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!