My Dad picked this wine out just for me. And Captain Lesgate.

Everyone has a favorite part of whatever town they live in, and even though I'll only be living here for a little over a month, I have found mine. Walking east on Prince Street on the first dry and sunny day in the past 72 hours, I turned left on Vine Street and found my way through streets of houses I'd seen pictured in Lancaster tourism brochures. Winding streets, quaint houses with autumnal window baskets, an alley gate melded to form a spider's web, rose bushes offering their last blooms to the pedestrians of the Red Rose City. It's idyllic. On my way back into town, I stopped in Penn Square by the Visitors Center; I'd been in before, of course, but for some reason hadn't made my way through the upstairs museum. The Masonic Lodge on the second floor is startlingly beautiful, and the artwork interesting. I was most taken with the example of printing called Fraktur, especially the calligraphed envelopes written in white ink on black and navy papers. Upstairs from the Lodge was just about on par for me as the Bonbonniere--a functioning print studio. Although the printer wasn't there the day I stopped by, I did still get to add my own decoration to the wall of typeset, pictured to the right. See if you can find it when you visit . . . I also stopped by the Newseum, and enjoyed seeing the different presses used in Lancaster--I think there are few structures of wood and steel more beautiful than a printing press--they hold so much promise and possibility. Rather like a theatre, a place to imprint ideas and dreams. Only in the theatre, the results are less tangible and more open to variation.

Suddenly, scissors everywhere.

We had our first audience last night--it's the one element we've been missing--and I'm looking forward to opening the show this week. There are always a few surprises when you first bring people into the seats--folks laugh at unexpected places, respond in certain ways to what's happening on stage that help us as actors understand what the play is trying to do in a particular moment. And also, it's just really cool to be able to share what we've been working on with all of you; the theatre is truly a collaborative art and you're a part of that! We had a few missteps last night--some prop issues, some costume malfunctions--things that seem to only happen the first time they're available to your scrutiny. Like they're shy or something and have to get used to being around new people. And so after the show, the cast and some of our crew headed out to the Marriott for a cocktail and some of those crazy good butter pretzels they have at the bar. We will rehearse once again before our preview tonight, and then we're off--can't wait to see you at the stage door!

Thanks to Jane Miller for writing in--that's an astute observation about technical elements deserving their own mention in the program. In this play, maybe the telephone should have its own bio.

Weekly Blog Feature: Dialing Through Time

In the early 1880's some well-to-do telephone owners started the unusual trend of paying to have a theatre employee hold a telephone receiver backstage, transmitting live plays and operas into their living rooms.