wren_kt7oz | 1 Aug 2005

I'll be posting something more interesting later today, but for now ...

Unless somewhere along the way, Americans have once more re-written the grammar books, the past participle of "to drag" is not, has never been, and hopefully never will be "drug".

It's "dragged". Dragged.

As in ...

The dog dragged the filthy towel across the clean floor.

He had been feeling depressed and had to be dragged out to dinner by his friends.

I had dragged myself reluctantly out of bed and was in the shower before I remembered it was a holiday.

She dragged her kids around the supermarket with her because she couldn't find a baby sitter.

The day dragged on and on and on. Mondays always did.

dragged

Not drug.

A drug is something I want to reach for every time I find an otherwise literate writer using the word as the past participle of a perfectly normal verb.

Think about it ... you wouldn't say that the curtains "sug" in the middle.

Or that she went out shopping and "bug" three great bargains.

Or that you'd "snug" your last pair of nylons on that damned old chair.

The curtains "sagged", she "bagged", and you "snagged" your nylons.

So why on earth would you have "drug" yourself out of bed?

PLEASE people, please.

Dragged.

Okay?

I know that I haven't said anything in here about my trip to the States to see Randy in Equus.

While I was over there, I didn't really have computer access (aside from emails), and since I got back ... well, let's just say I had technical difficulties.

I'd booked as soon as I heard that he was doing the play. I decided for reasons I don't really know, to go to the first preview, which was on the Tuesday, and then to Opening Night, which was the following Friday.

My trip to Stockbridge was surprisingly uneventful - I flew from NY to Albany (and yes, if I'd known then what I know now, I would have caught the train, but ...) and then hired a car to drive up to Stockbridge.

Which all sounds fairly simple until you factor in the fact that in this part of the world, as in Britain, we drive on the left side of the road.

Actually, that caused me surprisingly little grief - aside from the fact that I kept switching on the windscreen wipers when I wanted to indicate.

What did cause me grief was that the car was this faux sporty little model that was much lower in the front than in the back, and had a whopping big fin thing stuck up on the back into the bargain. The end result of that was that all I could see out of my rear vision mirror was a tiny strip of road about twenty yards behind the car! It was okay driving forwards (well, except sometimes on the hills, when I couldn't see anything of the road at all), but trying to reverse was a nightmare.

I managed not to reverse into anything, but only by sticking my head out the window so that I could actually see if there was anything behind me that was less than 6' high.

Anyhow ... found Stockbridge, found the place I was staying, and, eventually, found the theatre. That wasn't as easy as it sounds, because, if you approach it from Stockbridge, there's no visible sign at all. And it's sort of set back from the road, on a curve, so unless you know where it is, it's not at all easy to find it.

First preview was okay. It was a bit shaky in parts. Victor Slezak who played Dysart was still unsure of some of his lines, and some of the things with the horses were a bit off in the timing, but that's the purpose of the previews after all.

I wasn't going to hang around after the show, but got talked into it by some other fans there. (It wasn't hard to pick the Randy fans - they were the ones under sixty! Seriously! I spent 4 days in the area, and the only people who weren't passed retiring age that I saw were either working in the stores or restaurants, or were the ones who'd trekked there to see Randy.)

From what I can gather, we were lucky, because there were only about 10 or 12 of us all up, and it seems there were considerably more later in the run. I guess because of that as much as anything, Randy was really relaxed. He chatted, as well as signing anything that was given to him to sign.

Mind you, I think that the other thing was that nobody that I saw gave him anything to sign that was at all QAF related - it was mainly Playbills or tickets. One person I think had a photo they'd taken outside Wicked. I didn't even hear anyone mention QAF to him. Only Equus, and Wicked. So I think that made it a different experience for him than if he'd been "justin'd" to death.

Everyone was very respectful too, and quiet, so there wasn't any sense of him feeling pressured.

There were some people waiting for him in a car (it turns out that they were some of his fellow cast members - a whole bunch of them were sharing a house together), so once he'd signed everything he started to move towards the car. I'd turned away and was walking up to the car park myself, so we walked alongside each other for a little way. I'd already spoken to him, and he'd picked up on my "cute little accent" (to quote someone I chatted to a couple of times while I was over there) and I'd said I'd come just to see him in this play. On the way up to the cars, he said that he hoped I thought it was worth it, and I told him I was coming back on opening night.

He gave me an honest-to-God Sunshine smile and said he was glad, that it would be a lot better. Then he explained that they'd only gone into the actual theatre that morning for the first time, and that there were some technical things they'd had problems with, so they didn't feel they'd really had a chance to rehearse it properly on the stage. In fact, the preview was their first full run through.

Then we talked about the play a little. I told him that I love the play itself, and thought that it was a perfect piece of casting. He sort of grinned and gave a little shrug, but agreed that he really loved the part. He was clearly very excited to be playing Alan.

Then he got to his car, so he said that he hoped I'd enjoy it on Friday and gave a little wave. And I wandered up to my car wondering how in the world he'd ever got a reputation for being standoffish and difficult.

And, I have to admit, still basking in the glow of having that smile directed at me.

All of which, I have to admit, would have been even more memorable if, in the excitement of it all, I hadn't left the digital camera that I bought specially for this occasion, back at the place I was staying.

Sigh.

And tomorrow, I'll write something about opening night.

But meanwhile, as a teaser, here are a few photos from the opening night party.