Are you just sitting around saying to yourself, “Gee, I really wish I could watch the Titanic sinking in real time?” Then I have some awesome news for you. Now you can, thank to Titanic: Honor and Glory, a “fully interactive recreation of the most famous ship in history.”

The company behind Titanic: Honor and Glory has just released a 2:40 hour video of the Titanic sinking. It’s mesmerizing. Don’t skip to the end. I mean, we all know how it ends so you don’t have to worry about spoiler alters. But I will tell you that the final bit with the ship sinking and the empty lifeboats drifting by is haunting.

Not only will you be able to explore the entire ship, inside and out, but you’ll also get to explore Southhampton before you set sail on the journey that was far worse than the S.S. Minnow.

The game isn’t completed yet. In fact, you can apply to work on the project.

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I just got back from a whirlwind trip to TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I had a brilliant time. TheatreSquared is currently producing my show Around the World in 80 Days. The theatre graciously invited me out to attend opening night, do talkbacks with audiences, and be a guest pontificator lecturer at a theatre MFA class. If you have never been to TheatreSquared, hop in the vehicle of your choice and hasten your bad self to Fayetteville, AR. Surprisingly, Fayetteville was not at all what I expected.

I shall now recap my trip. My mom will be the only one interested in this post.

Around the World in 80 Days Opening Night

I almost missed opening night. My flight out of Minneapolis was delayed because the Delta crew failed to show up. Then the plane needed to be de-iced. Then there was a mechical malfunction. Then we changed planes. Then they couldn’t find a pushback crew. Then more de-icing. De-icing and not flying on a plane with a mechanical problem is good. Not being able to find the crew is bad. What the hell, Delta?

Fortunately I made it in the nick of time. TheatreSquared has put together a wonderful production. It’s no surprised since my good friend Mark Shanahan was at the helm. He’s a fantastic and imaginative director. He can direct any of my shows any time he wants.

What really made opening night special was being united again with Mark and my dear friend Bruce Warren. Mark directed the world premiere of my show Tom Jones last spring and Bruce killed it in that production. I absolutely adore Mark and Bruce.

Mark Shanahan, me, Bruce Warren

Bruce’s subtle performance in Tom Jones.

TheatreSquare’s Around the World in 80 Days stars Bruce, Cameron Folmar, Mason Azbill, Annisa Felix, and Gil Brady. Sean Hagerty (who has designed sound for three separate productions of 80 Days) and cute as punch Ashtyn Nilsen are the foley artists.

It’s a very lush looking production, thanks to costume designer Ruby Billig Kemph. Set designer James Fenton. And lighting designer Nathan Scheuer. Stage manager David Loranca holds it all together when he’s not off getting black market flu shots.

This production is very funny and there were acting and directing choices I had never seen before. And I mean that in a good way. Not in the “wow, that was something” way.

The best part of opening night? The bacon wrapped dates. I could have eaten them all night. Oh wait. I did.

Me next to a bus stop poster

The Quest for Don Quixote

Saturday morning, after a breakfast sandwich and a chai latte from The Little Bread Company, we got together to do a reading of my play The Quest for Don Quixote. It went really well. This is a script I nearly threw out a while ago but it seems to have some promise. I still have to do more rewrites but I got some great feedback from Mark and the lovely Morgan Hicks.

The Little Bread Company

TheatreSquared Talkback Surprise

After a damn yummy grilled cheese at Hammontree’s Grilled Cheese, Mark and I did a talkback after the Saturday matinee. We had a great audience but the biggest surprise was Bryn Smith from the Tahlequah Community Playhouse drove out from Oklahoma to see the show. Tahlequah (I finally learned how to pronounce it while I was in Fayetteville) recently produced The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge. Thank you Bryn and Jim for making the trip to TheatreSquared. It was great to meet you.

Free Champagne

I had dinner at Nomad’s Natural Plate, a great little food truck on Dickson Street. After the Saturday night show, Mark, Bruce, and I went out to have a drink at a wine bar next to TheatreSquared called the Wine Cellar. A couple at the place had just seen the show and  bought us two bottles of Champagne. Score! I was, however, shocked that the bartender didn’t know how to pronounce Veuve Clicquot. How can you be a bartender at a wine bar and not know how to pronounce Veuve Clicquot? That’s the Arkansas I was expecting.

My Digs

I stayed at the Chancellor Hotel in downtown Fayetteville. Convenient to TheatreSquared. Big rooms. Comfy beds. Indifferent weekend front desk staff. Broken pool heater. I was really looking forward to the heated indoor/outdoor pool, but alas.

Chancellor Hotel Room

I was incredibly disappointed with this sign

Sunday Eats

Two places you need to go while you’re in Fayetteville are Bouchee Bistro and Penguin Ed’s.

Bouchee Bistro is a pittoresque et charmant French bistro in downtown Fayetteville. It’s a great place to unwind, read a book, or embrasser votre amoureux. I didn’t have an amoureux but did have a to-die-for pain au chocolat.

Bouchee Bistro

Penguin Ed’s is one of the best BBQ places in Fayetteville. I had the pulled pork sandwich and a few gallons of sweet tea.

Penguin Ed’s

Drinking and Teaching

What’s theatre without drinking and partying? Sunday night we all went out to celebrate a very tiring week. Well, it was tiring for everyone in the show. It was a cakewalk for me. Monday I guest lectured at Michael Landman’s playwriting class at the University of Arkansas. Michael is a very funny and warm hearted guy and his students are awesome. I’ve guest lectured at other universities and I think Michael’s class was the most friendly and attentive class I’ve come across.

Downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas

Okay, I admit it, downtown Fayetteville is a bit odd. It looks like the backlot town square at Universal Studios. It’s kind of like time forgot this place. During the day it’s deserted.

Downtown square

The prettiest view downtown

At night people come from all over to look at the Christmas lights. And what a display. I’m bummed Mark, Bruce, and I didn’t have time to have our picture taken on a camel. Yes, there’s a camel downtown.

Downtown lights

Razorbacks are everywhere. Everywhere!

Maybe not the best place to sit on some stranger’s lap.

TheatreSquared Love Affair

What was tremendously wonderful about my visit was getting to meet and becoming friends with Bob Ford, artistic director of TheatreSquared and his wife Amy Herzberg. You’d be hard-pressed to find a lovelier couple.

Much lovelier than these two.

And for that I can think of no better reason to go see Around the World.

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I was in Fresno the other day and came within 60 feet of a couple of bears. I don’t know if “yes” is the answer to the old saying “does a bear sh*t in the woods?” but I do know the answer is yes to “does a writer crap his pants when he comes within 60 feet of a couple of bears in the woods?”

Yosemite Park

It all started innocently enough. I was in Fresno for an adoption reunion last weekend and took a side trip to Yosemite National Park. The park is majestic. The drive in from Fresno is amazing. And so on. Truly an amazing place.

I read a lot about the park and was prepared for huge crowds and nightmarish driving. It wasn’t so bad. Got there about noon, found rockstar parking right next to the shuttle, and couldn’t see teeming hordes of people anywhere.

We spent all of our time in Yosemite Valley  and it was hot. Really hot. In the 90s hot. And the valley is about 3800 feet above sea level. I get altitude sickness when I go upstairs in my house so I was really feeling it. We took the free shuttle around the valley and got off to hike up to Mirror Lake. The hike was on a paved road. So much for roughing it. Since it’s August, most of the melted snow that creates the magnificent waterfalls is long gone. Mirror Lake was a dry bed. We got to walk around in the lake and my daughter, stick in hand, looked like Moses crossing the desert. You know, if Moses was a 9-year old Chinese girl.

So far so good. We saw a bluejay, a squirrel and some chipmunks. I couldn’t wait until I could spin yarns to my fellow members of The Explorers Club.

The Bear Necessities

And then we decided to hike to the stables. What’s the best way to find the stables? Follow the horse excreta, naturally. So off we went down the horse trail, braving the great outdoors and piles of poo. After a grueling 15 minutes in God’s country, we looked across a meadow and saw our destination. We also happened to see a couple of bears. About 60 feet away. I’m not sure but they looked like bear cubs. Big bear cubs. And where there are bear cubs there’s a protective mother bear. With nothing but my fear between us and the bears, and not wanting to be on TV as the victim of a brutal bear mauling, my superhuman survival training kicked into overdrive and I said, in a panicked whisper, “I need new underwear.”  We hightailed it out of there, with me leaving a path of playwright pies for the next hikers to follow to the stables.

I can’t wait to go back to Yosemite again and see some more bears there, but a bit further away then pissing distance.

Here’s what I imagined was going to happen. Warning: It’s a tad graphic.

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The Town of Lanesboro

A while ago I wrote about Lanesboro being named one 0f the Top Twelve Artplaces in the U.S., Yahoo naming it one of America’s prettiest towns and it’s distinction of being the Bed and Breakfast Capital on Minnesota. After a weekend there I can tell you it’s true.

First off, everyone is so damn nice. “Minnesota Nice” they call it. A walk through town is like living in Friendlyville. I was in one store and the owner said if I needed a bike for the weekend I could use his. A waitress in a restaurant looked at me and said, “I know you. You’re Mark Brown. And a little boy walked by me then turned around and yelled out, “You look awesome!”

So why do people come from all over to this little overly friendly hamlet with a population of 754 people? Well, the Commonweal Theatre for one. Not only is it an impressive physical structure but the theatre produces wonderful solid shows (And they show exceptionally good taste by doing one of my shows…ahem) . The other reason is the Root River Bike Trail. Sixty miles of breathtaking beauty. It runs along an abandoned railroad bed through towering 300-foot limestone bluffs, forestlands, river and rolling fields. It’s quite stunning – you know –  if you like that kind of thing. In the winter it makes for an amazing cross-country ski trail. I didn’t have time to take the shopkeep up on his offer on his bike but I did have some time to walk part of the trail.

Root River Bike Path

The namesake of the Root River Bike Path

World Cup Dilemma

My big dilemma that weekend was the Salon Series was at the same time as the World Cup final. I had been coaching Germany on to victory the entire competition and there was no way I could miss the final match. As fate would have it, I ended up watching the first half of the game on a turkey farm with a lovely German family. What!?

At the show on Saturday night I sat next to a woman and her mother. Turns out they were German. I got talking to them after the show and the mother, who spoke very little English, and I bonded over the German National Team.

Me: I like Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The German mom: Ooo, und Podolski.

Me: Und Kloser.

The German mom: Und Mueller.

The German woman: Come up to our farm tomorrow to watch the game. Here’s my card.

So that’s how Jeremy van Meter and I found ourselves on the Miehlisch Turkey Farm, cheering on Germany with a German family.

Wunderbar.

Not the actual Germany family

Three Hots and a Cot

My first night I had dinner at Intermission. Not only was the food yummy in the old tummy, but the music in the restaurant was a Bruce Springsteen mix. A little bit of Jersey in Minnesota. I also had lunch at Pedal Pushers Cafe (see the bike theme?). When you eat there, get the homemade root beer. It’s fantastic.

I stayed at a lovely little bed and breakfast called Casa Verde. Built in 1893, this little Victorian house is run by Catherine Glynn (also a theatre company member) and the afore mentioned Jeremy van Meter. You will not meet two nicer people. Seriously. Not unless you meet Santa and Tom Hanks. Catherine and Jeremy rent out one bedroom and you feel like part of their family. Both the bed and the breakfast parts were wonderful. Walk out the front door and you’re on the Root River Bike Trail. And it’s about a 45 second walk to the theatre.

Lanesboro is a fantastic little town, I fell in love with it and I hope to come back again soon.

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The Commonweal Theatre generously flew me out to see their production of Around the World in 80 Days and to be the special guest for their Sunday Salon series. The theatre treated me like a king. They treated me to dinner and lunch and put me up at a lovely bed and breakfast where I had fantastic breakfasts (the latter part of B&B) and an amazing dinner on Sunday night.

Commonweal Theatre’s Around the World in 80 Days

The production of Around the World in 80 Days was directed by my old friend Alan Bailey and he put together a really wonderful production. I was pleasantly surprised that he added dance numbers whenever Phileas Fogg arrived in a new country. The audience ate it up.

The cast was magnificent: Hal Cropp, Gary Danciu, Diana Jurand, David Hennessey and hands down one of the best performances I’ve ever seen, Adrienne Sweeney as Passepartout. What was most refreshing was the clarity of the text. The actors were completely committed to the text and they all found the heart of the story. Truly brilliant.

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A Starbucks Disney Store

That’s right. Starbucks announced the opening of a store in Downtown Disneyland. It’s two of my favorite things coming together for a perfect storm. Well, that is if storms are good things.

And this being Disney, the Starbucks isn’t one of your run-of-the-mill Starbucks. This one has a story behind it. Of course it does. Disney loves stories behind all of its attractions.

“The new Downtown Disney location will bring one of Starbucks most engaging experiences to customers with technology and content designed specifically for this store. This includes introducing customers to the story behind Starbucks coffee projected across a 10-foot video installation in addition to a first-of-its-kind interactive touch screen that will inspire moments of playful creativity for even the youngest visitors.”

And Starbucks has plans to open more stores at Disney.

“Over the next year, Starbucks and Disney will bring five more Starbucks locations to guests, including: one additional Starbucks-operated location in Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort, two Starbucks-operated locations at Downtown Disney at the Walt Disney World Resort and two Disney-operated locations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort.”

I like that Starbucks is opening two locations at Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort, because it wouldn’t be Starbucks without another Starbucks across the street.

No word yet if the Princesses will be the baristas.

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I can’t read Turkish so had to rely on Google translate.

“Erzurum at the State Theatre stage receivables wrote Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days” will take place the player of the game for the first time the child…our game a thorough English gentleman of a man who circled the globe in 80 days touring representation that a bet and this trip happened is told. ‘Erzurum in March after Samsun, Corum and elsewhere tour will go on.’ said.

But here’s my favorite:

“Game director Jennifer Kocaoglu.”

Um…thanks Google but I think you mean “show director Gökhan Kocaoğlu.” Not Jennifer.

Up to no good.

Looks like a train to me.

I believe this is Jennifer.

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