Dear book,
This tour had tons of driving; all by me because who else but a 17th century feminist playwright can drive long stretches in a rented Avis full size white Impala? Up the coast of Lake Superior after flying into Duluth, Minnesota, to Grand Marais – a place I spied on the AAA map and decided it would be a good place to stop for the night before we head into Canada. We arrived at sundown into funky old Grand Marais and low and behold the Best Western had every single room right on the lake! We ask about where to eat and expected to hear the usual…”there’s is a subway up the road.” But surprise...we stumbled into a home style cooking joint aptly named My Sisters Place! It is here that I discover we are not just in any red state small town. On the back of one bar stool at My Sisters Place I spot a pro-choice bumper sticker slapped up and visible. Whoa! We are home! The chili, onion rings, grilled cheese and broccoli cheddar soup hit the spot and we settle in for a night of hard sleep on the shores of Lake Superior. OK so there are no whales to watch, no fish jumping, just vast amounts of ice and sky. But it’s beautiful.
Day two we head up to Canada…I warn the girls not to make ANY jokes at the border, remembering the time when Coco Chanel quipped something and got us all stopped for an hour and interrogated when we arrived in Winnipeg a few years back. We sail though the border and head up to Thunder Bay and Lakehead University. Deer, deer and more deer line the road as if to welcome us to Canada. (None in gorilla masks) And we spot many bald eagles flying overhead as if they are our American escorts into a new frontier.
Our venue is an older auditorium, a wing of the college that used to be an elementary school. Our dressing room is the old girls locker room right off the gym. We practice the cheerleading part of our show…splits and back springs. Tech crew is great…Kate Bornstein had warned ups that they were not together but they got it together since her show and therefore we are in good hands.
The show rocks but the audience rocks more and our Q and A is filled with fantastic questions. My favorite is the last one “When can you come back?”
Soon, Canada, Oh so very soon…”!
Until we meet again…
Aphra Behn
March 31, 2011
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