Dear, snowy Utica-

You are the proud owner of a gorgeous Mexican-Baroque theatre, thank you for letting us finish our rehearsal process in the depths of the Stanley. We worked nearly nonstop to get the show up and running, taking a small break on Christmas day for a celebration. Our company management planned a dinner for us at the oldest country club in the United States. The club is normally closed in the winter, it’s a charming little wooden lodge, thoroughly uninsulated and underprepared for a troupe of nearly 75 to dine at the end of December. We were greeted with cubed, out-of-season fruit, a geometry of cheese, an open bar and two lapping fires.

 

Though my disdain at the pink watermelon was visible (in December? In Utica?), I was undeniably happy to be taken care of for an evening. Sifting through Yelp reviews and Google maps for food every day is at once exciting and exhausting. Christmas, I will allow your Costco appetizers, for I did not have to gather them on my own. Plus, I was promised a holiday dinner…We settled into tables of 10 while the waitstaff shuttled out a roasted turkey to each party. Our company manager jumped around and instructed us to pick a “Dad” at each table, someone responsible for the carving. I gracefully accepted my table’s nomination (though had they not nominated me for the task I would have graced them with my fangs) and performed surgery on our bird. I watched as other tables shredded their fowl, serving strands of white meat and hunks of drumstick. I grinned and knew the satisfaction of a perfectly dismembered turkey. We ate deeply that night, drinking and laughing, knowing the next morning would bring more rehearsal and a performance. We experienced the usual “actor’s panic,” that moment when you’re positive the show you’re rehearsing will never come together. And then, of course, the miracle of dimmed lights set us right and we held a newly birthed beast, delicately in our hands, ready for public consumption.

Utica, I will not miss you, but I will remember you. Thank you for the perfect Dominican food and a sold out first preview.

Pittsburgh!

We officially opened our show this past week in the city of its inception. Pittsburgh spoiled us with a sold out run. Our first two days in the new theatre (Heinz Hall) were riddled with technical challenges and physical depletion, but (again with the stage miracle) when it came time to have our proper Opening Night, we danced with the light and sang with fresh voices.

In Pittsburgh I ate at only two restaurants. The nose-to-tail Meat and Potatoes and the char-grilled Wingharts. Never have I ordered a burger medium-rare and been served such a perfectly timed specimen. And their fries! Believe me when I tell you this, the basket that comes to your table will be piled with nary a soggy stick in sight. Every fry crisp, some even more gloriously dark and ready to crash into shards in your mouth than others.

The show is plugging along, we’re on a flight to St. Louis right now and I’m already planning my foodventures in that fair city. We start understudy rehearsals this week, and considering my docket of three extra characters, I imagine I’ll be in the studio nearly every day.

Are we coming to your city? Say hello!

Here are some production shots and a few pics of us dolled up for opening night.

 

I leave you with this final note:
I was hoping to do a little on-the-road cooking during this tour and brought an induction burner as my travel companion. Yesterday, in transit from Pittsburgh to St. Louis it met a shattering death and I arrived to find my suitcase covered in little glass shards. I’m debating buying a cheap hotplate to use with my wok, but also considering a vow of no cooking for 6 months. Thoughts?