The Speare Bearer’s Ride: South Bend & Elkhart,...

31 Aug

The Speare Bearer’s Ride: South Bend & Elkhart, Indiana, 08/17-08/21

Interesting, awesome, and exciting time I had here. Upon arriving at Notre Dame Univ, which is seated in Sounth Bend, IN, 2 things happened:

1. I realized the theater department was in the middle of their annual Shakespeare Festival.

2. Not only would a guy in the next town, Elkhart, host me, but he’d let me stay as long as I needed (which went from 1 night to 4). He was also a performer, a clown and a mime, Neil, pictured above with his bike.

I met the Dean of the Theater dept. Grant Mudge, and told him about my project. He convinced me to stay for the dept’s production of Midsummer Nights Dream that coming Monday (which was unbelievably good) and gave me free tickets to their Hamlet that night. I eventually got to hang with Grant for a bit, have lunch, and perform for him, which was cool. Otherwise I didn’t perform much on campus except for that group of guys you see sitting. I did perform quite a bit in Elhart, the town 15 mi away where I was staying with Neil. I performed for him and some of his friends, there’s video of that, and for some other Elkhart locals I found while riding around. both of the audiences I found in Elkhart, though curious and appreciative, gave me a hard time while performing. But what was most stunning, memorable, and kind of heart-breaking was that one young man from one group of kids I performed for, who are pictured, who were admittely more interested in my ride than my Shakespeare, asked if I carried any “protection” on the road. Kid couldn’t have been older than 13, but he thought if I’m traveling the way I am, of course I’d need a gun. I dunno why that stuck with me, but it has..

Neil turned out to be one of the coolest, kindest, most interesting people I met the whole trip. And the guy has like 20 jobs. He does rock climbing and promosts for a climbing company, carpentry, is an accomplished clown and mime and teaches in his area, works for a local haunted house as an actor… crazy dude. I had a good time.

Tags: elkhart, south bend, Indiana, Notre Dame, Theater, Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Actor, Acting, clown, mime, streetpe, performer, bike, bicycle, tour, festival, adventure, travelogue, gun, sad, protection, child, youth, innocence,

Notes

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