I’ve discovered, since ‘the thing’, that as much as I love my large and well-decorated apartment, it’s a really good idea to get the heck away from it every few weekends. I’d signed up for this Baltimore G&S thing the weekend of May 19th. My buddy Erika, a fine pianist, and friend Michael produce regular “BaltiQWERTS”, a day of singing four or five G&S shows through. Very fun. I’ve gone a couple of times before, and usually take the opportunity to revisit my old grad school stomping grounds. But Erika and Michael had (the last year) found a really nice church space way way up on Charles Street, nowhere near the train station and the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. So as I pondered (“maybe I should get a car this year, and stay in the outskirts”), I realized that I usually visit my dad and brother in Durham, NC during Memorial Day weekend, and maybe, if I was going to have a car in Baltimore, it didn’t make sense to return back to New York, just to go south again the following weekend. So… road trip, with associated experiment – I didn’t want to take (much) time off from work, so I’d be working from the road, let’s see how that goes.
So on Fri the 18th, I’d taken the afternoon off and headed up with my luggage to the LaGuardia Avis lot to pick up my car. Happy path would be that, since I’m a ‘preferred’ member, that there’d be a car just waiting for me in a space and they’d text me the space and I’d just drive out. But they were very busy and I had to wait in line (argh) to get my car instructions, and then for some reason, instead of bringing me the car directly (they were washing it, gassing it up), i guess they put it in a space and then some other customer got it. (I saw them driving the car with the license plate I’d been assigned, and was like, ‘wuh?’). Anyway, I finally got a different car (a white Kia Forte) and headed off to the local grocery store to pick up car snacks and distilled water for my CPAP machine.
It took me about five hours to drive to Baltimore – quite a bit longer than I’d expected, but Friday afternoon, you know? But I had snacks and playlists and podcasts and also the audiobook of Lisa Lutz’s The Passenger, which I’d read years ago and remembered liking a lot. So I was happy as a clam. I love a road trip, and since I don’t own a car, I don’t get to do them very often.
I knew that if I got there in time, I could join Erica and my buddies Bob and Sheri from Ohio for dinner, but also figured I probably wouldn’t get there in time. Got to the hotel in Cockeysville (heh), headed out to an American grill sort of place for dinner, and Bob joined me for a drink and dessert. Lovely seeing him (and, eventually, Sheri), they are the nicest people and I only get to see them at this sort of event.
Saturday, met Bob and Sheri for breakfast in the hotel, then headed over to the church. Over bagels and coffee got to catch up with old friends. Peter Z from Rochester, who’d been in my Savoynet Patience. Florrie M, long time friend and conductor from suburban Philly. Tracy D, who was Fruma Sarah in my Fiddler at Wildwood Summer Theater way back when. Laurie W, who I’ve known for forever from these things, and Linda N as well – they were both at that Toronto singout I was at in 2000. Rick D, who was in Ruddigore last year and will be Pish-Tush in this summer’s Mikado in England. A lot of locals from Baltimore and DC who I’d met before.
We started with Trial by Jury, my first ever G&S, a perfect little 35 minute one-act. Then into The Gondoliers, a very long show. I was singing a fun role I’d never done before, the patter role of the Duke of Plaza Toro. I had not spent enough time reviewing it, and even though I was on book, the patter song had a lot of “mumble mumble mumble mumble Duke of Plaza Toro!” in it. But it was fine, and the cast overall was really great.
The next show was Patience, and again, I was singing a sizable role I hadn’t done before, Colonel Calverley. He’s the bass role, but also has a pattery song which is difficult because almost all of the references are obscure to modern audiences. That one I did better, and we had a great time doing the medieval art trio in Act 2.
“You hold yourself like this…” Me (Colonel) Sylvan K (Major), Michael (Duke)
“If Saphir” was fun, too – you end up improvising choreography, and so I was dancing happily with Saphir, a woman I’d never met before. Rick was Bunthorne, Laurie was Grosvenor. Point of pride – even though I don’t sing much any more, these two roles plus Monday’s Pish-Tush in NYC meant I’d sung three complete G&S roles in a week.
After pizza lunch (I’d forgotten my wallet in the hotel room, so I still owe Erika and Michael $20), we went into Pirates and Mikado. I was just chorus for these – we did all the schtick for Pirates (‘arrrr’ing for the opening numbers, stomping our feet marchingly for the policeman’s entrance). Bob was MG Stanley, lots of fun. Rick was Ko-Ko for Mikado. Very successful day, a ton o’fun. I’m running out of roles I’ve never done – the ones left tend to be the big ones that everyone asks for, like Jack Point and the Lord Chancellor.
Bob, Sheri, Linda and I went to dinner at a restaurant advertising Baltimore’s best ribs. I skipped the ribs, but had their crabcake dinner which was excellent, and we all had dessert. Back to the hotel for goodnights, and plans to get together for breakfast before we continued on the next day – them for home (Linda lives in Connecticut), and me for Part 2.
The Toast Point Page 