Here are some more recent pictures, to prove that New York, and not Chicago as the song goes, is my kind of town!!!

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Those cries of "chill out Georgia, have some OJ" and pre-show frenzies are far behind as Jazz, Greer, Susan (our Virginia host and all time legend) and I sit in the kitchen calm as a zen garden on valium. Not only was the day a beautifully exhausting achievement, adapting to a new space, a new type of audience etc, but it was topped off with wonderful people sitting round a hot tub (yes, a hot tub), on a deck in the middle of a forest in the mountains. Incredible and completely enchanting.

Here are just a few pictures to show you all how we're getting along. Mammoth blog entries will come soon I promise!

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Forget Miami, definitely forget Tifton (although to the staff at Tokyo Steak House, we salute you for your awesomeness), forget everywhere our motor morphed bodies have taken us - Pigeon Forge is the undiscovered Vegas of America. It is the new Vegas. A highlight of the tour so far. A detailed account is definitely needed, but bed calls for a day of re-blocking around a grand piano and one wing...

Yesterday we ran workshops in Sebastian River high school with some students from Holy Trinity also - it was really good fun, thanks for being such great sports! John Halliday and I (DMack) ran a rather whimsical tour of lighting design; this let us retell all of our war-stories from past shows.

With the first half of the first performance down, the play seems rather well received so far. Lots of laughter at all the right moments, which is always a plus. John is having fun opping the lights, after a very busy day rigging, focussing and plotting. DMack is opping sound (but also laughing along with the audience a lot). Beth is sat backstage Deputy Stage Managing and Louise and Georgia are selling programmes, by far the most important job of them all, which they execute with charm, grace, beauty, a leek and two batteries. Which gives me a spare second to write this.

As we rolled our eyes and claimed it was ‘just one of those days’ for the fifth or sixth time on our journey, you would think despair would be the leading emotion of the day. But no, the enthusiasm of our troops and team did not falter! After taking off late, being deemed ‘suspicious’ by security, flying in a lightning storm (pretty yes, but pretty scary too) and having our luggage left in sunny Detroit, we still had the tingle of anticipation surging through us as we finally left Florida airport in the wee small humid hours of this morning.

As you have probably gathered, the rehearsal period is now over and the previews have ended. The performance was extremely well received by all who came to watch, including one couple who insisted we were 'better than the film'. Thanks to everyone who came to support us!

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Having done five performances over the last 3 days, I am looking forward to a week of sleep before crossing the pond on the 2nd. As I write, there is still much to be done; there is for example a large pile of fruit corner yoghurts sitting next to me which are definitely not going to finish themselves. There is also the small matter of finding all the things the house has swallowed up over the last 3 weeks (phone, keys etc.) which I was hoping would have turned up by now. Anyway, it's goodbye for now until a week today. Very exciting.

As the publicity drive continues at full throttle, I took a little time our from tour manager tasks today to visit the actors during rehearsal and take a few photos. Here are some of the 'best'.

Only fourteen hours to go until the dress rehearsal. More of an update to follow tomorrow...

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