I love Brent Carver. Just thought I'd throw that out there for those of you who don't already know. :-) We saw Fiddler on the Roof on Saturday, and he was just PERFECT. I mean, absolutely amazing. The show was wonderful too, but he was just so far beyond my highest expectations ... there are just no words!
The whole weekend was very much fun! Alison came up Friday and she and Laurie came over to my house for dinner (*I* liked my taco salad!), and then we went to Ragtime. The tour was very good! The cast was really solid, and the Sarah especially was outstanding. I cried. :-) I missed a few of the sets from Broadway, and I especially missed the magic trick at the beginning of Act Two, but it was by far the best tour I've seen in Ottawa this year.
Then Alison and I went and rented our car and drove to her house, where we got about two hours sleep before getting up, picking up her friend Elizabeth and setting off for Stratford! The drive was uneventful, which is good, other than the fact that we were getting a little giddy. :-) We got to Stratford in plenty of time, had a nice picnic lunch by the Avon River, and went to the matinee of Hamlet. I'm not a big fan of the play, and the show was a little long, but Paul Gross was very good! He moped around a little too much at the beginning, but he was very convincing in the parts where he was called upon to act crazy. :-) He was also very funny! I really enjoyed his performance overall.
Of course we stopped at the stage door to say hi to him, and then drove to our bed and breakfast, which was also very nice! Then driving back to Stratford and the evening show of Fiddler. As I've already said, there are no words. :-) I have rarely laughed so hard in the theatre, and I cried as well. It was just a brilliant performance. If you have the chance to see it, GO.
We then did the stage door for Brent too, and made it back to the B&B about midnight - got to bed at around 1 and was up by 6:30 - so much for sleep! :-) We toured Stratford a bit that day, and then drove back. It was just a lot of fun!! I want to go back. :-)
Other than that, not much is up here! We had a big "corn boil" for work on Tuesday. Basically it was just a huge company picnic, at the Museum of Civilization in Hull. There was a band playing and games and clowns and stuff, and lots of free food. My favourite part was definitely the big inflatable slide! :-)
Saturday is Canada Day, of course, and since this is the first time I'll be in Ottawa for it, I'm planning on spending most of the day downtown. There's a great-sounding concert lined up for noon including Roch Voisine (who I love, I don't care what people say!), and Michael Burgess. And then there's another concert at night, with Paul Brandt, and of course the fireworks and stuff. Unfortunately it's supposed to rain, but maybe it'll prove them wrong!
Anyway, I still haven't really unpacked from the trip, and I have a ton of laundry to do, so I ought to get home. Happy Canada Day everyone, and, since I probably won't write again before then, Happy 4th of July too! :-)