For anyone within striking distance of the NY Capital District, this should be of interest:
http://www.nysti.org/orphan.htm
The man who literally wrote the book on whistle playing is a multi-faceted guy!
Charlene and I are going on Sat. night..
We went to Orphan Train last night, and it was really wonderful. It’s a story that really should be told-- I had no idea about this.
Back in the late 1800’s, the Children’s Aid Society tried to solve the problem of homeless orphans in the big cities by loading up trains with the orphans and taking them out West to find homes for them. Some worked out very well, others ended disastrously. These trains continued until 1929. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_Train
LE McCullough wrote the book for the play, which is a musical. The NYSTI production was first rate, with some amazingly good young singer/actors.
This production will hopefully not be the last, so keep your eyes open for it in the future.
LE and his lovely wife Lisa came up on Friday. I hooked them up with a terrific Mexican/Irish restaurant (don’t laugh until you go there!) in Troy.
The owner of the place is an excellent Celtic musician (pipes,hammered dulcimer,whistle) His band was playing at Happy Hour and LE sat in with them, so I got to hear some first class music. I didn’t stay for dinner, but LE and Lisa loved the food so much that Charlene and I joined them there the next night for dinner before the show. All in all we had a wonderful time.