On the Road Again

Well, we are back out on the road. This week we are in the Great State of Texas! I grew up in Texas and my family still lives here. While I may not get to see all of them this week it is great to be back "home." Today we are in Amarillo which is located in West Texas a few miles from Palo Duro Canyon, one of the most beautiful places on earth. We will be here for two days and have a 10:00 am performance tomorrow. Early morning shows are tough because of the strain on body and voice but it should be fun as the audience will be mostly school children.

Thursday we will be in Lubbock where I will be able to see my Uncle and cousin and will be doing a Q&A at my cousins school on Friday. We will be in Lubbock through Saturday before heading out to Waco for a day and then Longview for a day where several members of my wife's family will be seeing the show. After that we head north to Illinois.

Everyone seems to be dealing with being back on the road pretty well and I believe the week off has helped to rejuvenate most. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things but will miss being at home. This is the single greatest struggle of this life style. I love performing but the sacrifices are huge. Thank goodness for cellphones, internet and an understanding and supportive wife.

Anchorage Airport

I am now at the airport with a boarding pass to get on a plane so things are looking up. While I have all this time on my hands I thought I would share some photos of Alaska. Those of you who get this via e-mail may have to log on to blogspot to see the pictures.

Many of the roads in the mountains were still closed due to snow so we weren't able to get very far into the mountains. The first picture is rather had to make out. It is taken from Anchorage looking across the bay to the mountains. You can see in the distance a very faint image of some mounains. The tallest mountain is Mt. McKinley which is the highest point in North America. It is several hundred miles from Anchorage to the mountain. The second picture is of Anchorage with the mountains in the background. It was amazing. The third picture is of me in front of the Alaskan Railroad with mountains in the background. You can see the bay that is just outside of Anchorage and it is nearly completely frozen over. It was the first time I had ever seen a frozen ocean in person. It is rather actually overwhelming to think that a body of water that huge and with that much movement could get cold enough to freeze over.

Anchorage and MT. REDOUBT!

Well, we have finished up here in Anchorage and ready to head home for a much needed week off. IF we can get out of Anchorage. A volcano is playing havoc with our travel plans. I was suppose to fly out tonight but had two flights canceled. The hope now is fly out in the morning at get home about 9 tomorrow night (Tuesday). I just hope they cancel more flights. Everything is up in the air right now (no pun intended) due to the volcanic activity at MT Redoubt. I wish I could say it has been fascinating being apart of a volcanic eruption, but except for canceled flights we haven't experienced anything.

Alaska is beautiful. There are no words to describe it and pictures don't do it justice. It is brutally cold though. I could never live here.

I did have a nice thing happen tonight after I got back to the hotel from trying to catch my flight. We were eating at a bar near by and a young lady who is friends of a member of the cast came over and spent several minutes telling me how great she thought I did in the part and what a natural it was. It is often the only feedback we get on the road other than laughter and applause and it is reassuring and affirming to receive such praise even after 394 performances of the National tour.

Well it is late and I have to catch a bus so I can catch a plane in a few hours. Keep us all in your prayers that we all get home on Tuesday. We need it more than you can imagine. The prayers and home.

Week 17 in the Books

We closed out our 17th week on the road Sunday in Edmonton. The highlight of the week for me was when one of the local stage hands stopped me in the hallway to tell how much he enjoyed the show and my performance. He had worked other productions of Annie here and felt compelled to tell me that I was the best "Warbucks" he had seen. I never know how to take these things as they are always a matter of opinion and based on many factors including how well we as performers treat them as stage hands. Regardless of all that it is very fulfilling to receive such compliments.

Later that week as I reflected on that I realized one reason I struggle on the road with my performance is that I believe I will never be "good enough." Every performance can be better. Every personal interview and personal encounter with fans and others can be better. I will never be a good enough performer or singer or father or husband or person. This drive for perfection while often serving me well by driving me to seek to always do and be better can also be a handicap. It makes it difficult to enjoy the applause, the accolades, and the camaraderie of tour. It also can get in the way of relationships at home with Cay and the girls and my parents and siblings and on and on and on. I hope by the time this leg of my life journey is over that I will be able to look back and truly say and believe "Job well done."

Sunday my throat started hurting. I thought it was just due to the dry cold of Edmonton. Monday I woke up with a full blown cold that was only made worse by the plane trip to Anchorage, Alaska. By the time we got off the plane in Anchorage my head was throbbing from congestion and my ear was clogged and ringing from a combination of the plane ride and the congestion. So Today I went to the doctor and spent way more than I would have at home to get an injection to fight the inflammation and a nasal spray for the congestion along with a couple of other decongestants. The good new is it doesn't appear to be a sinus infection so if all goes well I should be better in a couple of days. I also found out that my blood pressure is doing great 119/87 and that I have lost 80 pounds since April 1, 2007 when I began my life style change.

Anchorage is beautiful. At least what I have seen thus far. Madison (Annie) and I went an elementary school here today and did an assembly for about 500 students. One of the students played the role of Sandy while Madison did "Tomorrow." It was very cute. After that we did an autograph/photo session at a local mall in conjunction with a radio promotion. It was a lot of fun.

Our schedule here is different. We didn't do our usual opening night on Tuesday to allow the sets to get here from Edmonton (a two day journey from Edmonton, especially with all the new fallen snow.) So we will open tomorrow on Wednesday due or regular schedule through Sunday and then close on Monday before we get a much need week off. I will fly home a week from today and spend a glorious week in good ole Hendersonville sleeping in my own bed, eating in my own kitchen, and hanging with my daughter Ashlea and bugging my wife Cay at work. And life doesn't get much better than that.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to All!

Frigid Edmonton

We arrived in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Monday to the coldest temperatures I have ever experienced. The low Tuesday morning was a -52 Fahrenheit. The high Tuesday was a -22F. Today it was 42 Fahrenheit. That is a 90 degree swing in two days. There is no way to describe how cold -52 is. Let me just say that frostbite can begin in just a few minutes in weather that cold. You can literally feel your skin freezing as you step outside. The pain is very real. Fortunately we didn't have to get out in it much as our hotel is attached via the "pedway" to a mall with food courts and restaurants and even the subway is accessible without having to venture outside.

The performance venue is an exact duplicate of the one in Calgary. The names are even the same. The one in Calgary is the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium and the one here in Edmonton is the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. They were built for a visit by the Queen I think and the people of Calgary and Edmonton wanted equal presentations so they built them exactly the same. Two years ago they did renovations and even the renovations were the same.

I find that my sleep schedule is completely out of whack. The last three weeks we have been bouncing between time zones and my body is stuck on Pacific time so I keep going to bed later and later and getting up later and later. I hope to get back on schedule in time to go to Anchorage and get all messed up again.

The big attraction here has been the West Edmonton Mall. It is a huge indoor mall with an indoor amusement park, water park, aquarium, casino, 3 hotels, life size replica of the Santa Maria that Christopher Columbus sailed in, and over 300 stores and an IMAX Theatre. It was a very interesting place but still felt like a mall. Great for a place like this though were it is so cold so much of the year.

It is strange, it doesn't snow that much here but what snow they do get stays with them all season as it is so cold. The river that runs through town is almost completely frozen over. Imagine being able to walk across the Cumberland River. That is what it reminds me of.

Other than that all is well. As is usual with these week long stays, now it is Friday and I am ready to move on. Can't wait to get to Alaska and see the Northern Lights and walk on glaciers. Well, have to catch the bus to the theatre. Will post again soon.

Peace.

News from Vancouver

We have had a nice week here in Vancouver. The weather has been really nice all week, although it was snowing this afternoon after the show.

Wednesday, Madison (Annie), Mikey (Sandy), Patrick (Mikey's handler) and I had press all day. We went to 3 TV stations and did interviews. The highlight of the day was watching Madison get so excited about having makeup put on her. She thought it was so cool we had to take time between interviews so that she could remove the makeup from the previous station so that she could have it applied again at the next station. We also were in a greenroom at one of the stations with a massage chair. Madison and I thought was pretty cool. The best part was at the last station where they had a phone that we could use to call anywhere in Canada or the US for free so we all used it to call home. Also, one of the guest on that show was the owner of a Dairy Queen talking about making Blizzards. They had some new flavors they were advertising including "Cotton Candy." Afterwards we all got to make and eat Blizzards. That alone made the long day worth it.

Thursday a bunch of us went to a place called the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was really neat though a bit overpriced. It was a forest area with bridges between the trees and a really long suspension bridge over the river. It was well worth the time and effort to see.

Friday I went to Stanley park which is the largest city park in Canada at over 1000 acres. It is on the ocean and is very beautiful. I only saw a small portion of the park but it was truly breathtaking. I then went for a walk on the beach. This has to be one of the few places where you can walk on the beach in the morning, play a round of golf and go snow skiing in the afternoon all without spending more than 30 minutes in the car.

There were many other things to do and see here that I didn't get to enjoy. After all I was here to do 8 performances of "Annie." Ah well, a great excuse to bring the family here on vacation someday.

Talk to you from Edmonton in a few days.

Balmy Vancouver

Yesterday we arrived in Vancouver, BC, Canada and were welcomed by sunshine and warm weather...at least compared to where we have been. The weather here IS really nice with highs near 50 each day. Jolie and I went to lunch yesterday and spent an hour just walking around Vancouver. It is a beautiful city! Another one of the places I recommend everyone try and see if given the chance.

We opened the show tonight and went well as usual. (I wonder how many times I have written that in this blog?) The theatre is great and the audience was very receptive. After the show we had a Meet-n-Greet with a few folks. It is always nice to meet people after the show and hear their compliments. It helps to know that folks genuinely enjoy our efforts.

After the show I grabbed a bite to eat at the grocery next to the theatre. As I was leaving I ran into all the orphans in the show running across the street screaming. The dad of one of the girls had arranged for a limo that just happened to be driving by to take the girls back to the hotel so that they wouldn't have to walk. One of the moms said I should ride with them so me, the 7 orphans, and "Annie's" grandma rode back the 8 blocks to the hotel. The girls were so cute and excited. One of those moments I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Week 15 of Tour

Tonight we finished our 15th week of shows! I can tell you that it is beginning to feel like it has been almost 5 months since I have been home. I am looking forward to the layoff in three weeks.

We played in Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon this week. The show has gone great and audiences here love ANNIE.

The big news has been the weather. Highs have been hovering around ZERO! Yes that is right, the highs!. Lows have been down as low as a -25!. It is unbearable. I don't know how these people deal with this all the time.

Fortunately the theatres and hotels have been nice so no need to venture out except to get on and off the bus. This is a picture of our hotel rooms in Winnipeg. The nicest room I have stayed in on tour by far. This is not normal. (The guy in the corner is my roommate Zander.)

That is really it for now. I have to get up in 5 hours to get on a bus. I will write again from beautiful Vancouver!

Peace,

David.