To Begin With: The End

I am now at home, and the 2017 run of To Begin With has come to an end.  This is the story of the final week, and my farewells:

After my two days off, driving around the Twin Cities it was back to the Wesley Center on Wednesday to prepare for my final few days of performing.  Our call was early on Wednesday as Dennis was keen to carry out a video and photo shoot, so as to give us some new promotional materials for future tours.

Kasey and Bob were on hand to get me into my wig, and I was soon ready to face the cameras.  The main point of the session was to film a series of very short video clips so that our UK producer, Paul Savidant, could start to work selling the show to a few British venues.

The video camera was set up with little delay (which is rare for video cameras), and we started filming little 20 second chunks from the beginning of the show all the way through the first scene.  Each section was filmed from straight on, then house left and finally house right.  It actually took a remarkably long time – I spent three hours under the hot lights, performing scenes and changing costumes back and forth, and listening as Dennis called out the next scene that he required.

Eventually we broke with little more than an hour to rest before having to prepare for the evening show.

It was a sad fact that our final week saw disappointing small audiences, which was illustrative of a major miscalculation on all our parts.

The play, as you know, is based on The Life of our Lord and deals with Dickens’ own faith and knowledge of the gospels.  Dennis had thought that the run up to Easter would be perfect timing and he could concentrate his marketing to the many large churches in the Twin Cities; he was convinced that this would be a fruitful source for our target audience.  But he was to be severely disappointed.

What Dennis had not expected was the rather un-Christian attitude taken by the Churches themselves to a production that they saw as a rival to their own activities.  None booked groups, none informed their membership, none announced the show during their Sunday services. In the week leading up to Easter the expected full houses never materialised and we ended up playing to 40 or 50 people, which was a huge shock and disappointment to us all.

However, if the audiences were small they were splendidly responsive and I had a great fun building a relationship with each group and hearing them laugh and responding to all of Jeffrey’s brilliant lines.

The most important day of my week was Thursday, as it was then that Liz arrived from England, so that she could be with me to the end of the run.  Throughout the day I tidied, dusted, cleaned and washed, wanting to make my home welcoming for her.  At 3.30 I joined Rosalie at the office and we drove to the airport, parked and made our way to international arrivals, where we waited in front of a large sign which read:  WAIT HERE IF YOU ARE MEETING OR GREETING PASSENGERS ON INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS.  Why ‘meeting’ and ‘greeting’?  Can you meet a passenger without greeting them, or can you greet them without meeting?

Eventually the passengers coming through the door began to boast English accents and in no time Liz appeared and I was at last able to meet and greet her.

Of course she was jet lagged, and rather struggled through the Thursday night show, nodding a dozing nod a few times.

On Friday we hired two of the bikes and cycled up to the Minnesota Institute of Art and spent a wonderful morning admiring the fabulous collections of American and European paintings and being amazed that we are standing as close to a Van Gough canvas as Vincent himself was when he painted it.

Friday night’s performance (Good Friday) came and went and the Crucifixion scene was passion-filled – unsurprisingly.

Saturday dawned wet and miserable so we spent most of the day in the apartment, before going to the theatre for the final two performances.  There was a strange atmosphere in the dressing room.  Bob was so upset that our run was coming to an end, and gave me a carefully wrapped gift with instructions not to open it until we got home.

It being a Saturday night, the set had to be removed entirely, ready for the following day’s Easter Sunday services, and everyone was ready for a late night.  I gave cards to everyone that was there, along with special To Begin With pens, that I had ordered for the whole team, but many were not present: Jeffery was away, Kasey and Callista had gone home for Easter, Michaels light and sound had not been around since the start of the run.  Even the audience seemed to have deserted us and our final night had an awful sense of anti-climax to it.

At the end of the show rather than have a celebration in the dressing room, everyone was busy striking the set and even the cake we had brought remained un-eaten in the green room.

Bob helped me remove the wig, I got changed, we said our goodbyes and walked away into the night.

It was a strange way to end what had been an amazing run.  The show had developed over the course of the month and we have brought it to a stronger place than two years ago.  It deserves an audience, it deserves more and I have no doubt that we will reprise it in some way over the coming few months – either in America again or hopefully in England – maybe even Ireland.

Liz and I made our way to Brits Pub and partook of their fine fish and chips before returning to the apartment for our last night in Minneapolis.

On Sunday morning my first action was to start trimming my beard right back, gradually turning myself from Charles Dickens back to Gerald. 

 

Half and Half

 

Having cleared up as many of the hair trimmings as I could, we left the apartment and walked through the city to enjoy a wonderful lunch courtesy of our good friends David and Teresa who had flown from Baltimore to see the show two weeks previously, and had generously given us a gift card for one of the downtown restaurants.  We toasted our Easter celebrations with Prosecco and were delighted when Jeffery popped in to say good bye and give me his closing night gift – a brilliant model of the set with a cut-out me (probably so that I can practice my moves ready for the next performances).

We spent the afternoon cleaning the apartment before Dennis arrived to drive us to the airport.  Outside Terminal One we hugged and thanked the man that has made all of this possible; a man who twenty years ago had a dream, and who through his persistence, diligence and faith has brought it to reality.

We did what you do in an airport, killing time until finally we were able to board our 767 and take off into the night sky.  When next we saw land it was British and as we broke through the clouds we did so right over the top of Eton College, which features in the script and which I have been referencing for the last month

And now we are back home, learning how to live real life again.  It is spring in England and the garden is burgeoning and colourful. 

True to my word I hadn’t opened Bob’s gift until I got home, and when I carefully peeled back the diligently wrapped folder I found the most beautiful costume designer’s rendering of Charles Dickens in his linen suit and green waistcoat – a perfect reminder of every night at 7.30 when I strode to the stage, turned to face the audience and said:

‘Disagreeable evening!  Lost an argument with Swinburne about the meaning of Christ and the existence of God!’

 

 

 

Thank You Twin Cities

My time in Minneapolis has seemed to pass by so quickly, and this week I had my final two free days before the last week of performances, which culminate on Saturday.

This week I wanted to go a little further afield, so I arranged to hire a car from the local downtown Avis office and on Monday morning I became the temporary owner of a bright blue Hyundai which would be my trusty steed for a couple of days.

Monday

Sadly the weather had taken a slight downward turn and although not actually raining it was very overcast and rather cloudy as I set out onto the streets of Minneapolis.  With all of my walking this time I have become quite familiar with the road system and could navigate my way towards the I35 without any problems.  My first port of call was the town of Stillwater (I know every American conurbation calls itself a city, but that is just too a large a term for some).

Dennis had suggested that a visit to Stillwater would be a nice thing to do, as it is a pretty riverside town.  The drive didn’t take long and soon I was parking on the main street which was lined with beautiful old warehouse buildings from the Victorian era.  The town is built on the banks of St Croix River and boasts to be the birthplace of Minnesota, as it was here that the Territorial convention was signed that led to the creating of first the Territory and later the State.

The main industry here was originally lumber and the town seems inappropriately named for the river seemed to be flowing very fast, with eddies and currents across its width.  On the far bank is the State of Wisconsin, where the football supporters wear cheese on their heads, and people indulge in the ancient past-time of cow-tipping – maybe I will save all that for another trip!

I spent a lovely hour in Stillwater, before getting back on the car and exploring.  I had noticed on the map ‘White Bear Lake’ which looked and sounded interesting, so I headed there.  As I neared my second destination never had my point about the town/city status been more clearly proven, for I drove past a sign to the ‘City of Gem Lake.  Population 393’!  Now, that can NOT be a city!

Actually there was not a huge amount to see at White Bear Lake, and no beautiful walking trails around its perimeter, for the land was fully occupied by very large, sprawling and expensive-looking houses.  I circumnavigated the lake as best I could and then headed back towards Minneapolis, passing on the way a rather distressingly named business:

I hope they have a very big workshop!

Before returning to the apartment I had one final stop and that is the Minnehaha Falls located on the outskirts of Minneapolis.  Apparently Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was inspired by the name of the falls when he came to write The Song of Hiawatha:

‘At the door on summer evenings, sat the little Hiawatha; Heard the whispering of the Pine-trees, heard the lapping of the water, Sounds of music, words of wonder; “Minne-wawa!” said the pine-trees, “Mudway-aushka! said the water.’

The falls became a popular attraction in the Victorian era and part of a Minnesota grand tour.  Tourists would arrive in St Paul by Mississippi steamers and then visit Fort Snelling (the first area to be settled by non-indigenous folk), St Anthony’s Falls and Minnehaha park.

The waterfall is not a high one, but certainly cascades with a great deal of force and creates some wonderful photo opportunities, including the inevitable cliché of the slow exposure, giving the misty ghostly look.  I know I am not the first person to have done that!

The falls and the river are set in a lovely spacious park, although the ravine itself was disappointingly covered in graffiti and litter.

As I walked back to the car I passed an inconsequential little white structure, which proved to be the first building on the west river bank in Minnesota (originally near the St Anthony’s Falls, but moved here a few years ago).  The house was used as a ferryman’s cottage, and was built in 1850, which is three years after our play is set: such are the vagaries of history.

 

Tuesday

If the weather had been overcast on Monday it was with amazement that I woke to snow on Tuesday.  You can never fully trust the weather in Minnesota.

My Tuesday travels wouldn’t take me so far afield, as I planned to visit the ‘other twin’, St Paul, which is only about fifteen minutes away, which was just as well for when I arrived I discovered that I’d left my wallet back in the apartment, so had to drive back to collect it!

In my early years of touring I performed in the beautiful historic St Paul Hotel, and one of my annual treats was to visit the impressive Science Museum of Minnesota, where they have some amazing exhibits, including a remarkable collection of dinosaur skeletons, which roamed the continent before mankind came along with his freeways and baseball parks.

As I walked in, the first thing I saw was a huge stuffed Polar Bear – maybe that is what they do at White Bear Taxidermy in White Bear Lake.

The museum was packed with children on their Spring break (I assume they are not allowed to call it the Easter holidays here), and there was so much fun and laughter as they all ran from one interactive exhibit to another.  To be truthful it was a little too children-oriented for me, and I would have liked some more permanent displays to dully study like adults are supposed to do.

After an hour or so I walked through the city and up to the amazing Cathedral of St Paul (as opposed to the visually similar St Paul’s Cathedral in London), which sits high on a hill overlooking the city.  Walking up to it was rather like clambering up Montmartre towards the basilica of Sacre-Coeur in Paris.

The Cathedral was almost empty and dressed ready for the Easter services throughout the week, with every cross humbly shrouded.  It was a silent and moving experience.

Outside, at the top of the cathedral steps I looked over the old city of St Paul and had a wonderful view of the State Capitol building, which heighted the Parisian theme, for it is built from white marble.

I walked back into town, and passed my old stomping ground at the St Paul Hotel, before returning to the museum to watch an IMAX film.  Again this was a habit from the old days: I just love the scale of the films and it doesn’t really matter what is playing.  I settled myself into my seat and looked up at the dome above me, and waited for the fun to start. Not only is the scale impressive, but I rather like the fact that it is on film, rather than digital, and every now and then a piece of dust would get caught in the gate and flicker across the gigantic screen, which gave me a warm nostalgic feel.

The film itself?  Oh, it was about  a raft trip along the entire length of the Nile, but that is not important at all.

And so my two days of play had come to an end.  I dropped the car back to Avis and walked to the apartment, where I did a little housework and laundry ready for the last remaining days of the show.

I have really enjoyed being in Minneapolis in good weather and have greatly appreciated the opportunity of exploring more than I have ever been able to do before.  It is a great city (no, they are great cities, for Minneapolis and St Paul are joined at the hip by the mighty Mississippi) and they have welcomed me and taken me in.

Thank you!

 

Week Two

Needless to say the second week of the show was less interesting than week one, which in turn was less interesting than the rehearsal period; by which I mean we are all getting to a point where the show runs smoothly and there are no great innovations to be made.  But each audience and each show is different so here is the run down of week two of ‘To Begin With’:

After three days off we all gathered back at the Wesley Center for a Thursday matinee which will in likelihood be the largest audience of the run.  Over two hundred seats had been booked by a Christian Academy and as 1.30 approached so yellow buses disgorged students ranging from the age of 11 to 17.

When Ben gave me my five-minute call I made my way from the dressing room, up the stairs, through the Daniel Group office and into the balcony from where I could look down on a full house below me: an excellent view!  From the balcony it was down another flight of stairs and into my little room at the back of the hall, where I waited for the opening music to begin.  On a regular performance I have been slipping through the door as the first bars ring through the hall, and then have surprised the audience by striding noisily from the back, but on this occasion the students somehow seemed to have a sixth sense and all 200 and whatever turned round and stared at me as I waited to begin – how did they know I was there?  How did they know that?  A few individuals at the back, maybe – but ALL of them?!

At the end of the performance we were due to have a brief talkback session on stage, which Dennis would moderate along with the school principal, but the latter couldn’t make it to the stage as he had to sort out an issue with the busses, so two teachers were delegated to take his place and made their way up to the stage completely unprepared.  Dennis talked a little bit about the creation of the show, and then left the two gentlemen to it, who looked like rabbits caught in headlights as they desperately tried to think of things to ask me.  I felt so sorry for them, and tried to make my answers as long as possible, so as to protect them from further struggles.  Eventually their time in purgatory was brought to end when the principal returned and announced that the busses were ready.

A welcome addition to Thursday evening’s performance was the return of Jeffery, who had popped back to the Twin Cities from his other project in Arizona.  After the show he drove me to a wonderful restaurant in the warehouse district of town where we ate dessert and talked literary James Bond – a shared passion.

On Friday and Saturday the audiences became more and more responsive and the play really began to work as I was able to react to both the laughter and the intense concentration of the audiences:  the show is a fabulous one, and when everything really clicks it becomes something very special indeed.

On Sunday 9 April we entered the last week of our run, and more especially the Easter week.  From here on in every day is referenced in the script and the lines began to have even more import and resonance.  For instance as Dickens checks his ‘cheat cards’ he picks up one that says ‘Jerusalem’.  As part of the rehearsal of his own play he says ‘Huge crowds gathered round him, crying: “Hosanna!”’  That of course refers to Palm Sunday – the day of our performance on Sunday.  When we get to Friday the passages describing the Crucifixion will certainly be packed with even more emotion than usual.

But that is all to come.  I am currently on a couple of day’s break before returning to the stage on Wednesday for an afternoon of photo and video shoots, before the last few days of our run commence.  On Thursday Liz will arrive from England to share in the last couple of days, and I can’t wait – I have missed her so much during the past three weeks, and it will be wonderful to see her again.

 

Finally

Whilst some of the lines become more meaningful thanks to the time of the year, others seem to impinge on everyday life too.  I shall share one in parting:  “But suddenly I recalled that part of the New Testament having to do with Christ’s forty days and nights in the wilderness.  Also known as the Temptation…”

Every evening as I leave the apartment to go to the theatre there is a little trolley set up in the lobby with complimentary champagne for the residents, and every evening I have resisted temptation!

 

Temptation….!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relax, Recharge and Play

From Monday to Wednesday I had three days to myself, in which to relax, recharge and play – this is what I got up to:

After a run of seventeen straight days of either rehearsing or performing I was completely shattered by Sunday night.  After the show I met with my good friends David Keltz and his wife Teresa who had flown in from Baltimore just to see the show, which was incredibly supportive and generous of them.  We naturally made our way to Brits Pub and coincidentally sat at the same table where my interview had been filmed two days before.

We talked about the show and ate a hearty dinner, but I was fading slowly and returned to the apartment a little before 9, where I went straight to bed and into the soundest sleep.

 

A Floppy Day

On Monday I had said that I would join David and Teresa for a bit of sightseeing, so I got out of bed, went to the gym to run, came back, had breakfast, and then could do nothing!  I was having what Liz and I call ‘a floppy day’, when body and mind cry ‘ENOUGH!’

I sent a message to my friends, knowing that they would fully understand (David is an actor who also performs one man shows), and spent the rest of the day in the apartment doing not very much, and letting my body slowly recharge.

In the evening I was due to meet with a gentleman whom my brother had met in London at a meeting of The Pickwick Club. Ian made the introductions and after a bit of emailing back and forth we found a time that we were both available to meet for a drink.  Jeff owns a café and restaurant in downtown Minneapolis and I decided to book a cab to visit him.  No, not a cab – Uber.   I have lived a sheltered life and tend to come to new ideas late in the day, and this was my first experience of the revolution in the taxi industry.  I was enthralled as I booked my car using the app and then watched the little icon navigate the streets of Minneapolis as it drove to pick me up at the door of the apartment.  It was rather like playing a live version of Pacman!

Jeff’s café is in the St Anthony’s district of town, right next to the rapids and falls in the Mississippi River around which the city grew.  He is a cool dude (not your usual Pickwickian), and reminded me rather of the actor Ted Danson.  We had a nice time, and he showed me his venues, including a function room overlooking the river in which he would like to stage some theatrical events.  I know my Christmas tour is almost booked for 2017 now, but I will put him in touch with the Byers and maybe something will grow from it.

Unfortunately Jeff had a business meeting so our visit was only a short one, however that suited me as I was ready for another early night.

 

On Yer Bike!

On Tuesday I was feeling a lot more with it, so contacted David and Teresa and invited them to breakfast at my favourite diner.  We spent a very happy hour or so talking about the show and where it might go from here.  They were very enthusiastic about the prospects of To Begin With, which was exciting to hear:  as a team you tend to get so wrapped up in a project and it is reassuring to know that an outsider’s perception is as positive as our own.

After breakfast they had to get back to the hotel to pack and check out, and I set off to explore my surrogate home town further.

Minneapolis has a system of rental bikes, as most large cities do these days, and after the long cold Minnesotan winter, the scheme had just been re-launched for the summer of 2017.

I signed up for a day’s pass, and hopped on the first bike and rode towards the Target Field Baseball stadium, where I purchased a Minnesota Twins Baseball cap, to keep the sun of my exposed forehead.

Each bike rental is for thirty minutes and if you go over that time you have to pay a penalty fee – even though I had paid for twenty four hours – so I had to make sure that I switched bikes often.  At the stadium I returned my first bike to the rack and took another one before cycling back down to St Anthony’s, where I spent longer walking along the trails by the riverside, and admiring the old mill buildings, which are being restored and turned into luxury studio apartments.  I walked across the famous stone arch bridge (so called because….well you can guess)

On the south bank of the river there is a partially demolished mill, onto the back of which has been built a modern glass and steel building: it is a very impressive structure, and houses a museum of mill life in the city.

Before I took another bike from the nearby stand, I returned to the Guthrie Theatre where I had seen King Lear two weeks ago, and explored right up to the 9^th floor, where there is an amber box giving an extraordinary view on all sides (including down, as it has a glass floor).

Time was moving on now, and I had to get back to the apartment ready for a live radio interview, so I took another bike and cycled through the heart of downtown Minneapolis and dropped my transport off right outside the Historic Wesley Center – what a fun day.

The interview was taking place at The Daniel Group’s offices in the Wesley Center, and Rosalie was there to let me in.  Actually it wasn’t an arduous task, for the presenter spent most of the thirty minutes telling his listeners how he had seen the show two years ago and how great it was, and how they couldn’t miss it, and how they must see it.  Really we got a thirty minute drive-time commercial for free, which was excellent.

At 4.30 it was time to move on again, and I was in for a wonderful relaxing, gentle evening in the company of our production designer Bob and his wife Mary, who had invited me to dinner.  They live a fair distance away, so Bob came to pick me up, and we drove through the rush hour traffic towards the beautifully-named Apple Valley suburb.

On the doorstep I met Mary and the third member of the household,  Buddy an energetic little ball of fur – a Chinese Shih Tzu.

Bob had been anxious that the evening should be relaxing, away from the city, away from work, away from restaurants and diners, and he succeeded on all counts.  It was such a fun, gentle, friendly time, and a great way to relax.  Between them Bob and Mary had prepared a salad and a delicious beef stew, followed by a homemade cherry pie with ice cream.  Time seemed to slip by unnoticed as we chatted about all sorts of things, and Buddy curled up next to me on the couch and nestled against me as he slept.  I felt very welcomed and very at home.  A lovely end to a lovely day.

 

Buddy

 

 

Take me to the Ball Game!

On the third and last of my free days I had discovered that the Minnesota Twins would be playing the Kansas City Royals at Target Field, so I had bought a ticket to go to my first ever ball game.

I arrived early, but the crowds were not big for a midweek, lunchtime fixture.  Various people had also told me that the Twins had had an awful season last summer, so the ticket sales were down.

I checked into the stadium and got my first glimpse of the field, which was smaller than I had imagined.  I walked all around the gallery behind the actual seating on my level and took in the ever-present smell of bratwurst and beer.  As the noon-day start time approached I took my seat: section 133, row 3, seat 12, and found myself surrounded by…nobody.  I had purposefully booked a seat next to others, so that I could play the foolish Englishman and ask about the game as it unfolded, but section 133 was deserted!  Maybe the other seats were taken by season ticket holders, who had elected not to come today.  Anyway, I settled in to take in as much as I could on my own.

 

Looking back at section 133.  My seat is in the middle of the wooden seats!

 

The game started with the raising of the American flag by a military veteran who got all of the admiration and respect that he deserved.  The anthem was played by a high school marching band who perkily marched onto the field and then perkily marched off again!

And the game started.  With the assistance of Google (made possible by free wifi throughout the stadium) and my own observations I began to understand more and more of the game.  Oft heard phrases such as ‘top of the fourth’, and  ‘bases are loaded’ began to make sense, and I got more involved with slow progression through the 9 innings.

I had assumed that American sport would be action-packed and with constant scoring (as basketball or ice hockey is), but actually the scoring opportunities in baseball are few and far between, and by the fifth inning the score was 3-0 to the Twins.  A game of twenty-twenty cricket would be much more exciting to watch, which is an extraordinary thought.

As the game moved on I went to buy a healthy lunch of bratwurst smeared with mustard and ketchup, a mug of beer and a bag of peanuts in their shells (Dennis had told me that this was the required dining option at the ball game)

For the second half of the game I walked around the balcony so that I could watch from different angles, and chatted with people similarly huddled under the heated lamps.  I learned a little more about the sport, one guy telling me: ‘only one thing you need to know about baseball – the New York Yankees suck!  I love watching them get beat as much as I loved watching the Twins win!’  Many people feel the same about the top rich teams in English Premiership football.

I felt much more part of the crowd standing among the hot dog stands, and cheered lustily with the rest of the ground at the bottom of the seventh when the Twins suddenly added 6 runs to their score.

 

The Twins batter, and a very brave umpire

 

That flurry of scores settled the match, as the Royals had only managed a single run, and the crowd were in a happy mood as the 9^th inning began.

With KC up first they had to score a further 8 runs to make the Twins bat again, and they showed no signs of getting close.  1 batter out, and two, and the third with two strokes against him, and now the crowd all stood and it was like being in the Coliseum as the Emperor gave the thumbs down sign.  Sure enough the poor batter struck out and a roar rose from the crowd.

I really enjoyed my day at the game and would love to come back, and although I am sorry for all my friends in Kansas City, I was delighted that the Twins were triumphant.

I walked back through the busy streets of the city and back to the apartment. My days of rest were at an end and on Thursday I will be back on stage as Charles Dickens once more, but Minneapolis had cosseted me and looked after me and entertained me.

Thank you!

 

Review

Whilst at Target Field I received an email alert with a link to the first online review of the show.  Here it is:

http://compendiummpls.blogspot.com/2017/03/to-begin-with-goes-back-to-beginning.html?camefrom=EMCL_1576274_61334871

 

 

 

Week One Complete

When last I left you, we had finished the first preview performance of To Begin With, to a standing ovation.  That was on Tuesday evening, and I have had  performances on every day since then.  Here are a few reflections on week one:

 

Promotion

Although our Tuesday audience was enthusiastic they were not large in number, and one of the most important things for us to do was to promote the show as hard as we could.  Of course Dennis and his team have been working on that over the last few weeks, with TV ads, press ads, lots of fliers and brochures, posters at the venue and the like.  However, now we were up and running we had to engage with the population of Minneapolis and shout ‘WE ARE HERE.  NOW!  COME AND SEE THE SHOW!’

As soon as we opened I spent a lot of time following as many Minneapolis businesses and organisations on Twitter as I could think of, sending messages including links to the box office.  I posted updates on Facebook, tagging Dennis, so that his network would get a new perspective on the show too.  Social media is a strange way of marketing, in that you have no idea how and where your efforts are being received, you just send them out there – into the ether: and it will ether work, or it won’t.

On a more a more substantial level the Hennepin Theatre Trust was organising a series of media events for Dennis and I to attend the first of which took place in my favourite haunt, Brits Pub.  The local CBS affiliate in the Twin Cities is WCCO, and their offices are situated just across the street from Brits.  The Saturday morning show has an occasional feature called ‘Out to Lunch’ in which the show’s hosts chat to a personality (usually an actor), over lunch in one of the city’s many restaurants.

At 11am Dennis and I turned up, and were introduced to the two presenters Mike and Susan-Elizabeth.  I had expected the interview to be quite staged and false, but nothing could have been further from the truth: we just chatted about me, the play and Charles Dickens while the camera man took shots from lots of different angles.  Lunch was served (good British fayre – fish and chips for Dennis and me, steak and ale pie for Mike and soup for Susan-Elizabeth), and we chatted on.

It was a very relaxed interview, much nicer than the studio-bound 45-second sound-bite filled affairs that TV usually likes so much.

On the same day we also visited the WCCO radio station and did a live interview on the highly popular afternoon show, so hopefully a large percentage of Minneapolis folk would now be aware of To Begin With.

It remains to be seen if the work has paid off, but hopefully the box office will begin to see more and more phone calls and online hits, and I will begin to see less and less empty seats as I stride through the auditorium at the start of the show.

 

The Routine

As the show got into its run, so my days fell into a steady routine, all leading to the 7.30 start time.  After the preview nights were finished our team began to disperse: Jeffrey flew back to Arizona to continue work on his Sherlock Holmes project, whilst both Michaels – light and sound – had other work that demanded their time and attention.  But now new members of the team arrived, led by Millie who is our front of house manager.  Each night she is responsible for organising the large team of volunteers supplied by the Hennepin Theatre trust, who act as ushers.  No, that’s not fair, they do  not act AS ushers, they ARE ushers!

I usually spend the morning walking in the city, catching up on shopping, maybe doing some work in the apartment, before having a light lunch, probably a salad.  Then I relax for a while, until I start to get ready about an hour before I am due at the theatre.  The first thing is to shave, which is quite a novelty for me, I can’t really remember the last time I had to shave daily (apart from 2 years ago, obviously, when I was performing To Begin With in Minneapolis); with my beard in full Dickens mode I have to make sure that there is no hint of 5’o clock shadow on my cheeks, so I shave just before each performance.  Next I have a brisk, cold shower to wake me up and energise me a bit, before gathering the things I need for the evening and making the long walk to the theatre, which takes all of 90 seconds, if the lift arrives quickly.

Once in the church I will say hello to everyone, before going to the dressing room where Bob will be preparing my costume and props.  Although his official title is ‘Production Designer’ he has taken on the role of dresser, and looks after me diligently and protectively.  Every night my shirts are ironed and starched, as are the two linen handkerchiefs that have to be hidden up my sleeves ready for Charles Dickens to produce with a flourish.  Bob is a godsend, and if anything hasn’t worked, or is difficult, he will think of a way to make it better and easier.

Whilst Bob irons and starches, so my wig is being primped by either Kasey or Callista who are sharing wig-mistress duties between them. An hour before show-time I sit in front of the mirror, and the process of becoming Dickens begins:  firstly a netted bandage (I believe medical in origin), which has been stained dark brown to match the wig, is stretched across my head, and then a million hair clips and pins are pushed through it into what there is of my own hair, to hold it tightly in place.  When the bandage is held firm, the wig itself is positioned on top, and then a million more pins and clips are pushed through it, the bandage and my hair.  I have so much metal in my curly locks, that I would never make it through airport security without setting off every alarm imaginable.  With the wig fully pinned in place, the front edge of the lace, to which the hairs are attached, is gummed onto my forehead, to hold it flat. Once everything is secure the styling takes place to create the slightly flyaway, wild hair that Dickens senior favoured, which is then incongruously held in place with a  good spray of hair lacquer.

The wig work is usually completed on the 30-minute call, and then I can get into the rest of my costume before pacing around the dressing room, muttering lines and anxious to begin.  Ben pops his head in at 20, 15, and finally at 5 minutes, when I walk to my position at the rear of the hall ready to begin.  This is when I get my first glimpse of the audience, who are all blissfully unaware that they are being spied on through a stained-glass panel.

More pacing, until Ben calls down the stairwell ‘are you ready?’ to which I reply ‘yes’ and the show starts: music, bells, walk through the audience, turn and ‘Disagreeable evening!’

 

The run so far

The show has been going well throughout the week, although the audiences have been frustratingly small – between 50 and 90, I suppose.  However, as we got to the end of the week, suddenly the numbers swelled and our Sunday house was much better, which hopefully means that the PR from earlier in the week is beginning to pay off.

The audiences, and therefore the performances themselves, have varied through the week.  Some crowds have laughed at every line, some have sat listening quietly and taking in the import of the words.  All have clapped enthusiastically, some have stood, some have not, but everyone has enjoyed the show.

We made one change during the week that has improved the scene in which Dickens is explaining Jesus’s miracles to his children.  The script calls for a flashy magic effect as Dickens says ‘the miracles Jesus performs are NOT magic tricks’.  In the past we have used a little device called a Funkenring, which nestles in my hand and on the required line emits a shower of sparks.  It is a clockwork mechanical device that has to be wound before the show, and although it worked OK it was never terribly impressive, and looked rather as if a more complictaed trick had gone wrong.  So frustrated did Ben become that he went to a magic shop and purchased a new effect that works like a little cigarette lighter.  The performer conceals the ring, and on the cue flicks the abrasive wheel, which sends sparks, which in turn ignites a wad of ‘explosive’ cotton, sending a tongue of fire into the air: much more effective and it certainly drew gasps from the audience, although I was careful to keep my lacquered wig away from it…..now there is a way of getting some extra publicity……

As Sunday’s performance came to an end, so it signalled a few days off for the first time since my arrival on March 16^th.  It has been a long and tiring eighteen days and I am looking forward to three days to myself, but I am sure I will soon start craving the stage again, and will be like a caged lion come Thursday morning.

In the meantime I intend to play tourist – more of which anon.