AMT WENT TO TEXAS

Three of the AMT Team, Kelli Maguire, Toby Sportiello and myself, Zoë Reeve, spent a magical weekend in Texas to support the production of National Pastime presented by McKinney Repertory Theatre. Tony Sportiello, our Artistic Director, wrote this lovely and touching play many moons ago and then he teamed up with Al Tapper to make it a musical. This charming musical about baseball (or is it?) was beautifully brought to life by Aaron Adair, Director, and his creative cast and crew on the gorgeous McKinney Rep stage. Davina Gazo Stampfel, the Executive Director at McKinney Rep, graciously helped our little team of three get to McKinney and see the show with the help of our Pete Dorton who had connected them with this fabulous show last year. Also, none of this would be possible without the generous support of Al Tapper, thank you for sending us to Texas Al, it was a dream come true for me and such a great experience for the three of us.

I was particularly excited about going because a) I had never seen National Pastime and b) I had never been to Texas and it was on my bucket list of places to visit. I was not disappointed and this was possibly the best way to experience the Lone Star State - with friends watching good theater and eating waffles in the shape of this great state!

Zoë Reeve, Toby Sportiello, Kelli Maguire, Davina Stampfel and Aaron Adair

The show was a delight. Kelli was particularly curious about how they were going to stage it as she was part of the original cast in New York City and some of the story line is based on her amazing stories from her days in the Carnival. Toby was invested because his dad wrote the show and I was there to support and soak it all up. Well, it was well worth the trip, it was touching, funny, and great to watch! The entire cast and crew were so welcoming and happy that we had made the effort to travel all the way to North Texas, but really it is us who were thankful, it was such a treat to be VIP guests and enjoy wonderful performances. Thank you for hosting us and for putting on such a great show! Hopefully this is the beginning of a creative relationship between AMT Theater and McKinney Rep. You will always be welcome at our mighty little theater in the heart of Manhattan, don't be strangers, visit us when you're next in the Big Apple!

McKinney Performing Arts Center, which is the town’s former courthouse, such a beautiful building!

We started our adventure by eating waffles and visiting a beautiful lake! Quite frankly, waffles should always be this shape.

McKinney is a must see if you are ever in North Texas. It is so pretty!

We concluded our whirlwind Texas trip by going to the Texas State Fair! I was in my element, people in cowboy hats and cowboy boots everywhere - pure bliss. It was also particularly special to share this fair experience with Kelli after working so hard on Invisible Fish and learning so much about carnival life. We went to the Midway folks and saw a jewelry stand just like the one Kelli's parents had! A special bonus was that Toby and I got to touch a buffalo - much softer than anticipated and those big eyes were just so gentle - new life goal is to be close to one on a more long term basis.

Thank you again to everyone who made this possible. Traveling is such a luxury, traveling with friends is even more so. May all of Al and Tony's shows be produced all over the globe so we can trot to them and bring our smiles and support.