Alabama Redemption

We finished our time in Louisiana with more crawfish, lots of fried oysters and, in Shreveport, a vampire search (some of you may understand this reference; suffice it to say, our True Blood fans Alaina and Claire were thrilled to be in the "motherland" when the tenth book came out). Shreveport also brought us an exceptional crew, full of great IATSE characters who were particularly happy to see a pro-union show treading their boards. The lighting guy actually held up a raise "solidarity fist" during "Loretta's Anthem." We lunched, drove to Meridian, MS, played two show, slept in a cramped Microtel and the headed off to the portion of the tour I dreaded most: Alabama.

'Bama and I don't have a very good history. My last visit to the state involved an unfortunate stop in Talladega, which is a place I would prefer never to revisit. Anybody who needs a refresher can read this entry. Meeting my friend Stephen on A Christmas Carol last year helped break down some concepts, but when I announced my arrival in Montgomery, AL to the world of Facebook and the response was "hide," I figured something was up. Worse? We had four days off, and THEN a show. What on earth were we to do?

Plenty, it turned out.

First, we should not forget that Montgomery is the home of Martin Luther King Jr's Dexter Avenue Church, the site of the Rosa Parks-started bus boycott, the birthplace of Hank Williams, the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the base of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. That's sorta a lot, if you are into that sorta thing. And I am. Grace and Claire accompanied me to check out Hank William's museum, where we indulged our love of honky-tonk, and realized that his music is clearly lost on our generation (the next youngest person was at least twice my age.) Feeling countrified, we strolled the deserted weekend streets and then headed for some Shakespeare. Which is located in a place that looks like this:



A downright cultured first day.

Sunday, Mother's Day, brought a trip to Waffle House (where there was a wait!!) and then a visit to the Montgomery Museum of Art. I guess mom's everywhere love waffles and Edward Hopper.

My big trip, however, came on Monday. My day. In search of some civil rights education, I decided to take the bus (!) to the Southern Poverty Law Center and Rosa Parks Museum, curious to see what was going on. The Southern Poverty Law Center has always been in my psyche, as my dad is a long-time donor, and their materials have always been either available or discussed at home. And their Civil Rights Memorial and Museum did not disappoint. The museum in particular is sort-of the perfect mix of memorial interpretation and explanation of the SPLC's mission. Plus, it's short, interactive and heavily reliant on multimedia, which makes it very manageable for school groups and individual visitors alike. I "nerd-ed on" for a while:




Rosa Parks's Museum is similarly well-done, recreating the event through media, sound clips and a nice array of historical documents. My trip there was cut short, however, with a report that the Technical Director for our venue had invited us to a BBQ at his place that evening. WHAT??? This is the stuff of Theatreworks legend, and, in four tours, it had never happened before. Anyway, Adam welcomed us with open arms, burgers, brats and beers, and we spent the evening in his house, playing Rock Band and getting to know each other. As it always does, being in a house after months of hotel rooms was such a relief:




The Southern Hospitality did not end there, however. Post-show the next day, Adam and Josh (another staff member) took us out to lunch. Another first. Clearly, one of the best days of our tour. We were all quite sad to head off for Dothan.

If this redemptive experience in Alabama has taught me anything, it is that, regardless of sites and "culture" (which were great, really!), the people really make or break my view of wherever we go. Theater people the world over seem to "get" each other, and my experience in Alabama proved that our shared experience, plus some true hospitality, can make what should be a rough town into a great place to visit. 'Bama, I'll be back.

Call tomorrow: 7:40, Super 8 in Dothan, AL. Let the Southern good times roll!

Kid Quote of the Day: One kid seemed to doubt the authenticity of my performance. After my first scene with Jenny, one little girl called out to me: "You’re not a real granddad." Thanks, kid.

Colleen Tractor Quote of the Day: "Ethan Marc Angelica!! If you can remember the show after three days off, I'm sure you can remember to put your tractor away!"

P.S. Montgomery did have one fault, however. Here was the marquee on our venue:



We're hoping that Billy, Kevin and Brad (the writers of our fair show) can script this one for us. We're thinking something slightly Brechtian?