Mermaids

Week 49: Norfolk, VA

I was last in Norfolk about ten years ago, performing at Virginia Stage Company in the zany two-man show by Charles Ludlum, "The Mystery of Irma Vep." A riotous spoof of gothic horror stories, the show requires two actors to take on several characters each, and jump in and out of them in a series of lightning fast costume changes.
Starring opposite the then artistic director of the theatre, Charlie Hensley, I played a shrieking lady of the manse, a hunchback caretaker who is also a werewolf, a Middle Eastern trail guide who sounded suspiciously like Peter Lorre, and an Egyptian princess raised from the dead. It was a hoot (that's me on the left as Lady Enid). I am glad to say that Virginia Stage Company is still here, in its lovely jewel box of a theatre, The Wells.

Norfolk is as I remembered it, with some improvements and developments, including a very fancy mall right in the downtown area where we are performing this week at Chrysler Hall. Norfolk has a long military and naval history reaching back to the Revolutionary War, during which the city was completely destroyed in battles with the British navy, then built up again in the Federalist period. There is a national maritime center here and a memorial to the great General Douglas MacArthur. Norfolk is also the cultural center of this region, known as Hampton Roads. A revitalization project started around 2000 gave the city it's symbol, the mermaid. And the little ladies are everywhere--on official buildings, signs, and throughout the city in the form of sculptures which were part of the "Parade of Mermaids" project benefitting the arts in Norfolk.




Due to a somewhat melancholy streak in my character, I have always enjoyed a rainy day with nothing pressing to do. I have always seen such days as an opportunity to commune with myself, and to do something solitary and introspective. Visiting a museum is the ideal activity, and on this rainy Thursday I took in the Chrysler Museum of Art here in Norfolk.
Incredible to me that I never visited when I was last in Norfolk (for several weeks). The museum is a gem, a sort of "mini-Met," its Tuscan style building housing a marvelous collection of antiquities, modern art, an extensive collection of glass, decorative arts and photography, as well as a large exhibit of neoclassical American marble sculptures. I realize that it makes me a fuddy-duddy art dork, but I had such a delightful time there. The staff is the warmest, most helpful and welcoming of any art museum I have been to. One of the staffers, a bright young lady named Michelle, joined me in the Art Nouveau room of the decorative arts collection and we had a stimulating chat about our shared obsession with visual art. Michelle told the director of the museum that one of the "Spamalot" actors was visiting, and he very generously sent her to me at my lunch table in the museum's charming cafe to present me with a stack of free admission coupons for the entire company! The welcoming atmosphere set the tone for a wonderful exploration of some very fine pieces of art--my Renaissance and Italian Baroque cravings being sated with canvases by Tintoretto and Veronese as well as the last known marble sculpture--a bust of Christ--by the great master Bernini, executed at the age of 80. There were some marvelous surprises, such as a dramatic painting, Orestes Pursued by the Furies, by Bougereau, featuring an incredibly erotic and beautiful male nude; another casting of Rodin's masterwork, Age of Bronze (you recall I saw one in Ottawa last week--I learned today that the execution of this nude sculpture is so fine that when it was first exhibited Rodin was accused of having made it from a life casting of his model, forcing him to produce the photographic studies he had worked from to sculpt the figure); and my favorite of the 19th century French paintings in the collection, Pierrot as Politician by Couture, depicting two businessmen, dressed in costumes on their way to a masked ball, discussing current events over a newspaper. The New York Times has described the Chrysler collection as "one any museum in the world would kill for," and it is easy to see why. Again, there is great beauty for us in unexpected places. We just have to get out our umbrellas and go look for it.



Friday was another rainy day and I decided to visit the Moses Myers house, an historical home in Norfolk that was built in the late 18th century by a Jewish shipping merchant and his family.
I was the only one to show up for the 3:00 tour, and so was treated to a private tour by a charming docent named Therese, who told me the story of the Myers family, the only Jewish family in Norfolk in the late 18th century. The family rose to a high position in society and was greatly respected. One of the sons of the family was the first Jew to graduate from the College of William and Mary, and graduated valedictorian; Moses Myers was awarded an official position by president John Quincy Adams. The house remained in the family line for five generations and so 70% of the furnishings and objects in the house are original. It's a beautiful Federal era home, full of the neoclassical flourishes that were popular in the period. It was a real treat to get a personal tour of the place and glimpse a bit of American history.



My dresser in Norfolk is Tanya. This is Tanya's first big show. She fell into backstage work after being dissatisfied with her former work options and finds she really loves the crazy world of the theatre. She has been level headed and a delight to work with all week. Great work, Tanya!

You will notice that I am three weeks away from the one year mark of my tour with "Spamalot." It's incredible to me how quickly the time has gone. By week 52, I will have played 38 cities across North America and done 352 performances. And it is likely that I will continue on with the tour, perhaps for another year. Next week in Boston, I will finally get to meet our venerable director Mike Nichols, who will be coming to see the show and give us his notes and insights. I am excited to have the opportunity not only to meet this legendary talent, but to receive direction from the man who created "Spamalot" with Eric Idle, John DuPrez and Casey Nicholaw. What, me nervous? Naw.... gulp!