Tuesday August 14th, 2012
The days really fly past here. Today's performance of 'The Property Known As Garland' went really well. 16 people in, and they were lively. It helps so much when the audience is responsive. Today was a day off from 21A, so Glenn and I decided to see a show. We chose the musical 'Ring of Stones', at TheSpace@ Surgeon's Hall. It was based on a very interesting (and true) story, about a village in the north of England, that had an outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1666. They decided to quarantine themselves inside their village, so they put a ring of stones around their town and no one was allowed in, or out. Their actions no doubt saved countless lives. There was probably 20 people in the cast. After the play we walked down to the NHS (National Health Service) to get an opinion about my tooth. I know there's a lot of people in the United States who are fearful of anything that has the word 'socialized' in front of it. That's too bad.... They were so nice!! We'll have to pay of course, since we're not Scottish citizens, but according to the nurse who I spoke with, if they can help me, it should be way less expensive than in the states. Further updates about that tomorrow.
Here's the freaky thing. The nurse who interviewed me and set up my appointment was so nice, I offered him a free ticket to my show. Turns out he already bought a ticket to the show and was planning on coming this Saturday! He's a huge Judy Garland fan and actually worked at the London Palladium at one point. FYI, Judy had many successful concerts at the London Palladium, and there's even a plaque displayed there, that mentions Judy and those concerts.
Alexander the nurse (who's also called Sandy) got me an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.
We decided to have supper at The Auld Hoose pub, and we chose their vegetarian nachos for 2.
They were delicious. Tons of brown and red beans, so it's a good thing I've been doing a bunch of walking tonight. ha. A really nice lady at the BBC pink tent, named Michelle, helped me log onto the wi-fi, and I gave her a show card, and she's pretty sure she'll come to see the show. It's not second nature for me to constantly be marketing, but that certainly is what it takes to get people in the audience. Oh, and I was actually in an elevator with two reviewers tonight, and with a minimum of begging, I invited them to come and review my show(s). They took cards and smiled and spoke to me, but were mostly polite and 'distant'. Interesting fact, there's a review group called Broadway Baby. They have new printed sheets, available every other day, at most of the venues, with reviews of a bunch of shows. They have reviewed about 700 shows so far. They still have about 1,500 shows to review. So that gives you an idea of how many shows prospective audience members have to choose from. The weather has been GORGEOUS the last few days, so instead of going to shows, I would guess that some people take walks, or go for picnics, or garden, or just walk around and enjoy the sun and the mild weather. I'm at the BBC pink tent tonight, and there's a really good band playing. I feel totally cosmopolitan and hip. My friend Rob Olson would LOVE this. There's music groups everywhere. Some are just on the street, and others have gigs in proper venues, with sound and light systems. The word from a bystander, is that this is a really good rock group that aren't 'signed' artists yet, but that there's a lot of buzz about them and they just might be the next big thing. Cool. If I knew who they were, I could say I saw them before they were famous. I'll have to ask on my way out.