On the road again

I went on tour with the current show that I'm working on to Hamilton, New York. It is a small town in upstate New York, remarkable only in that it is the home of Colgate University.

In the middle of November, our minds were turned to worries of snowstorms and blizzards that would either prevent us from getting there, keep our audience sizes to less than a dozen, or trap us in the one-street town. Luckily for us, it was unseasonably warm, with no snow on the ground, and even a drizzle or two. Wildlife turned out to be a bigger problem, when the person in front of us hit a deer as we were driving the 16' box truck. No one hit any deer, or had any other driving mishaps, and we were all safely in the middle of nowhere.

We shuttled from the hotel to the theater on the town's main road (and the only 'highway' for miles), passing college bars, a nice variety of restaurants, and a post office. There was a gas station, but I didn't see a grocery store. I bet it was there, somewhere. Couldn't have been too far away.

Touring a show is a lot of work, and we hadn't done this show in over a year, so this stop was a major learning opportunity to get the kinks out and get situated. Which meant a lot of hours in the theater. Finally, on the penultimate day, I got an hour off. Then Saturday, I got most of the day off. Luckily, this time was enough to exhaustively explore Hamilton, NY (except I never did find a grocery store... Puzzling. But I wasn't looking for one).

Then a late-night strike, a celebration with the cast, and an early morning drive back. Like clockwork, we're back in Philly, the show is packed up and awaiting our next venture, and life goes on.