Bologna, Italy

I have just spent two weeks in beautiful Bologna, Italy. This picture is from the rooftop of the theatre overlooking a small part of the city. This was the first two weeks of the tour. It has been a long couple weeks but overall it has been good. The first week was a bit rough in many ways: learning to work and live with the European crew (the crew I will be touring with throughout the run) - some of their ways are much different than in the US, being in a foriegn country, being away from my family, my friends and my house, but now things are starting to smooth out and I am getting over the brief stint of homesickness I was suffering from. The show looks great and we got fantastic reviews in not only local papers but national papers as well. We played the Teatro Comunale di Bologna which is supposedly the oldest theatre in Europe built in 1763. It is absolutely beautiful. It was quite strange as the stage is at a 3% rake. I have always heard about raked stages which is where the labels upstage and downstage came from but I had never actually been on one so it was very interesting to see. The bad part is that it makes load in/load out more difficult, and it is much harder on the dancers. We head to Modena, Italy tomorrow where there is a 5% rake which will be very interesting and has some of the crew a little worried as it may be too much for the set. We will be in Modena for a week and then it is off to Rotterdam. I will try to give an update in Modena but the rumor is that there is no internet where we are staying but the next time I have access I will fill you in on things. I am off to Modena!

West Side Story

For the next 10 months I will be touring Asia and Europe with the broadway show West Side Story. The crew is made up of about 10 europeans from mainly Germany, England, and one from Ireland along with 4 Americans, 1 Canadian and 1 Australian. I am fortunate to have toured with the Australian, 2 of the Americans and the Canadian last year on the broadway show Crazy For You. It is nice to have some people I know here with me. We stay in a place anywhere from one week all the way up to 6 weeks. It is a great schedule and I am looking forward to it. I will try and do a weekly post but I cannot guarentee as I do not know when I will have internet and when I won't. Please keep in touch I would love to hear from you as well. I'm off on my adventure.