Follow thou the wars

The thing that makes Shakespeare by the Sea unique and awesome, is also the most challenging thing about it.  Tour.  We travel to 24 different parks during our 10 week run.  And when I say "we" I mean the cast.  We are the crew.  We unload the truck, put up the set, perform a show, strike the set, put it back in the truck, and then go drinking.  This is legitimately the most authentic traveling Shakespeare troupe experience you could possibly find in this day and age.  We are the players that come to Hamlet's court.  We are the Edema Ruh of "The Name of the Wind."  And those of us that have done this for multiple years take enormous pride in the fact that we do something that nobody in their right minds would sign up for if they really knew what was in store. 
I see it slowly dawning on all of the first year SBTS'ers.  It's still early, so they are still happy and full of hope.  But tour will change them.  It must.  It does.  And those that are doing both shows?  I worry for their sanity.  Doing only one show this year is sort of like a vacation.  Sure, I still have to travel all over the southland, and build sets, load/unload trucks and whatnot, but no more that three times a week.  Child's play.  I almost feel guilty.  Almost.  But I've served my time.  This is my tenth season.  Only Andy has more seasons under his belt than me, and he's a hall of famer.  Nobody will ever touch his streak of doing both shows for 10 straight years.  Nobody should even try. I mean, just look at the guy.  He's only 32 years old. That's what tour does to you.  Although he's still so damn handsome.  My favorite Andy role will always be when he played Mustardseed for me in Midsummer.  The angriest fairy in the fairy kingdom. 

By the way, that's my first picture that I've ever inserted into my blog.  It took me like 20 minutes to figure out how to do it, so it also may be my last.  But if it is, I went out with the greatest.  He's everybody's favorite person.  Deservedly so.

So far on tour (with Othello) we have hit Hermosa Beach and Mission Viejo.  And what I love about tour can be summed up in the differences of these venues.  We have been going to Hermosa for probably 17 of the 19 years of SBTS.  It is among my favorite tour spots.  It used to be solidly number one, but there is a poplar tree that grew really large prohibiting us from using the amphitheater (although we now use it as our dressing room) and going around to the other side of the wall.  What I loved about the park before last year was the intimacy it afforded us as actors.  We play in parks for literally thousands of people on certain nights.  But there was something really special about packing a natural amphitheater with nearly a thousand people who were literally less than fifty feet away.  It encouraged us to do the play in a much more subtle and personal way.  However, I still love the park and really love the audience there.  This was our first stop, and therefore our first performance beginning at 7 PM instead of 8.   Looking out for all of those soliloquies in the first half of the show was an entirely different experience than it had been.  I could see everybody.  I could look into the eyes of the audience and invite them personally to come on this journey with me.  This is what's so great about what we do.  The show was different.  Had to be different.  I was there with a thousand accomplices and I could see their eyes.  Most of them were more than ready to be complicit in Iago's crimes.  It was great.

Saturday we were at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, which is way down in Orange County.  And if Chris Nelson were to drive you there, you would also inexplicably drive through most of Long Beach.  (But I did hit a bunch of Poke Stops along the way).  The college is doing a festival of plays out in their quad.  They have built a stage and have lighting and seats.  It was really cool.  Unfortunately, our entire Othello set didn't fit on the stage that they had set up.  So we had to cut the entire top level of our set and improvise roughly half the blocking of the show.  But, again, what is challenging is also special.  It may have been the best show we've done to date.  And we had Tara go on as Emelia because Olivia was out of town. She did great! And she couldn't do most of the blocking that she had prepared to do.  Poor kid.   A show cannot get stagnant if it continually moves.  We all found new stuff.  It was great.  And having a full array of lights, and even blackouts at the end of the acts was a luxury we weren't really prepared for.  This is tour.  This is the first week of tour.  We are all happy and sane.  We are all finding new things and going deeper into the play.  The honeymoon is in full bloom.  And it's great.  I'll let you know who cracks first. 

Come see us this week at two more Orange County locations:  Huntington Beach (Central Park), a new venue, on Thursday at 7 PM.  And one of our old favorites:  Rush Park in Rossmoor on Saturday at 7 PM.  There are also some Cymbeline performances happening this week.  I guess on Weds, Fri, and Sunday.  You can check those out too, I guess.  (I think I may get one of the Cymbeline folks to crack first with this sort of talk). 

And as always, thanks for all the kind words.  I have received emails and FB messages.  As well as the incredible response after the show.  It's humbling and empowering to know that what we are doing is touching so many of you.  And thanks for all the food.  The way to an actor's heart continues to be his stomach. 

See you soon.