MESSAGE FROM THE ROAD

Wednesday, November 13

Here we are in St. Catharines Ontario. I’m sitting in my hotel room waiting for my laundry to finish. It’s easy to lose track of days as time is all slippery on the road. It snowed A LOT here on Monday, which meant cancelling some of our workshops yesterday as busses were cancelled for schools because the roads were so bad in the morning. Apparently, snow is rare here in November. I know things have been wintery in Calgary, but this has been the first snow we have seen on the road.

St. Cath is our 5th stop since we left Calgary on October 28 which feels like a long time ago. We landed in Fredericton, then moved on to St. John, Charlottetown and Halifax. The East Coast experience was great. The shows were received well, standing O’s all around. No one has yelled “I love this show!” during the standing O since Camrose – that I have heard anyway- that was in the first leg of the tour in early October which feels like last year. It has been very interesting to see Juliet & Romeo in different theatres, through eyes of audiences who don’t know us. It’s easy for me to eavesdrop here because no one knows me. People are really digging us.

Today is set up day, which means a hard day for the crew. They have to unpack the truck that has been traveling with our floor, set, costumes etc. and fit it in the theatre. Some theatres have been easier to set up than others depending on loading docks, backstage space, parking for the truck in relation to the theatre etc. Our crew is amazing. We are lucky that the house crews have been pretty helpful. Halifax was the most challenging so far, the backstage was very small, so they had to be very strategic about how they set up. Because we have two shows tomorrow, a student matinee and a regular show in the evening. We will do what we normally do during the day to prepare for an evening show, tonight. The band will do a soundcheck early evening while I teach a class to the dancers, then we will all be in the theatre to go through each lighting cue to make sure they are not too bright or dark for the theatre. We also have to figure out the top of the show, come see it in January at DJD and you will see what I mean as what we do at home is impossible elsewhere. Tomorrow will be a big day for everyone, after the evening show the artists are done but the crew has to strike and pack the truck.

We have one last show in Kingston next week. So far so good, fingers crossed the rest of the tour will be as great as it has been.

See you soon Calgary,

Kim

Some great memories from the road! Follow me on Instagram for more @kimberleycooperdjd