Oh, Schenectady!

Week 6: Schenectady, NY

Our Schenectady
What a warm and friendly place it is to be
Nestled among plains and hills
With a beautiful river that always gives us thrills
And stores and shops with all that one might need or wish to see
And legends and tales and lots of history
Oh Schenectady
Our Schenectady
Let us now plan and help to make it grow


If we will all do our best
Then others can do the rest
For places to study and learn in


Places to work and earn in
Places to live in happiness 

--"Our Schenectady" Official Song

A pleasant bus ride brought us here to Schenectady last night and this morning I went roaming. The main downtown streets of the city have that small town feel that reminds me of 1950's movies like "Peyton Place" or "Imitation of Life." There are also echoes of the Depression era here, old hand painted deco signs and boarded up buildings. My stroll took me into the Stockade, which is the historic district and the first such designated district in New York state. It was a fenced in Dutch settlement in the 17th century that suffered a fire and massacre and was rebuilt in the 18th century. Today this residential area is full of charming homes, mostly 19th and early 20th century houses with the occasional 18th century building sandwiched in between. Lots of Dutch names like Van Dyck.




I visited the lobby of Proctor's Theatre, where we will play to sold out crowds this week. Proctor's was built in the late 20's as a vaudeville house and early silent movie palace. It was also the site of one of the first demonstrations of live television. Schenectady is where Thomas Edison founded General Electric so early technology was available here first. Proctor's today is a thriving cultural institution and was recently expanded to include a larger stage and wings and an extensive lobby. I met the organizers of tonight's opening night party, two charming ladies who are so excited we are here ("Spamalot" is THE event at the moment) and showed me the reception area which they are decorating with suits of armor and cardboard castles. Adorable. They directed me to Villa Italia, just around the corner, a fabulous Italian bakery that will be catering tonight's party. Speakers outside the bakery were blasting Connie Francis singing Italian songs. This is a large Italian community apparently, and I wandered into the "Little Italy" district of town--"little" is right, it is one block long! But I now know where to go for fresh baked Italian bread and homemade Pasta Fagioli.

After the cosmopolitan atmosphere of DC, it is rather sweet to be in this small northern city where our show is not just one of many cultural attractions--it is the big event of the week, and I am looking forward to what I am sure will be a warm and excited audience reception. The bus ride here was really the first time I have stopped in over a month to just sit and rest, without obsessing about the show, my performance, tour life or managing money and expenses. I began reading "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert--a wonderful book about a woman who restarts her life after a divorce and learns how to love and appreciate herself and find her spiritual center. I wept three times before page 35, this book touched me so much. Highly recommended. One of the actors in the show is a SAG Award voter and has DVD of all the nominated films, so he lent me "Atonement" which I watched on my laptop on the bus. Wept through that too!! It is a true masterpiece in my opinion, reminiscent of the films of David Lean and Merchant Ivory. Wonderful direction, a great screenplay by Christopher Hampton, and restrained and sensitive performances by James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. It was an emotional day, I guess, but such a welcome release after the tensions of the past few weeks. Life is all about change, but some changes are more dramatic than others, and sometimes we have to catch up emotionally. A couple shots from the bus ride: our Peter Pan bus was called "The Little Fairy," which is funny to me for obvious reasons... a shot of Darryl, one of our ensemble men with his dog Akita... and one of Jen, one of our beautiful showgirls, with her baby, Bella.







More from Schenectady later this week. It is a bright and unseasonably warm January day out there so I am going to get out in it again!