WOW!!!!

It's been several days since I have posted so get comfy. This may be a long one as there is much to catch up on.

Our last concert day in the Czech republic was also my birthday! It was the big 4-0! A milestone! I had tried not to make a big deal about it. In fact, I got up early that morning and went down town to do some last minute shopping. When I returned Christian had gone to a local bakery we all frequent and brought home some pasteries to celebrate my birthday. Everyone had signed a card and they gave me a little mini cookbook full of traditional Czech recipes. It was so nice of them and totally unexpected.

SO, the last concert went well. We climbed into the Mystery Machine and drove down to the town of Tabor about an hour and a half south of Prague. It is the birth place of Oskar Nedbal, the composer of our operetta, and the theater where we performed is named after him.

Speaking of, the Divaldo Oskar Nedbal is a lovely little 19th century theater that holds maybe 300 if they are lucky. It has two wrap around balconies complete with individual boxes, an orchestra pit and a lovely chandelier hanging from the dome. Again, as in the other theaters we have played, there is relatively little wing space and in this case the stage is relatively shallow. There is a newer, larger "Mid Soviet Modern" theater next door, the stage and auditorium of which sit at a right angle to the older theater. The back wall of its stage is shared by the stage right wall of the stage of the older theater except that this wall has been removed so that the two stages are open to one another. It is a very odd configuration given that this wall doesn't exist. Of course, it gives sorely needed storage space for both stages but it also means that both theater's can't be used at the same time. We were told it is the only theater in Europe configured this way. A fact they seemed to be very proud of.

The performance went extremely well. We have gotten so at ease with the show that we can now play with it and add lib here and there, incorporate little bits of comic business, etc. The audience LOVED the performance and called us back for four or five curtain calls. I am continually intrigued by the audiences we've had. They are very, very quiet and pay very close attention. They never laugh and sometimes may not even clap at the end of a song. A time or two we'd end a number with a big "ta da!" moment and we'd be met with silence. BUT, they always show their appreciation at the end and I'm glad they enjoyed the show. That's all that matters at the end of the day.

We packed up our things and walked up to the town square to find a restaurant for dinner. Tabor, like all the other towns has a very clean, beautiful town square. All the buildings are well cared for and there is, as always, a monument/fountain in the center and a large, beautiful Catholic church. We tried to get seated in a couple of restaurants but they were either full or, believe it or not, unwilling to wait on us! Eva, who had met us the first day at the airport, was once again with us and she was told by a waiter about a restaurant just off the square that might be able to seat us. We walked past the entrance to the church and down a lovely, curvy street to a restaurant called, in english, the Two Cats.

It was a typical Czech restaurant that served Czech beer, wine and a menu of typical Czech food which includes sausages of all kinds, schnitzel and potatoes. It was the perfect place for us! We were all able to sit around one table and had a lovely waitress who was able to put up with us loud americans and keep a smile on her face!

The next day was a free day even though we were done with all our performances. I did some last minute sight seeing and bought a couple of gifts for folks. We had all planned to meet that evening to go out for one last dinner together but Lynn told us that Jill, the wife of the director of the festival, had decided the cocktail party was no longer going to be a party for the Plenblut cast, but a private cocktail party that only Lynn and Brian were invited to. Lynn was really worried about how we'd all take it but we were only puzzled because Jill had said earlier in the week that she'd throw a party specifically for us. Uninvite = Rude but what can you do? We decided that Lynn and Brian would make an appearance and then meet us later for the dinner we had already planned.

We were to meet Lynn and Brian in a certain park by a certain metro station at 7 that evening but they didn't show up until almost an hour later. Of course, it was much more difficult to get away from the party than they'd anticipated. William Bolcom and his wife Joan Morris were there. They were giving concerts as part of the festival and apparently Ms. Morris was expecting us to be there and had been looking forward to meeting us all. After comparing notes, both she and Lynn realized that it was Jill who had decided to uninvite us. Instead she had invited some people from the French Embassy because William Bolcom had lived and studied in Paris as a young man and wouldn't it be fun for him to be able to speak french them them? An upside to this odd situation was that Lynn and Ms. Morris hit it off and Lynn is going to try to get them to come to UNT for at least a concert if not more.

Anyway, after Lynn and Brian joined us, we found a lovely outdoor restuarant right on the river and had a lovely evening with good food and fun conversation.

BUT the next two days were stressful to say the least. This was our day to travel back to the U.S. Up to this point we'd been picked up by an employee of the festival, driven to all our concerts and even been met and walked to rehearsals in Prague just to make sure that we got to where we needed to be without getting lost. Suddenly, we were expected to get ourselve and our luggage to the airport without any assistance from the festival. This didn't seem like such a huge deal. We figured out that we could take the Metro to the end of the line then take a bus to the airport. No big deal.

We got up on the morning we were to return, packed up our things and made our way to the airport. It was sunday and the trains were running more infrequently than during the week. What should have taken 45 minutes to an hour took closer to two hours. Jennifer was flying to Italy that morning but Barbara and I were returning to the U.S. We arrived at the Delta counter to be told by a very sour and apparently annoyed woman that we were too late, the counter was closed and she wasn't going to let us check in for the flight. We told her we had to return that day because of our jobs etc but it didn't matter. She directed us to Delta's customer service office where we were told we'd have to return on a flight the following day to the tune of 300 bucks each. I looked at Barbara and I could see that she was about to burst into tears. "I dont' think I have that much money in my checking account. All I have is what the festival paid me and that's not enough." I told her it would be ok and that I'd pay for it. As we were waiting fo the changes to be made and my credit card to be charged, I told Barbara that if the festival had arranged for our transpertation to the airport to begin with we would probably not be dealing with this issue right now. It seemed right that they should reemburse me for this unexpected expense.

After we were through at the airport we had to figure out where we were going to stay that night. We could either lug our bags back through Prague to the hostel or stay at the airport Marriott just across from the terminal. We decided that since there was no guarantee we'd be able to stay at the hostel, we decided to check in at the Marriott. That way we'd already be at the airport and not have to worry about missing our flight again. We checked in to a "modern" hotel room with comfortable beds and a bathroom actually connected to our room and decided to go back into town and try to take advantage of our extra day. We had lunch at a wonderful vegitarian restaurant, I bought some hand blown glass tumblers and we explored the "Little Town" on the far side of the Charles IV bridge. The next morning we took advantage of the included breakfast and boarded our flight back to the U.S. Thankfully, that all went without a hitch. I emailed Lynn and asked about being reembursed and she totally agreed. The festival dropped the ball so I'm hoping they'll be willing to put things right. Apparently, the director is meeting this week with officials from the U.S. Embassy to talk about bringing us all back to do Polenblut again next summer which would be wonderful. Despite the snaffu at the end of the trip, I'd be thrilled to do it all again. It's a beautiful country and everyone was very nice. Why not?

We finished up with the