Here we go!!!

Well, I thought I'd give this "blog-thing" a try. If it's dull and lacklustre at first please forgive me. I'll try to get wittier as I go along.

I just got back from doing "The Overcoat" in Hartford. Not quite the hub of activity of such cities as London, Adelaide, Wellington or even Bergen but hey...work is work. How can I exactly explain the vitality of Hartford? Let me start by describing my daily routine. First, I would try to stay up as late as I could in order to sleep in as late as possible. That would take care of most of the morning. Then it was off to the gym where I would run AND do weights; whew!! That would take anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours. Then home to shower and eat; another hour or so. At this point, I was faced with the vast expanse of the afternoon....hmmm what to do; watch bad television (The Ashley Simpson Show, Rosanne or The Surreal Life) OR go outside and freeze my a$$ off in the twenty below blowing wind! Let me interrupt here for a moment to explain that there are no coffee shops for whiling away an afternoon with a newspaper, journal or good book. There are about 5 shops to browse and two of them are eyewear stores. The mall is a half an hour bus ride ($18 cab ride) away. Therefore, going outside into the biting wind to just walk the streets of Hartford wasn't really an appealing choice. Plus, considering the fact we couldn't have any booze before the show....all that was left was bad television.

The show itself was received well. I guess the folks in Connecticut are a little more reserved than what we've been used to. At first the houses were pretty small and then on the first weekend there was a snowstorm. This was a funny experience. What us igloo-living Canadians are used to was cause for a near "State of Emergency". The mayor came close to calling in the military for a couple of feet of snow. It was quite ridiculous. And as a result, our houses on the weeked dipped dramatically. One show had 53 people in the audience....we almost outnumbered them with stage management and crew!!! The second week was better and the word of mouth brought more butts into the seats. I had a friend from New York come to see the show and he said the buzz at intermission and after the show was really positive. On the last Wednesday that we were there, we got tickets to another play at the Hartford Stage Company (we where at The Bushnell Centre for the Arts....whatever) and I overheard a woman telling two friends, "I saw The Overcoat last night....aaaastounding!!!" so that was nice.

We got two great reviews in the local papers and one pretty good one in Variety magazine. So hopefully that will open some doors for us in the future. No word yet if San Fransisco is going through but keep your fingers crossed.

Up next....Escaping to New York for a day!