"what would you say is your life motto?"

part of the audition process for disney on classic each year is answering a few questions you probably weren't prepared for. not questions like, "how's your tap?" or "can you do a scottish dialect?" but rather "how would you describe your personality?" or "what is your view of the character of pumba?" or my personal favorite, "what would you say is your life motto?" this sign along the meji-dori in tokyo – somewhere between shibuya and harajuku – provides what i think is a perfectly suitable answer to that last question.

"it's official. i'm in love with japan."

are you reading kate mccann's account of her time in japan while touring with disney on classic? you should be.

discovering the real tokyo

dinner in a closet, seating for seven, down a tiny, secluded alleyway near the shinjuku station in tokyo. depending on the establishement, and the night – and you, for that matter – you might not be invited in. or you might be cajoled into sitting down before you have a chance to say no.

jen's noodling in nihon

my friend jen zappola is blogging about our japan trip again this year. she sums up her return:

It’s odd to feel at home on the other side of the earth. I’m back in Japan for my second tour with Disney on Classic and the Tokyo Philharmonic (how lucky am I?). All seven American singers arrived last Friday. And as I wheeled my massive luggage cart through the bright Narita Airport I had a very clear memory of a thought I’d had when I was departing Nartia last December – What if I never come back to this wonderful country?

I remember being surprised by that thought. I was ready to go home! I’d been in a foreign country for three months. A country where not only can I not speak the language, I can’t even sound out their alphabet. Three months of white rice. Of Japanese television (you think our commercials are annoying). Of buying my groceries at the convenient store. Three months without hummus! I was tired. I missed America. I missed my family.

And yet. Arriving at Narita last December, pack(ed) and ready to fly home, I didn’t want to leave. Because I couldn’t stand the thought of never coming back.

The people. This culture. The joy and the love that I feel from and toward them. It all came rushing back. And I realized I had missed Japan.

So now I’m back in Tokyo ready to start the 2010 tour. Ready to eat white rice. And attempt more Japanese. And bow. And excited to be comfortable with Japan. So much so now that it feels like there is a little place right here where–believe it or not!–I feel like I fit right it.

more from dear jen here.

endings

the cast of disney on classic: promise. this year's tour came to a rousing conclusion sunday with a final sold-out concert in fukushima, japan and audiences standing and cheering long before the final note had been sung. (from left: brian runbeck, timothy booth, malkia stampley-johnson, tim ewing, anne tolpegin, jen zappola, tony clements, and ian simpson.)

the fukuoka riffs

language is an interesting thing.

i'm traveling in japan with disney on classic (a symphony concert tour with the tokyo philharmonic orchestra, 8 singers, and a crew of japanese folks who have become my dear friends. 28 concerts over the course of two months.)

in japan, the letter U is always pronounced "ooo," and the letter O is pronouced "oh." thus, fukuoka = foo-koo-oh-kah. sometimes the japanese say it so quickly it sounds like three syllables instead of four: foo-kwoh-kah.

how it isn't pronounced is: fuck-you-oka.

living in a culture and country for two months at a time (six months total if you add my time here from 2007 and 2008) gives you hopefully more than a tiny insight into it, and – certainly in this case – brings a special respect for it's customs, food, culture and language.

that said, here are some witty u.s. responses to my and other cast members' facebook posts mentioning fukuoka (i.e. "today i'm in fukuoka!" or "had a lovely dinner in fukuoka today"):

• Hey, watch your language

• What did you just say to Japan ?

• Is this an Austin Powers joke ?

• who is oka and why do u want her to fuk herself in Japan?

• Fukuoka? Didn't his 16-year-old girlfriend shoot his wife a few years ago?

• Fuk u ova?

• You just like using that name!

• who's oka? and why are you so mad at her?

look, if i were back home and had never been to yokohama, or osaka, or masuda, or sapporo, or aomori, or fukuoka, i'd probably be laughing. i'm just feeling protective of...my friend.

and hey, i get just as bent out of shape sticking up for places like gays mills, spooner, spread eagle and bohners lake, wisconsin.

a tough act to follow

u.s. president barack obama at tokyo's suntory hall on november 14, 2009. disney on classic performs at suntory this friday, december 11.

not in my japanese backyard

the scene in ginowan city, okinawa, on november 8, 2009.

from japan press-weekly:

Over 21,000 people in Okinawa protested on Sunday to demand the removal of the US bases from the prefecture, criticizing the plan to only relocate the Futenma US air base from its current location of Ginowan City to the Henoko district of Nago City, also in Okinawa.

during the protest, "dozens of armed u.s. troops on board rafts landed on the coast off the usmc camp schwab in the henoko district of nago city and deployed into the woods during an attack exercise. ashitomi hiroshi, head of the nago council against the construction of the u.s. on-sea heliport, said angrily, “is this their response to the determination of participants in the 11/8 rally? how arrogantly provocative they are!”

the convention center housing the disney on classic venue is the blue-green roofed building in the background, just right of center.

big in japan

ian simpson, part of this years disney on classic cast traveling japan for two months, time warps back to the 80's with a faux music video.

the men of d.o.c. - gunma

カイロプラクティック

this is beginning to happen more and more frequently: i look at a sign in japan (so long as it's written in katakana - the japanese characters used for transcription of english words) and i can make out what it says fairly quickly.

i am to the point where nine times out of ten (okay, maybe eight) i can look at the word and decipher it. but today, as i was walking back to shinjuku from shibuya, i rounded a corner, saw:

カイロプラクティック

and immediately thought of my friend tim booth. tim's been having some stiff neck trouble lately, not to mention some issues with a torn rotator cuff. it was the neck pain that made me think of him when i saw the sign.

it says, literally, ka-i-ro-pu-ra-coo-te-i-coo. chiropractic. it's not a word i've ever seen in japanese before, and it was a sudden, unexpected joy today – not to see the word and decipher it, but to see it and think immediately of telling my friend tim there is a chiropractor near our hotel.

it's the simple things.

they say you shouldn't apologize...

...or start a blog post with "i know i haven't posted anything in a while," but i know i haven't.

there are many reasons, not the least of which is i've been distracted and busy – both in excellent ways. besides, i'm in japan and the most commonly used word is probably sumimasen ("i'm sorry.")

i'm lucky enough to get to spend another two months in what now seems like a second home, and my friend jen zappola – part of the disney on classic 2009 company – is keeping a charming blog called jen in japan. best of all, her videos have that "first timer's" view of this beautiful country and culture. jen constantly reminds me why i love it here so much.

the men of d.o.c. - nagoya

this year's disney on classic tour of japan includes a group of five men who are featured in a series of photos taken in each city or venue the tour appears. (more photos here.)

(from left to right, tony clements, tim ewing, brian runbeck, ian simpson, & tim booth.)

"why are you going back to japan?"

playbill.com has the answer.

a dream is a wish...

because who doesn't want a 2009 disney on classic screen saver?

how are things in yokohama?

sound check in yokohama, in the kanagawa prefecture. rob hancock, jackie vanderbeck, moi, and elissa beckwith, with our friends the tokyo philharmonic orchestra.

impressions of...korea

i'm a seoul man

visiting japan for the first time last year, i was comforted by the fact that i'd been listening to "rapid japanese" on my ipod for weeks prior to the trip and could at the very least engage in a tiny conversation (hello! how are you? i am fine. where is the toilet? how much for the mayonnaise drops?) by the time we arrived this year, my partner rob was fluent enough to negotiate a contract, order a five course dinner, or explain the intricacies of the japanese constitution to a four year old. and read it to him.

we landed in seoul, south korea today with a stark realization: none of us speak a lick of the language. not even rob-san. when we arrived at our unbelievably posh hotel (remote control window curtains, a 700-inch plasma television, and a bed that swallows you whole when you lie down) our friend and company manager tomoki handed out our room keys, smiled and said "okay, see you at 12:45 on thursday."

in other words, you're free, you're on your own, and good luck suckahs!

initially, our hunger threatened to turn us against each other (we could easily have voted someone off the island.) somehow, though, we struggled through the busy streets, and three of us ended up at a korean barbecue. one of about a hundred korean barbecues near our unbelievably posh hotel (seriously, you could stage a decent production of "fiorello" in the bathroom.)

we didn't even know how to call the server over to our table. it didn't seem to matter, as she just laughed at us and basically told us what to order. and how much of it. and it was delicious: strips of pork, beef stew, onions, garlic and mushroom cooked at our table, plus side dishes of spicy cabbage, apple potatoe salad, barbecue crab, and lettuce wraps.

for dessert we went to korean krispy kream. i skipped the black bean filled donut, opting instead for the traditional glazed.

first impressions: it's dirtier than japan, but not as dirty as new york. it's ruder than japan (much ruder) but not as rude as new york. and it's louder than japan, but not as loud as...uh-huh, new york.

and the man behind the counter at the seven-eleven speaks korean, japanese and english. are there any seven-eleven employees in the u.s. who speak three languages, i wonder?

japan blog love

i did my fair share of blogging about japan during last year's disney on classic tour. seeing this world through not-so-new eyes is nearly as interesting as seeing it for the first time. i'm fascinated with what i remember about the country and culture, what i missed, and what i saw in 2007 that looks different with a second look.

if you're jonesin' for a totally fresh perspective on this experience, this is danny mcnie's first year with d.o.c. and he's recently started a blog. (and he's got great some great video.)

if you want the viewpoint of the old master, our esteemed conductor, brad kelly (who was instrumental in d.o.c.'s inception) is also a new blogger and it's interesting to get his take on the experience. brad posts some beautiful photos as well.

all-in-all, with danny on one end, brad on the other, and me sandwiched in between, it's a japan/d.o.c. full meal deal.

rehearsal with the mouse

many years ago, in another life, i was lucky enough to be one of several actors in milwaukee, wisconsin to appear in local shopping malls and at public grade school assemblies as “al-luminum,” one of two "spokes-characters" for the city of milwaukee's recycling program.

al, a human aluminum can, wore silver high-top sneakers, a large foam “aluminum” can around his torso, floppy silver gloves with three fingers on each hand, and a hat designed to look like a soda can pop-top (the term pop-top alone reveals my age.) my good friend becky spice often appeared alongside me as “can-garoo" – you guessed it, a giant kangaroo. (nothing says reduce, re-use and recycle like a giant kangaroo.)

canga's costume was not only quite warm, but provided little protection from the swarms of fiesty 8-year olds who were much more interested in knocking over the big kangaroo and pulling it's long fuzzy tail than which bin the plastic milk carton went into.

i can recall the panic of becky's muffled cries – "tony! tony! get these kids off me!" – to this day.

considering these rather humble beginnings, i consider it the natural evolution of my theatrical career that yesterday i performed with mickey mouse.

disney on classic 2008, the symphony concert tour i'm part of this fall, made an appearance on friday (four hour-long appearances to be exact) at tokyo disney sea for thousands hundreds of screaming appreciative fans. most exciting about the disney gig: our abbreviated show included appearances by mickey, minnie, and, in fact, tens of other disney characters, including snow white, peter pan, chip and dale, prince charming, aladdin, jasmine, goofy, pluto, and donald duck. this is apparently rather unusual – all these disney characters performing together in one show – and i can tell you several of our cast members were quite, shall we say “taken” with the opportunity. (danny, have you been friended by peter pan yet?)

the strangest part of the entire disney experience was the national-security-like secrecy of it all. absolutely no photos could be taken on the “back-lot” of the disney grounds. upon arriving at the theater, we were informed that the bathroom just down the hall from our dressing room was not ours to use (it was mickey’s bathroom) and we would need to exit the theater through the back door and head down the alley to use another restroom (that didn’t happen, and we ended up having personal “escorts” to mickey's bathroom when he was nowhere in sight.) and there were "disney police" everywhere, kindly making sure we didn't break any of their rules. (we considered inviting mickey into our dressing room, holding him down, taking off his "helmet" and submitting him to intense questioning, but the mouse was never without his own personal disney bodyguard.)

but perhaps the most surreal part of it all was rehearsal on thursday. as i mentioned, we performed a shortened version of our usual concert, there were several changes made for the disney audience, and mickey needed to be worked into the show.

thus, rehearsal with mickey.

and by rehearsal with mickey, i don’t mean rehearsal with the actor who plays mickey (someone we would never see.) i mean rehearsal with mickey.

at no time during rehearsal was mickey not mickey. backstage, he behaved like mickey. hanging around the dressing room – mickey. onstage, he took direction like mickey. he interacted with the conductor, the other performers, the orchestra members, and the stage crew, as mickey. this was not only a rehearsal for mickey, but a performance for the actor playing mickey.

talk about method.

the same was true with the other characters. at one point, when pluto, donald, pan, et. al. were exiting the theater backstage right, waving and…waving, goofy somehow got left behind. the “handlers” had led the other disney-ites around to their dressing room (in the exclusive mickey’s bathroom area) and goofy was abandoned in the wings. alone and confused, he looked in the direction of the dressing rooms, he looked back at us, he loped one way, then the other, and finally, threw his hands up in the air and plopped down on the floor, goofy-like.

when all was said and done, as we were standing on stage during the performance singing “when you wish upon a star” in japanese, with mickey mouse conducting the tokyo philharmonic, i noticed a young girl in the front row with huge tears rolling down her cheeks.

it would be easy to be cold and cynical about it all, if i hadn’t had huge tears welling up in my own eyes.