Here are some highlights from week two of the 2015/16 Dangerous Dreams tour.

Episcopal High School
Our first stop was at Episcopal HS in Alexandria, VA. It was a lovely campus (a boarding school--tuition is expensive to say the least). I gotta say, their dining hall food was delicious: grilled chicken breast, perfectly cooked bow-tie pasta with a delicious sauce.

Loyola University
We get to see a lot of beautiful schools, and Loyola's is no exception. Their Tudor-style admissions center is awesome (I should've taken a picture). We also got to perform all three of the plays, which is always nice. Also, the shows are finally feeling...settled for me. Maybe comfortable is a better word. I've been working on some of them since April. So it's wonderful to relax and let 'em roll.

Downtown Baltimore
The wharf is awesome. There's a giant Barnes & Noble which is in a building that used to be a power plant. The National Aquarium is fantastic. Some of us wandered around the Baltimore Book Festival on Friday morning. There were therapy dogs at the top of the Baltimore World Trade Center. The American Visionary Arts Museum is full of eccentric, zany, intricate work.

RavenBeer – The Cask
As in Poe's “Cask of Amontillado”--get it? The hotel bar had this local beer available, and it's a pretty tasty double bock.

Hamilton
The original cast recording of the new musical dropped, and many of us are obsessed with it. I can't even begin to describe why it's so brilliant. But it's a hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton, the founding of the United States, and his feud with Aaron Burr. I've been playing the soundtrack non-stop and hearing new things with every listen. It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I only wish the Broadway tickets weren't $400.

We've been out on the road for six days. Sometimes, it felt like I had aged a year (I slept so much yesterday). There were also moments when it felt like I had never left last year's tour (only some of the people are different). Regardless, notable moments abound, and I'm going to do my best to track those each week.

Waterford Foundation
Shout-out to the middle-aged woman singing along to our rendition of Muse's “Uprising” before Julius Caesar. She didn't seem like Muse would be her cup of tea, but she was rocking out to the chorus.

Mountains
We drove through a lot of the state during this first leg. The Blue Ridge Mountains are sublime, and more so when fog wrapped around them.

Hollins University Crowd
We were in a gymnasium, on raised platforms (which is a tricky situation, given all of the quick-changes, furniture, and armor/weapons we have for the play). It was one of the hottest, sweatiest performances I've done (we're wearing a lot of layers). The young women who attend Hollins are superfans of the ASC. The tour's been going to Hollins for a long time. Many of them knew the words to all of the songs we were playing. Some kind of Shakespeare cheer erupted during our curtain call.

The Inn at Wise – Wise, VA
A gorgeous, newly restored inn! The walls and rooms are full of paintings, photos, and prints from local artists.

Phil's Catfish
I don't know if Phil prepared the catfish for us. But he at least tracked it down for us, and it was absolutely delicious. (Phil is one of our contacts at UVa-Wise. He takes great care of us.)

The Troupe
We're 12 type As with some giant hearts. We're still figuring out our tour groove (which is nigh-impossible since there's no typical day on the road). But the drive and care we have is a boon.