First, here’s a little glimpse at what’s been keeping me busy for the past 10 days: Home renos and Moving.

Living Room: It’s still missing the new couch

Dining area and Kitchen: Complete with tile backsplash

Bedroom: I have missed my bed so much.

The bathroom: Sophisticated with a touch of Silly

I am so pleased with how it looks now!

]]> http://www.loisbackstage.com/?feed=rss2&p=2246 3 http://www.loisbackstage.com/?p=2242 http://www.loisbackstage.com/?p=2242#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:01:18 +0000 Lois http://www.loisbackstage.com/?p=2242 I’m now into month number three of the Ride the Cyclone tour. Add my five and a half weeks in Europe onto the front of that and that is a long time to be living out of one suitcase and one carry-on. There are some things you know that you are going to need like a computer, comfortable shoes, and enough clothes. But on top of all that, despite limited space, I’m so glad I have these things:

1. Portable Printer
This is the one item on this list that is fairly stage manager/production manager/producer specific, but having a portable printer with me on tour has saved me many hours and dollars. In every city there are new schedules, contact lists, copies of the script, and many other items that need to be printed. With my own printer, I print these things in my hotel room at 1am after Q2Q and don’t have to try to find a 24 hour Kinkos or wait until the next morning to go to staples and pay per page. I bought the HP Office Jet 100 color printer and couldn’t be happier. It takes up only a small amount of my suitcase (both in terms of physical space and weight) and when set to “draft” mode prints very quickly. I did not have my printer with me in Europe, and I wish now that I had. I spent many evenings fighting with the hotel’s printing stations, trying to get schedules to print. Doing it in my room is so much better! Also, having a color printer makes it very easy to make beautiful opening night cards.
2. Talisman

My on-the-road talisman is my ducky, Cue, who makes every theatre feel like my home base. But bring something with you that makes wherever you are feel like home: framed photos of friends, your own pillow, a teddy bear, fridge magnets, an action figure, etc. A figurine also makes a great travel companion/something to take photos of when you are in places that you can’t always get a good selfie.
3. Spices (in baggies!)
While it is easy to eat out all the time when touring, it is so much healthier and cheaper to do some of your own cooking. We have been really fortunate on this tour to mostly be in hotels where we have suites with kitchens. However, it is not possible to travel with a full kitchen cupboard in one little suitcase. To remedy this, I have four plastic baggies: garlic powder, chili powder, cinnamon, and basil. Between the four of them I can add some flavor to whatever I’m cooking, but it doesn’t take up much extra space.
4. A pleasure item or two
What brings you joy? Figure that out and then bring that with you. Whether its an e-reader stocked full of books, a video game console, an external hard drive full of your favourite movies and tv shows, or a relaxing bubble bath, there will be time off that will need to be filled and having the option to relax while doing something you love can be a welcome break from exploring.
5. Sleep Aids
For me, this is melatonin, but I know that everyone has a different sleep aid preference. On tour you switch beds more frequently than some people change their sheets. You may also find yourself changing time zones and the constant “Oh, I guess we’re back to tech week….again” gets old. I highly recommend having some sort of sleep aid, especially for the first night or two in

Well now I don’t have to wonder any more since the LA Times ran a great profile of Dency Nelson, the man who has stage managed the Oscars for the last 25 years (among a long list of credits).

“An anonymous but critical piece of the Hollywood awards season machinery, stage managers like Nelson control the chaos of the live TV broadcast — they deliver the correct winning envelopes, ensure that the pop-up microphone actually pops up and, most delicately, orchestrate the flow of talent through the stage wings….”It’s like air traffic control,” he said one recent afternoon at the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center, where he was preparing for Sunday’s show. “Ninety percent of the people in the room don’t know my name, but when they round the corner and come into the wings there’s a smile, ‘Oh, that guy.’”"

Read the Whole Thing

With the very generous help of my parents, I have purchased a one bedroom condo in Vancouver. It’s just blocks away from my old apartment and has everything I wanted (except a balcony, so if anyone wants me old little BBQ, let me know).  Most excitingly it has a kitchen three times the size of my old one, a dishwasher, and in suite laundry!

I signed the final paperwork this afternoon and take possession when I get home from tour at the end of April. It’s all very exciting.

The condo, looking from the living room towards the kitchen

Signing all the paperwork to make it official

All of our travel items have the Cyclone logo spray painted onto them

I’ve been in Calgary for four very busy days now and am having a hard time believing that my first week of Ride the Cyclone is coming to an end. It feels like we’ve been in Calgary both longer and shorter than we have. Because our appearance in Calgary is part of a festival, our load-in/tech time was limited and so there was no time to go through and Q2Q the show here. Instead, I got my first chance to ever see the lighting cues, costumes and props in a dress rehearsal as I called the show for the first time on the afternoon of opening. I was nervous and I was stressed about it.

That was Wednesday. Now it’s Friday (well, Saturday really….) and I have three performances under my belt and I’m starting to feel like I’ve got a handle on what is going on. Which of course means that it must be almost time to head to the next city and start over. But there’s also something exciting about that, especially this time because we have things technically that we just didn’t have time to really look at here in Calgary that I know we want to fix in Vancouver.

All bundled up for the cold Calgary nights.

Calgary has been really beautiful and really cold while we’ve been here.  Today was down around -20 for a good portion of the day, and while my prairie relatives would think I’m weak for being cold in that, this Vancouverite is finding the cold to take some getting used to.  I am getting good use out of the winter hat I picked up in Zurich and have good memories of exploring the city in search of something to keep my head warm! Sadly the picture on the right is a bit grainy from my iPhone camera so you can’t tell that I am covered in snow in it.When I snapped the photo yesterday it was snowing quite hard outside.

In addition to the cold we’ve been battling the dry air, higher altitude, and a nasty cold that has hit many of us working on the show – myself included. For me this is a show where I barely stop talking for an hour and a half, and I’m definitely not used to being the one worried about my voice, but Thursday night I nearly lost my voice and ever since I’ve been following all the advice the singers want to give me about keeping my voice healthy.

Rielle & Sarah with the Amazing Karnak in the background

The show itself continues to be wonderful. It’s a great joy to get to listen to a new audience discover it every night. Tonight someone snuck a photo during the show on their iPhone and then tweeted it. I figure that makes it fair game, so the first production still of the 2013 tour is to the left of this text.

Tomorrow my parents are coming to see the show since they are in Calgary on their way to vacation and then Sunday we head to Vancouver where our lighting designer is already busy supervising the lighting install and getting ready for our arrival. Vancouver is the only city on the tour that has seen a previous version of the show. I can’t wait to see how they respond to the new and improved version!

I mean, the Calgary Herald really liked it. They called it “an exhilarating blast of theatre with bite” and “ a wild ride, offering everything from emotional resonance to laugh-out-loud moments to hummable tunes that will have you singing the raunchy lyrics the next day.”

Wanted: As much fun in 2013 as I had in 2012

1. I resolve to focus more fully on the people I am physically with, putting aside my phone and the digital world so that I can really connect.

2. I resolve to buy a condo in the first half of the year and to have the money saved from my tour to pay for any renovations I want to do.

3. I resolve to focus more on the amazing and positive things that are happening than complaining about the negative.

4. I resolve to finally visit New York.

5. I resolve to be able to say “This was the best year yet” at the end of the year.

10. Weekend Recipe – Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Because they are delicious and everyone wants more cookies in their lives.

9. Grieving the Playhouse
I still feel that we have not understood what the loss of the Vancouver Playhouse this past spring will mean for the Vancouver theatre community & industry.

8. Calling the Show: Three C’s to Conquer
My tips on how to call a successful show.

7. Stage Manager Ryan Gosling
Because Ryan Gosling Arts Administrator wasn’t enough, Stage Manager Ryan Gosling was born and I had to tell the world about it!

6. Resources for Stage Manager
Wherein I have compiled online links to articles, forums, and blogs about stage management.

5. Meme Alert
Because the “This is what I really do” meme is amusing to everyone when applied to their own career.

4. “You’ve Got Everything in There” :: The SM Kit
A practical look at what goes into a well stocked stage managers kit.

3. The SM Prompt Script: Show Bible Pt. 2
Continuing my look at how to assemble a prompt script.

2. SMArts: Calling a Show/The Prompt Script
My notes from the 2010 SMArts conference in Vancouver.

1. The SM Prompt Script: Show Bible Pt. 1
I can always tell when a new semester of school has started and the stage management assignments have been handed out because in those first two weeks of the semester, this post gets hundreds of views as new SM’s begin to assemble their first prompt script.

In no particular order.

Jonathon Young and Meg Rowe in All the Way Home

All The Way Home (Electric Company) website
I had a hard time picking between All The Way Home and Initiation Trilogy, both from the Electric Company, when i was beginning to compile this list. I chose All the Way Home because it was one of those productions where not only was it excellent, but EVERYTHING about it was excellent. The cast, the design, the direction, and the implementation in it’s unique set up on the stage of the QE all worked extraordinarily well. I was moved to tears by this production and in it’s final beautiful moments I sat wanting to bathe in that beauty and not let it leave. Though that transience is part of what made it so special.

Tempting Providence (Theate Newfoundland Labrador at Gateway Theatre) website
I had been hearing one of my mentors sing the praise of this show for at least four years before I finally got my chance to see it live up to all the praise she had heaped on it. It is a play that is beautiful in its simplicity and specificity, with each movement, prop, and set piece carefully chosen to serve multiple purposes, but above all to serve the story. I saw this show shortly after a friend accused me of only liking big shows with spectacle to which I had responded that what I was most interested in was shows that work as a whole and make big choices – something this show did so beautifully. I searched for a photo from the production to include in this post, but the photos I found came no where near capturing the show’s simple beauty, so I decided against including one.

Stationary

Stationary (Delinquent Theatre at Neanderthal) website
I had seen this show back when it was Parked! at Bridge Mix in 2011 and was so excited to see a longer version. By the time I was able to attend the show had been running for a few days and the festival was abuzz with delight at the talent of this young company. I was definitely not disappointed – even with high expectations – and have since purchased the soundtrack which I listen to frequently and continue to hope that I will get to see this show again. I saw the lives my friends are living on that stage – bachelors degrees, dead end jobs, and a desire for something more.  I also saw an incredibly talented group of performers who showed themselves to be more than triple threats, adding multiple musical instruments to their repertoire. Is the show perfect? No. Not yet at least. But it is absolutely wonderful and from the look of things, the show is moving forward as a run in April 2013 at Presentation House has already been announced. As Delinquent Theatre says, “Real life is disappointing.  Singing about it definitely takes the edge off.”

The God that Comes (2b Theatre & Hawksley Workman at SummerWorks) website
The night of debauchery that was The God That Comes was one of my favourite nights of the year. Everything about the experience – from the time the door opened – was created to enhance the spectator’s understanding and enjoyment of the evening. I went with my new SummerWorks friends at the last minute, paying for tickets since it wasn’t included in our program and we were so glad we went. We were greeted by attractive young men and women who fed us grapes (or decorated our bodies with grapes) and wine. We drank wine straight out of the bottle as we were encouraged to do as the incredibly talented Hawksley Workman told the story of Bacchus using The Bacchae as the primary source. It was part cabaret, part concert, and wholly theatrical. There is a moment near the end where Workman has a tall staff in one hand that he beats against the floor in time to the music, and as the lights changed with it I think my heart beat shifted to beat in time with the music. It’s playing at Club PuSh in a couple of weeks and I’m terribly upset that I will be unable to see it again. But rumor has it a concept album will be released and I will be buying that as soon as it is.

Rebecca Northan as Mimi

Blind Date (Rebecca Northan at the Cultch) website
This was a Blind Date that I returned to four times during its run in Vancouver for the simple reason that it had a great mix of heart and humor. While Mimi the Parisian Clown teased her various dates and pushed them out of their comfort zone, the level of care that Northan offered them during the performance was outstanding. It was also outstandingly funny. After my first night in attendance my face hurt from smiling and laughing so hard – an experience that I rarely have at the theatre.  Northan is an expert improvisor who carefully shapes the path she wants the evening to take, guiding the men with an almost invisible hand until you return a few times and see the small ways in which she is able to guide the story to its intended conclusion.

Matilda the Musical (RSC @ Westend London) website
This was perhaps the show that I was most looking forward to this year. I have been a fan of the source material – Roald Dahl’s Matilda – since I was an eight year old bookworm. I was not a fan of the film version, but found that the play had the same heart as the book while adapting itself enough to make for a great musical. I knew all the songs going in, but found the staging to be breathtaking and ever so imaginative – which it had to be since the imagination as at the heart of the book. The cast were really outstanding and I found myself grinning for the rest of the night. Indeed, I find myself grinning as I sit here writing about how much I enjoyed the show.

I also want to mention the following shows that stuck out to me during the year:

Red (Vancouver Playhouse/CanStage), Hunchback (Catalyst Theatre presented by The Cultch & Vancouver Playhouse), Craigslist Cantata (Arts Club/PuSh Festival), Goodness (Volcano Theatre at Firehall Arts Centre), King Lear (Honest Fishmongers Equity Co-op), The Exquisite Hour (Relephant Theatre at the Arts Club), Mary Poppins (Broadway Across Canada), God is a Scottish Drag Queen (Delcon Entertainment at Neanderthal Arts Festival & Vancouver Fringe), When it Rains (2b Theatre at SummerWorks), Bookworm (Corin Raymond at the Vancouver Fringe), Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe), and La Cenerentola  (National Opera of Paris).

Finally, the theatrical endeavour which has been the most rewarding, encouraging, and mind-bending for me in 2012 has been the Obstructions series. For those of you unfamiliar, the companies who make up Progress Lab (Boca del Lupo, Electric Company Theatre, Felix Culpa, Leaky Heaven Circus, Neworld Theatre, The Only Animal, Pi Theatre, Radix Theatre, Rumble Productions, Theatre Conspiracy, and Theatre Replacement) have been challenging each other to up their game and re-examine their company aesthetics by testing the idea that creativity feeds on limits. Inspired in part by The Five Obstructions by Jørgen Leth and Lars Von Trier, the core artists of each participating company  submit, a few at a time and under a cold spotlight, to a list of obstructions delivered by a shadowy emcee. The companies are then commanded to create their next production around those limitations. The obstructions for each company are developed in secret by their peers – a custom-designed set of obstacles that will prompt each artist to adapt to a new approach to making theatre. Their individual tendencies toward form, place, style, theme, design, period, story are exposed and obstructed, spilling the artist’s bag of tricks all over the stage and out of reach.

The performances that have been spawned by the challenges which take place approximately once a month are a huge highlight for me, as the theatre community gathers together with our patrons and pushes what we are capable of while creating some beautiful theatre. I missed the Pi Theatre and Theatre Conspiracy performances while I was in Europe, but attended the Boca del Lupo, Felix Culpa, and Radix Theatre performances. This series continues into 2013 and I can’t wait to catch more of the performances when I am in town. Because a show done on a set built entirely of carrots likely never would have happened without a challenge like this.

As with every year there are shows I regret missing, but there are way less this year. There were things I wanted to see in London that I didn’t make it to. I couldn’t see every show at PuSh. I missed Terminus at SummerWorks.But overall, I saw more great theatre this year. Of course, I also walked out of two shows this year (something I rarely do) and wanted to walk out of at least three others that I couldn’t walk out of due to political reasons or logistics.

Here they are, the 174 shows I saw in 2012 in something close to chronological order:

1. Waiting for Godot (Blackbird Theatre at the Cultch)
2. Never Swim Alone (TWU)
3. All The Way Home (Electric Company)
4. Red (Vancouver Playhouse)
5. The Idiot (Neworld/UBC at PuSh)
6. Amarillo (Teatro Linea de Sombra at PuSh)
7. Glory Days (The Boys Upstairs Equity Co-op)
8. Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner (Chelfitsch Theater at PuSh)
9. Gunmetal Blues (Playhouse)
10. El Pasado un animal grotesco (Grupo Marea at PuSh)
11. Craigslist Cantata (Arts Club Theatre at PuSh)
12. Almighty Voice and his Wife (Native Earth Performing Arts/Touchstone Theatre at PuSh)
13. Calendar Girls (Arts Club)
14. No. 2 (Silo Theatre at PuSh)
15. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Pacific Theatre)
16. Bride on Credit (TWU)
17. Tempting Providence (Gateway Theatre)
18. Problem Child & The End of Civilization (Theatre at UBC)
19. I Love You Because (Intimate Productions)
20. Intimate Apparel (Arts Club Theatre)
21. The Silicone Diaries (Nina Arsenault at The Cultch)
22. Hunchback (Catalyst Theatre at The Vancouver Playhouse)
23. All Shook Up (Chemainus Theatre Festival & Gateway Co-pro)
24. Ignorance (Old Trout Puppet WorkShop at The Cultch)
25. Doubt (Pacific Theatre)
26. Goodness (Volcano theatre at the Firehall)
27. King Lear (Honest Fishmongers)
28. Kismet 1 to 100 (The Chop at Gateway)
29. A Vessel of Ruins (Taketeru Kudo – Tokyo)
30. Barber of Seville (Vancouver Opera)
31. Importance of Being Earnest (Arts Club)
32. Importance of Being Earnest (Gallery 7)
33. Flop (Delinquent Theatre)
34. Snooker (Camillo the Magician)
35. Fresco (BellaLuna Productions)
36. The Bombitty of Errors (20-Something)
37. Scar Tissue (Arts Club)
38. Henry & Alice: Into the Wild (Arts Club)
39. EndGame (Main Street Theatre)
40. A Last Resort (Rough House Productions)
41. Trial by Jury (VSO & Vancouver Opera Ensemble)
42. Aida (Vancouver Opera)
43. The Exquisite Hour (Relephant Theatre)
44. 100 Saints You Should Know (Pacific Theatre)
45. Blue Box (Neworld Theatre)
46. Bliss (Ballet BC)
47. High Society (Arts Club)
48. Godspell (Christ Church Cathedral)
49. Obstructions – Boca Del Lupo
50. Shelter from the Storm (Touchstone/Firehall)
51. Fantasticks (Gallery 7)
52. MacBeth (Bard on the Beach)
53. Wolf at the Door (Pacific Theatre)
54. Not Everything You Are (Stones Throw)
55. Obstructions – Felix Culpa
56. UnBoxed (Scarlet Satin)
57. Reasons to be Pretty (Matchbox Theatre)
58. The Alchemist
59. Xanadu (Arts Club)
60. Titanic (TUTS)
61. The Music Man (TUTS)
62. King John (Bard on the Beach)
63. Merry Wives of Windsor (Bard on the Beach)
64. Alter Boyz (Arts Club)
65. Armed (Xua Xua)
66. Mary Poppins (Broadway Across Canada)
67. Stationary (Delinquent Theatre at Neanderthal)
68. Coercion (Hardline at Neanderthal)
69. God is a Scottish Drag Queen (Delcon Entertainment.at Neanderthal)
70. The List (Bouchewhacked! at Neanderthal)
71. Tyumen, Then (Groundwater Productions at Neanderthal)
72. House of X (Wild Excursions at Neanderthal)
73. The Taming of the Shrew (Bard on the Beach)
74. Obstructions – Beautiful Karrats (Radix)
75. Sunday Service (Neanderthal)
76. Exhibit A (411 Dramaturgy at Neanderthal)
77. The Marraige of Figaro (Summer Opera Lyric Theatre)
78. My Pregnant Brother (Freestanding Productions at SummerWorks)
79. France or the Niquab (Old Pirate at SummerWorks)
80. Haunted (The Haunted Group at SummerWorks)
81. Artaud: un Portrait en Decomposition (TheatreRUN at SummerWorks))
82. Medicine Boy (Native Earth at SummerWorks)
83. Purge (Brian Lobel at SummerWorks)
84. One/Un (Orange Noyée at SummerWorks)
85. The God that Comes (2b Theatre at SummerWorks)
86. When it Rains (2b Theatre at SummerWorks)
87. Petrichor (Kitchenband at SummerWorks)
88. Barrel Crank (Suitcase in Point at SummerWorks)
89. Extinction Song (Voodoo Theatre at SummerWorks)
90. Dutchman (lemonTree Creations)
91. Wondermart (Rotozaza at SummerWorks)
92. Marine Life (Theatre Crisis and Aluna Theatre at SummerWorks)
93. Captain Ron’s Ship of Friendship/Atomic Vaudeville Cabaret (Atomic Vaudeville at SummerWorks)
94. The Frenzy of Queen Maeve  (Live Lobster Theatre at SummerWorks)
95. Breath in Between (Breath Collective in Association with Crow’s Theatre at SummerWorks)
96. 40 Days and 40 Nights (Nina Arsenault at Summerworks)
97. Your Side, My Side and the Truth (Compass and Trying Science Co-Production at SummerWorks)
98. Peachy Coochy (Summerworks)
99. We Will WeeTube (An Experiment with Theatre Replacement’s WeeTube at SummerWorks)
100. Iceland (The Iceland Collective at Summerworks)
101. Speed the Plow (SoulPepper)
102. Motor Vehicle Sundown (Andy Field at SummerWorks)
103. Midsummer Night’s Dream (CanStage)
104. Mojo (ItsaZoo)
105. Eurosmash! (Die Rotten Punkte at The Cultch)
106. My Marvellous Melcher Machine (James Melcher)
107. Pirates? (Quimera Collective)
108. Just Bust a Move (Nathaniel Roy)
109. Home Free (Staircase XI)
110. Riverview High: The Musical (Entrance Theatre)
111. In the Time of the Dream Warrior (Golgonooza)
112. The 1812 Event (Just Push Play)
113. Romance (Queer Arts Society)
114. Adult Entertainment (Squidamisu Theatre)
115. ReLapse (And the Other Leg)
116. Miss Cosmos (Bright Young Theatre)
117. Felony (Dreams Beyond 30)
118. First Day Back (10 Foot Pole)
119. Alpha (Compassionate Bone)
120. Three More Sleepless Nights (o.o.o.o.)
121. Weaksauce (Sam Mullins)
122. You Are Here (Allentina Francesca)
123. Hip Hop Shakespeare Live Music Videos (411 Dramaturgy)
124. Tales Told by Idiots (Not The Mermaid)
125. Lost in Twine (Looking for 143 Productions)
126. Underbelly (Jayson MacDonald)
127. Zanna, Don’t (Awkward Stage)
128. Psychopomp (Psyche Theatre)
129. Smudge (Two Wrongs That Write)
130. God is a Scottish Drag Queen (Delcon Entertainment)
131. Peter ‘n’ Chris Explore Their Bodies (Peter ‘n’ Chris)
132. Loon (Wonderheads)
133. Gadfly (Theatre of the Beat)
134. Guernica (Hidden Harlequin Theatre)
135. Fishbowl (Mark Shyzer)
136. How to Love (Idea Factory Entertainment)
137. Welcome to my Wake (INC – Ingrid Nilson Collective)
138. Little Lady (Sandrine Lanford)
139. The Histories AKA Will Shakespeare’s ImproMusical (GrinkeInk)
140. Riot (Carson Graham Secondary)
141. The Missing Piece (Theresa Hamilton)
142. The Best, Man (Urban Rogues)
143. Risk Everything (Squidamisu Theatre)
144. No Tweed to Tight (Ryan Gladstone)
145. Vincent (Spitfire Productions)
146. Bookworm (Corin Raymond)
147. Blind Date (Rebecca Northan at the Cultch)
148. Post Secret: The Play (TJ Dawe, Kahlil Ashanti & Frank Warren)
149. The Spitfire Grill (Midnight Theatre Collective at Pacific Theatre)
150. Capslock: The Musical (Pipedream Productions)
151. Master Class (Arts Club)
152. White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (Elbow Theatre at The Cultch)
153. A Beautiful View (Ruby Slippers)
154. Zombie Syndrome (Virtual Stage)
155. The Unplugging (Arts Club)
156. Initiation Trilogy (Electric Company/Boca del Lupo/Writers Fest)
157. Debts (ItsaZoo)
158. La Boheme (Vancouver Opera)
159. Dancing at Lughnassa (Capilano University)
160. Chelsea Hotel (Firehall)
161. Cozy Catastrophe (theatre Melee with Rumble and the Cultch)
162. Gold Mountain (Les Deux Mondes & unity theatre at The Cultch)
163. Dickens’ Women (Miriam Margoyles at The Cultch)
164. Go Back for Murder (SAMC Theatre @TWU)
165. Tomb with a View (Genus/Up in the Air)
166. Far Side of the Moon (Ex Machina @ SFU)
167. Matilda the Musical (Royal Shakespeare Company in the Westend)
168. Twelfth Night (The Globe)
169. NSFW (Royal Court)
170. The Effect (National Theatre)
171. Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Zurich Opera House)
172. Jultrad-i-tion (Gotenburg Opera)
173. Don Quixote (Ballet of the National Opera of Paris)
174. Le Retour (Odeon Theatre of Europe)
175. La Cenerentola (National Opera of Paris)

In the course of my travel only two things broke and both of them were things I bought for myself, not gifts for other people. So yay I guess?

Honestly, I am so tired that the world is spinning right now, so I’m going to go to sleep and we can catch up on the end of the trip when I’m more awake. Deal?