Category: True Life Adventures
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 2 – Practice Makes Puppets
Today we got to see the theatre for the first time and let me say, it is a really great space and, in my opinion, a really great venue for us. We’ve played in a lot of fantastic venues but sometimes big giant 1500-2000 seaters are just a little too big for us. The Panasonic Theatre holds about 600 and I think it’s just the right size.
And let me throw out a huge thanks to Mirvish Productions that own the theatre have done amazing work promoting the show. There’s uge banners that take up the entire windows of the front of the theatre. Inside the lobby (I’ll try to get pictures tomorrow) there are more posters and videos screens playing promos. It’s almost as if the Miskreant Puppets had taken over the entire theatre. Pretty cool.
It was a drizzly day here in Toronto, but we were inside for most of it, so that’s fine. Today was a big rehearsal day. As I may have mentioned, there is a new finale in the show and it is sort of tech heavy so we wanted to get it up and running as quickly as possible.
One cool aspect of the finale is that two new puppets were built for it and I’m super grateful, and honored, that I was asked to puppeteer one of them. I even jokingly gave them names and they’ve seemed to stick. I won’t say anymore because it’d spoil them, but it’s pretty cool. I will again say that I’m eager to see what folks think of this finale. It is a feat of tech and puppetry and as someone said the first time they saw it, “That’s the darnedest thing I’ve ever seen.” Let’s hope Toronto thinks the same.
Besides finessing the finale time was spent on the ‘set’ pieces of the show. These are the non-improvised segments. So we ran through the opening, closing, Windy, Java and I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face. I’m feeling confident with playing the Big Java now. There’s some tricky puppetry but I’m using it to push my skills further and I really think I’m getting it. It’s to the point now where I’m getting to the point I can sort of put my own ‘take’ on it. Though, I’ll say my take is trying to emulate Bill Baretta’s take on it. I’ll never forget the first time I saw Bill perform it in San Francisco. It was like seeing it for the first time.
After rehearsal, I walked around Toronto a little with Colleen, then retired to the room for a bit. Then Brian Clark, Ted, Dan and I struck out for food. Lots of interesting to eat here in Toronto, though it reminds me of just about any downtown metropolitan areas.
We wound up at a place called Urban Food that had a Asian flare to it. I was going to get a salad, but decided to go outside my comfort zone and get crispy chow mien with chicken. It was okay, but nothing I’d write home about. Dan said it wasn’t the best he’d ever had, so maybe not a good benchmark for me to judge it by. Next time I’ll get a salad.
Tomorrow we have an early call and out first show. I can’t wait. This show really is the most fun thing I’ve ever done in my life and I’m ready to do it again. Having never done a drug, I’m thinking this is what addiction is like. Nervously waiting for that next ‘fix.’ It comes tomorrow!
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 1 – To the Great White North
On the road! Writing this to your from the hotel room of our hotel in Toronto and I tell you, I’m super excited for this show. The energy amongst the cast is super high and I’m thinking if you live anywhere within the Toronto area…come see this show.
This morning some of us met at The Jim Henson Company lot to take a shuttle down to LAX. An idea struck me this morning…How cool is it (and how lucky am I) that I have a job where the tour begins and ends at The Jim Henson Company Lot? Pretty damn cool.
The trip to Toronto went smooth as silk. I’ve never flown on Air Canada before and I have to say, I like it. Had a great flight and their in flight entertainment is great. I spent the time watching MAN OF STEEL and WORLD WAR Z. It was a great way to pass the time.
Upon arriving in Toronto we met up with Julianna, our tireless, fantastic, amazing, wonderful tour manager. Seriously, I can’t sing her praises enough. This tour would fall apart if not for her. She lives in New York so it’s always fun to catch up.
We got to our hotel, checked in and then a bunch of us explored a little to get some dinner. We wound up at a pub called the Artful Dodger and, I’m not ashamed to say, I had a great Prime Rib dinner. It was fantastic and a great way to kick off the tour. Good food, good company, good times.
After the meal some of us went to the grocery store to get some supplies for the kitchens we have in the rooms. Then everyone just retired to their room to prep for tomorrow’s rehearsals.
So it’s late, and I’m going to sign off for tonight but stay tuned because these reports are going to be daily, and there’s going to be much better pictures. Promise.
It’s time to Puppet Up!
10 in 20 – Day 18 – Penultimate
Here we are at the end of the last day. A day full of packing, stressing out about what was packed and what wasn’t packed and, oh yeah, a puppetry audition and a 30 minute kids show. Not too much pressure. Through it all I was really focused on eating right, as you will see below. Still a half pound over on the scale this morning. Good though. Maintaining. Current weight is 168.5lbs.
This one’s going to be a short one because I have much to much to pack. Sorry about that. Look for the final update tomorrow! Now, on to the food.
Cup of Minestrone Soup, Granville Salad w/ Chicken. No dressing – 17 WW Points
This is a bit of estimate going on here. The salad game with Olives (which I LOVE, but aren’t free of points) and Feta Cheese (which I would have preferred they didn’t put on but it wasn’t on the menu). The soup was fantastic. A good meal and very lovely company, too.
Apple slices – 1 WW Point
Dinner. Apple slices. Yum.
ACTIVITY – 30 Mins Running
See you tomorrow for the final day! Final post may not come until later because of travel, but I hope to write it out o the plan on the way to Toronto.
Puppet Up! Toronto – Tour Diary – Prelude
It is the night before!
The night before Henson Alternative’s Puppet Up Uncensored crew heads off to Canada for a string of shows at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto, Canada. I’m a little more than excited. This is going to be a lot of fun. I thought that the tour I was on earlier this year couldn’t be topped. This might do it.
What I’m excited for most about this trip is the lack of travel. Now, do not get me wrong, I LOVE to travel. I love airports and busses and hotels and exploring new places. It’s all fantastic. But this will be a run of shows in one theatre for two weeks. I love the idea of going to the same place every day and just working on this show. Making each show better, tighter, exploring more.
These trips are always fun because I get to know my fellow castmates better and this time around there’s a few folks I haven’t been on tours with for a long time so it’ll be great to work with a completely new of improv. Really keeps me on my toes.
When we are on a tour like the one we were on earlier this year, each new venue has a million little adjustments to be made to get our show up. Our, amazing, tech crew rocks each venue to get it ready for our show which has a lot of moving pieces that need to be just right. With this run, after the first few shows, we’ll get in a groove and we’ll be able to just work on having fun.
The closest I’ve been able to get to this was the San Francisco run in 2011. That was 5 shows. This is 14. By the end of the show I feel I’ll really have it down. And this time around I’ll be performing some pieces that I haven’t performed before. This time around I get to play the ‘Big Tube’ or ‘Big Java’ in the Java piece. An honor and I’m really excited to take on that challenge.
We also have a brand new finale that we’ve been working on. It’s really unique and I’m excited for audiences to see it.
As before I’ll do my best to blog every day, so if you feel like it, stay right here and join me as the Puppet Up crew invades Toronto!
LET’S DO THIS!