Southern Charm-ing

Wednesday, April 16th

Greenville was great. In fact, I had only one complaint during my stay in Greenville (and it was a small one), so let's get that out the way first thing:

TVFMHRW - Greenville. Atrium view; nice if you want to see who's eating what at the breakfast buffet or who's still at the lobby bar, but not so good for sunlight or determining how to dress in the morning.

That's it, everything else I have to say about last week is positive. Greenville is certainly my favorite of the recent cities and makes the list of best tour stops. The Peace Center (named for the the Peace family who donated the seed money) is a nice facility. It was built on the banks of the Reedy River on the former site of several milling operations. In fact, the dressing rooms and executive offices are located in the shell of a former textile mill. While that did make for some weird dressing rooms, it did mean that our corner office had lots of windows with views of the river!

The Peace Center


TVFOOW - The Reedy River


Sunset on the Reedy as seen from our office window


The cherry trees behind the theatre were in full bloom!

Behind the theatre, the Reedy River encounters a series of waterfalls (hence the development of all manner of mills). Just downstream from the Peace Center is the largest of the falls, home to Falls Park on the Reedy. The park sits on both banks of the river and contains an amphitheatre, terraced gardens, gliders, lawns and a striking suspension bridge. Liberty Bridge is a 300' single suspension span that curves around the dramatic falls. It's towers are tilted away from the falls and the single suspension cable runs along the side opposite the falls, leaving the view unobstructed. It's a really cool structure and centerpiece to the beautiful park. Spring was in full swing last week with all kinds of trees in bloom along with the pansies and tulips in the garden. The lawns were bright green and inviting. People were everywhere in the park; picnicking, wading in the river and just relaxing in the gliders and swings.

Liberty Bridge at Falls Park as seen from below near the river's edge


JV and the falls

I ate in a different restaurant for every meal in Greenville and still left a large part of the selection untried! We had sushi for our load-in lunch. I ate ribs with Team Wardrobe and Indian with our Company Managers. I also enjoyed a fancy dinner with Karl and David at the restaurant in the Wyndham as well as a "new Southern" brunch at Soby's. I never made it into the Thai place or either of the Mexican restaurants and it says something that I didn't sample the wares of the "Hot Dog King" catty corner from the theatre! My stomach enjoyed Greenville very much!

After our opening night performance, Casbah (a local restaurant) hosted an opening night party for us. On my way home from the party, I stopped in to hang out with the crew boys as they thew darts and unwound from the load-in. We had a good time playing shuffleboard and hanging out at Barley's Taproom (more than 70 beers on tap). I was headed back up Main Street for the hotel when a bunch of the Spamily ambushed me from inside City Tavern and lured me inside for another night cap. The signature drink of City Tavern is an alcoholic slushie (forever known to me as hang-over-in-a-cup). Hilarity ensued.

Piper & Berg's belly

Paddy, JV & Bree

Greenville marked the final week of performances for another of our ensemble members: Brian O'Brien. We can't just let someone leave quietly around here, so Piper (our self-proclaimed "Cruise Director" - I wonder who will arrange her going away party in Milwaukee?) arranged a pub crawl to bi Brian farewell. It was a five stop affair with about a half an hour scheduled in each establishment. The five bars covered all the bases: Irish bar (his name is O'Brien after all), dive bar (complete with beer pong), brew pub, tap house and alcoholic slushies. I, of course, took photos:

Brian traveling between stops. Someone tied this "Happy 21st Birthday" baloon to his belt loop...


Piper lines up her Beer Pong shot

Just as the show came down on Friday night, the heavens opened in a massive spring time thunder storm. It was pouring buckets outside with plenty of thunder and lightening. Rather than make the trek up main street in the deluge, teams Company & Stage Management decided to watch the storm and hope it slowed down. Karl got a bottle of wine out of his roadbox, Brian O'Brien found a string of Christmas lights to string up and we turned off the office lights and watched it storm. About the time we all finished our glass of wine, the storm slowed down and we were able to get back to the hotel.

Brian in front of our rain-streaked office window

As his own farewell to the company, Brian hosted shot night. He didn't just make shots, however. He hosted a full on party in the rehearsal studio. Brian made pomegranate margaritas in an empty five gallon water jug, he sliced limes for Coronas, had music playing and set up a flip cup table in the center of the room! We played several rounds of flip cup and introduced the game to a bunch of new players.

Ken pours himself a margarita


Angelina had a hard time downing her shot of beer


Ryan anchors his team to a win, while Graham feels the agony of defeat

After shot night, many of us progressed up the street to the Marble Slab Creamery for an ice cream social.

Tim brought along a "to go cup" to the ice cream social


Tera-Lee and her sundae

Greenville has been working on revitalizing their downtown since the 60's (when they narrowed Main Street and landscaped it). The effort has taken many forms, but one of the most fun is the "Mice on Main" installation. A local high school senior came up with the idea and raised the necessary funds to install 9 small bronze mice along the length of Main Street. The idea is based on the children's book Goodnight, Moon. There are clues as to where to find the mice and it becomes a fun hunt to find all nine!

Mice on Main - this is Mouse #1 with a bronze copy of Goodnight, Moon

The revitalization has spread to the other side of the Reedy River as well. The West End - another former warehouse and milling district - is continuing the Main Street shopping, dining and strolling. The anchor for this part of the development is Fluor Field at the West End, home of the Greenville Drive. The Drive are the single A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and their new home is a mini-Fenway. West End Stadium has the same dimensions of the storied Boston ballpark complete with "Pesky's Pole" along the rightfield line and a 30' "green monster" in left field with a hand operated scoreboard in the wall. Though the drive were out of town all week, I took a walk to the park and peered through the fence. It looks like quite a place to see a game. I'm told that the Drive sell quite well despite the fact that they sing Sweet Caroline - which is oddly more appropriate in South Carolina than Massachusetts...

It was a fun week in Greenville, I was sad to leave this great town. On Monday, Karl and I split a rental car for the 4 hour drive to Raleigh, NC. The Spamalot tour of state capitols continues!

The week in photos can be found here.

JV