Small Town Celebrations
First of all...Happy Birthday Tony (Rance's Dad) !! We love you.
Most of the past few days have involved the creation process of ImprovAcadia banners for the 4th of July parade. Jen and Larrance wanted smaller banners that individuals could carry that would be lighter and not so burdensome. Rance took up the creative design helm and fashioned an idea using PVC piping and strips of muslin fabric. He then transferred the ImprovAcadia logo onto the raw banners and the rest of us spent time painting. In the end they turned out great.
Friday night we had another Community Well show with two local performers named Ben and Caleb. They played guitar and sang in a bluegrassy twang that was sometime only understandable in their own heads but made for a good time by everyone in the audience.
Saturday night was our first three show night with two normal shows and then a midnight jam. With only word of mouth advertisement for the jam we weren't sure if there was going to be any turnout. Especially since there's an ordinance here that doesn't allow teenagers to be out in a public place past 11pm without a guardian of some sort. But as soon as the door opened people started pouring in and we had a very successful jam with about 35 people in attendance.
Andrea Swanson arrived into town on Sunday. Jen and Larrance began their three week stint with Summer Festival of the Arts so they asked if Rance and I would pick her up from Bangor. She's so darn athletic she's sure to have a great time here in Maine and take full advantage of everything that's here.
Sunday night we had a full house, it almost feels like a night off because we go back down to only one show that night. A note of interest here: There's a young guy of about 17 years old who plugs his keyboard in the courtyard of the little complex that the theater is located in and plays and sings for hours. The only problem is he has a repatoire of about 10 songs and keeps repeating "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Hey Jude" endlessly. I think I might get him a new songbook this week.
Yesterday was the parade day. We had to be in Bar Harbor around 9am, which seems ungodly an hour nowadays. We packed up our banners and took separate cars just in case there were different plans as the day wore on. I've never been to a small town parade before, but it was so much fun. It's pretty much a Halloween like affair for the kids as they shouted for and received candy from people in the parade. My most recent parade experience has been the Rose Festival in Portland which is the 2nd largest all floral parade in the country to Pasadena's affair. So Bar Harbor's parade was more reminiscent of my High School homecoming parade; mostly flatbed trucks for floats and groups of people that everyone on the sideline new and would run out and hug. One of Jen and Larrance's high school interns was known by pretty much every local kid on the route, he's a good kid and it had to be great for him to hear his name shouted on every street.
After the parade we had a little bit of time to kill before heading over to a barbecue. So we walked down to the rocky shore of Frenchmen's Bay and watched Pat, Seth, Rance and Declan throw rocks into the water. It was such a beautiful day, warm and sunny, a more perfect 4th of July day I've never experienced. After a stroll on the shore path we all headed off to Steve and Susan Raab's, locals who had invited the cast over for a barbecue to their beautiful historical home.
Steve is the historian we had a couple of weeks back in the Community Well. So we got to see some of his finds including a letter from Abraham Lincoln and a receipt for pay to Merriweather Lewis for his Oregon Trail excursion. Such gracious hosts they were!! We all felt truly spoiled to be in their historic home, eating the glorious, and I do mean glorious feast they prepared. The topper was the dessert that Susan made. At one time she was a specialty baker in Philadelphia and she brought out a lemon mousse, and a chocolate mousse pie that were to die for! She hadn't baked in over a year and made these labors of love for all of us. They were simply remarkable.
If you're a historian buff you can go to Steve and Susan's website to find out more about what they do at www.raabcollection.com
After socializing with the Raab's Jen and Larrance headed home to enjoy Larrance's one and only night off for the entire summer. Pat, Seth and Andrea headed over to Echo Lake in to try and get a swim in, and Rance and I headed up to Cadillac Mountain to enjoy the view from the highest point on Mt. Desert Island. It was breathtaking to be at the top and be able to see Frenchmen's Bay and the entire island. It was also a bit chilly so after enjoying some time sitting on warm rocks enjoying the view we headed out for a drive along the NE Harbor side of the island and then went home. I had seen fireworks in late May at Navy Pier with Linda, Julie and Cristi and was really okay with avoiding the traffic jam off the island after the show in Bar Harbor.
Tonight we have a rehearsal to get Andrea up to speed on the show format and from the news we will also be enjoying our last sunny day for awhile.
I can't believe we have less than three weeks left.
Most of the past few days have involved the creation process of ImprovAcadia banners for the 4th of July parade. Jen and Larrance wanted smaller banners that individuals could carry that would be lighter and not so burdensome. Rance took up the creative design helm and fashioned an idea using PVC piping and strips of muslin fabric. He then transferred the ImprovAcadia logo onto the raw banners and the rest of us spent time painting. In the end they turned out great.
Friday night we had another Community Well show with two local performers named Ben and Caleb. They played guitar and sang in a bluegrassy twang that was sometime only understandable in their own heads but made for a good time by everyone in the audience.
Saturday night was our first three show night with two normal shows and then a midnight jam. With only word of mouth advertisement for the jam we weren't sure if there was going to be any turnout. Especially since there's an ordinance here that doesn't allow teenagers to be out in a public place past 11pm without a guardian of some sort. But as soon as the door opened people started pouring in and we had a very successful jam with about 35 people in attendance.
Andrea Swanson arrived into town on Sunday. Jen and Larrance began their three week stint with Summer Festival of the Arts so they asked if Rance and I would pick her up from Bangor. She's so darn athletic she's sure to have a great time here in Maine and take full advantage of everything that's here.
Sunday night we had a full house, it almost feels like a night off because we go back down to only one show that night. A note of interest here: There's a young guy of about 17 years old who plugs his keyboard in the courtyard of the little complex that the theater is located in and plays and sings for hours. The only problem is he has a repatoire of about 10 songs and keeps repeating "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Hey Jude" endlessly. I think I might get him a new songbook this week.
Yesterday was the parade day. We had to be in Bar Harbor around 9am, which seems ungodly an hour nowadays. We packed up our banners and took separate cars just in case there were different plans as the day wore on. I've never been to a small town parade before, but it was so much fun. It's pretty much a Halloween like affair for the kids as they shouted for and received candy from people in the parade. My most recent parade experience has been the Rose Festival in Portland which is the 2nd largest all floral parade in the country to Pasadena's affair. So Bar Harbor's parade was more reminiscent of my High School homecoming parade; mostly flatbed trucks for floats and groups of people that everyone on the sideline new and would run out and hug. One of Jen and Larrance's high school interns was known by pretty much every local kid on the route, he's a good kid and it had to be great for him to hear his name shouted on every street.
After the parade we had a little bit of time to kill before heading over to a barbecue. So we walked down to the rocky shore of Frenchmen's Bay and watched Pat, Seth, Rance and Declan throw rocks into the water. It was such a beautiful day, warm and sunny, a more perfect 4th of July day I've never experienced. After a stroll on the shore path we all headed off to Steve and Susan Raab's, locals who had invited the cast over for a barbecue to their beautiful historical home.
Steve is the historian we had a couple of weeks back in the Community Well. So we got to see some of his finds including a letter from Abraham Lincoln and a receipt for pay to Merriweather Lewis for his Oregon Trail excursion. Such gracious hosts they were!! We all felt truly spoiled to be in their historic home, eating the glorious, and I do mean glorious feast they prepared. The topper was the dessert that Susan made. At one time she was a specialty baker in Philadelphia and she brought out a lemon mousse, and a chocolate mousse pie that were to die for! She hadn't baked in over a year and made these labors of love for all of us. They were simply remarkable.
If you're a historian buff you can go to Steve and Susan's website to find out more about what they do at www.raabcollection.com
After socializing with the Raab's Jen and Larrance headed home to enjoy Larrance's one and only night off for the entire summer. Pat, Seth and Andrea headed over to Echo Lake in to try and get a swim in, and Rance and I headed up to Cadillac Mountain to enjoy the view from the highest point on Mt. Desert Island. It was breathtaking to be at the top and be able to see Frenchmen's Bay and the entire island. It was also a bit chilly so after enjoying some time sitting on warm rocks enjoying the view we headed out for a drive along the NE Harbor side of the island and then went home. I had seen fireworks in late May at Navy Pier with Linda, Julie and Cristi and was really okay with avoiding the traffic jam off the island after the show in Bar Harbor.
Tonight we have a rehearsal to get Andrea up to speed on the show format and from the news we will also be enjoying our last sunny day for awhile.
I can't believe we have less than three weeks left.
posted by Deanna Moffitt @ 10:38 AM
2 Comments:
At 11:56 AM,
Anonymous said…
Todd and Bill
At 1:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
You said my name! I'm flippin' out! I won the rock throwing contest, and Seth finished in a close second. I recall the name of the contest being "who can pull a muscle first." Were you talking about me when you said all those people knew me? I'm glad you had a perfect 4th of july and that i could be a part of it.
-declan
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