Norfolk, VA

The week in Norfolk was a quiet one; it was mainly taken up with business at the theatre. 

The week began, rather inauspiciously, with a long travel day.  As you might imagine, air travel from Ottawa to Norfolk is a roundabout affair.  Our first flight took us from Ottawa to Philadelphia where we had a four hour lay-over before the flight to Norfolk.  There were the usual indignities of air travel before the very full flights and in both cases the luggage compartment of the planes was over-full, resulting in a plea from the cabin staff to help put luggage from below under our seats to ensure that everything arrived with us.  The arrival into Norfolk was dramatic, in a good way.  We landed with the setting sun reflecting off the Chesapeake Bay and highlighting the many ships at dock in the Norfolk Naval Station.

We disembarked and headed for the baggage carousel.  As the Spamily started to drift away, a few of us were left hopefully looking at the empty belt.  It seems that even with our help in stowing extra luggage in the passenger compartment, the crew wasn't able to jam all our luggage onto the planes and some was left behind.  The airline delivered all the "delayed" luggage in the early morning hours of Tuesday.  While nothing was missing from my bag, Chris and Lynn had several items stolen from their "delayed" bag.  While I understand that there are human limits on what the airlines are capable of and that mistakes happen, it does seem to me that if the airlines are going to charge fees specifically for the carrying of checked bags ($140 in my case last Monday), their service in regards to that luggage should be commensurate.

The carousel goes round and round, but no more luggage was to arrive

  

The frustration of the travel was soothed, somewhat, by my arrival at the Candlewood.  I've spoken many times of my affection for this chain of hotels, and they worked their pleasant magic again last week.  There's nothing fancy about the chain, but they deliver exactly what I expect every time and I was happy to find it waiting for me at the end of a long day.  As the week turned rainy and grey, I was more and more inclined to stay in my cozy room.

TVFMHRW

Spamalot played Chrysler Hall for the week in Norfolk.  The building opened in 1972 and is run by the city of Norfolk.  It sits on a plaza with Norfolk SCOPE Arena.  The arena (in addition to having the world's largest concrete dome at a diameter of 440') is also home to a convention center in it's lower levels.  The two venues share a parking garage under the plaza and were a part of the city's early downtown revitalization project.  As tends to be the case with the municipal venues we play, Chrysler Hall was pretty spartan.  The dressing rooms were concrete block and a little shabby.  

Chrysler Hall as seen from the plaza

Team Stage Management at work in our cramped dressing room turned office

The municipal ownership of the building did provide the basis for one of my favorite exchanges of the tour, thus far.  We were starting a put-in rehearsal for Steven Wenslawski on Tuesday afternoon when the custodian arrived to clean the auditorium.  He fired up a gas powered leaf blower and started blowing the confetti around.  Of course, the sound of a lawnmower engine running during rehearsal is a little distracting, so I approached him and the following conversation ensued:

Me: "Hi!  I'm sorry but we're rehearsing onstage until around 5.  Is there any chance you could come back afterwards to finish cleaning the auditorium?"

Him: "No, I'm only on 'til 4:30.  I was trying to be quiet.  The other machine we have is even louder."

Me: "Hmmmm...  OK, well let me go talk to my boss and see if we can't find a compromise."

Him: "Hang on, I have an idea.  (Now speaking into a radio) "Earl, they're having a rehearsal on stage and I can't run the machine.  Any chance you could send over some of the inmates with brooms?"

Earl: "Sure.  They'll be there in a minute."

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later a Sheriff's deputy arrives to check out the scene in the auditorium.  He's soon joined by 3 prisoners in orange jump suits who sweep up the confetti.  Magical.

The auditorium of Chrysler Hall featured this interesting triangle pattern on the ceiling.  The cross-pieces did make hanging and focussing lights a challenge...

Tuesday was taken up with load-in and opening night.  Wednesday afternoon we put-in Steven.  Thursday we had an understudy rehearsal.  During the day on Thursday, it rained pretty hard.  No one had any trouble getting to rehearsal, but by show call the rain had begun to cause problems.  Portions of Interstate 264 flooded and were made impassable.  Several crew members and a fair number of cast members were caught up in the ensuing traffic jam.  By half-hour, it was clear we had a problem.  At the fifteen minute call, we were still missing more men than we had swings to cover for them!  Brad Bradley (Patsy) was on vacation all week with Darryl scheduled to perform in his place putting Nigel on in Darryl's role as Sir Bors.  Chris Sutton (Historian/Prince Herbert) was caught in the traffic jam so Ken elected to have Matt Allen cover for Chris, putting Graham (our second and final male swing) on as The Nun.  Erik Hayden was also caught in the traffic meaning that we would have to combine some tracks to cover his role as Sir Not Appearing.  

The lobby board as it appeared at ten minutes to curtain.  I've never filled it all the way up before!

While I was adjusting the lobby board, Erik arrived and we were able to get him ready by showtime, meaning we had all the tracks covered.  Of course, the traffic jam also meant that some audience members had trouble reaching us as well, so the house was happy to delay the curtain a bit.  The last minute substitutions meant that Ken had to make an announcement of the cast changes.  After he went through the long list of changes, he apologized for the delay, announced that we would start shortly and promised "laughs will ensue!"  Meanwhile, he walked the halls singing: "It's fun Thursday, wacky, upside down Thursday..."  We eventually got the show started around 8:15.

With so much of the week taken up with rehearsal, most of my view of Norfolk looked like this.  Gurr & Erik are rehearsing the "mud mound scene" ("If I said that some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!") as part of  Thursday's understudy run.

By Friday, I was ready to get out and see some of the Hampton Roads region.  I started with a breakfast near the eponymous beach of Virginia Beach.  In my quest for a good breakfast spot in the area, I stumbled up Mr. Breakfast's Restaurant Reviews.  This is somewhat akin to my discovery of roadfood - how did I find things without these internet resources?!?!  I invited Gurr and Suzanne to join me at the Pocahontas Pancake and Waffle House.  I don't know who thought of using the legendary Native American to sell breakfast foods, but the good people at this breakfast dive play it for all it's worth.  There are murals depicting Pocahontas with the people of Jamestown surrounding the dining room.  A teepee has been constructed over the rear entrance to the restaurant and a wooden Indian stands in the middle of the dining room.  Food network featured the restaurant in 2002 and their breakfast stood up to the endorsement.

Gurr snapped this photo of me after breakfast w/ his IPhone

In the afternoon, I set out to learn more about the area's maritime history at Nauticus, a maritime themed science museum on Norfolk's waterfront.  The area is home to the world's largest naval base (Naval Station Norfolk occupies 4 miles of waterfront) and many smaller bases as well.  The area is home to one of the world's largest natural harbors (the so-called "Hampton Roads" sits at the confluence of the James River, Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake Bay) and is far enough south to be ice free all year long, so it's importance to shipping has long been apparent.  During the civil war, the waters around Norfolk were hotly contested and it was here that the first ironclad ships (the Merrimack and the Monitor) did battle.  With the 1907 Jamestown exposition, the area's involvement as a major naval base began to take shape.  The exposition grounds were later turned into Naval Station Norfolk and it was from here that the "Great White Fleet" got underway for their world tour.  

Nauticus houses all kinds of exhibits on the Jamestown Exposition, the Chesapeake Bay, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.  It is also home to the USS Wisconsin.  The Wisconsin is one of the first of the first Iowa Class battleships.  She was launched in 1943 and served in WWII, Korea and the first Gulf War.  The ship earned 6 battle stars and, even now, is held in reserve by the Navy.  She is outfitted with 5 16" guns that fire projectiles weighing as much as a Volkswagen Beetle more than 25 miles.  The ship positively bristles with weapons - for the Gulf War she was retrofitted with Tomahawk missiles - embodying the name "battleship".  Sitting in the Norfolk harbor, the Wisconsin is a powerful reminder both of the areas rich naval tradition and of those who served.

 

The Iowa Class of battleships all featured this distinctive, bulbous prow

The Wisconsin's 6 forward 16" guns - when the guns are fired, the force of the explosion pushes the 45,000 ton Wisconsin noticeably in the other direction. 

(The airplane is one of the Navy's Blue Angels mounted to the roof of the Nauticus Museum.)

Between shows on Saturday, several of us went out in search of some Roadfood.  The only listing in Norfolk is for Doumar's Cones and Barbeque.  The owner's of Doumar's claim that Abe Doumar invented and sold the first ice cream cones at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.  Several other people also claim to have invented the ice cream cone at that same moment at the World's Fair, but the claim seemed like as good a reason as any to head out for barbeque and ice cream!  The restaurant is a classic drive in complete with car hops and trays that mount to a car's window.  It also features a small interior diner where we ate our chopped barbeque sandwiches  safely out of the rain.  The place did a brisk business in burgers, fries and soda fountain classics (my lime-aid was delicious).  After dinner we all partook of the famous cones and pronounced them tasty.

The world's first ice cream cone machine

After his return to Coney Island from the World's Fair, Abe Doumas invented this machine to speed the creation of his cones - they still use it today.

Karl enjoys his cone

Before long, it was time to say goodbye to Norfolk.  I was booked on the early flight to Boston on Monday morning, anxious to head north and visit one of my favorite cities and some of my favorite folks (my wife and several of my friends are converging on Beantown to celebrate Shannon's birthday).  I'll leave you with a couple of my favorite snaps from the week:

A large floral arrangement graced the lobby of Chrysler Hall.  In honor of Spamalot the florist included some special touches...

Every time I see the Giant Wooden Rabbit peeking out from behind the masking drapes, it makes me smile.  What could better embody the absurd side of the humor of the Pythons than this oversized prop?

JV