Peoria, Illinois: population 113,000. Home and headquarters of Caterpillar Corporation. Largest city on the Illinois River. Quintessential American city (Will it play in Peoria?).
The world headquarters of Caterpillar Corporation
Admittedly, I've been having a hard time writing this blog post. Peoria was not the most exciting city on the tour thus far; nor was it the most boring. I suspect we all would have enjoyed Peoria a lot more had the weather been nicer and I can hardly fault a city for Mother Nature's unkindness... There were a few notable events during the week: we continued rehearsals with Richard Chamberlain, we bid farewell to Jonathan Hadary and we all nearly froze to death.
Spamalot's home for the week was the Peoria Civic Center. The Civic Center is a large complex that houses not only the theatre, but the convention center and Carver Arena (home to the Peoria Rivermen hockey team, Peoria Pirates arena football team and the Bradley University Braves). The complex was designed by Philip Johnston (architect of the Seagram Building and winner of the first Pritzker Architecture Prize). The Civic Center's exterior is quite lovely, a sweeping glass arcade connects the three components of the complex and is a wonderful contrast to the turn of the century German Renaissance city hall that it surrounds. The interior of the theatre's auditorium, however, is not very welcoming. It's very boxy and not very warm. The balcony and boxes surround the orchestra in rectangular level with lattice fronts. The whole effect is rather like an un-lovely beer garden.
The exterior of the Peoria Civic Center Theatre
The interior
Work-wise, the big event of the week was the transfer of Royal Power. Richard Chamberlain continued rehearsals throughout the week in Peoria, culminating in his full company put-in rehearsal on Friday. (Richard's presence in Peoria didn't go unnoticed, the local paper accompanied their review of Spamalot with a piece about patrons sighting Richard in the audience.) Sadly, Richard's put-in meant the end was near for Jonathan Hadary's reign as King Arthur. The company threw Jonathan a going away party on Friday evening and folks from every department attended to toast him. Jonathan was not only a wonderful King on-stage, but was a wonderful company member and friend. I truly enjoyed his wonderful backstage stories and his entire run. I was sad to see him go on Sunday.
Francesca snapped this great photo of Jonathan at his going away party.
I snapped this picture during Saturday's performance - Jonathan as King Arthur with all of his knights assembled to face Tim the Enchanter
The occasion for my backstage photo taking was the first appearance of David Havasi in the Sir Galahad track. Ben Davis took a night off and David got his first crack at the role. This is one of my favorite snaps: David as Father as seen from upstage of the drop.
The midwest was in the deep freeze the whole week. Thursday was the only day I wasn't called to the theatre for rehearsal, which would usually have meant that I would be out and about exploring. When I awoke on Thursday morning, the mercury stood at -15 degrees; the forecast high was zero. I opted to stay inside. In fact, that was how much of the week went. There were only brief forays outside to get food and head to the theatre.
It never warmed all the way up to zero on Thursday... Saturday's high (around the freezing mark) felt positively balmy!
I did get out a bit on Sunday morning. I ventured down to the riverfront to explore a bit. Peoria is obviously trying to capitalize on its waterfront. A large museum complex is under construction next door to the Caterpillar complex and several restaurants are situated in a park on the banks of the Illinois. Sadly, in the bitter cold that dominated the week, the 15 minute walk to the waterfront was and awfully long march.
"The Spirit of Peoria" sits at her dock, locked into the ice and awaiting the warmer weather
TVFMHRW across icy Peoria Lake and the Illinois River.
The Army Corps of Engineers keeps a single channel in the river open to barge traffic all winter. On alternating days the traffic moves North then South through the channel.
All of this is not to say there was no fun to be had in the cold. On Tuesday after the show, Wayne and I cabbed it over to East Peoria and the Par-A-Dice Casino. While Wayne wasn't as fortunate, I left $150 ahead for the evening! On Thursday night, the company headed to Peoria's biggest attraction, Big Al's. Big Al's bills itself as a world famous strip club, and while that might be an exaggeration, it is certainly a local institution - even earning a mention in the show's peasant scene. We celebrated Christopher Sutton's birthday with "steak and boobies". (The food at Big Al's was, actually, quite tasty; inspiring the cast and crew to come up with all manner of variations on the "steak and boobies" theme, many of which aren't fit to be repeated here...) Of course, the women of the Spamily were not letting the men go unescorted, and a good time was had by everyone in attendance.
We closed with a Sunday matinee, meaning we could be off to our next engagement after the show. While the crew loaded-out, the cast loaded onto a bus bound for Chicago & a bonus day off in the Windy City on Monday!
Some enterprising member of the Spamily stuck this bottle of wine in a snow drift outside the bus to chill until departure time!
JV
P.S. - There's an article in this week's Times Magazine about a Philip Johnson house in CT.
1 comment:
The shame of It! How embarrassing is it for " Big Al's " , a glorified strip club, to be considered as " Peoria's biggest attraction " . Has the our town lost ALL it's dignity?
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