Stop # 1 – 3/22/10 – 3/24/10: Traverse City, MI, A Random Act of Kindness. The first destination in our week of Michigan madness was Traverse City. The largest city in Northern Michigan, Traverse City is a major commercial nexus for a seven county area. The city is named after the Grand Traverse Bay, where it sits at the head: the Bay earned its name from 18th century French voyagers who made “la grande traverse” or “the long crossing” across the mouth of the Bay. Producing 360 million pounds of cherries per year, Traverse City is renowned as “the cherry capital of the world”, although it also produces grapes and wine. Each year, the city hosts the Traverse City Film Festival, an event spearheaded by director Michael Moore.
Upon our arrival to Traverse City, Jessica and I ventured to a local nail shop, in search of relaxing pedicures after two painful days of uncomfortable van travel. After a precarious mile-long walk in the bitterly cold Michigan weather, on a road without any sidewalks, we arrived at our nail spa. Our pallid complexions and dark undereye circles, the results of the touring lifestyle, immediately prompted the shop manager to ask us if we were sick, which instantly elicited giggles from the two of us. Who knew that spending hour after hour in the theatre doing what we love, away from the sunlight and fresh air, would make us look like we were on the verge of death? The manager felt so bad for us, with our sickly appearances, that he offered us a discount on our pedicures. He also noticed that we had not driven to the shop, and offered us a ride back to our hotel. How refreshing it was to encounter this genuine random act of kindness in a city with which we had never been acquainted! We graciously accepted his kind offer and happily returned to our hotel, fresh pedicures and all.
Our performance venue was located a little bit outside of Traverse City, at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Nestled in the woods of Northern Michigan, this educational institution houses four performance spaces and has played host to hundreds of top caliber performers. Past alumni of Interlochen include singers Josh Groban and Norah Jones; actors Anthony Rapp, Felicity Huffman and Tom Hulce; and dancer/choreographer Mia Michaels. While our theatre, the Corson Auditorium, normally seats 952 people, our one evening performance at Interlochen was poorly attended, with a little over 100 people in attendance. Throughout the tour, it has seemed that most of our weekday evening performances (Mon.-Thurs.) have not been well attended: our 7pm curtain time is too late for our target audience member and too close to children’s early bedtimes. However, despite our small audience, we had a good performance at Interlochen and enjoyed one of the most delicious catered dinners, courtesy of our gracious Interlochen hosts.
Stop # 2 – 3/25/10 – 3/26/10: East Lansing, MI, Home Again. We drove immediately after our evening Interlochen performance to our next Michigan city – East Lansing, a stop we had visited a few weeks earlier. It was nice to return to our venue-provided apartments with separate bedrooms, our substitute homes away from home. We performed four successful shows over two days at the 600-seat Pasant Theatre at the Wharton Center. As before, performing on the ¾ thrust stage at the Pasant was exhausting as we constantly had to modify our blocking to accommodate the odd sightlines created by this strange stage configuration. And, because we only had a handful of hours of sleep upon our arrival to East Lansing, our first two performances there were particularly grueling. Fortunately, however, we made it through in our typical road warrior fashion and emerged from the experience stronger, yet more fatigued, individuals. Again, thank goodness for our comfy apartment-like housing, which provided us with some quality hours of sleep!
Stop # 3 – 3/27/10: Clinton Township, MI, Mom. From Traverse City, we journeyed toward our last Michigan stop, Clinton Township, and our final shows with our current technical director. Part of the Metropolitan Detroit area, with a population of 46,000, Clinton Township is the 8th largest community in Michigan. It is named for Dewitt Clinton, the popular New York governor from 1817-1823 who was largely responsible for the building of the Erie Canal, which enabled many settlers to come to Michigan. All in all, Clinton Township is like many metropolitan suburbs – a collection of indistinct strip malls, shopping malls, hotels and chain restaurants.
We performed one show at the Macomb Center, a beautiful 1271-seat theatre that opened in 1982 on the campus of Macomb Community College. The Macomb Center has hosted many famous headliners, such as Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Johnny Mathis, Ben Vereen and Harry Blackstone. Decorating the backstage ceilings of the Macomb stage are many collages commemorating past productions. Check out this Hairspray tribute that dangled from the ceiling:
The absolute highlight of our Macomb visit, however, was “Mom” – a colorful and lively septuagenarian (or possibly octogenarian) volunteer who has been taking care of visitors at the Macomb Center for the past 24 years. Marlene Visconti or “Mom”, as she prefers to be called, provides hospitality and delicious home-cooked meals to all of the Macomb visitors. She is always ready to entertain you with a dirty joke or flip you the bird, and she lovingly refers to the local crew as her “little bastards”. “Mom” supplied us with plenty of laughs and an ample dose of Midwestern hospitality.
Our Macomb show was a strong performance, with a full orchestra section with 700 to 800 in attendance. Following the show, we packed up our set and bid farewell to our technical director/sound operator, R.J., who had to leave the tour to return home for the birth of his first baby. Thank you for all of your help R.J. – you will be missed!
Upon our return to the hotel, a few of us visited a psychic fair that was being hosted in one of the hotel conference rooms by local psychic, Coyote Sue. While waiting outside of the fair, we met a few kids who had just attended our show. They could not contain their excitement once they realized who we were. Who knew that we would be the highlight of the psychic fair in Clinton Township? With our identities revealed, we slipped away from the fair without any psychic consultations and retired to the comfort of our rooms.
Well, blog readers…the end is in sight! Two more days of driving to our final destination in Memphis, TN, and two final shows with a new technical director/sound operator. What a long and rewarding journey this has been!
Next stop – Louisville, KY. Until the next adventure…
Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine
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