That’s all folks!
We would like to thank all of the schools, theatres, community centres, hosts, students, audiences, and friends we have met during our tour for their hospitality, enthusiasm, and support. We’ve had an amazing journey and now it is time to pass the torch onto next year’s crew. We have our final blog post below to catch everyone up to the present day and before you read that we would like to share our favourite moments of the year. Koy’s was our visit to Harrington Harbour, Cassandre’s was performing in Ottawa, near her hometown, for her Goddaughter and family, James’s was walking on the coastline of the Magdalene Islands, and for Jen it was our night in Jonquière where we gathered around to write our first blog post. Thank you again and may we remember Sadako in our hearts and practice “Peace in the World” each and every day.
13/02/12-17/02/12 – Québec
Our first show of the week was greeted with a familiar face in Richmond, Québec. Siu-Min used to work at the main office in Geordie but has since relocated and came out to our show to lend us her support. The next day we were in Outremont and performed for a huge group of kids that giggled so much and absolutely loved the cell scenes. On Wednesday we were in NDG where the school had studied the war and the play so they were ready to ask tons of questions. It was an excellent show and then we headed off to the CGEP Collège de Bois de Boulogne. The audience was very cool and relaxed, they took lots of notes and asked studious questions. On Thursday we had two easy load-ins of the set which was good because the whole cast was sick with a bug at this point. We started in Deux Montagnes and finished in Kirkland where the students all knew how to make cranes and knew everything about the story. On Friday we were in Chambly and performed for a group of intelligent older Elementary students and then we drove to Montréal to perform the Weapons of Peace show at an adult education school in the Plateau.
20/02/12-24/02/12 – Québec
This week was a lot of fun and started off in Waterloo and Sutton. The schools were so sweet and the gang was able to perform in a theatre café with painted tables and incredible art displayed all around. It was a very intimate setting and our group was presented with a 2 feet sized paper crane made by one of the schools – so cool! On Tuesday we were lucky to perform two shows at the same school in the West Island so during the break James got a chance to paint the set while Koy napped and Cassandre and Jen giggled about boys. On Wednesday we were at the Pierre Trudeau School in Blainville with amazing kids who really enjoyed the show. Koy played basketball with some students at lunch and James stapled a blanket into the van which might not sound like interesting news but it made our load-in so much easier and so we were all excited about it. Small things make our cast very happy. Thursday morning in Boucherville was hilarious and such a great show. The cast was finally feeling healthy again and these kids helped a lot with their hilarious questions. The audience seemed to think that Jen could play a range of age 11-31 which we’re sure agents everywhere would be happy to hear. Our second show in Brossard was just as fun and loud and overall it was a great day. On Friday we were back in NDG and a few of Jen’s students from Geordie Theatre School were in the audience which was a lot of fun. In the afternoon we went to Beaconsfield where the front row giggled like there was no tomorrow.
27/02/12-02/03/12 – Montréal (ish)
On Monday were were at Royal Vale all day in NDG. Charlotte, one of the actors from last year’s tour, came out to show her support. It was neat having her there and hopefully we can do the same for next year’s crew. On Tuesday we were in St-Leonard and TMR where a Seniors Day was happening and the school had made a thousand cranes, done a huge drawing of Sadako, made paper lanterns, and performed a Japanese dance and song while sporting kimonos for their audience. The students were explosive with laughter and loved Masahiro’s character. On Wednesday we performed two high school shows back to back in theatres in Brossard and Montreal North. It was a mad dash from one show to the next and we were lucky to have good weather for timing because the next day we had a huge downfall with snow covering Longueuil and the ceiling leaked water onto our set! The bad weather was not enough to keep us away though and in the afternoon we were in NDG to perform at Dean’s son’s school and they were absolutely fantastic. Friday started in Laval where June Park came to visit us and in the afternoon we were in St-Jerôme. Both shows were very sweet and we had been lucky with so many visitors in the past few weeks!
12/03/12-16/03/12 – Montréal (ish)
After a much needed March break the gang was back to work. We rebooted the tour at Solomon Schechter Academy with a very informed group of grade 6 students who all knew how to make cranes. Then we were in Otterburn Park performing for a group of French students with a great sense of humour. The next day we performed at the Montréal Oral School for the Deaf who had made lots of cranes for us and an animated video about Sadako’s story. After such a lovely visit we went to Ste-Hyacinthe to an all girls school that had an amazing theatre and we had a great show. On Wednesday we had probably the easiest load-in of all time in Macouche that we seriously believe took under 2 minutes. The show was great and during the break it became official that our cast has gone berserk. James seems to be the only person that is still functioning like a normal person. In the afternoon we returned to St-Lazare for an amazing group of kids that had so much energy and really pumped us up. On Thursday we did two shows in St-Leonard and then headed to Joliette for a third show for some very excited kids. Every single student came up to say hello which was a really nice gesture. On Friday we performed in Pointe Claire where the kids had dressed up in green for St. Patrick’s day and at the end of the show they stood up and did a presentation for us honouring Sadako Sasaki. It was very sweet. Then we headed to Magog where one kid asked us a great question: “If you made a thousand cranes and could have one wish, what would you wish for?” It was a tough one to answer and we’d love to know what you would do!
18/03/12-23/03/12 – Gaspésie
Gaspésie was an amazing week of the tour. The weather was warming up so we got to experience cool temperatures, sun, and lots of snow all at once! We performed in Gaspé, New Carlisle, Bonaventure, New Richmond, and Escumiac with visits in little towns along the way. We stayed in the most incredible bed & breakfasts, ate like champions, visited the Percé Rock, walked along coastlines for minerals, shells, and coloured glass, and met incredible people. Did we mention the breathtaking scenery? It was such a nice visit and we want to thank our hosts and audiences for everything and can’t wait to come back soon.
26/03/12-30/03/12 – Québec
Our last week was bittersweet. Although we are all excited to move onto new projects, the tour has been so good to us and such an incredible experience that it is sad to say good-bye. We performed at schools in NDG, Laval, Longueuil, Terrebonne, La Prairie, Pierrefonds, and Beloeil. We performed our hearts out, tried new things as actors, and had a lot of fun on the stage. We gave away cranes we’ve toured with all year, traded cranes with schools, had dance parties with our audiences, bonded with staff and students, and did a lot of “remember when…” stories. There couldn’t have been a better way to end the tour.
Recent Comments