This
is the Rodent Review written in a hotel room in Toledo, OH. This is the
same hotel we stayed in for St. Patrick's Day in both 1998 and 1999. Chad
had just left tour and we had been zig-zagging all over America. I was
a little pissed at some people and decided to write the whole thing as
imaginary and real excerpts from my Journal. This was the one and only
time that I published the Review on the road because, Jim Page claimed
that somehow I had infected his computer with a corrupt disk. That was
a lie.
Corn Palace in South Dakota.
On the Scott
We lost one
of our cast mates. I know what you are thinking, how do you lose an actor?
Well, its sort of like when you went to the zoo in kindergarten. You get
there with twenty kids and you leave nineteen. Its hard to deal with the
first time it happens, but eventually you consider yourself lucky you only
lost one. Chad Davis left tour and made many of our lives more difficult.
Not mine, but the lives of those three team players who had to step-up
and take on new roles for the last few weeks of tour. I can only express
my own gratitude and respect to and for Jon, Devron, and Erik. They have
changed a very difficult situation into a minor annoyance.
I am feeling
very lazy this time out of the gate. I thought that instead of a normal
newsletter I would simply recycle entries out of my personal journal. I
have edited out most of my personal feelings from the entries and instead
stuck to what I thought were the most amusing facts and lies. Almost all
of these entries are based in fact. (If when you use the word fact you
mean clever lie.)
Thursday,
February 12, 1998
We just
finished doing our shows on the Eastern Shore. Snow Hill and Pokomoke Highs
had identical theatres, it was like being in one of those parallel universe
stories. I also think there were more of us on stage than there were in
the audience. The show at Snow Hill was delayed an hour because of fog.
We also got to witness an historical moment in Snow Hill, MD history, as
they voted their mayor out of office for using the town's police car to
take photos for Internet Porn. We're starting out two day trip to St. Louis.
Sunday,
February 15, 1998
Adventure
days yesterday and today. We all loaded into the van yesterday afternoon,
intending to go to the top of the St. Louis Arch. Unfortunately they had
sold all the tickets to the top out before we showed up around two p.m.
Unfortunately for some and fortunately for other (specifically Colleen)
the river boat casinos were open. Colleen, being too lucky for words, won
and then did the unforgivable. She put her winnings away and played with
the initial investment. The only bright side to this was that almost everyone
else lost more money than me. Then we had a couple drinks and the next
thing I remember is popping my knee on the dance floor of some place named
after a marsupial near the St. Louis waterfront.
Today for
a cruel lark we decided to wake up at 8 a.m. and try the Arch again. This
time we waltzed right up, got tickets, and then they squeezed five of us
into the little egg shells out of 2001 that they use as an elevator. We
rode to the top. It was neat.
Bill, Jesse,
Erik and me then went to the St. Louis Zoo. Jesse seemed to have a strange
affinity for the big bears. I thought he might have more closely identified
with the poor chimpanzee. The little tiny baby, whose hair has all fallen
out.
Tuesday,
February 17, 1998
. . . kids in Rolla, MO removed
the bolts from the legs that support the upper platform. Platform fall
and go boom. Nine of us are on our way through Iowa to go visit my friend
Natalie in St. Paul, MN.
Thursday,
February 19, 1998
. . . inconsiderate bastard.
But, overall the stay in St. Paul was very nice. Natalie was a lovely hostess.
And I have never seen Devron as happy as was in the Mall of the America's.
Everyone keeps insisting its the Mall of America, I'm stubborn and can't
be corrected.
Wednesday,
Colleen and I went to church with Natalie, for Ash Wednesday services.
Note to self: check calendar before waking at 7 a.m. to go mass for a holy
day of obligation, which is actually next week.
Now we're
on the road again to meet up with the rest of the group in Sioux Falls,
SD.
Monday,
February 23, 1998
. . . cking idiots. South
Dakota is a land of expansive and all inclusive flatness. Yet the National
Players always find a way to make things exciting. Sioux Falls was everything
that I expected a city in the Midwest to be. Just enough chain stores to
make life bearable and very little else.
Four of
us decided to try and go to the Corn Palace in Milton, SD. A building decorated
each year with inspired mosaics made from actual corn. Who would have thought
that the biggest exhibit in the state of South Dakota, besides Mount Rushmore,
and its closed on the weekend. Before we left Milton though we saw the
closed hot air balloon museum and the closed Native American village.
Our last
two days have been spent in the comfort of the Starlite Motel, in Yankton,
SD. Its like living at home, if your mom inhaled too many cleaning products
when you were growing up.
Wednesday,
February 25, 1998
. . . Asuigo Cheese Bagel
. . . ah!
Sunday,
March 1, 1998
Went around
Chicago, with Buzz and Bill yesterday. Went to the bar on top of the Hancock
building. Great view, expensive beer.
The Colleen,
Erik, Jesse, and me went to dinner at the Big Bowl, an Asian food restaurant,
with big portions and lots of vegetables. Then we started bar hopping.
I met the girl of my dreams.
Tuesday,
March 3, 1998
Fell off
stage.
Friday,
March 6, 1998
We woke
early on Thursday and went to Niagara Falls. We took the trip into Canada
and were stopped by the boarder patrol. I suppose a van full of actors
would scare any foreign country. They asked if we had any weapons. Like
we would have told them if we had. Silly Canadians. No wonder they lost
the war.
We took
the trip behind the falls. A German couple offered to buy Jesse. I told
them that $12.00 wasn't enough, but when they offered $13.00 I had to think
about it. And Jim Page got caught in the revolving doors at the Falls.
Monday,
March 9, 1998
We spent
the last three days in Vermont with Colleen's family. Incredible meals
and very wonderful people. I especially love her dogs.
We took
a day trip to the Ben and Jerry's Factory. I won free ice cream. Make Scott
very happy.
Went to
Burlington after the factory tour and still didn't see the sea monster
. . .
Tuesday,
March 10 1998
Colleen
hit the nail on the head when she said New Bedford, MA, is like walking
into a Stephen King novel. You're in New England. There is an old woman
playing a pipe organ in the theatre. It's raining. You have to produce
three different forms of identification to drink. And everyone keeps saying
"Wicked!" What the hell does "Wicked" mean?
Thursday,
March 12, 1998
Elmira,
New York, Mark Twain died in Elmira. That about says it all.
Saturday,
March 21, 1998
And now
I sit in my hotel room, writing this news letter. I could be out skating
with the others but I always get hurt when I skate.
We've been
sitting pretty in the Clarion, in Toledo, OH, for over a week now. We swim
and drink. I've watched four movies in the theatre and three on pay-per-view.
on St. Patrick's Day I kept that all important buzz which allows me to
sing random Irish songs and walk back from a bar on a rainy night. Damn,
I wish I had one of those Asuigo Cheese Bagels.
Upcoming Events We'll be
going to Kutztown, PA on March 25th. Doing a turn in New York, in Goshen
on March 30th. And the big city with shows in the Bronx and Brooklyn on
March 31st and April 3rd. Dallas, PA on April 6th and Rochester on April
11th. Then we play that bastion of American liberalism at the Citadel in
Charleston, SC on April 14th.
Please
be sure to check us out as we perform Of Mice and Men at College Park on
April 16, 17, and 18th at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 19th at 2:30 p.m.
in the Tawes Theatre.
Please
keep writing because we all need that little island of sanity that mail
provides. Send your cards and letters to:
Name of the Company Member
c/o Steve Sawicki
Olney Theatre
2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd.
Olney, MD 20832
