DAY FORTY-NINE: March 8, 2008 Windom, MN

I’m lying here on the bed three hours before we go to our second-to-last venue, in our last Super 8. There’s a slight vaulted ceiling in our room. Anything for excitement in interiors! Tomorrow’s final hotel in Fairbury, Nebraska, is for two nights and is in a town not big enough for a Super 8.
So, this is it, Super 888888888888888888888888888888!

I was thinking about last night’s old, slightly tattered Baldwin. On this tour, you have to accept what’s given to you graciously and do your best, whether it’s the stage limitations, the piano, lighting or no, sound and acoustics challenges, dressing room accommodations, and tech help. The key word here is flexibility. You just adapt cheerfully and quickly, with no complaints. I have to admit I was a little grumpy on this 34th concert, entering last night’s venue and finding things not quite right. There was a permanent set on the stage for the Junior High school play that was still under construction. They wanted me to play with the Grand Curtain fully closed, which I haven’t done yet up to this point. There was very little room left on the stage for the piano and us, and the curtain, touching the left side of the piano, was so dusty I was constantly sneezing. I probably showed my discontent for the lack of proper dressing room facilities and only a public bathroom to use. Then I remembered that Laurie, our contact person, is simply a volunteer doing her best to welcome us and make us as comfortable as possible. These things were not anybody’s fault! It was a building built in 1938, which was badly in need of repairs. We would make it work somehow! We opened the curtains enough to free the piano of dust, and worked with the lighting to soften things up a bit.
Then, we took magic marker and filled in the bigger nicks in the piano. We cleared a space in the equipment room to change our clothes, and Frank mopped the floor. Then I sat on that cement floor to apply my makeup, trying to catch the best possible lighting from the bare bulb in the ceiling, using a portable mirror.

All dressed in my long gown now and high heels, makeup on and ready to go, I needed to use the bathroom before going on stage. (My actor friend Benedict told me that was his biggest piece of advice for a performer.) I peaked out in the hallway, and there was a long line for the Ladies room! That was not an option. So, I hiked up my floor-length gown and wandered down some cement stairs into a dark, cold abyss looking for relief. I had five minutes now. It was spooky down there, like some kind of prison camp. There were lockers and big empty cement rooms. One was a large communal shower, I saw something that looked like what I wanted, but it was dark and the door was locked. Yikes! I started thinking about the floor drain in the communal shower. I’m going to stop right there.

Last night’s full house of 800 or so enthusiastic people quickly made us forget any challenges we had earlier. The final concern was the old Baldwin I was playing, as I tried my best to make it sing. Then I had a flashback. I was suddenly back in my teacher’s studio at The University of Maryland. Stewart Gordon, who I had studied classical piano with since childhood and on into my Masters program, had two pianos, side-to-side, that were just like this one! If anyone could teach me to make music out of an old Baldwin, it was Stewart Gordon. Now I remembered how to approach this instrument!

It’s almost time to go to venue #35. Windom is a small town. That doesn’t mean a thing when we try to guess what it will be like. It’s snowing outside.