We're delighted to bring you a tour diary from actor Marty Rea, who stars in Druid's acclaimed revival of Martin McDonagh's Beauty Queen of Leenane (which returns to Dublin's Gaiety Theatre from March 28th), penned on Druid's US tour earlier this year.
January 8th 2017
After three three weeks at home in Dublin for Christmas, we’re back on tour and flying out to Brooklyn, New York to start a four week stint of Beauty Queen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
January 13th 2017
The theatre is really an amazing space and they have a long respected reputation of hosting international theatre, dance and music here. As usual when touring a show, we have a day of tech rehearsal, which is really fitting the show into the new space regarding lighting, staging and sound. Every venue is different and often takes this rehearsal and at least one full performance with an audience to properly get a sense of the new space.
Druid, being a practical and no-nonsense crowd, take absolutely no heed of superstition and open on Friday 13th which feels great and doesn’t freak anybody out at all!!!!!!!!!!! But actually, the show goes down a storm and we are treated to a very welcoming standing ovation. This East Coast audience strikes me as possessing a more recognisable dose of cynicism than the West Coast audiences in LA which really responds to the darkly comic character of McDonagh’s writing.
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Earlier on today, we did a Facebook Live event for BAM. This was completely new to me, a practical troglodyte when it comes to social media, but was really fun and went without a hitch (I think!). At any rate, the organisers and Danny, our production manager, seem perfectly calm and happy which means no-one accidentally said anything we shouldn't have!!!!!!
So we all have a few glasses of wine and head back to the apartments to contend with the weird sleep patterns of jet-lag and look forward to a promising run in Brooklyn.
January 19th 2017
Today at 5.30 pm, the Druids took part in the Ghostlight Project - a nationwide event here in America to show solidarity amongst the artistic community during dark times ahead. It’s a tradition in theatre to often leave a ‘ghostlight’ on the stage when the theatre is empty and the allusion feels right.
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It is extraordinary to be here at this time. It really feels that the country is on the threshold of something very new and potentially very dangerous, but the people we are meeting day-to-day are truly inspiring in their unapologetic endeavour to uphold the American constitutional rights of freedom and equality for all.
Later in the month, a demonstration outside Brooklyn Borough Hall, right where we are staying, takes place with an enormous number of bodega owners, mostly Yemini- Americans, protesting peacefully against Trump’s immigration ban.
February 5th 2017
It’s the final night of our run in BAM and the last week has been choc-a-bloc with activity. There was a wonderful evening at the Irish Consulate’s residence where we had dinner with Consulate General Barbara Jones and a host of friends of Druid, we celebrated our 100th show (a first for me on any production ever) and a heartwarming last night dinner tonight in Franny’s Restaurant hosted by Joe Melillo and all at BAM. What an amazing time it’s been and thanks to Joe, Mary, Britney, MaryAnne, Ginger and all the backstage crew.
Off we go in the morning to Boston! “To Boston, to Boston I’ll be going...” Goodbye to the NY skyline.
February 12th 2017
In Boston a week, and what an opening week it has been. When we arrived the city looked like this from my hotel window....
A massive snowstorm comes in and dumps a couple of feet of snow on Boston, which actually causes a few daytime engagements to be cancelled - but the show goes on in spite of everything, and we open as planned on Thursday night. It’s a small turn-out because of the storm, but incredibly warm and we are reminded of the strong Irish American community in this city.
After the snow clears, though, our time here is filled with some great events. In addition to the shows we take part in talkback sessions with audiences and also with students of Emerson College as the Paramount theatre is part of the university.
We also are hugely privileged to be visited by Julia Smeliansky, an acting tutor at Emerson, and her father, the eminent Stanislavsky expert Anatoly Smeliansky. They tell us that they loved the show and invite us to their home for a traditional Russian dinner - so generous and a brilliant night.
February 20th 2017
With Mondays off in American theatre, Aaron Monaghan and myself hire a car and head up to Salem, the Witch City. This is where the famous Massachusetts witch trials of 1692 took place and inspired the monumental play The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
We also manage to take in three states in one day!!! Driving from Salem (Massachusetts) to Hampton Beach (New Hampshire) to Kittery (Maine) before heading back to Boston in time for a show on Tuesday night.
February 27th 2017
Early Monday morning and after a successful run in Boston, we head off to the airport to fly to our next venue in the Mid- West city of Pittsburgh!! And everyone’s delighted in the back of the taxi!!
This is approaching the last few weeks of the tour now. One week runs in Pittsburgh, Ann Arbour (Michigan) and Hong Kong!!
March 3rd 2017
Coming to the end of our run in Pittsburgh and everyone at the August Wilson Centre has been amazing. What a great venue and what a great city!! Were staying in the Wyndham Grand Hotel which stands right at the meeting of the three rivers. There’s lots of really good restaurants and a vibrant theatre district. Tonight, we were hosted after the show by our old friend Alan Stanford who has been artistic director of the PICT here in Pittsburgh for a few years now. It’s good to see him and it was a lovely night.
The week has been a busy one. We had to do another Facebook live interview (we’ll be experts by the end of it all) and myself and Aaron (that's him above, second from left) did a slot on a local morning television show with Kristine Sorenson and Jon Burnett, who were both in unbelievably good form that early in the day. Everyone’s attention, however, was drawn to the next guest after us - Goldie the African Penguin! It’s not every day you meet a penguin in a waiting room.
March 11th 2017
Waiting to go into the theatre for our last show in Ann Arbor. This is such a cool town. It’s the home of Michigan University and has loads of brilliant little bookshops and cafes etc. Our hosts have been so generous and we get to see Zoey Bond again, who is an acting student here and had interned with us during rehearsals, which feels about a hundred years ago! I was invited to see the Museum of Zoology’s new facility and was shown lots of the dry samples that the guys there use for research. It was a massive place with thousands of things to look at and I’m afraid I totally nerded out which was fine being surrounded by actual nerds all around me!
Ann Arbor is much quieter and leafier and calmer than everywhere else so far and to be honest, it’s perfect for the last week in the US, before the craziness of heading to Hong Kong for the International Theatre Festival there. That’ll be a whole new week of airports, planes, luggage, jet lag, tech rehearsals and shows before we get back home to Dublin.
The tour has been great fun and the show has been received so well but I think at this stage we’re all missing home a bit (if the photo is anything to go by when we received a box full of Irish chocolates and crisps from Galway!).It’s been a blast and an adventure with all the druids and beauty queens - Aaron, Marie, Aisling, Garry, Feargal, Tim, David, Craig, Danny, Doreen, Anne, Gus, Barry, Shannon, Pete and all the people we've met on the way.
Here’s to the next one.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane is at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin from 28 March 2017 - 15 April 2017
