An Unexpected Audition and An Unexpected Companion

Tags

A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol First Edition, Cafe Royal, Charles Dickens, London, Mr Fezziwig, Shield Beetle, Winterthur

I woke early on Thursday morning (to be honest, my body clock simply hasn’t adapted through this whole trip), so I sat up in bed writing my blog post and sipping coffee, until it was time to get ready for breakfast. I had arranged to meet David and Teresa at 8.30, and I walked from The Carriage House, where my room was situated, to the main building and, just as I was asking for orange juice and coffee my friends joined me. We sat a large table and soon were tucking into plates of pancakes (David and I), and a frittata (Teresa). The conversation picked up easily from where it had ended the night before and the time sped by, until we had three empty plates before us. As we sat and talked, a message came in from home – Liz was just settling down to watch our youngest daughter perform in her school’s Nativity play: great things can come from Nativity performances! I showed pictures to David and Teresa and they ‘oooo’d and ‘ahhh’d’ appropriately. Soon, though the time had come for me to get back to my room to prepare for a Zoom call to the UK, and David and Teresa had to pack ready to leave, so we posed for our annual photograph and then returned to our respective rooms, having hugged goodbye in the car park.

My Zoom call was due to be with the banqueting team at London’s prestigious Cafe Royal, to go through the format of a dinner event I am performing there on December 22. There wasn’t a desk as such in my room, so I removed the light and little vase of flowers from the bedside table and moved it so that it was in front of the small armchair in the corner, which gave a plain view of the wall behind, avoiding seeing my suitcase, overflowing with clothes and my unmade bed.

At exactly 10 (3pm London time) the call connected, and my contact Kerry popped up, she was in a tiny office and behind her the entire team, including chef, maître d’ and banqueting manager were squeezed in. We went over the format of the evening during which I will be performing between the courses of a fine dinner, and just as I thought we were ready to wrap up, Kerry said ‘could you do a bit of what you do now? None of us know what it is.’ And so, I suddenly was performing a completely unprepared and unexpected audition from my little room in Fairville, Pennsylvania. I chose the beginning of Stave 2, the arrival of the Ghost of Christmas Past, and fortunately my efforts were greeted with smiles and laughter, which was good, and when I finished, I even got a little round of applause. I promised that I would send a link to my video of the show too, to give them a better idea as to what is involved.

With the call over I emailed Kerry with the video link and also sent it to David and Teresa who were keen to see my efforts, and then I began to make preparations for the day ahead which would involve two more shows at Winterthur. I probably wouldn’t have time to return to the Inn between commitments, so I made sure that I had everything that I would need.

Back at Winterthur the old store was deserted, and I went into the auditorium to check that everything on the stage was correctly placed for the first show, and also retrieved my costume from the night before, which I had left airing on the coat check rack at the back of the hall. Lois arrived and we went through the schedule of the day, and then I retired to change, while she sorted out her volunteers who would be greeting the audience.

At 1 o’clock I made my way to the hall, and asked Lois to place a mask on the side of the stage for me, so that if I got collared by various audience members after the show again, at least I could have some protection.

The first show went very well, and the audience was full of a lot of people who had seen the performance often, meaning we all had great fun together. It felt more relaxed than the evening before as I had learned my lesson about not trying too hard. It was a good show.

When the question and answers were done, and I had posed for a couple of (masked) pictures, I went back to my office and changed, and when I was sure that the hall was empty, I hung my costume on the rack again. I had a couple of hours to kill now, and Lois bought me a salad from the cafeteria, which was much needed. When I had finished eating, I went back to the stage and sat in the big red armchair on the set, it being the most comfortable place to rest.

The evening’s timetable was slightly different from the previous two, in that the show was reserved for members of Winterthur, and they had been promised a special pre-show event, during which there would be canapes and wine served, and at which I would make an appearance. It had been decided that it would be a good idea to do the question-and-answer session then, so I needed to be in costume at 4.45. The reception was in the cafeteria and when I came in there were plenty of people already eating, but they were spread widely throughout the large room, which would make being heard difficult. I took up a position as centrally as I could, and opened the floor to questions, which flowed freely. One of the last inquiries was ‘Do you think that Charles Dickens would be proud of you?’ I had to pause to consider this, because that is quite a thought, but eventually I answered, ‘I think that he would be, yes, because I am following his theatrical dream’. I followed up by saying that ‘However, if you should see a lightning bolt strike me down on the stage, you will know I was wrong!’

It was now 5.15 and the show was due to start at 6, so I wound the session up and returned to the office, or ‘the bunker’ as Lois christened it, to relax and prepare. I was aware that I had over-used my voice in the cafeteria, so I drank a lot of water, sucked some Fisherman’s Friends lozenges, and did a few deep breathing exercises.

At 6 I stood at the back of the hall, which was almost full, and after Lois had made her introductory remarks, I took to the stage for the final time on this visit. The opening of the show was fairly uneventful, and I was keeping up a good pace, and then I noticed that I had company on stage – a little beetle, possibly a Shield Bug judging by its shape, was strolling around, apparently checking out what I was doing: I had joked about the lightning bolt coming from Charles Dickens, but perhaps he had come to check on me in the form of a bug! I became transfixed by my new companion, and whenever I could I checked his whereabouts so as not to tread on him (if it were a reincarnation of my great great grandfather, it would be a rather ignominious end to be squashed under a decsendant’s boot). As Fezziwig’s wild dance approached, the beetle crawled to the edge of the stage, as if he realised that he was in mortal danger, and then when the dance was over, he came back to centre again.

On the play went, and I managed to avoid him, until eventually he disappeared. At moments when I was on my knees, I checked the pattern in the rug to make sure I hadn’t squished him but there was no sign. Maybe he had deemed himself satisfied with my efforts and taken flight. My very own Sprit of Christmas standing by me!

Anyway! The show itself went very well and came to a great end with a loud and long standing ovation. Having done the Q&A preshow there was no need to do another one now, but I was aware of Lois standing at the edge of the stage clutching a book and when the audience sat down, she thanked Dennis for his efforts in the sound box (every cue had worked perfectly at every show), and then thanked me for coming and presented me with a Winterthur gift book, which had been signed by many of the staff as well as lots of audience members.

I felt very moved by the kind gesture and left the stage to yet more applause.

The first thing I did on returning to the dressing room was to check the bottom of my shoe, and, to mis-quote my show, there was ‘Noooooo Bug!’

Now I had to pack up and make sure that I had everything, as I would be moving on the next day, so I took quite a time hanging costumes collecting cufflinks and the watch, making sure I had my signing pen, and everything else. When I emerged, there was a young man waiting for me clutching a very early edition of A Christmas Carol, maybe a second, third or fourth edition. Unfortunately, I am not an expert, so I couldn’t verify exactly which it was, but I gave him some suggestions as to how to find out. It was such a privilege to hold the little edition, and although it was not in pristine condition, the quality of the coloured illustrations was extraordinary. The books were originally printed with black and white engravings of John Leech’s illustrations, and each of those was then hand tinted with watercolour, meaning that no two early editions can ever be exactly alike. The richness of the colour in this edition was amazing, particularly the Ghost of Christmas Present whose robes were an incredibly deep and rich emerald green. To hold an edition from 1843 or 1844 is always a very special connection to the origins of the story.

It was time to leave, and Lois had invited me to share dinner with her family, so I followed her car into a neighbourhood in the suburbs of Wilmingtom, where her husband and two sons were waiting. The two boys were fascintaed to know about England and pressed me with a never-ending series of probing questions., some more difficult to answer than others: ‘What is your favourite British word?’, for example. It was a lovely, relaxing way to come down from the two days of performances at Winterthur, and we ate Barbeque in rolls, and salads, followed by cheesecake and cookies, and we talked and laughed. Soon it was time to leave, and after having a picture with the boys in front of the Christmas tree, and saying goodbye and thank you to Lois, I drove back to the Fairville Inn, where I hung my shirts from the day’s performances in the cupboard to air, and then retired for the night.

Friday morning promises to be quite busy, with a radio interview at 9.30, followed by my Covid test at 10 – fingers crossed, one and all!

Lupper or Linner?

Tags

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge, Henry V, Jacob Marley, The Mechanics Hall, Vaillancourt Folk Art, William Shakespeare, Winterthur, Worcester

Sunday would see me perform A Christmas Carol twice more at Vaillancourt Folk Art and, just to keep me on my toes, the times were different to those on Saturday with the metaphoric curtain going up at 12 and 4.

The morning at The Beechwood featured a video call to home, which was particularly lovely, and a chance to catch up with life back in England. When the call was over, I went down to breakfast. Our youngest daughter had told me that they had enjoyed pancakes for breakfast and I had promised that I would order the same for me – oh, the sacrifices I have to make as a parent!

In the restaurant I took a seat by the window and in a short while a very elderly couple made their slow way to the table next to mine. The lady remarked on my sweater (a red Christmas design covered with snowmen), and we fell into a brief conversation – they came from Buffalo, NY, ‘Where,’ they told me, ‘The real snow is!’ We discussed the abilities of various states and countries to deal with snowfall, and then by means of a silent agreement that we had chatted for long enough, turned to our respective breakfasts. It was one of those beautiful moments when you make an unexpected connection for an instant, and the world is a better place for it. When I left the restaurant I wished them safe travels home, and our worlds separated again.

Back in my room, I showered and made preparations for the day ahead, which really only involved grabbing 2 fresh shirts and 2 fresh pairs of socks from my case, as everything else was still hanging in my dressing room in Sutton. I left the room at around 10 and in no time was walking into the Christmas fantasy land of the Vaillancourts.

Firstly, I checked the stage, although I had made sure that everything was in place after the previous night’s performance – this is good theatrical practice, as soon as a show is done to prepare the stage for the next performance and if I am in a venue for multiple events, it is something I always do. Of course, I always also check that everything is exactly as I left it immediately prior to a show. On the current occasion the cloth was draped over the chair, the stool was in its starting position and my hat and scarf were back in the dressing room, all was good to go.

I also took the opportunity to chat a little with Curtis about the head mic which had refused to stay in place during Saturday’s performances, this not only made me feel nervous and uncomfortable, but also effected the sound quality, as the mic unit itself was never in the same place relative to my mouth. He said he had another headpiece in his equipment and we tried that, it was a much tighter fit and felt much more secure. I returned to the dressing room and Gary called in to say hello and also to leave a stack of the souvenir brochures that Ian and I created a few years ago, for me to sign. With no actual post-show signing sessions, venues are taking the opportunity to have me sign plenty of product before the events, so that audience members can still take autographed merchandise home with them. I finished the pile of books and then got into costume, giving myself plenty of time after the previous day’s debacle.

My dressing room is quite large, and at the far end is a small office which is where Gary works during the days. He is tucked away and has no view of the warehouse, so he has a little motion-activated alarm which ends out a series of chimes whenever anyone is approaching. With my penchant for pacing up and down I was constantly setting off this device during my days there, but yesterday as I was sat on a sofa reading my book, the alarm went off and a voice asked if it was ok to come in. There was Anna, Luke’s wife, with their two kids, Nate and Charlie, who are growing up rapidly. We had a lovely chat and took a few photos, before she whisked both boys off to a playpark for the afternoon.

The audience were in now and it was time to begin. For my own state of mind, I had to make this a good show (I was still upset with myself about the day before), and it was. I felt very strong and committed. The new head mic certainly made a difference and the audience were top notch. It was a performance that I was very happy with.

The Q&A went very well, and these are proving to be a very popular part of the show – the feedback from Gary, Judi and all of the staff has been that the audience members have particularly enjoyed the sessions, and although they miss having their books signed, and pictures taken, the opportunity to listen to a few anecdotes and opinions is one they relish.

Having changed I was just hanging my costumes up when Luke poked his head in and told me that an old friend had been in the audience: Ellen Taviano, with whom I have worked for many years at Winterthur in Delaware, wanted to say hi! Sadly, Winterthur had laid off all of their retail staff during the pandemic, and Ellen had found a new position at Old Sturbridge Village which is located not far from Sutton (Ellen had wanted me to perform for here there, but Gary put a VERY firm foot down! Possession is very much nine tenths of the law). It was lovely to catch up and Ellen had been delighted to see the entire show for once, as event organizers always have some issue to contend with and rarely get to sit through a complete performance. I will be returning to Winterthur later on this tour, but it won’t feel the same without Ellen at the helm.

Having said goodbye, I made my way up into the office where another impressive buffet meal had been laid out. I had to ponder what the correct balance was between an energy-restoring meal and over indulging meaning that I would be sluggish at the next performance, and it was while I was struggling to make this decision when a message pinged into my phone – this was from – ok bear with me, it is slightly complicated – Liz’s sister’s sister and brother-in-law’s daughter, who lives in Connecticut and had also been at the show! Fortunately, she was still in the building, and we were able to meet up, masked and distanced to have a completely unexpected reunion. Amy was there with her wife and father-in-law, (all of whom have seen the show before, in another, less than perfect location), and two friends. We chatted about various things, including family news, and all agreed that the venue at Vaillancourts was a much better place to watch the show than the very soulless hotel function room where they had last seen it in their home state.

Amy’s parents have been amazing to Liz and me over the last couple of years and we have had some lovely times on their remote farm which nestles in a Devon valley: we feel very much a part of their family. It was a really nice surprise to see Amy, and hopefully we can all meet up again in England next Summer.

Back to to my lunch/supper (the blending of breakfast and lunch has its own word, so I feel that this meal should have done too: is lunch and supper called ‘Lupper’? or is it not supper, but dinner, in which case it should be ‘Linner’. Anyway, I chose some soup and salad and a pulled pork sandwich. I decided against any dessert in the interests of theatrical mobility. Having said that the dessert on offer was a Pecan Pie and I was amazed when one of the staff pronounced it ‘Pee-Can’, as the British say it, rather than ‘Pi-Carn’, as I had been led to believe is the correct American pronunciation. I commented on this and another member of the team put me straight by telling me what her mother had told her: ‘It is always Pi-Carn, because you pee in a can and you wouldnt want to eat THAT in a pie!’ Fair enough, and now I know!

Back to the dressing room for the 4 o’clock show and another full house of excited audience members filed in and availed themself of the bar service. By this time Gary and Judi had departed to catch their flight to Germany, so it was down to Luke to step into his father’s shoes and make the introductions, which he did with great style. It was another very enjoyable and successful show, with a particularly lively audience. My delight was literally crowned when at the moment that Scrooge flips his top hat into the air as he gets ‘dressed in all of his best’ it landed square and safely on my head earning me a huge cheer!

The final Q&A at Vaillancourts was interesting, with one lady asking what was my favourite line in the show (actually she initially didn’t specify A Christmas Carol, but asked about any show that I had been involved with, but we reigned that in), I settled on a line that doesn’t normally feature in my one act show, and that is when Jacob Marley is tormented by thoughts of his business: ‘Mankind was my business! The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’

On reflection now, and in answer to her initial question, I would say that the prologue to Shakespeare’s Henry V ranks among my favorites as it sums up the entire art of the theatre: ‘….a kingdom for a stage, princess to act and monarchs to behold the swelling scene.’ and, ‘…can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram within this wooded O the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt?’, and again, ‘Think when we talk of horses, that you see them printing their proud hooves i’ the receiving earth: for ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, carry them here and there; jumping o’er times, turning the accomplishment of many years into an hour-glass….’

I have not acted in Henry V but I did perform that prologue as an opening to an evening of Shakespeare and music a few years ago. The performance was in a magnificent Church and I made the speech as I walked up the aisle, through the audience with the beautiful language circulating into the high vaulted ceiling. It was very special moment.

Back at Vaillancourts the final question was about Dickens’ own trips to America and specifically to the city of Worcester, which enabled me to tell the story about his reading in The Mechanics Hall when the performance was accompanied by the sounds of cocks (roosters) crowing. The poultry were all caged ready for a sale the following day and had been stored in a second story hall immediately beneath the grand hall where Dickens was performing. When the gas lights on Charles; set were ignited the bright light shone through the floorboards, thereby waking the roosters who announced the apparent dawn with great gusto!

It was a good anecdote to finish with.

And so, my time with the Vaillancourts was over for another year and when I had packed up, I said goodbye to all the staff, and hung my costumes in the car (which can now be their permanent wardrobe), and drove away into the night.

From Massachusetts I will be driving to Long Island and with an entire day to travel I may even get a little time for some sightseeing along the way.

Thank you, Gary, Judi and Luke, it is always a great pleasure to spend time in your company and to perform in such a warm and intimate setting.

Winterthur

Tags

A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol film, Amish, Astor, Downton Abbey, Gap PA, HF DuPont, Highclere Castle, Intercourse PA, Netflix, Queen Elizabeth II, Rockerfeller, The Crown, Vanderbildt, Winterthur

In a normal year I would be reaching the last few venues of my tour and over the decades these have tumbled around the schedule in various orders, giving me plenty of choice as to which one to choose from my online memory feed. Today it is Winterthur in the tiny state of Delaware.

The Winterthur estate was originally built by HF DuPont, whose family owned most of Delaware thanks to the fortune amassed through, firstly, gunpowder and then latterly petrochemicals. Nowadays visitors flock to the property and take tours of the house, wondering at the magnificence of life in an age that boasted the Rockerfellers, the Vanderbilts and the Astors, as well as the DuPonts atop the rich lists.

Such is the popularity of Winterthur that it was necessary to build a visitor centre a short distance from the mansion to meet, greet and feed the thousands of guests who flocked there, and it is this building that becomes my home during two days each December. Like so many of my venues I have been visiting Winterthur for many years and have a close relationship with the excellent team there – Ellen, who runs my shows and Barbara, who is in charge of the well stocked shop and whose office I use as a changing room. That office is a real highlight of being at Winterthur as Barbara has the walls covered in little cartoons which always make me laugh.

A visit to Winterthur doesn’t start when I leave the car in the huge parking lot and make my way to the visitor centre, it begins early in the morning, usually in darkness, often in sleet, rain or snow, when I leave my previous venue which has tended to be The Country Cupboard in Lewisburg during recent years. I make my way back along the Susquehanna towards Harrisburg and from there towards Lancaster and into Amish country where rumbling trucks are replaced by fragile looking gigs pulled by ponies.

The icy crags of the Susquehanna valley give way to gently undulating fields studded with silos as I pass through the suggestively named Intercourse (the name most likely came from the fact that the village sits at a cross roads and was therefore a site for meeting and discussions – I was going to write ‘debate’ but feared I would mire myself even deeper into innuendo), and on towards Gap with its quirky lighthouse-shaped clock tower. It is always a happy drive and one that is invariably accompanied by my Christmas playlist.

I drive through Chad’s Ford and passed the Fairville Inn guest house, which is my extremely homely and comfortable lodgings, before crossing the line from Pennsylvania into Delaware and turn off the road to make my way along the serpentine driveway which leads me ‘home’.

The actual venue for my shows is the Copeland Lecture Theatre, attached to the visitor centre, and which is one of the most remarkable rooms I have ever had the pleasure of performing in. It doesn’t have an impressive stage for it is very definitely a lecture theatre, it has some lighting but nothing really theatrical, it doesn’t have a balcony so the auditorium is very long. The hall has no particular history, and Charles Dickens never visited this area, so what makes the venue so special to me? A carefully designed and shaped ceiling, that’s what. The acoustics of The Copeland Lecture Theatre, created purely by the shape of the room, are beyond compare and I can speak in my normal voice from the stage and know that the people sat in the furthest reaches of the room can hear me quite clearly. It took me many years to have confidence in the room and many was the time that I would walk onto the stage and look at the sea of faces diminishing towards a far distant vanishing point and doubt that I could do the show without electronic aids, but I always can.

Of course a perfect hall is nothing without an enthusiastic audience, and the people who come to Winterthur in their Christmas sweaters and warm scarves are always a lively and fun bunch who join in loudly and applaud long.

One particular pleasure of my visits to the Winterthur estate has been the opportunity to view two amazing exhibitions of costumes. During the years that Downton Abbey was popular, Winterthur forged close ties with Highclere Castle (where I also perform), and welcomed Lady Carnarvon on a number of occasions to speak about ‘The Real Downton Abbey’. In 2014 a major exhibition of costumes from the series was opened and early one morning I was able to have a special tour. It was a brilliantly curated exhibit displaying each costume in front of still photography, copies of scripts and video clips. With the ending of Downton so Winterthur turned its attentions to the next big British drama and mounted another exhibition, this time featuring The Crown, Netflix’s drama based on the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Once again I was snuck in before opening and marvelled at the craftsmanship and accuracy of the beautiful creations, ranging from the coronation regalia to Princess Margaret’s swinging 60s dresses.

Maybe one day they will mount an exhibition of costumes from my show, although I do admit they will only need a very small room! At least in my film version of A Christmas Carol I wear two different waistcoats and two different cravats, but I grant you it may not be the most thrilling experience. Perhaps I should just stick to performing in The Copeland Hall where I hope to be in 2021.

To rent my film and to view BOTH costumes, go to: http://www.geralddickens.com/films.html