Raleigh - Performance #500

April 25th

The week in Raleigh was a relatively quiet one. We put-in our newest ensemble member, Richard Costa, so there was a fair amount of rehearsal to be attended to.

Karl and I drove from Greenville to Raleigh on Monday morning. The 270 mile trip took us past the "Gaffney Peach":

The peach is a one million gallon water tower built by the city of Gaffney, SC. Gaffney is home to the South Carolina Peach Festival each year and wants to remind all the motorists along I-85 that South Carolina produces more peaches than Georgia. Fun facts: the "stem" of the peach is 12 feet tall and the "leaf" is 60' long and weighs more than 7 tons.

I picked out a roadfood destination for our afternoon meal. We stopped at the A&M Grill in Mebane, NC for some Carolina Barbecue. We both ordered chopped barbecue plates and were very happy with the tangy vinegar barbecue. Roadfood scored again!

In Raleigh, I stayed at the Candlewood Suites. I love the Candlewood chain. All the rooms are like efficiency apartments - they come equipped with a full size fridge, microwave and a two burner stove. The Candlewood chain also provides a grill in the outdoor gazebo. The chance to cook for myself comes all too rarely, so I like to Candlewood very much. There are other little things that I dig about the chain: each room has a cork board where I can tack up pictures, postcards and the weekly schedule, the "Candlewood Cupboard" is a tiny convenience store in the lobby that's open 24 hours, and there's always a comfy easy chair and DVD player in each room. It's also true that the chain is a chain and every Candlewood looks exactly like every other Candlewood and the hotels are often far from the city center, but it's a safe bet that if there's a Candlewood on offer, I'm going to stay in it. Staying in a Candlewood also often means a quieter week for me: there's no hotel bar (the socializing happens around the grill and in the outdoor gazebo) and the drive home after the show often means that I just go home.

TVFMHRW - Raleigh

This one's not very glamorous...

After the long day at the theatre, loading in and teaching the show on opening night, I decided to get out and enjoy the outdoors on the beautiful day that was Wednesday. We've been following the outbreak of spring northward since we left Florida. Everything was still brilliant spring green in North Carolina and the early flowers were still around. The daffodils were fading, but the tulips were still in bloom and the flowering trees were beautiful. I went for a walk in Umstead State Park. Located near the Raleigh Durham Airport, the park is a 5,500 acres oasis of calm. The sounds of I-40 and US-70, which border the park, fade away among the lakes, streams and woodlands. I hiked for 2 1/2 hours mostly following a stream that connected Big Lake to Sycamore Lake. The dogwoods were in bloom throughout the woods, their big white blossoms were beautiful. There were fish of all sizes in the stream and a few turtles as well, while butterflies floated along overhead.

Wild Dogwoods

The stream I hiked along goes over this tiny waterfall. It was so peaceful, I wanted to lay down for a nap beside the stream.

Thursday morning Roy, Gurr, Suzanne and I made another roadfood pilgrimage. We drove a half an hour over toward Chapel Hill to the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen. It's a little drive through joint that serves nothing but its namesake biscuits. Plain, with gravy, with honey or made into sandwiches, these biscuits were delightful. I ordered one with a pork chop and one with country ham, cheese and an egg. I was not disappointed. The four of us sat on the curb next to our cars and raved about these biscuits. We walked back up to the window to get some more to take home with us. I wish I had remembered my camera...

This photo of the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen is stolen from roadfood.com. A steady stream of cars kept passing through the drive through while we sat in the parking lot.

There was some more good dining in Raleigh. Our traditional load-in lunch convened at the Mecca Restaurant: a 1930's classic that served a great meat 'n three. Karl and I had a big country breakfast at Big Ed's in the City Market, the former site of Raleigh's farmers' market has be repurposed as home to galleries, restaurants and shopping. Erik recommended the pulled pork sandwich at Cookout, another drive through, and I made a dash for this piece of Carolina-style barbecue with Roy between shows on Sunday. The locals all recommended Cooper's BBQ; Wayne and I stopped in before a show and while the pork was tender and tasty, Cooper's serves their pulled pork without sauce and I missed the tang. Roy, Angela and I shared a meal at Yancy's where I finally got to taste Shrimp and Grits - I finally know what all the fuss is about! The local Fire Marshall took Berg I out to the Mayflower Seafood restaurant between shows on Saturday where we ordered up 20 oysters for $9.99!

I didn't get to explore too much of Raleigh. I spent Thursday and Friday in rehearsal and then the two show days ate up the weekend. I did like the theatre, though. The Raleigh Memorial Auditorium has a great deal of character. While it wasn't the easiest venue to play, I much prefer the theatres that have some history to the newer, more cookie cutter, venues. The Memorial Auditorium opened in 1932. The facade of the building was constructed in the Greek Revival style with enormous columns. The current facade is actually a duplicate of the older one. When the building was renovated in 1990, what was the front of the building was enclosed in glass to create a large, airy lobby and a copy of the facade was added on outside the glass. A concert hall, smaller opera theatre and black-box space were added on and the whole complex was renamed The Progress Energy Center for the Arts. The interior of the Auditorium was left alone, and it might be the most striking feature of the building. The seats are arranged in the very old fashioned auditorium style. A great bank of seats faces the stage without a balcony. The first third has small slope, the second third a more dramatic angle and the final third has a steep rake. On either side are a section of seats that face the center of the auditorium. I suspect that the first two sections of seats were originally removable so the room could play host to banquets and dancing. It reminded me very much of MSU's Auditorium. Looking out at the room from the stage was a little startling as a good portion of the 2,200 seats (all of which were sold) weren't facing you!

Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

The view out into the auditorium. Many in the cast likened it to the mega-churches you sometimes see televangelists preaching in.

Sunday marked my 500th performance of Spamalot. That's 63 weeks on tour and 40 cities. I've lost count of the number of planes, trains and automobiles I've employed along the journey. Lately I'm involved in the rehearsing and putting-in of people taking over for people that I helped rehearse and put-in. We bid farewell to Jonathan Brody in Raleigh. He was one of the first ensemble members I helped put-in (in Atlanta). His replacement, Richard Costa, came to us from the Vegas company (which just posted their closing notice for June - meaning the tour can finally book dates in California and Arizona, though I'd have to hold on until late 2009 or 2010 before those dates are likely to appear on the itinerary), so his put-in was quite painless.

The weekend was a bit dramatic. There was an on-stage mishap resulting from an actor's mistake on Saturday afternoon. Though no one was injured and the show was not noticeably affected, there were some heated words exchanged backstage and things were quite tense for the rest of the day. On Sunday, our automation fouled during the Find Your Grail number leaving the mountain and the grail lift stuck on stage. In the effort to get the heavy pieces (the grail lift alone weighs more than a ton) off-stage, Justin (our head carpenter) injured his ankle. As we struggled to get the equipment repaired during the intermission, it became clear that Justin was too badly hurt to continue working on the deck during the second act and we had to finish the show down a man. Of course, load-out immediately follows the Sunday evening show and Justin's injury also meant that he couldn't head-up the load-out as usual. He took the early bus to Dayton (a ten hour ride) in an effort to rest his ankle and be ready to load-in on the other end. It was a stressful weekend and I was glad to put it behind me.

We did find time for some Spamily socializing amidst the weekend's excitement. Terry hosted shot night with a concoction called a "Duck Fart". Consisting of Kaluha, Bailey's and Crown Royal, it's a tasty shot that packs an unexpected punch. As always, we were all glad for the chance to hoist a shot and be reminded that we enjoy one another's company.

TJT prepares "Duck Farts" on the loading dock.

While the crew rode sleeper busses to Dayton, I opted to fly with the cast. Monday morning I was up early to return my rental car and board the first of two flights that would finally carry me away from the land of country ham, biscuits and barbecue and back into the land of my people. For the next several weeks I'll be reporting from the Midwest! I may even see a Meijer again. There's some baseball on the horizon, too...

JV