It’s the time of the year that I love going to Hot Springs to relax & rejuvenate. Here are a few that I would recommend for a day trip or weekend getaway.
Iron Mountain Hot Springs – Glenwood Springs, CO – I love the variety of mineral pools to soak in, it’s by the river & they play relaxing music. Another great perk is their little café shop to get food, snacks, drinks & sit by the fireplace if you wish. I usually order the meat/cheese & fruit tray (it’s enough to share with 4 people) my favorite adult beverage is the Bloody Mary.
Few tips: The pools are mostly for adults. However, there is a large pool for families to enjoy. This fairly new hot spring is getting popular and I recommend going early in the morning when it opens.
Hot Sulphur Springs Resort & Spa – Hot Sulfur Springs, CO – I love the small-town rustic feel of this hot spring. They have a large variety of pools to soak in and really enjoy the beauty of this place & it’s history.
Few tips: Bring snacks with you if you are there for the day. The nearest places for food are in Grandby & Winter Park. The Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant in Winter Park is very tasty and affordable prices.
The Springs Resort & Spa – Pagosa Springs, CO – Pagosa Springs is a great relaxing weekend getaway. It’s a fun town to explore and recommend staying overnight at the resort. They have a good variety of pools and the view is beautiful along the San Juan river.
Few tips: There is a nearby bridge you can walk over to the other side of the river for a variety restaurants and great coffee shops. If you don’t stay at the resort, you can still soak in the pools for the day. Have extra time? I recommend taking a scenic drive through the San Jan mountains.
I’ve been really into time travel lately. Not doing it, of course, just watching shows about it.
Dark has two seasons so far on Netflix, with a third in production. It defaults to dubbed, but I highly recommend watching it in original German. The subtitles are a little jumpy on streaming but the dialogue doesn’t seem to matter anyway. What is it about? I have no idea. Atmospheric, circular, moving and surprising, Dark sucks you in – but it isn’t one of those shows that makes you stay up too late binge-watching. After a few episodes, you’ll want to take a break to process it.
Travelers is a Canadian take on saving the world through time travel. It is a bit more palatable since the way traveling works in this universe hand-waves away many of the time loop problems inherent in these types of stories. It is essentially a fish-out-of-water drama as the travelers adapt to existence in the past. Travelers has a somewhat sudden but still fairly satisfying conclusion after being cancelled at the end three seasons.
Finally, if you really want to have your mind bent, track down Primer. This independent film was made with $7,000 by Shane Carruth, who wrote, directed, produced, edited, scored and starred, and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004. Primer follows two guys who accidentally build a time machine in the garage. Then decide to take it for a spin. Chaos ensues. Fans have been trying to unravel it on the internet ever since.
On my runs, I find listening to music distracting. During half of my runs, I will unplug and listening to the sounds around me. The other half, I listen to podcasts.
Among the handful that I listen, I find RadioLab, Ted Radio Hour, StarTalk Radio (with Neil Degrasse Tyson), and Make Me Smart among my favorites. However, today I want to share with you another favorite – Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell. This is the podcast that got me started listening to podcasts. See, I was a little late to the game and had only listened to my first podcast this time last year. I know, I know – what took me so long. I was confident that podcasts were just people rambling about weird subjects or off the wall topics with no discernable end or reason – and there are plenty of those. But so many are highly produced, well scripted, informational, entertaining and educational shows. Revisionist History is one of those and I quickly became enamored with the show. As Malcom Gladwell puts it:
“Revisionist History will go back and reinterpret something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance”.
Particularly there is a three episode series in the first season of the podcast that I found enlightening and disturbing. Episode 4 – Carlos Doesn’t Remember, Episode 5 – Food Fight, and Episode 6 – My Little Hundred Million explore the complexities and discrepancies of higher education in the United States. It is a fascinating listen and I highly recommend taking the 100 minutes or so needed to listen to all three episodes.
Yes, summer is coming to a close, but the LDTC can’t say goodbye to summer without a zany comedy. From the master of oneliners, the LDTC is proud to present Barefoot in the Park. As the show has been running for a week now we wanted to show a behind the scenes look at the rehearsal process and the work that the cast put into the show before opening!
What are you most excited about working at the LDTC?
I’m thrilled for the opportunity to approach theatre from the technical side again. I’ve been fortunate to participate in the spectacle from a performer’s perspective and in the analytical from director’s perspective, but the logistical and managerial side is a whole new beast. LDTC already feels like a very supportive place to utilize and develop those skills.
What do you love most about Summit County?
I truly can’t get over the views. It’s like living in a Gateway desktop background.
What kind of activities do you participate in Summit County?
When I’m not at the theatre I’ve been running and exploring hiking trails. Not sure if I’ll ever acclimate! When I really need to catch my breath I love hanging out at the Crown in Breck with a good book or script.
Why theatre?
It’s how I experience the world. Even if I lived one thousand lifetimes, I would still miss out on something, but with theatre – whether I’m performing, directing, managing or producing – I’m learning something about a different time period, a different country, a different human experience. It’s how I learn and how I travel. Plus, I get to meet dozens of new wonderful talented people with every project.
What do you think will be the most challenging and rewarding thing about your new position?
Diving into this position halfway through the 2019 season has definitely been a trial by fire, and while it’s been challenging finding my way during back-to-back tech weeks, I’m grateful that the gloves are already off. Those 16+ hour days are when you really get to know yourself and those around you. If you can love your job at the eleventh hour when the costumes aren’t finished the turntable isn’t working, you can love it anytime!
Well, not only the producers have left but so has Kevin Carson our Production/Company Manager. He left on Saturday morning to get back to snowy Summit County for the arrival of the cast and crew of The Cake(by Bekah Brunstetter), our first show of the 2019 Theatre Season. So, it was just Josh and I in the room.
We woke up to a little bit of snow – nothing like what Summit County received but…….snow in NYC is different. Wet and slushy.
Today was solely dedicated to callbacks for Tiny Beautiful Things – which will be our final show of the 2019 season. It was a busy morning but we saw some really touching and hilarious auditions. The cast needs to be a diverse representation of the world around us….it was great to see such variety in performances and people. We should have a great group to choose from.
The rest of the weekend was dedicated to seeing more theatre – most Off Broadway. This was a chance to really see where the pulse of theatre is in NYC. We started with The Roundabout Theatre and Fiasco Theatre’s revival of the Stephen Sondheim classic flop – Merrily We Roll Along. The show was cut and reduced to a cast of 6 performers. (The original cast had 26 performers). I thought the show worked with 6 – it certainly makes the show more producible……
That evening we saw Be More Chill at the Lyceum Theatre. This off-Broadway smash hit with a huge internet cult following is still in previews. The audience was made up of both young and old. The young enjoyed it more, I would say, and certainly appeals to a niche audience.
The next day we walked a couple of blocks to 2nd Stage Theatre to see the world premiere of Superhero the new musical by John Logan (Red) and Tom Kitt (Next To Normal). I enjoyed this touching tale of a single mother and son as they maneuver through life without their husband/father. I also love the superheroes genre- so it was up my alley.
Our final show of the week was the new musical Alice By Heart at MCC Theatre in there new space in midtown. The complex is nice (although the lobby is a bit awkward and cramped) with three performance spaces. Alice By Heart is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland tale…..this time told “from memory” by a character named Alice during what appeared to be WWII. The music by Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and book by Steven Sater and Jessie Nelson. It was beautifully staged with the ensemble of 12 portraying a myriad of characters and objects. The music was very Duncan Sheik.
And that was the end of that……flew back the next morning and now are ready to start putting the summer casting and crew together and try to put on the best summer productions we can……
Well, the producers have made their way back to Colorado. We continued to audition today with callbacks but the room was lonely not having Peg, Lee, and Jon with us.
We started with callbacks for Sophie and Sky in Mamma Mia! We had the men sing “Lay Your Love On Me” and the women sang “Honey Honey” and “Thank You for the Music”. They also read sides from a couple of short scenes from the show.
Next were the Ali’s and Lisa’s – who are Sophie’s best friends. This was a really fun callback as they read one of the first scenes fro meh show but also sang “Honey Honey” as a trio. It was a really fun vibe in the room with lots of energy.
After that, we had some men in for Pepper and Eddie. It was a short scene and more “Lay Your Love on Me”. They were a lot of fun.
We then switched to Tell Me on a Sunday with about 8 women in for the role of Emma. They sang a couple of songs from the show and were given some direction from Josh Blanchard – the director of the show. We narrowed them down to 4 and are sending them some “homework” to record themselves playing an instrument and singing from the show. We can’t wait to see what they put together.
Then it was full on to Barefoot in the Park callbacks. This was for the entire afternoon. We called back 4 Corries and about 15 Pauls. It was fun to see the variety we had in the room. I tell you, those four Corries were working reading about 5 times each. It was so great to see their character choices vary and grow.
Finally, it was reading for the Velascos – with the same Corries. Again, a really fun time in the room with some great takes on the quirkish Velasco.
WHEW….what a long day of callbacks. A couple of things to take from this…..1) we saw some great talent today and look forward to putting the casting puzzle together, 2) Josh Blanchard was our reader today…..if we ever need a Tanya, Donna or Sophie…..Josh did a great job…..look out, ladies. 🙂
After a long day, we decided to end with a long show…..a three hour and 45-minute version of King Lear starring Glenda Jackson. Not being a huge Shakespeare fan….I was…..well….let’s just say not a huge fan. The performances were good and the director had a clear vision…..but if you really want to learn more about the show – stop Josh Blanchard in the theatre sometime and let him give you his thesis of the production. He will happily bore you with it. 🙂
Today was a long day….but a pretty productive one. We started bright and early at 8:30 am. It was an open call – meaning actors came in to sign up for a slot and we saw as many people as we could – which amounted to about 170 more people. Afterward, we had yet another dance callback for the actors from today and a number of actors from Monday and Tuesday.
It was a great dance call back. We also had a first callback for the role of Emma in Tell Me On A Sunday. Our idea for this show is pretty interesting and it was fun explaining it to the auditionees and seeing their excitement. You’ll have to see the show to know more. 🙂
Afterward was a quick walk to the restaurant – Butter on 45th Street. This restaurant is owned by Food Network Chef – Alex Guarnaschelli. The food and atmosphere were both great. No dessert, though. 🙁
We headed back across 45th for the first Preview performance of Ain’t Too Proud…which is the music and story of The Temptations. First Preview means that this was the first time that an audience saw a performance. It was a really great show with the performers working harder than most any other show I have ever seen. Great music, great dancing, and great direction. Highly recommended.
After the show, we were all tired. But, Lee Henry talked is into heading over to Juinor’s for some delicious cheesecake. Jon Kirkpatrick didn’t order any cheesecake but did have a glass of wine.
This was the last night for the producers. They will all head back to Colorado (and the SNOW) on Friday. We’ll miss them. It was a fantastic week of sharing the experiences of auditions and NYC theatre with them.
Day Three of auditions consisted of our ECC’s (Equity Chorus Call). This was the day to see as many Equity chorus members (those not looking to be in the chorus of the show) as we could. It consisted of a “Male Dance Call”, “Female Dance Call”, “Male Vocal Call” and a “Female vocal call”. This was followed by a dance callback. It was a pretty busy day and was a bit different than the previous days. We saw people a little out of order than we normally do BUT it was productive.
At the end of the day, we then headed up to 52nd Street to Victor’s Cafe – one of our favorite places to grab a bite to eat. Delicious Cuban food.
After a very filling dinner – we headed to 48th to see the hit musical The Prom. I had seen this show in the fall in previews and thought the group would like to see it. It was a really funny show with some really cool choreography – not to mention some hilarious performances by Beth Leavel and Brookes Ashmanskas.
Afterward, Jon K, Peg, Kevin and I had a drink at Bourbon Street Grille.
Day two of auditions was much of the same but oh so exciting. It was the second day of EPAs. Early start and pushed right through. I was incorrect with our count yesterday….we actually so a bit more than 100 and today was about 130 or so. There were some really interesting and entertaining auditions…..actors are getting “creative” with their selections.
No dance callback today – as we pushed everyone to Wednesday and Thursday. The most popular songs of the day were:
Men:
* Shut Up and Dance With Me by Walk the Moon
* Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga
Women:
* Call Me by Blonde
* Holding Out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler
For our evening we had a family style Italian Dinner at Carmine’s. We had to wait 30 minutes for our reservations but finally made it to the table and had our food within 15 minutes. And it was A LOT OF FOOD…..lasagna, penne with broccoli, cheese bread, salad, calamari, and spaghetti with bolognese…..we were all in a carb comma….until we walked out into the cold weather (about 15 degrees and WINDY) – which snapped us back awake.
We crossed the street to see one of the most incredible adaptations with Aaron Sorkin’s (West Wing, A Few Good Men) To Kill a Mockingbird. There was not one component of the craftily staged production that could be improved. Jeff Daniels performance was exquisite….along with a cast or extraordinarily talented group. We all left mouths agape at the performance we saw.
We had a great talk-back walking back to the hotel and then decided to continue with drinks and desserts at Becco’s located across the street…..where we ran into a former actor waiting tables at the restaurant.
6 hours of sleep and on to day three of auditions….
