Tour Life Backstage - The Stolen Bike Blues

The Androcles and the Lion Arizona Tour had its last performance in June of 2010. All of us on the cast have moved on to new projects or are getting ready for new adventures in our lives. I'm finally getting an opportunity to share what life on the tour was like this spring.

I have posted here what I believe to be one of the most precious moments on our tour and a scene that bespeaks the kind of backstage fun we would have before shows. Before you watch this video, let me give you some context.

Jesse Berger (Pantalone) arrived one morning on set and announce that his wife's bike had been stolen. We all lamented the fact and each morning we would be updated on the hunt for the thief. (Eventually, the thief was found out thanks to some social networking and Craig's List.)

The other thing you need to know is that Jeremiah Clay Neal (Lion) is an accomplished musician and would more often than not pick up his guitar before a show and play some tunes. One or more of us would usually chime in and sing along with him as we were putting on our costumes or warming up.

Anyway, a few days after the bicycle theft, Jeremiah was playing a blues riff and a few of us were taking turns making up verses of the "Stolen Bike Blues." I didn't capture any of the verses but a reenactment of the last verse, sung by Kate Haas (Isabella).

My favorite part though happens right at the end when Anthony Toudjarov (Captain) comes flying into the picture because it is so typical of how we finished most of our singing episodes in a panicked fashion.

Enjoy our shenanigans!

Questions and Answers

This week Coyote Trail Elementary in Tucson sent us letters with questions. Instead of responding with a letter like we normally do, we picked a few common questions from their class and made this video with answers!

Enjoy and thanks for the letters!!!

Androcles Cast Gives a Headstart to Teachers

The cast got a special assignment today! The cast was invited to teach classroom strategies to the teachers of the valley’s Headstart program.

Three hundred teachers in Phoenix’s Headstart Program spent the first hour of a full day of training with eleven Childsplay teaching artists including the cast of Androcles and the Lion at the Black Canyon Conference Center in Phoenix. The Childsplay artists served as the keynote speaker for the event getting the teachers up on their feet and moving.

Each Childsplay artist was assigned thirty teachers and spent the hour teaching songs, games, class management techniques and teaching strategies that could be used in the preschool classrooms.

None of the cast members had taught teachers before, so all of us were nervous. But the lesson plan provided by Trish Black, head of Education at Childsplay, made the hour fun and easy for everyone.

I had fun getting the teachers out on the floor as “preschool students” and seeing them drop their inhibitions, laughing and enjoying the activities together that hopefully they will be able to use with their real preschool students.

Androcles Cast Rocks!!!

Last week I went out to see the show again. It was my first time to see the cast perform on the road. They were at Nevitt School (not the school in the picture) and I watched a performance with about 150 kindergarten and 1st graders! The kids were really into the show - they were laughing and shouting for some characters to notice where others had run off or to warn someone about impending danger...it was really fun!

All in all, the show has maintained the exact performance that we did in the theatre with a few "improvements" in comedy bits throughout - which is fun to see and definitely in keeping with the spirit of Comedia del Arte!

Kudos to the cast for a job well done!!!

Great Drawings from Madison-Simis

We were given some beautiful drawings from Mrs. Coughlin's class at Madison Simi School. As we were leaving the school the day of our performance, we were presented with a whole folder full of pictures drawn by the class that day. We can't post all the pictures here, but we picked three to share.

Isabella sings in front of her house, by Nova.

Brayden picked the scene where the Lion jumps on Androcles' back. Check out the audience!

And here, Kamari depicted the Lelio and Isabella running back to Rome looking for Androcles.

Thanks so much to all the students from Mrs. Coughlins class for all the wonderful pictures!

Surprise Sign on Our Van!

On Monday this week we performed at Madison Simis School in Phoenix. After our third show we were loading up the van, and we found this AWESOME sign on the windshield! Thanks to Mrs. Gordons class for making our day!

On the Road

Three weeks of tour have taken us to Tempe, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Glendale, Anthem and Tucson so far. As a cast, we are starting to settle into a bit of a routine on the road. Being a cast of six actors, we rarely ride in the van together. First of all, there are only five seats in the van. But most days, Anthony Toudjarov (The Captain) and Eric Boudreau (Lelio) who live on the west side of Phoenix will save some time and drive directly to the school where we are performing. On trips out of town, like our trip to Tucson last week, we have to take two vehicles.

In the van, or the following car, we have had some serious and not so serious conversations. The favorite topics of conversation currently seem to be about the Fox television shows “So You Think You can Dance” and “Glee.” Kate Haas (Isabella) has won the award of grossest story so far, although Jeremiah Neal (The Lion) came in a close second after a conversation about the Big Texan Restaurant in Amarillo, Texas where you can get a free 72 ounce steak if you can eat it and all the trimmings in an hour. Kate is a master of the word puzzle and we all enjoy trying to find answers to fill-in-the-blank pun puzzles like: “Is it mutton and veal you have a hankering, or is it for ______________ ?” (The answer is at the bottom of this posting.)

We’ve fallen in to a rhythm loading and unloading the set, and everyone seems to know what his or her assignment is although we never discussed it. For instance, Jeremiah is the van packer. He is the one who has figured out where each piece of the set goes in the van so it all fits. His nemesis is a bar stool that never fits in the van the same way twice. We’ve only left a couple of dollies behind us at Roadrunner Elementary, which were rescued promptly by the cast of Ferdinand the Bull who performed there two days later.

Before the show begins we get a personal concert from Jesse or Jeremiah on the guitar. Recently we’ve been inspired by the Dubie Brothers and George Micheal as Jeremiah riffs on his guitar strolling over the stage while we all warm up and sing along. We have success performing Lazzi with the students as they file in to see the show, and the younger students have a clear affinity for the slapstick.

As with all tour shows, our performances differ each day according to the space we are in. Sometimes the students are really close to us in an intimate space and sometimes they are in cavernous gymnasium, and we struggle to articulate over the din of a ventilation system. But these struggles are small ones. I often feel that I’m being paid lavishly in smiles. I’m thinking of one performance in particular.

That day we had a group of students enter the cafeteria just as we were beginning our show. It was an after-school program so there was a mix of grades spilling into the space. There were some girls who looked to be sixth graders whispering and laughing with one another. I immediately thought that they may be too old for the show and would talk a lot during our performance. However, I was proved wrong. They quickly got engaged in the story. One girl in particular sat with her chin resting in her hands and just smiled almost the entire show. Every time I looked out in the audience and saw her, there she was smiling again. It wasn’t the kind of smile you often see. She was relaxed and her smile was for no one but herself. She wasn’t smiling at her friends or at us as performers. In fact, I don’t even think she was aware she was smiling. She was lost in the story.

Those smiles are priceless. That’s what makes the road a fun and rewarding place to be. Oh, and the answer is porcupine. But you have to say it like this “porc-u-pine” for the pun to work!