yet another successful cabaret in Wells, full of surprisingly family friendly content. Kate & I sang one of our favorite numbers "Do You Take It..." as a closing act, and have been receiving rather personal questions since... The BIGGEST hit of the night would have to be the theatre owner's two children, Kelk (5) and Lucy (3), who each sang a Disney song and were so cute you could practically hear the biological clocks of every woman in the audience kick into high gear...

-BC Day Games Day- more yelling, broad jumps, sack races, egg throwing, and greasy pole climbing by ridiculous tourists...

-Barkerville Kids Luncheon! A "kids' version" of the Victorian dinner- hosted by myself and Mrs. Hall (the school teacher) and served by the lovely Mrs. Bowron (Kate) for the ten or so kids that live on the streets of Barkerville all day- ages 7-12. What a blast- 3 forks, 5 courses (fish sticks, pizza, french fries & hot dogs, tomato soup, and chocolate cake), and a great show of appreciation to the kids for all of the "work" they do and atmosphere they contribute to the town.

-St. Saviour's Academy! An annual event held in Barkerville's gorgeous church, comprised of lots of local musicians and artists, this was a wonderful evening of music and poetry. I played my box bass as back up for Marty, the grizzled Quebecois stagecoach driver, whos ang and played his dobro, and Kate and I performed a duet of the song "Hide and Seek" by Imogene Heap. It was a beautiful evening, and the Reverend was very grateful to all of us who performed.

-The FINAL Cabaret! Marking our last performance of the summer at the Sunset Theatre, the final performance was yet another sold-out show. Kate and I were involved in multiple acts- I performed my solo "...Baby One More Time," played box bass again with Marty (two songs this time, one of which not even I knew we were playing! Thank God his Dobro was tuned to G- at least I didn't have to figure out the key!), and played a talk show host who goes completely insane. Kate sang "The Sounds of Tourists"- a duet based on the "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, and a parody of all of the questions we get asked 100 times a day by tourists- "Do you live here?" "Are you really cooking?" "Is that a real baby?". A HUGE hit, to say the least. The night finished with a great chorus number by all of us who had performed in all of the cabarets- a wonderful finish to a successful string of performances.

-Pig Ears! Last Monday 5 of the kids and I holed up in one of the cabins and made some of my favorite cookies- "Pig Ears" or "Klyners"- a deep fried cookie spiced with cardamom. We had a blast, made about 180 cookies, and then dispersed them throughout the town...

-Street Dinner! As Stu and Chris leave next weekend, and Lynnette will be out of town starting tomorrow, we thought we had better get together for one final "Huzzah" all together. So, we ordered about 15 dishes and proceeded to eat, drink, and be merry all together. We count ourselves so lucky that we have such an awesome group of fellow actors for a job that can be equally fun, frustrating, challenging, infuriating, exciting, and mind-numbingly repetitive. We've had a blast together, and as the season slowly starts wrapping up, folks are starting to leave town, and it's so sad to see everyone go!

-Autumn Moon Festival! I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, as this event actually happens tonight, but thought it was worth including. This is an annual event attended by hundreds of peopl, involving a parade of lanterns through the street, a re-creation of the Chinese myth of Chang-O, and a fireworks display to end the night. It's been raining off and on all day, but it appears that we'll have clear skies for the show tonight!

That's all for now- hope you all are well, and now a few words from Kate!

Hi Everyone!

Kate here, with my first contribution to the Blog! I have climbed out from under the reams of reviews, interviews and annual general reports - all collected to write a research paper for Dell'Arte - and on the night of August 19th I quite delightfully hit "send" on my keyboard and have felt considerably lighter since.

Yes, indeed - Tyler is right. Those of us working in the park have hit the 'mid-August blues,' meaning after a few months of doing the same tour twice a day and answering the same questions over and over and over and over...like "Are you guys volunteers?" or "I hope you know the miner who did that to you" (referring to my pregnant belly - fake, of course - don't worry), we are indeed tired souls. But this too shall pass...September is coming, which should be delightfully quiet...the time of year when we play croquet down the main street of Barkerville, as well as Hide and Seek...maybe even Sardines.

Well Tyler has covered the major events. Oh - except that we went to see the latest Die Hard the other night - it was AWESOME. I could tell you more, but what is big news in our world is often just the drama of the day and would not mean much to you...Wells is a very small town in which everything is everyone's business and nothing is safe from being the next juicy fodder for gossip and examination. It is quite something else. Sometimes exhausting and other times quite simply, deliciously and remarkably human.

I do love it here, though. This place both creates and attracts very colourful people - of all kinds. And it is stunningly beautiful - I could live here just for the skies.

Alright, time to sign off. Lots of love to you out there who are reading this account of our adventures...
--Kate