BR: Fun in Lancaster, PA
Photos and a couple scripts
Our Prairie Home Companion 50th Anniversary Tour kicked off on Saturday, July 29, 2023, from the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Garrison Keillor was joined by Nellie McKay, Heather Masse, Christine DiGiallonardo, Ross Benoliel, Richard Dworsky, Jeff Carney, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman. And it made for one fun-packed evening. Enjoy a few photos and audio clips from the show.
GUY NOIR
Why does your lead picture show a town of Lancaster MASSACHUSETTS, BORDER sign ,IF YOU WERE IN LAncaster PENNSYLVANIA!!! ?????LOL
Ah! Memories! Once in California, at a vineyard amphitheater performance, I had the opportunity to take my two daughters to see APHC in person. My younger daughter, Heather, (MOM! I AM NOT A CLONE!” except she is!) loved the whole show. She dragged her feet when the “curtain fell” – didn’t want to leave behind the wonderful atmosphere and the joie de vivre that existed in the audience. I think we were the second to last car from the visitor’s parking lot to head down the hill. My older daughter, Tami, though, had long been a “Guy Noir Addict!” Luckily for all of us (including the audience around us!), there was a Guy Noir episode about halfway through the show. She finally stopped “stage whispering” so loudly you could have heard her 10 rows away “Guy Noir! When are they going to do Guy Noir???” (At home we have a tape that’s all Guy Noir episodes – she practically wore it down to ribbons!) The weird thing about it, for me, is that on the tape, Guy kept getting shot at the end of each episode. Hearing your hero getting shot, again and again, and resurrected as soon as the tape moved on to the next segment – I didn’t understand the attraction in that sequence. Then again, she’s a very socially sensitive person – perhaps she’s unusually aware of her “Gaffs” – and cherishes the hope that once someone else has “Shot Her Down,” she’ll be able to rejuvenate herself and go on living until the next time.
Yes! Whether someone on the staff heard her persistent pleas, or whether it was scheduled fairly well-along in the performance, Guy Noir did show up! Tami sang the theme song, “sotto voce,” along with the singer onstage. She followed the whole scene from the edge of her seat, as if she wanted to be right on the stage itself, so she could be “TOTALLY!” a part of it! Once that episode ended, she was ready to walk back to the car and head on out. Her sister and I had to restrain her, so we could enjoy the rest of the show.
I imagine there are others among your full-time audience who have their favorite impersonations. Me? LEFTY! I saw APHC once along the Hudson River, and there was a “Dusty and Lefty” skit that I simply repeated in my mind, again and again, for the four hours or so that it took me to drive back home!
That was one of the neat things about APHC! There seemed to be “Something For Everyone!” “Mom” always bugged me – I wished she could have been sympathetic once in a while! But, the very fact that the skits were so different in nature, and so consistent internally in the interactions between roles, was a good part of the charm of APHC!
Thanks so much for providing our ears with these well-remembered sounds! It’s almost as if we can step back in time. We can be there with our families as they were then, listening, and hearing, each of us reacting as our own personalities dictated!