Welcome to this month's, day-late G2GR, coming to you live from the
Croswell tour bus somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It's very
indicative that I'm writing this month's newsletter from the bus, as we
are definitely heading into a heavy Bus-and-Truck final stretch. When I
last left you, we were playing to great audiences in Nashville. We
finished up there with the crowds remaining great before we moved into
the majors... Chicago! A full, two-week, sit-down in Chicago's own Cadillac Palace Theater.
A truly amazing theater right in the heart of the theater district of
an amazing city. As promised from last month, our “surprise” PR event
was filming a national TV spot singing “Dames!” Check it out!
Our director was with us for a little more putting on the finishing
touches as we started our “Nellie Transition”, phasing one amazing
Nellie out for a new amazing Nellie. We also had to replace an ensemble
guy, who is leaving to be Choreographer for a production of a show he
had been a part of last year. Pretty cool stuff that he's now working on
both sides of the “table”. From Chicago we moved to Springfield,
Peoria, and Detroit (home of the incredibly ornate, 5000 seat Fox Theater) before trekking to the east coast again. We just finished a split week in Utica, NY and New Haven, CT (home of the Shubert Theater,
where South Pacific debuted 69 years ago). We're now on the bus headed
for Elmira, NY... like I said, we're in the bus-and-truck phase for
sure!
From outside the Green Room:
I've been able to SEE theater again this month! I never realized how
much I missed SEEING it and not just making it. It's very inspirational
and motivational to be back in the audience of some fantastic
productions. In Chicago, we were able to catch a matinee performance of “American Idiot”.
A really cool, high energy production that was made even cooler by
hanging out with the cast afterwards (benefits of having tons of mutual
theater friends!). While in Detroit, the NETworks (our parent company) production of “Shrek”
was playing and we were able to get tickets to that. We even got a
special shout out during the show. That show looks like such a blast to
do. We also got to hang out after at a company sponsored “gathering”
afterwards. Great time to exchange war stories, catch up with old
friends, and make new friends! Finally, last night, after a matinee
performance in New Haven, we took off for neighboring Hartford to catch
the NETworks production of “Les Miserables”.
Wow. What a show. I knew there was a reason why it's my dream show...
so epic, so powerful, so amazing. It was really a great thing to get
back in the audience and appreciate theater, and look around and see
everyone appreciating it, just as they do in our own audiences... pretty
cool stuff.
Lessons Learned:
It's easy to burn out. And it's not necessarily a terrible thing to
feel exhausted. On a long tour like this (we just finished show #151),
it's to be expected, in fact. But the important thing is to not let it
impact your performance and not let it linger. When that exhaustion,
that fatigue, that disinterest comes, it's important to find something
that re-motivates you. For me, this month of theater could not have come
at a better time. There is nothing more motivating that watching
colleagues (and sometimes friends) perform in big-time professional
theater productions. I was also able to steal down to New York City
while we were in New Haven to visit Morgana... I could not have asked
for a better reaction. I had feared I would grow anxious at even the
prospect of being back in NYC where I'm always busy and tired... but the
opposite was the case. I was excited to be back. Excited to get back to
training. Excited to get back to work on my next project. The
bus-and-truck phase is still going to be hard, but I know it's winding
down and I'll be back in NYC before I know it. Time to finish strong!
Hope all is well,
Andrew Mauney
www.andrewmauney.com
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