Neill found us some rooms in a little house on Fairfield Road. It appears to be used as student housing…at least our neighbors are. There are communal baths, toilets, and kitchen, but there is also a washing machine and a dryer, which means that I don’t have to make another huge journey to the launderette, nor take out a mortgage to pay for it. We stop at a computer store to check email, then go to Chippie’s Plaice (fish & chips place…plaice is a fish…ha ha) for some breakfast, then John and I do some shopping while Jonathan goes to the Savoynet dress rehearsal. John decides he wants to get a full-service hotel room, so we go to the tourist office to try to find him one…no dice, despite the best efforts of the helpful staff. We wander around the some of the places we couldn’t get through to on the phone, and one just off Market Square, The Queen’s Head, does have a single for the nights John needs, and he takes it. We come back to the flats on Fairfield, where he gets packed up while I take a nap. We meet again for dinner at the Coach House, then watch Pirates…really good, especially considering it all came together in eight days. Meet up with Shelton (just back from Dublin…forgot to tell him to call Sylvia), who needs a room for a night, so he snags John’s recently vacated premises.
Month: August 2004
[Forgot to do this at the time, so relying on the itinerary and my faulty memory]
Nice leisurely morning, then meet at noon:30 for a rehearsal for the concert that we’re doing that afternoon. I sing in the group that does the kingsingers’ arrangement of ‘Ah, leave me not to pine’ (one of my favorites) as well as ‘When the nightwind howls’ from Ruddigore. The concert is a lot fun, especially hearing people do solos whom I’ve never heard on their own before (or, in the case of Tina, in a long time). Fabulous, one and all. Jonathan’s Texan lyrics to ‘If you want to know who we are’ are a great hit, and Dace’s interpolations of Western pieces into the bridges were masterly. Alistair does a first and says goodbye. Finally get the group booking codes from Adventure, but it is too late to call the BA office.
[Forgot to do this at the time, so relying on the itinerary and my faulty memory]
Despite little sleep, wake up and have a very nice breakfast (the day before I had become an ‘official’ guest of the hotel). Get a call from Pamela Leighton-Bilik, asking me to do Col. Calvery. I accept, and now I’m glad I hadn’t gotten my ticket changed yet, because now I need to stay through the 17th for the show, which really means leaving the 19th (since I can’t get to London in time on the 18th. Checked my phone messages back home (17!), and found out, thanks to Shelly, that my mail had started bouncing. Got my mail queue straightened out, then woke up John Weinel, Chris Fiori, and John Gremillion and set out for our planned bike trip. We ran to Market Square to catch the bus in just the nick of time (only to find out we could have walked to the train station and caught it there much nearer), then did the hour and twenty minute bus ride to Ashbourne, delayed for a bit by a herd of cows. Derrick, our driver, was full of stories, and Chris earned a new nickname: Ralph the Third. After lunch (breakfast for the others), we walked to the bike rental place, and rode the Tissington Trail, which is a converted rail line. At Tissington itself we ran into the Bernstein family, who had been out for the day antiquing and walking. The ride was excellent, and the scenery at times stunning. Bus back to Buxton (this time go all the way to the train station), but don’t recall what we did for dinner.
[Forgot to do this at the time, so relying on the itinerary and my faulty memory]
Get up early and help with the load in for the Mikado at the opera house. It goes very quickly, so then help focus the lights by holding the genie. Finally time to do some laundry. I find the launderette past Market Square, and also find out that laundry in the UK, like so many things, is much more expensive than in the USA: £2/load for a small washer, £3 for a large, and £4/hour of drying time (that’s $3.60, $5.40, and $7.20, respectively). While waiting, I go up to the new net cafe that hasn’t opened, but the owner is kind enough to let me plug in my PowerBook and check my email. Find out Sylvia can’t make it over from Dublin, and still no word from Adventure, so I have to call them when the open, only to find out that Mary (whom I had dealt with before the tour) is on vacation, and it’ll take them a while to find out the info I need. With the laundry finally done (and my wallet much lighter), I head back to the hotel, but luckily stop by the opera house first, where I find out that Neill has been desperately looking for me: they want me to audition at 2pm (it is now 3). I track down Neill, who asks me to come by at 5. I head back, take a quick nap, change into my clothes for the show that night, then head over to the Pavillion and sing Col. Calvery’s song. Jonathan, who had auditioned for Grosvenor, was called back at noon for Bunthorne.
Before the show, I work the concession stand, selling Houston stuff. One of the ushers asks if we have any programs, and Steve had thought to through in a box of them to hand out. The usher then asks how much we are charging for them. “Charge?” “Sure, you can charge a couple of quid easy for these.” So we do, and it is our biggest moneymaker of the night.
The show is a smash. Everyone is wonderful, the sound is beautiful…it is even better than it was on opening night. I rush backstage to change and help with the strike, then find out that a shower has been installed since we were last here, so I don’t have to go back to the Palace to wash up. The cabaret is great (even though it is short), then we have the after-party at the hotel bar. Alan Dalby really likes my jacket (which had been my great uncle’s), and for the rest of the trip always comes up to me asking about the ‘Silver Trumpeter’. Neill convinces the kitchen staff to make us some sandwiches and fries, and we all have a great time. We try to quit at four, but the bartenders (Nat and Neill) refuse, and buy us all a round of drinks. I finally call it quits around 5, but some keep going til 6, and sainted Maria (who got them to open up at the first) stayed behind to help clean up.
[Forgot to do this at the time, so relying on the itinerary and my faulty memory]
Ken and David have arranged a day trip to Chester, a town that dates from Roman times. After “a bit of a cock-up,” we get a very fun and informational tour from a guy dressed in a centurion’s uniform. After lunch, I wander over to the Military Museum, where I run into Bonnie Ambrose; very interesting to view the uniforms from her costumer’s perspective. We then wander along the elevated walk (a remnant of the bad plumbing days), have some tea, then grab some drugs to help fight the cold I seem to have inherited from Jeff. Back to Buxton, where we watch a very entertaining Iolanthe. Alistair tells me he’s given Nell Smith my name as a possibility to perform in the Young Artists’ production of Patience. I had told Anne I’d catch up with her after the show, but didn’t find her at any of the pubs or at the hotel, so go back to the Coach House and hang with the “young’uns”, minding them a bit since they had been going at it for quite some time. We shut down the bar, and while walking up the steps to the Palace can see Clif looking out his window at us and shaking his head. Then find out there is another bar at the Palace where Anne and the others had been. Oops.