Adirondack Audiences

Perhaps the part of New York State (besides the five boroughs of New York City) that I have the most experience with is the Adirondacks. First, I performed as Cohan at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts. Then, it was Poe at a historical house in Elizabethtown. Then, Theatreworks toured to Turin, which is just outside of Boonville (the home of Slim's Restaurant, where I lunched on decidedly not-so-healthy fare). And, today, it was two show west of Adirondacks park, but still within listening region of North Country Public Radio.

The audiences in the Adirondacks are wonderful. Before and after the shows, they are the most gracious and grateful hosts, so thrilled to have arts at their disposal, and glad to be able to chat with the performer behind the show. I have never had audience members thank me for my performance with such sincerity and honesty anywhere else. It is always a complete joy to perform for Adirondack folks.

However, they are also the world's most silent audiences.

Today's performance in Remsen was no exception. Remsen is a very small, very spread-out, very rural town. (So tiny, in fact that the GPS isn't entirely sure if it exists.) And the audience was perfect: the teachers played along, the kids (excepting a few snarky sixth grade boys) were engaged and active the whole time, the space was beautiful, the show started on time and I was well taken care of by everyone I met. But, maybe they were a little too perfect, as it was all I could do to get anybody to make a noise! I was performing Lighten Up!, which starts with a rap number and includes, naturally, a call-and-response. The first time I asked my audience to sing back to me, I got something approximating a whisper. By the end of the number, we were up to a good, solid "inside voice." Then, when I got my volunteers up onstage, I could barely hear them talking. After three tries, I just gave up trying to get them to be much louder. Staring down this silent-but-attentive audience, I figured I was bombing, so I threw as much as I could at the performance, and closed out the show in a puddle of sweat.

Afterward, the school nurse popped behind the backdrop. "I just wanted to thank you," she said. "For 50 minutes, nobody threw up! We're so far away from any theater, that our kids always love having anything come to the school. Thank you so much for coming all this way. You are really doing an amazing and important job."

That, coupled with the dozen-or-so kids (including one of my sixth graders!) who came up to me directly afterward, either to say thanks or tell me all about their health knowledge, made me eternally grateful to be performing in the Adirondacks. I'll drive anywhere for you guys!



Call tomorrow: 8:00am. The show's in Clifton, NJ, which the GPS says is 25 minutes from Brooklyn. A thing of beauty.

Kid quote of the day: (This one is from the first show of the day, in Calcium, NY, near Fort Drum) "Does XRBOT had metal cells?"