Columbus is a great city.  Garald’s family members were such gracious hosts, turning a tour into a vacation.  Monday night we performed at Redeemer Lutheran Church and Tuesday, a private concert at a retirement community.

To give you an idea of audience feedback and interaction, I am going to devote the next part of this blog to funny comments made by audience members:
 

“If you were my daughter, I would kill you.” 
–Referencing the string of sassy characters Alane plays throughout the sets.
 
“Do you always talk like that?”
-All dialogue is Shakespearean text.
 
“You are going to be in a painting this summer.”
-An audience member makes a hobby of painting performers she likes.
 
“He’s only acting like that because he has a crush on you.”
-Christopher’s 6-year-old cousin was quite smitten with me after seeing the show.

Driving from Columbus to Grand Rapids was our next lengthy trip (and last, phew.)  This time we listened to Ma Guiterre jet e chante; Jocelyn Nelson & Amy Bartram and Sylvius Leopold Weiss; Robert Barto & Karl-Ernst Schröder. 

Last night we performed for the MAJIC Concert Series at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, just an amazing space.  What used to be a parking garage for postal vehicles has been transformed into a modern sanctuary, performance space, and art gallery.  It was my favorite performance space so far.  We were also lucky enough to get the show professionally recorded, by Tony Dipiazza, who runs sound at the local club MixTape, which of course I think is pretty cool.

Again, I am blown away by the fantastic hospitality extended to us.  Here, we stayed with John and Sharon Schuster-Craig, Carmen Maret and Andrew Bergnon of Folias Music, and Teri and Jay Schrimpt:  all involved in music in different ways, very interesting people and artists.  I am especially grateful for the attention paid to the fact that both Christopher and I are vegetarians.  We have been so well fed at every stop!
 
Onwards to Ann Arbor!
 
We shall make the welkin dance indeed,
Erika Lloyd

It was a lovely June Saturday: I will never tire of seeing New York’s green and rolling landscapes.  We drove from Manhattan to Buffalo in six hours exactly, listening to My Lord Chamberlain’s Concort and Palladian Ensemble, napping here and there.  Except for Garald, because he was behind the wheel.  That would have been quite a story otherwise!

Our first concert was housed in Ascension Episcopal Church, only blocks from the very famous Anchor Bar.  Have you ever wondered where the term “Buffalo Wings” came from?  Well I have, and it comes from that very bar, where tiny spicy chicken wings were first served.

The concert went well, impressing Christopher’s parents and sister and my significant other’s parents.  It was great to have family at our tour’s first show.  We had a moderately sized audience, including a handful of early music lovers, appreciative of our unique versions of some well-known text and music.

I have to say, performing in full costume on a summer tour gives me an even better understanding of the women I play.  We’ll be performing in many old churches, lacking air conditioning.  Working without modern comforts will add another level of good performance-practice right?  I can only imagine what it would be like with all of the old undergarments underneath. 

Roland Hayes and David Abbott, a lute and viola da gamba player respectively, provided housing and helped us put on the concert.  Waking up to Roland’s playing the next morning was so nice.  Buffalo has a small early music community, who often travel to Toronto for larger collaborations.

Yesterday we performed at Hurlbut Memorial Community Church on the campus of The Chautauqua Institute.  What a vibrant community!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many theaters, amphitheaters, and concert halls all in one place, not to mention lecture halls, art galleries, and houses of worship.  The church had especially nice acoustics, clear and easy to hear on stage as well as from the pews.  Our patrons were already planning our return!

My fun fact from Chautauqua is that because winters in that region are so rough, old family homes have custom-made canvas wraps!  The entire houses are wrapped and zipped to protect them from weather damage.  These are glorious Victorian houses by the way.

This morning we’re in Columbus, staying with Garald’s family.  We have a day of relaxing by his sister’s pool, and then a concert at 7:30pm.  Not too shabby!

Anon,

Erika Lloyd 

  With our beautiful new costumes and handsome new tenor, we are ready to tour!

Songs From Shakespeare: True Love Never Did Run Smooth has been in the works for about three months now.  With the help of director, Katherine Harte DeCoux, Garald and Alane put together a beautifully scripted set of “Plays within a Play.”  The performance is a group of thematic sets of music, actually used in Shakespearean plays at the time, tied together with dialogue from those plays.  They pulled material from The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet, The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and more.  The themes run from “young love” to “grieving the death of a family member.”  The show is made up of sweet airs, heart breaking laments, and hilarious ditties.

  In preparing for this tour we have had many a rehearsal, costume fitting, and coaching.  We first worked with Katherine on staging and interpreting the text, along with bringing the music alive and tightening up our ensemble singing.  We performed the concert twice in Manhattan at the end of March, both times to very happy audience members.  The consensus was, that adding staging and dialogue to our performance made more sense of the Elizabethan music and added a whole new level of entertainment!

  After taking a short break (Garald and his family took an exciting trip to China!) we resumed with coachings by soprano, Marcia Young, and actor, Ian Gould.  We have really developed as a group, and the attention paid to detail in both the singing and acting has made for a stunning effect!  I am very excited about taking this show on the road!

  If you are reading this blog and have not seen us perform, or do not know any of us personally yet, you can learn all about us on our website, www.goodpennyworths.com , where you can also find the upcoming tour’s schedule.

  I will be blogging along the way on our June 2010 Midwestern tour.  Don’t worry, there will be plenty of embarrassing photos of us at highway landmarks or passed out from exhaustion at odd locations.

  Until we meet again,
                     Erika Lloyd