Courtney Jones worked at NYCPAS as Assistant to the Director for two years before embarking on the national tour of “WICKED” as an ensemble cast member. She is a graduate of SUNY Purchase College and has danced professionally in New York City with Jennifer Muller/The Works, among others. This is her seventh blog from the road.
I was VERY excited to go to California. I had been there once before on a family vacation, but I was quite young at the time and hadn’t been since. San Diego in August was almost unreal. With the exception of a few random hot days, the weather was absolutely perfect every day (especially considering we had just come from Tempe, AZ temperatures!).
San Diego's Civic Center was a bit challenging in some ways and convenient in others. The challenge, as with many other theatres, was the location. All of the theatres I have played so far have been located in the downtown areas. Although downtown San Diego has shops, coffee houses and restaurants, which the cast absolutely enjoyed (thanks to Currant, a beautiful between-shows hot spot!), downtown areas can also prove difficult to navigate and safety can be an issue. With that said, the cast did a great job keeping tabs on one another and making sure everyone had a walking buddy.
I was super excited that this theatre actually had a rehearsal studio on site! Unfortunately with the exception of the opening week, a lot of other groups' rehearsals were scheduled during our run at the theatre, which meant the space was unavailable for warming up. This was quite unfortunate since there was absolutely no other space for the dancers to really get a good warm up -- only a tiny area near the physical therapy room and on deck, which is never easy as the crew is setting up for the show.
San Diego's Civic Center, like the Gammage Theatre in Tempe, lacks a center aisle (this configuration is called "continental style" seating and requires some preplanning by audience members for comfort and convenience...).
The backstage area was spacious and the dressing rooms were in close proximity with few stairs to tackle. With the exception of the huge crowds outside the stage door after performances, this theatre was quite accommodating.
I got to see some unbelievable sights while in San Diego: Coronado Beach was absolutely amazing and when our producer gave the entire company VIP passes to Universal Studios (see photo), I knew I had hit the big time! Overall, San Diego was a pleasure to play and may be my new favorite vacation location.
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