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From the land of the trees, we ventured to the land of the Fighting Irish – South Bend, Indiana. The fourth largest city in Indiana, South Bend is also the economic and social hub of the region known as ‘Michiana’, an area that includes northern Indiana and southwest Michigan. Located on the St. Joseph River, at the southernmost bend of the river, the area was settled in the early 19th century by fur traders and established as a city in 1865. Early development of South Bend focused on industrial factories and manufacturing. Among the many important events/individuals in South Bend history: 1) in 1934, South Bend’s Merchant’s National Bank was the last bank to be robbed by the notorious Dillinger gang before they were hunted down and killed by the FBI; and 2) the South Bend Blue Sox (1943-1954) were one of the major and longest-playing teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was famously depicted in the movie, A League of Their Own.
South Bend is also the home of the University of Notre Dame, a private Catholic university founded in 1842. The mascot of Notre Dame is the Fighting Irish, as seen below:
Our performance venue was the Decio Mainstage Theater, located on campus at the DeBartolo Center for the Arts. Built in 2004, the center has 177 rooms and 384 doors, and houses six theatres, including the Regis Philbin Studio Theater and the Decio Mainstage Theater. We performed two sold out shows in the Decio, a beautiful two-tier, 360-seat theatre. Our performances were solid and it certainly seemed like everyone was back in the performing groove. The local crew at the DeBartolo Center are some of the friendliest, most hospitable individuals that we have encountered in our touring and I would welcome the opportunity to return there in the future and perform again.
Unfortunately, my Notre Dame stop was not perfect, as I discovered small red bumps on my arms and shoulders after my first night there, and more itchy bumps on my chest and neck after my second night there. After doing some internet research and asking around, it appears that I may have been bitten by bedbugs. It was bound to happen to one of us eventually, given that we have spent the night in so many hotels and motels. I was just surprised that it happened at this hotel and not one of the lower quality motels that we have visited.
Next stop –the Wharton Center in East Lansing, MI. Until the next adventure…
Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine
Welcome back, blog readers, and welcome to the final leg of the ‘Strega Nona’ National Tour! To recap: when I last left you, I was preparing to go on a short break after having been on the road for 48 days. My five-day break in the Bay Area was short, but productive nonetheless. I desperately needed to assuage the physical and mental exhaustion that had set in from the tour, and to recharge myself for the final phase of my adventure. In my time off, I rested, relaxed, spent quality time with loved ones, ate great food, and even attended an audition for Shakespeare Santa Cruz. All in all, an eventful, though abbreviated, respite from an actor’s life on the road and all that it entails.
I also gained some perspective into the dilemma that I had presented in my last blog: how does one keep a performance fresh after 118 performances while remaining true to the integrity of the character and script? As one of my astute readers pointed out to me in my previous blog, Henry Fonda played the role of ‘Mister Roberts’ on Broadway for 1157 performances. Yes, you read that correctly - 1157 performances. And here I am, worrying after 118 shows, when Mr. Fonda’s run was 10 times as long as mine! In doing a bit of research, I learned that Mr. Fonda’s run on Broadway as ‘Mister Roberts’ spanned a period of eight years. Wow…I am in complete awe – how did he do it, performance after performance, year after year? I imagine that it is probably much easier to do a long run of a show when you are in only one location and not constantly moving from city to city. However, fixed location or not, you have to admit that Mr. Fonda’s accomplishment is truly impressive. I can only surmise that a complete and total love for his craft and this character are what enabled him to persevere through so many shows. I will definitely need to read his autobiography when I get the chance.
So here we are now, back on the road again – only four weeks and 27 performances left. From the Bay Area, we rambled to Sylvania, OH. The city’s name means “abounding in woods, groves and trees”, and as a result, Sylvania is aptly nicknamed ‘Tree City USA’. Founded in 1835, this scenic suburb of Toledo, OH, has a population of around 19,000. One of its most famous past residents is actress Katie Holmes.
Our Sylvania performances were at the 850-seat Franciscan Center at Lourdes College. The institute was established in 1918 to educate the sisters of the Franciscan community, but now also schools laypeople. We performed for two packed and vocal audiences at the Franciscan Center. While it felt uncomfortable to perform at such a deeply entrenched religious institution, it felt even odder to return to the show after having almost a week break. All of our performances were a bit off, and for the duration of the shows, I felt as if an alien had taken over my body and was robotically maneuvering me about the stage. Everything about ‘Strega Nona’ and the show seemed so strange and foreign to me, as if I had never even performed it before. What a bizarre feeling to experience after having already performed the show 118 times!
One of the highlights of our Sylvania visit was the wonderfully peculiar woman we met in the lobby of our hotel, who entertained us for over half an hour with tales of rearing rabbits and trimming their teeth with toenail clippers. What a kooky and colorful individual – far more interesting than some programs I have seen on TV!
Next stop – the Decio Mainstage Theater at the DeBartolo Center in Notre Dame, IN. Until the next adventure…
Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine
With two snowstorms on the horizon, we headed back to Lowell, MA, hopeful that the weather would not hinder our plans yet again. We had already postponed our return to the Bay Area for our break by one day in order to make up these missed performances, and it would be a shame if all of our schedule shifting had been for naught.
Luckily for us, the weather gods were smiling on us again. We performed to two packed audiences at the 900-seat Durgin Hall, located in the UMass Lowell Center for the Arts. This house of this venue has an odd, asymmetrical design. I am curious if the design imposes any limitations on the audience’s view of the stage. It did not seem to cause any issue for our audiences as they were both boisterous and very into the show.
As we packed up the show, everyone was very excited to be able to return home for a break, including myself. Personally, my spirit and will are broken. As I sit on the airplane and write this blog, I know that I need a respite from everything…the cast, the show, the schedule, life on the road. I am just too mentally and physically exhausted to derive excitement or enjoyment from anything - including performing – and that is extremely upsetting to me. Acting is my chosen profession and I live to perform; however, lately, the passion has escaped me.
How does one keep a performance fresh and exciting after 118 performances and 36 venues? For some, the answer is to just get through the experience and make it work from show to show. For others, the solution lies in adding new bits to the show in order to keep their minds stimulated and engaged in the performance process. And yet for me, the answer is not so black-and-white. While I am constantly having to adapt from show to show and make it work, and while I am always adding and refining character nuances, my dilemma lies in my desire to remain true to the integrity of the character and ultimately, to the integrity of the show. At this point in the tour, it is becoming exceedingly difficult to genuinely experience everything that the character encounters as a new event without feeling contrived and jaded. I am not sure if this challenge will be solved in the course of a minute, day, week, or lifetime even, but I will do my best to work through it being the Virgo perfectionist that I am.
And so I will use my time off in the next week, blog reader, to gain perspective on this challenge, to regain my inspiration and passion for theatre, and to prepare for the remaining portion of the tour. Out of 146 scheduled shows, we have had 118 performances, 1 cancellation, and there are only 27 shows left to do. Our East Coast stint is over – our Midwest days will be commencing soon!
Next stop – the Franciscan Center in Sylvania, OH in a week. Until the next adventure…
Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine
Ah, Connecticut! Why are you so beautiful and idyllic? From your picturesque houses to your quaint historical buildings and businesses, it’s no wonder why Martha Stewart lives here.
After a long, tiresome drive from New Jersey, we were happy to arrive in Westport, CT, and even happier to stay at the super comfy Westport Inn. With its plush robes, Aveda products, five pillows per bed and some of the most comfortable mattresses you will ever sleep on, I knew that it would be easy to get a good night’s sleep for our Fairfield performances.
Situated on the Gold Coast of Connecticut, on the Long Island Sound, Fairfield, CT, has some of the most notably affluent neighborhoods in the country. Due to its extremely low crime rates, Fairfield was ranked in 2006 by Money magazine as the 9th best place to live in the US and the best place to live in the Northeast. This “dogwood capital of the world” is also the home of the corporate headquarters of General Electric. Given its storybook-like appeal, several movies have been filmed in Fairfield, including the 2008 Kate Winslet/Leonardo DiCaprio film, Revolutionary Road, and the infamous 1975 pic, The Stepford Wives. Notable natives and residents of Fairfield include Charles Lindbergh, Hume Cronyn, Jason Robards, Justin Long and Meg Ryan.
Over a period of two days, we performed four shows at the Kelley Theatre at the Quick Center, located on the campus of beautiful Fairfield University. This 750-seat venue opened in 1990. All four of our performances were well-attended and went well. As a matter of fact, all of our Connecticut performances have had good attendance. Connecticut really seems to love Tomie dePaola and Strega Nona!
At one of our shows, one of our castmates, Jess, had about twenty members of her family in the audience. Although they were there primarily for her, it was nice to feel such a warm and supportive presence in the audience, rooting for our little production.
We are in the home stretch, blog readers! Back to Lowell, MA, to make up two performances, and then we get to travel back home for a few days of well-deserved rest and relaxation. Several winter storms are in the forecast, so I am keeping my fingers crossed again that the weather will cooperate and allow us both to perform and journey safely home.
Next stop – back to Durgin Hall in Lowell, MA. Until the next adventure…
Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine
Satisfied at having been able to perform finally in Maryland, we put the pedal to the metal and hit the road again. We prepared ourselves mentally for another crazy day, complete with a blitzkrieg-like schedule that would take us to not one state, but three states in the course of a day: driving from Maryland, loading in and performing in New Jersey, and loading out and staying in Connecticut.
First stop of the day – Trenton, the capital (and almost the exact geographic center) of New Jersey. Dating back to 1719, the city was originally called ‘Trent-towne’ after William Trent, one of the leading landholders in the town. Trenton was the site of George Washington’s first military victory in the American Revolution: on December 26, 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware River to Trenton. Trenton functioned as a major manufacturing center in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and as a result, the slogan of the city became “Trenton Makes, The World Takes”. This motto is still prominently displayed on the Lower Trenton Bridge. In 1968, the city and more than 200 of its businesses underwent significant damage as a result of major civil disturbances that occurred the week following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
We performed only one show in Trenton at the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, a setting of Italian Renaissance Revival splendor. This luxurious, 1807-seat venue has been the stage for many world-class artists, including Louis Armstrong, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington and Bob Hope. Our audience, which numbered in the 100 to 200 range, looked tiny in comparison to the number of empty seats in the house, but was just as vocal and appreciative as any full-size audience. Among the audience members again was our composer, Aron Accurso, who we had last seen at our other New Jersey performance at the Paper Mill Playhouse. It was fun to be able to reconnect with him. Following our performance, we went out to appetizers with Aron, and even let him enjoy the experience of riding in our tour van, an experience that I am sure he will not forget. =)
Our Jersey visit was short-lived, and before we knew it, we dashed onward to Connecticut. Unfortunately, our short two-hour drive to Connecticut ended up taking us over four hours as we encountered all of the notorious New York City traffic. Anxious and bleary-eyed, we arrived in Westport, CT, ready to settle down after a jam-packed day.
Next stop – the Kelley Theatre at the Quick Center in Fairfield, CT. Until the next adventure…
Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine
After two days in the wonderfully weird city of Dover, we headed back to Maryland for the third time. As we journeyed back to Bel Air, we crossed our fingers, hopeful that our rescheduled performance would not be cancelled due to snow.
Fortunately, the weather gods were smiling on us this time and we were finally able to perform in Maryland. Our performance in Bel Air was at the 908-seat Amoss Center for the Performing Arts at Harford Community College. While we only had one performance at the Amoss Center, the show did have its share of issues: 1) for some strange reason, our load-in took an exceedingly long amount of time, and subsequently, we had less than 30 minutes to prepare both physically and mentally for the show; as a result, everyone’s performance was a little bit off; 2) we had to use the understudies for the second day in a row as Jimmy’s voice still had not returned; and 3) Jess, who plays Bambolona, almost passed out onstage due to extremely low blood sugar. Of course, none of these issues read to the audience (or at least, I would hope that they weren’t obvious to the audience), but they were still detectable by us and unsettling nevertheless.
We ended our Maryland sojourn with a repeat stay at the same, unpleasant motel that we had visited previously. With its noxious rooms reeking of stale cigarettes and its classy beer bottle opener located conveniently above the bathroom toilet, I can only hope that I never have to visit this inn again.
On a brighter note, one of the two newspaper interviews that I did has been published. Check out this article in the Connecticut Post:
We gathered our weak, shaky bodies and motored to Dover, the capital of Delaware. Named for Dover, England, it is the second largest city in Delaware (the first being Wilmington) and is home to Delaware State University. The city’s central square, The Green, is the location of the Delaware Supreme Court, and was the site of many rallies and patriotic events throughout history.
Throughout my stay in Delaware, I constantly felt like I was either in a Stephen King novel or a horror movie. Everything just seemed a little bit…off…about this place – the residents, the locales, everything. Take, for example, our motel, which looked just like the motel from the 2007 movie ‘Vacancy’, the Kate Beckinsale/Luke Wilson movie about a young couple who becomes stranded at an isolated motel with hidden video cameras and realizes that unless they escape, they will become the victims of a snuff film. Not exactly the most relaxing environment in which to stay for a couple of nights…
And then there is the Delaware tap water – it is a lovely shade of yellow-brown and is non-potable. We were warned by several Delaware locals not to drink the tap water. I have a feeling that this water may account for the many odd things that I saw in Delaware.
We performed two shows in Dover at the Schwartz Center, a 596-seat venue. Formerly the Dover Opera House, the theatre was recently renovated in 2001, and converted to the Schwartz Center. Our performances at the Schwartz Center were our first shows back after being away from performing for four days and after being so sick. Everyone was still weak and run down, and for some, all of the vomiting that we had done a few days earlier still continued to wreak havoc on our bodies. Jimmy, our Papa Bambo, completely lost his voice, and as a result, two understudies had to go on (Kevin for Jimmy and Jen for Kevin). Needless to say, our performances at the Schwartz Center were a bit rough, but decent nevertheless. I am sure that with a few more days to recuperate from our stomach illness, we will be back to normal.
Next stop – back to the HCC Amoss Center in Bel Air, MD. Until the next adventure…
Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine
