New Bedford, Massachusetts to West Point

The tour comes to a rushing finish this weekend.  We had two terrific shows on Friday at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a 10 AM  matinee with over 1000 students and a general public audience nearly that big for the evening show.  New Bedford is home to our dear friend and fellow Barter actor Michael Poisson and he had given me some tips about places to visit but I didn't get a chance to follow up on them.  Several folks stayed downtown for the afternoon but I unfortunately wasn't one of them.  I hadn't slept well the night before so I went back to the hotel for a nap.

We did, however, get to see another friend at the evening show.  Meg Atkinson, a Barter alumni, now lives and works in nearby Boston and she came down to visit.  A couple of other cast members also had family and friends in attendance so New Bedford turned out to be quite the reunion spot.

Getting ready for sound check at the Zeiterion

Fight call before the morning show at the Zeiterion

We were up Saturday morning for our drive across Rhode Island and Connecticut into New York.

Driving along the coast in Connecticut

We had an 8 PM show at the Eisenhower Hall Theatre on the campus of West Point.  We're staying about 45 minutes from the college in Fishkill, New York so we had a short break after checking in the hotel before we got back onto the bus for the ride to the oldest military academy in the country.

The lobby outside the Eisenhower Hall Theatre at West Point

We're in good company

The folks at West Point were extremely kind and accommodating and we were fed dinner in a private room in the restaurant that is part of the theater complex.  Eisenhower Hall is a huge facility, the largest we've played the tour with a seating capacity of over 4400.  So, not surprisingly, it wasn't a full house and according to the folks there it rarely is.  We had about 700 in attendance, a good house for a college town on the Saturday night before Thansgiving and they seemed to really appreciate the show.  It was certainly a thrill for all of us to perform on this historic campus.

View from the stage at the Eisenhower Hall Theatre

This is the largest venue we will play on tour

We had a brief talkback session with some high school students after the show, then loaded the bus for our drive back to Fishkill.  Tomorrow morning we all load up one last time for our drive into NYC and the final performance of the tour in Brooklyn!