Fri - April 15, 2005

Parting Gift

Our set in the sanctuary of Wesley Methodist Church in Muscatine, IA

CORALVILLE, IA - Our final performance of Così was Thursday night at the Wesley Methodist Church in Muscatine. Having a humongous cross dangling above the set of our sexual farce added a new dimension to our humble production.

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Wed - April 13, 2005

Kids Say...

The future of Burlington, IA is bright

BURLINGTON, IA - We've been in residence at Corse Elementary School in Burlington yesterday and today. It's a quaint community on the Mississippi River, featuring streets lined with nice homes and magnificent trees. The schedule we've had here has been kind. We have done two workshops in the mornings, with just one performance of Pigs in the afternoon.

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Mon - April 11, 2005

Enlightenment Amidst the Corn

A plea for peace at the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield, IA

W. BURLINGTON, IA - The Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield is unlike any school we've seen on this tour. A Pre-K-through-12 school based on the philosophy of "Consciousness-Based" education, its students are all practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, or "TM," as they refer to it.

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Mon - April 4, 2005

The ARC

Ben explores the backyard of the ARC in Rock Island, IL

KEOKUK, IA - The penultimate week of the tour is underway, and our first stop of the week was unlike anything we had experienced to this point. We performed Three Little Pigs for the Association of Retarded Citizens (ARC) in Rock Island, Illinois.

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Sat - April 2, 2005

Young Sage

Autograph seekers in Union, IA

INDIANOLA, IA - Friday afternoon found us at BCLUW Middle School in Union, a rural community about 70 miles northeast of Des Moines, for a performance of the abbreviated Così Fan Tutte. As the crew was breaking down the set afterwards, I ventured outside to get some fresh country air. As I looked down the hill upon a large group of kids playing on the football field, I was approached by a young girl who was eager to share some insights about life with me.

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Wed - March 30, 2005

Musical Missionaries

Spotted in a classroom in Davenport

WEBSTER CITY, IA - After visiting so many different schools over the last two months, the memories of each one have a tendency to bleed into one another. It's easy to fall into the habit occasionally of treating each new destination as "just another school." Even though the faces and names of the children change each day, certain things remain relatively constant from location to location.

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Tue - March 29, 2005

Hoarse Play

The auditorium for tonight's performance in Algona

ALGONA, IA - Tonight we had our first full-length Così Fan Tutte since the week before our vacation. After having only two full-length performances of the opera in a span of eight weeks, tonight's show began a stretch in which we have four full performances over the final three weeks of the tour. Things were a little bit rough tonight. On the good side, we tend not to make the same mistakes twice. On the bad side, we have an uncanny ability to make new mistakes.

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Mon - March 28, 2005

Musical Musical Chairs

INDIANOLA, IA - Even after eight weeks of doing the show, it's still difficult to look at one another in our pig costumes while keeping a straight face. Imagine, then, how difficult it was for me during this morning's performance of Three Little Pigs when I looked over at Ben and noticed that he had only one of his two pig ears attached to the side of his head. After eight weeks of wear and tear, one of his ears had finally had enough. Completely unprepared for this unexpected sight, I could barely continue singing without laughing uncontrollably. In fact, I had to do jumping jacks on stage to keep myself from losing it entirely. This little vignette was but a taste of what awaited us in the afternoon.

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Wed - March 23, 2005

Hunting for Pig Tales

DAVENPORT, IA - The workshop I conduct at schools with Eric and Courtney includes a part when we ask the children how they might change the story of The Three Little Pigs. Before we started traveling in January, the person at DMMO who authored the workshop warned us that, this being a farm state, we might have kids who suggest specific breeds for the pigs in the story. For instance, how would this tale be different if the main characters were Gloucestershire pigs instead of Hampshire pigs?

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Mon - March 21, 2005

Back to Work

Twilight near Cedar Rapids

OSCEOLA, IA - The tour resumed today with a day at Clarke Community High School in Osceola, a town that, in spite of its being only about 40 miles south of Indianola, is several degrees more rural. In fact, even to consider Indianola as "rural" at this point is almost laughable. To give you an idea of how desolate this corner of the Earth is, a perfunctory glance at a map of Iowa showed roughly five towns in the same county as Osceola. Some people might be better able to grasp the reality of this situation through the fact that America Online, my backup way of entry to the Internet, doesn't have any access numbers in the area that qualify as local calls. For perhaps the first time on this tour, I literally feel like I may be in the middle of nowhere. Not that "nowhere" is necessary a bad place, though - today was unquestionably one of the more memorable and enjoyable days of work that we have had on the entire tour.

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Fri - March 11, 2005

The Return of Opera

FARMINGTON, MO - Professional baseball and basketball teams like to go into their All-Star breaks with some positive momentum. I drew that parallel in my mind as we approached Thursday night's performance of Così Fan Tutte, which was our first in a month. On the cusp of our weeklong vacation, it was important to the group that we cap off the first half of the tour with a decent showing.

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Thu - March 10, 2005

"Show-Me," Indeed

Student artwork at St. Joseph's School in Key West, Iowa

FARMINGTON, MO - Like Bill Cosby used to prove time after time on television, kids really do say the darndest things. Take, for example, this vignette from a school we visited this week.

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Tue - March 8, 2005

Now It Can Be Told

HANNIBAL, MO - I had hoped that someday I would be able to share the story of the ongoing nightmare I've been living for more than a week. Thankfully, I can share that story today.

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Tue - March 1, 2005

Parking Lot Encounters

A collage of self-portraits at St. Anthony's School in Dubuque

With Major League Baseball spring training underway in Arizona and Florida, an incident at a Catholic school inspires yet another reminiscence of my former career.

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Mon - February 21, 2005