Notes from Geneva

"Best Before" opened Saturday night to a full house of very enthusiastic participants. Ellen has been approached on the tram with praise for her performance. Johanna, the fourth person to occupy Bob's chair, gave a flawless performance. The play here has taken on a more political overtone. Part of the play includes a speech from the sound booth urging the audience to vote against a ballot measure in the next election that would adversely affect people in the  arts, making it harder for them to qualify for unemployment insurance.

Geneva has a program that should be copied by other cities. When you check in to a hotel here, you are given a transit pass good for the length of your stay. We have been making use of the trams almost daily. They also have places where you can borrow a bike for free.

Now that "Best Before"is in Switzerland, we are using the seventh currency on these tours. Canadian and US dollars, Mexican pesos, Euros, British pounds, Danish Krone, and Swiss francs.

We just received word that the presentation of "Best Before" in Paris has been postponed from December, 2010 to March, 2011. The theatre where the play will appear is still under construction. So if you were planning to come to Paris for the show, don't book your tickets just yet.

Geneva

We are in Geneva now. At the point where the Rhone River flows out of Lake Geneva is the Jet-D'Eau. The fountain blasts a stream of water 140 meters into the air. The Rhone flows through the center of the city. About a kilometer down stream from the lake the Rhone is joined by the blue-grey waters of the glacier fed L'Arve River. Geneva has taken full advantage of it's waterfront.

Ellen had a few days off here before beginning rehearsals. A new character is being introduced here. Johanna will do her part in French. There will be titles at the top of the screen, translating both the English into French and the French into English, so I will actually know what she is saying. Since a new character means rewriting a part of the play, it's amazing that they can they can make these changes with only a couple of rehearsals with the full cast. Of course, the directors work with the new character much more. Johanna will be the fourth person to perform in the spot that Bob was in in Vancouver.

We spent our free time here wandering the city, visiting the old town, parks, the weekly flea market, and generally becoming acquainted with the pace of life here. Geneva is the exception to the rule that it gets more expensive the further north you go. Though we a south of Germany, hotels and restaurants are very expensive here. However, we have found that groceries are about the same price as in Vancouver. Wine is cheaper here than at home, but I think that you have to go someplace without a wine industry to find wine that is more expensive than in British Columbia. Since the hotel provides breakfast and our room has a fridge, we frequently eat in.

Leaving Denmark

A poster from the Smokefest. The Smokefest (Smukfest in Danish) was an outdoor music festival attended by all ages. No smoking was in evidence. The only tie-in to the name that I saw was one booth selling cigarettes (while there were three bars selling drinks). I never saw anyone at the cigarette booth.

A last word about Denmark. Everywhere "Best Before" has been, Ellen and I have been able to at least be polite in the local language (hello, please, thank you). Not so in Denmark. We didn't have a clue. Mostly because it wasn't necessary. Everyone spoke English. We just expected it and began every encounter  in English. As one Dane told me, "We are a small country. We can't expect others to learn our language."

The trip from Aarhus to Geneva was an adventure for me. Ellen flew with the company, going from Aarhus to Copenhagen to Geneva in a few hours. I took the train. It took 16 hours, counting an hour and a half stopover in Hamburg and an eight minute stop in Basel. The nice thing about train travel is that eight minutes is plenty of time to make a connection. At times through Germany the train cruised along at over 160 kilometers per hour.

Aarhus, Denmark

Ellen (Rimini Protokoll) is on the same bill (or at least on the same billboard) as Rickis Lee Jones.

We are now in AArhus, the second largest city in Denmark and a University town. There are thousands of bikes (the city is mostly flat) and most major streets have designated bike lanes on the sidewalk level, so pedestrians must be doubly careful at intersections. Everyone, including cyclists and pedestrians, obey the traffic signals.

There are several festivals going on now. Besides the arts festival that "Best Before" is a part of, there is a childrens festival and at least three music festivals that I am aware of. Tuesday night I took a three hour walk through town and saw seven bands playing at six venues. Five of the venues were outside in various squares in the downtown.

As we knew it would be, Denmark is expensive, especially if you eat at restuarants (the further north you go in Europe, the more expensive it gets). Arjan estimates that it is 30% more expensive than Germany. We have the advantage of having breakfast provided by the hotel (the Radison Blu) and the rest of the meals supplied by the festival, so we haven't needed to spend much money.

I don't usually get  involved with the blog, but Ken suggested I (Ellen) make a few comments. Opening night exceeded all expectations. As we were integrating a new character (James) to replace Brady who is not longer with the play, things could have been rough. As it was, James, who in addition to being a technical director, is also now on stage, was a real crowd pleaser. All in all a fun night. THREE curtain calls and flowers, followed by a wine reception provided by the German consul to Denmark. Does it get any better? Stay tuned.

Now about our trips here. Ellen flew here via Vancouver, Toronto, Copenhagen, AaArhus. This in 24 hours with one overnight flight. (Can you say "jet lag"?) I (Ken) could only make a continuous trip with two successive overnight trips since I am flying standby on Continental. So I left two days earlier and spent Friday night and Saturday with my son Gabe in Houston. I caught a 6AM flight from Houston to Newark (the only possible flight I could get on, since Houston and Newark are Continental hubs and standby between these cities is like a company bus). I was #36 on the standby list.

The flight from Newark to Copenhagen arrived about 15 minutes after Ellen's Air Canada flight and parked at the next gate. I caught up with Ellen and the rest of her crew in the line for immigration (a mere formality when arriving in Europe from North America). We had time for a quick kiss before she went for her connecting flight and I went to the train station. I got to Aarhus about an hour and a half earlier than Ellen because she had to wait for her flight.

Vancouver

We arrived home to find that we had new neighbours. This will be my one attempt at cute.

For those of you who haven't seen "Best Before", this trailer will give you some idea of what it is all about. If you saw the play in Vancouver, you will definitely want to watch this. You may see yourself. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDcjIumU14M

Back Home

We have been home for about a week now. Catching up before the next trip at the end of August. We both arrived home the same day, though I was beginning to worry when the first three flights of the day left Mexico City full, which means without me. All worked out in the end.

After the close of "Best Before" the farewells were interesting since people are going different places and not everyone will be with each of the future performances. So we heard, "see you in Vancouver""see you in Denmark""see you in Geneva" etc.

We spent a few days sightseeing in Mexico City. We spent one whole day at the Museun of Anthropology, which was overwhelming. You can't really take it all in in one day. Most of the rest of our time was spent wandering the streets, taking in the sights and smells. Especially the bakeries that are a big as our neighbourhood supermarket. We took time to wander the halls of the great public buildings that house many of the fantastic murals, most notably those by Diego Rivera.


The Angel is the symbol of Mexican independence. Mexico is making big plans for its bicentennial this year. The countdown clock in the zocolo indicates that the official timing for the event is in mid September, but they are getting ready now.



I have mentioned that the audiences in Mexico were the most involved. As an English speaker, I don't know how much Conde had to do with that, but he was dynamic on stage. Here he is in action

la Zona Rosa

As we were coming back to the hotel after a post show dinner last night, we found that la Zona Rosa is a center of nightlife in the city. It was about midnight and we were passing through the western edge of the district. It seemed that there were about four nightclubs per block with music blaring from the open doors and windows. Places that didn't seem to exist in the daytime. Since it was mostly electronica, it didn't entice us older folks, and even the younger members of our troupe didn't stop.

Since it was nearly 2am when we finally got to bed, we were not pleased when they started a sound check for a labour rally, at window rattling decibels, in the street just below our window at 8:30am. Returning at 8:30pm from this evening's show, we caught the last number of the band that was playing the wrap-up of the rally.

The nice thing is that Paseo Reforma was turned over to bikes for most of today and traffic was relatively light all through the neighbourhood.

"Best Before" had its last show here tonight and the audience upheld the high standards of the shows in Mexico. There is now about a six week break before starting the fall tour. We are spending a few more days here in Mexico City before heading home.

Mexico City

If you are familiar with Mexico City, this picture, taken from our hotel window, will tell you where we are staying. This is the Angel Monument. It is the symbol of Mexican Independence, and sits in a circle in the Paseo de la Reforma, one of the city's main thoroughfares, two blocks from our hotel. The strange thing about this circle is that it isn't treated as a traffic circle, but rather as an intersection, so if you want to turn left, you go to the left of the monument, toward oncoming traffic. Somehow, with the traffic lights, it works. Don't try to drive here. (See "traffic tetras" in a previous post.) We found that the Metro is much faster than a taxi.

Our hotel is great. The rooms are very large. Our tour manager says that her room is larger than the Yaletowm apartment that she shares with her partner, but our room is larger. We have a corner suite. The kitchenette is small, but the rest of the suite is the size of our living and dining rooms in Vancouver. The problem is that there is nothing of interest within walking distance.

We are in the financial district and along embassy row. The choices for food here are high end, and not necessarily very good, restaurants or food from street vendors. We favour the vendors, but not all of our group does. We are on the edge of la Zona Rosa, a strange combination of sex shops, fast food places like McDonald's and Burger King, and high fashion stores. After the show ends here on Sunday, and thus our paid for accommodations, we have made arrangements to move into the Historical District for a few days, which will be much more interesting in all ways. (Thanks for the tip Marjorie.)

Speaking of the show, it opened here Friday to a nearly full house. Although it was a slightly older audience than in Pachuca, they were equally enthusiastic. The Mexican audiences have been the best of the tour. I think that Conde is really good at bringing up the level of participation in the Spanish speaking audiences.

mas Pachuca

"Best Before" opened to a full house in Pachuca last night. To be expected since the festival events here are free. It was one of the most enthusiastic audiences the play has had, with lots of vocal input from the audience. Conde did a great job I was told, though I could only go by his tone and the audience reaction because I didn't understand the Spanish. The audience seemed to be mostly bilingual because they laughed at the right times before the Spanish supertitles appeared on the screen, and also laughed at the ad-libs.

Pachuca again

I decided to add one more image of the dance in the Plaza Juarez. The picture I posted yesterday showed the delicacy of the dance. this one shows the strength. The company, beau geste, is from France and they are staying in our hotel. We had an interesting discussion with Philippe, the dancer, at dinner last night. They have been doing this piece for five years.

Pachuca

I met Ellen's plane in Mexico City as planned, but the trip to Pachuca didn't work out too well. It was Friday night and a storm had caused some local flooding. A trip that should have taken an hour and a half took nearly five, mostly just to get out of Mexico City. The best description of the traffic, supplied by Brady, was "traffic tetras". Any time a space opened up on the road, it was filled by a vehicle, without regard for which way the vehicle was going or where the driver wanted to go.

But we are here now and enjoying ourselves. Traveling with Ellen, the first thing we did was scout out the markets, and they are everything you would expect of markets in a Mexican city of 220,000.

"Best Before" had rehearsals today as they are breaking a new character, Conde, who will provide a Spanish speaking presence in place of the characters played by Bob and Arjan at other venues. The show opens a two day run here on Monday before moving to Mexico City.



This is the view from the front door of our hotel in Pachuca, looking across the Plaza Independencia.

We saw an amazing performance in the Plaza Juarez. The Transversales 2010! Festival that "Best Before" is a part of likes to combine art and real life. "Best Before" combines actors on stage with a video game that the audience participates in. In "Transports Exceptionnels" a dancer performs a pas-de-duex with a construction excavator. Since the machine's windows are reflectorized, you don't see the operator, so the dancer is dancing with the machine. The machine lifts and swings him. (In this picture it has just set him down in a handstand.) Other times the dancer seems to control the machine with his hands. Since Ellen is familiar with digger operators both good and bad, she was most impressed with the precision and delicacy exhibited by this operator. It was beautiful. You will never see this performed in Vancouver. There is no public space large enough.



My favorite translation. This notice greeted us at our hotel.

More about London

The play went very well in London. The audiences were very much into the concept of the game as part of theatre. People commented on how thought-provoking the questions were. They were also much more into singing "God Save the Queen" than the audience in Cork had been.

Getting around London was a breeze with the wonderfully efficient underground system. Although it frequently involved long underground walks to get from one line to another, there was good signage and trains ran at about 2 or 3 minute intervals. Except at the height of rush hour, we nearly always got seats.

Due to the global recession and other fiscal problems in Europe, travel in Europe is now affordable. Our last time in Europe and Britain, things cost so much that we avoided calculating the price of things in dollars. Since then, the Euro and the Pound have dropped by about 40% against the dollar. In Berlin, prices seemed about the same as Vancouver and while England and Ireland were a bit more expensive, there were bargains to be had.

We have returned to North America, separately. Since the next stop is Mexico, I flew to Houston where I am staying at Gabe's apartment, although he is not here now. Bad timing. Ellen is in Vancouver for a few days before we will meet in Mexico City for the next leg.

London

Poutine and ball hockey in Trafalgar Square. It's Canada Day

Ellen has now made her debut on the London stage to the thunderous applause of an enthusiastic crowd. We had a couple days off and did some touring around. While the Tate Galleries, both the original and the modern were interesting, we had an especially good time at the Brixton Market, where we experienced the sights and sounds of what London is now.

More about Cork

Ellen and Ken on a bridge over the River Lee, or is it the canal?

Cork is a lovely city, with the central business district on an island in the Lee River. While standing looking at the waterway, I was given directions to turn around and go until I got to the river, then turn right to get to the theatre. It seems that one channel is called the river and the other is the canal, though they look the same. An Irish joke to confuse the tourists?

The downtown is pleasantly walkable once you learn the way, but the main street meanders, so you have to know where you are in order to know where you are going. There are several streets and alleys devoted to pedestrians during the day. The Old English Market is like having the Granville Island Public Market in the center of town, but with 75% of the stalls being butchers or fishmongers. Quite the experience.




The street signs, when you could find them, were in English and Gaelic, as were the signs on many public buildings. All commercial signs were in English. We did hear Gaelic spoken on the street and in the pubs though, and Irish TV had a mostly Gaelic language station. We could watch the World Cup soccer games in Gaelic or English.

Cork

Due to a canceled flight out of Toronto, I (Ken) missed my connection to Dublin and I ended up staying overnight in Newark. My room had a great view of parking lots with fences topped with razor wire and the freeway beyond. I did get to Cork a day behind Ellen.



The Cork Festival of the Senses is the low budget stop on the tour. The theatre is small (90 seats) and we are staying in a college dorm (we have a private bedroom with bathroom and share the living room and kitchen with other crew members.) There has been some quite creative cooking going on. The dorm is about a 45 minute walk from the city centre and the theatre, with occasional service by city busses.



The play is going well. The switch from having Bob in the cast to Arjon went smoothly. The audiences have been appreciative.

A note about traffic

Unlike in Vancouver, the drivers in Toronto actually stop for red lights, making it safer for pedestrians to cross.

Here in Cork, Ireland, the cars come very fast and the combination of having cars driving on the left and the many intersections that are not right angles make it dangerous crossing without the walk sign, which seems to come very infrequently. Some of the intersections require three cycles of the lights to cross as you go from the curb to an island in the traffic, to another island before getting to the opposite curb.

Toronto again

The cast and crew relaxing at the Berkeley Street Theatre before the show. The discussion was about a 2011 tour that could include Portugal, France and New Zealand.

This is the Toronto City Hall as viewed from our hotel window at night. It looks much the same by daylight, but the colours are different.

For those of you who know Peter, he came to the show last night. We visited with him over a glass of wine (or two) back at the hotel after. He is looking very good, enjoying life and considering working again, possibly in Africa.

The show closes tonight and we are off to Cork, Ireland tomorrow. We, but not the housekeeping staff, will miss the $5 cooked lobsters that we found in a local market. Messy to eat with only a Swiss army knife and a plastic fork, but we managed. Otherwise we are glad to be leaving ahead of next week's hubbub.

In Toronto

After three weeks at home, we are on the road again. My trip to Toronto took me to Houston, where I had a daylong visit with Gabe. I then went to the airport with him as he was going to work and flew to Flint, via Cleveland, for a few days visit with my mom. She is doing very well
On Monday I flew to Toronto, again via Cleveland. This was another case of getting to the airport at 6:00AM in order to try to get on a flight that was listed as full. This turns out to be a good strategy when flying standby. It gives me the best chance of getting on a flight.

Ellen flew here directly from Vancouver, but coordinating 9 people in the company is as much effort as my taking five flights to get here. We are staying in the same hotel that the G20 leaders will be staying next week, but there is little evidence of the billion dollars in security that will come with them. It does seem that one billion is the standard cost for security for any major event these days. I guess the olympics gave the security forces a benchmark that they must live up to.

Yesterday we went to a reception at the Goethe Institut, one of the sponsors of the tour. Their purpose is to promote German culture and the play is produced by Rimini Protokoll, a German organization. Sushi was served.

Tonight is opening night, and Ellen had a rehearsal and technical check this afternoon. Since Bob is in the cast for the run in Toronto, the show reverts to the script used in Vancouver and Seattle. They will be doing this with only this afternoon's rehearsal. Helgard, the producer,insisted that they are professionals now and she is confident that they will handle it in stride.

Photos from Brighton

Ellen and Duff did a radio interview in Brighton.


Ellen in front of the pavilion built by George IV as his seaside residence. Notice that Ellen's wearing makeup!


The Brighton Pier in the evening.

Photos from Berlin

The interior of the theatre in Berlin. We didn't use the second balcony.


The cast on stage in Berlin.


Ellen's soliloquy in Berlin.

Photos from Seattle

Ellen's picture on the poster in Seattle!

Marg and Jessica joined us on the hotel rooftop patio in Seattle.

Ken's flight to Germany was eight hours late because flights had to go around the volcano in Iceland.

Brighton

If there is something better than perfect, our trip here from Berlin was it. We are flying on separate flights throughout this trip. My standby ticket on British Airways got me upgraded to club class. Not a big deal on a flight of less than 2 hours, but more comfortable. When Ellen arrived with the company on British Midlands, the equipment case that had been lost since Seattle was waiting for them. It seems that it had spent some time in Washington DC. Ellen was especially glad to see it since it contained her boots and hard hat.

We were driven to Brighton and checked in to the Old Ship Hotel, said to be the oldest in Brighton. Any hint of luxury stops at the lobby. The hotel is right across a very busy street from the beach (pebbles, not sand) and just down the block from the famous Brighton Pier. Fish and chips abound. San Franciscans would love it here. The fog rolls in and what was promised to be a warm, sunny day turns cold and breezy.

After listening to the concise English spoken in Berlin, the accent here sounds quite shrill (this doesn't apply to you, Sue. You have a sexy, dusky voice) Actually, since we are in England, they don't have an accent, we do.

Yesterday was to have been Ellen's first day off since we left Vancouver, but she volunteered to do a radio interview about the play in the afternoon. It went very well.

Opening night tonight. The work load is wearing on the cast and a couple of them are complaining of sore throats. Wish us well.

Berlin (cont.)

A sign at the bar in our hotel:

Happy Hour 6:00 PM -8:00 Pm
Soft drinks and beer 50 % off
Alcohol regular price

Berlin

In her monologue that opens ''Best Before'' Ellen says that she started flagging in order to get out from in front of the computer. That hasn't changed. So, unless indicated otherwise, you can blame Ken for the spelling and grammer here.



Ellen has discovered that the hardest part of being a star is not dodging the papparazzi and autograph seekers. It is finding time to eat and sleep. The Friday night cast party in our room broke up at 4:00AM and Ellen had to be at the theatre at 2:00 Saturday afternoon for the matinee.



Bob, one of the 5 cast members didn't make the trip, so a new cast member was added here. Due to the nature of the play, where the cast members tell their own stories, that meant a major rewrite and a lot more rehearsals here in Berlin. No days off for Ellen and very little sight-seeing. My own tourist activities have been hampered by bad timing and long lines at the museums when I did try to go. So we had to be satisfied with walks around the area. We are in the heart of Berlin, an area just east of the Brandenburg Gate.



Berlin is a Beautiful city, grand by any definition. The broad avenues and large squares add emphasis to the architecture, both old and new. The traffic is quite controlled and the sidewalks in the business districts crowded. Most major streets have bike paths delineated on the sidewalks, but it doesn't seem to cause problems. This is a flat city, and would be great for biking if we had the time.



''Best Before'' has been playing to full houses of appreciative audiences and they get most of the jokes. They are using supertitles for the stock lines (German for the English spoken lines and visa-versa) but much of the dialogue is spontaneous between the players, so some might be missed by those who don't understand English well. The new cast member adds a German comentary to try to keep everyone up to speed.



We are hoping to fly out to London tomorrow for the next run in Brighton, but the news reports are that the volcano in Iceland may shut down London airports tomorrow. Since the play doesn't begin it's run until the end of the week, this is not a crisis. but it could be a major inconvience. My own flight here was delayed, leaving me in Houston for 13 hours and causing me to get to Berlin a day late. I did get to visit with Gabriel for about 15 minutes in Houston when he was between flights.



Sory there are no pictures. I wasn't in the habit of taking the camera with me, and now I'm having trouble getting the pictures that I did take out of the camera.

Seattle

The cast in Seattle










Ellen drumming at the Experience Music Project,
the rock & roll museum.













The Play has been playing to full houses of very enthusiastic audiences. Despite a few technical difficulties, it has been very well received. Audience answers to the questions posed during the play have been quite close to those in Vancouver, although one night they voted to legalize heroin, a first for the show. Interestingly, that was one of the most subdued audiences.

We Leave Tomorrow

One day last winter Ellen was working at her traffic control job near Granville Island in Vancouver. Several theatre companies are based there. She was approached by a group of people who identified themselves as members of a theatre production company. They asked if they could film her while she worked. After a while they gave her their cards and asked her to contact them about a production they were working on. By the time she got home, they had already called her and asked for a call back. They said that her calm demeanor while she worked impressed them.

The company’s name is Rimini Prottokol and they are based in Berlin. They are well known enough to have been commissioned to produce a play for the PuSh festival here. They use professionals, rather than actors in their productions. What impressed them the most about this area was the number of flaggers at the many construction sites in the city (apparently not common in Germany) and the video gaming industry, which is very big here. The result is an interactive play named “Best Before” and Ellen is in it.

The play ran here from January 29 to February 6, just a week before the Olympics began. The real surprise came when they began talking about touring. Here are the tour dates:
Week of City
May 3 Seattle
May 10 Berlin
May 17 Brighton, UK
June 14 Toronto
June 21 Cork, Ireland
June 28 London, UK
July 5 Mexico City
Fall dates still being finalized include Geneva, Torino, Leipzig, and Paris. The company is still working on other engagements. If you have a local theatre festival, you could try to lobby them to bring “Best Before” to your city.

You can google “Ellen Schultz Best Before” for reviews or go to the Rimini Prottokol web site to see pictures.

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