Officially Euan Morton dot com

Well Hello Again!

In case you were wondering breathlessly, I wanted you all to know that my car trip from Virginia to the Hamptons was successful! I made it! I moved in to a cottage here in Sag Harbor and after a few rainy days have been enjoying the lovely weather and scenery. The theatre is beautiful and is located right on the water in this former whaling village.

Our first several days here were spent rehearsing and working out all the technical aspects of Tommy. Then we had a few previews and an exciting opening night. I had a little bit of a scare just before the opening. I wasn't feeling very well, so the theatre called a doctor and basically, I was diagnosed with the croup, which is pretty much a disease from the 50s that is most common in infants and very young children. Apparently, I'm a medical wonder in my ability to catch random diseases. Thankfully, I was able to avoid having to miss any shows, but when I wasn't performing, I was on vocal rest, and was given a course of antibiotics and steroids. The steroids made me incredibly moody. A waitress at a local restaurant got to witness a bit of my 'roid rage' and told me that I was 'vaguely terrifying.' I like to think she was kidding. The rest and the medication worked and I had a great opening night.

Now that all the rehearsals are over, I can just enjoy doing the show and getting to know the area during the day. Everything in Sag Harbor is walking distance, but I had a car for a few days and was able to explore the neighbouring Bridgehampton and some of the local beaches. I have been meeting some of the local radio media folks here and introducing The Hamptons to NewClear too!!

I am staying in a cottage on the grounds of a house run by 2 of Bay Street Theatre's founding members. Steve and Emma -- along with their 2 kids and their dog Nell have been very welcoming and don't seem to mind that I practice my guitar in their garden at all hours. Nell comes to visit me during the days. She stares through the glass door until I let her in. No flies on her. I'm thinking she would make a great song subject... 'No Flies on Her.'

There is more travel in my future. I will be returning to DC to teach at the Kennedy Centre next week. Renting a car was fun, but to save time (and possibly lives!) I think I will fly back this time. It will be a quick visit, but I always love working with students and am looking forward to meeting the talented group that is taking part in the Overtures programme. Then I come back here to continue playing Tommy until 9 July. The cast and I were talking the other night and I think we are all wishing we could have a longer run because the show and the company are so much fun. Is summer flying by for the rest of you too?

In other news, the audio book I recently recorded will soon be available to order. It is called The Wrong Hands and was written by Nigel Richardson. Give it a listen, or a read, maybe you will enjoy it as much as I did. I'll be a great visiting reader at schools now with all this practice!

Thanks to all of you who have already made the trip out to Sag Harbor, and thanks to the others who have told me that you are coming, always nice to see familiar faces. After the run is done I plan to have a little holiday for a few weeks and just catch my breath before we move into Fall season, keep checking the site for holiday updates and snaps... and maybe I'll even set up a few out of town gigs while I'm away. Who knows. I hate to not work you see!

Until next time,

Euan x

Hello again! It's been a long time, but I think we have a good excuse. Kevin has been hard at work at getting the new design for the site ready... it's much more ergonomic now! Many changes but I think this new look is easier to work with than before and I love the blue and the water! Hope you like it too? Let us know what you think... get in touch with me or Kevin (webmaster) with your comments and all.

A lot has happened since we last spoke eh? Brundibár has come and gone already and now we are a week away from tech at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor for Tommy. I had such a great time working with the kids during Brundibár... it all happened so quickly but the show went very well, I think! I can say that I won't miss gluing that moustache to my face every night though!!

Tommy is going very well, though anyone who saw me perform 'I Won't Dance' at Town Hall knows how challenging I find choreography-- still, I keep telling myself that it's the challenges that make life interesting. It's a talented company and crew, and Tommy is a brilliant/weird musical! We are rehearsing in New York but I keep hearing about how beautiful it is at Sag Harbor, so it should be nice to spend part of the summer out at the Hamptons. I'll be driving up after a gig at Robinson High School in Fairfax, VA and I'm a little nervous about the 6-7 hour drive...If you see a rent-a-car going at a snail's pace in the DC or NY area then it's probably me... lost!

What else to tell you about? I really enjoyed the gig at Birdland. I've written a bit about that night and some of the other concerts in the new section called "Gig Reviews." Thanks to all of you who came out to see us and look out for us maybe taking over Birdland again in the Fall! But life isn't all singing and dancing... (which is a shame I think). I've also found some time to practice my guitar. In fact, I recently played my first song in front of an audience. Ok, it was an audience of one. I played 'Amazing Grace' for Mae Robertson from my record label. A simple song of minimal chord structure but whatever! She claimed to be impressed, so who knows-- maybe the rest of you will soon hear me playing the guitar! (By "maybe" I mean way off in the Futurama).

I've also started doing some voice-overs in New York. Don't be surprised if you are innocently watching the television and all of a sudden you hear me trying to sell you something. I've also recently completed recording my first book on tape...

One should always still find time to explore New York and I have a new favourite place. The Dave and Busters on 42nd Street is one of the best places I've been in a long time. If they had air hockey, it would be perfect. The crew from Brundibár and I would go there after the show some nights. I would generally lose at all games to them. (My God that's what I came up with for "explore New York")!

Ok, so enough from me as I must get back to the tv to continue watching the French Open. Yup, we are smack bang in the middle of tennis season and I love it. I hope one day I'll get to go the French Open for real, just the French and Australian still to get to.

Enjoy the new site. Take a look around and check out our most recent additions to the photo gallery, a lot has been snapped since we last spoke! Keep watching as usual to keep up-to-date with my shenanigans.

Take Good Care,

Euan x

I've arrived back in NYC after a great week doing gigs at universities and high schools in Virginia and Utah! The ArtSpeak! program is fantastic. They do great work supporting theatre and music and work hard building an audience for the future. It was great getting a chance to share stories with the students and sing songs for them. They reacted well to NewClear and I made loads of new friends in the MySpace universe!

Utah was beautiful too! I was staying up at a place called Logan. The students performed some songs for me and we chatted for hours. I forgot to take the camera to get pics for Flickr but you should take my word, these folks were cool. The uni's campus was surrounded by huge, snow-capped mountains and my hosts were lovely. I really wanted to stay much longer but I had to fly back overnight for the first day of Brundibár rehearsals here in New York. It's good to be back.

Now I'm just finally sitting down at the computer after a few intense Brundibár days. A lot has changed since we performed the show at Berkeley. Really great stuff. The stilts have gone, but now there is more opportunity for Brundibár to have much freer movement. I'm excited about the changes. It has just begun though so there is still a way to go. It's fun to try new stuff I would usually be scared of doing though, and it's cool to be working more closely with Tony Kushner.

I finally got round to buying a guitar by the way. Whilst up in Utah I was staying at an Inn and across the road was a music store. I had been talking about wanting to learn the guitar all day (and have been carrying a pick in my wallet for three years) so the next morning (I hadn't slept for 24 hours) I awoke, dressed and ran over the road to buy my first "axe". I hadn't realized how many people would talk to me just 'cos I had a guitar. It hurts the fingers though. I have lost the feeling in the tips of the fingers on my left hand!

Has anyone been watching the new series of Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi channel? I have missed most of it. Just too much trouble to get to a TV and I don't have Tivo! What I caught was ok though. I'll wait for the whole thing on DVD.

Oh and thanks for coming out for the last gigs in the Joe's Pub series. It was fun seeing some folks in the NewClear t-shirts. I have finally got round to washing mine. Nice to know they survive the wash! If you are interested in checking the t-shirts or other goodies out go to www.cafepress.com/euanmorton.

How was your Easter Hols? I actually forgot everything would be shut. We worked over the weekend and I moved house, back to Hell's Kitchen. It was a fairly stressful holiday. Nice to back in Hell's Kitchen. Or Clinton as they call it now. Why'd they do that?
Hell's Kitchen is much better!

Well. I'll keep you posted on how Brundibár goes and try and get some pics for you. I'll let you know how things go with planning for the upcoming Birdland gig too. That's yet to come and there's work to be done!

Keep Spreading the Music.
Much Love,
Euan

Joe's Pub was such a blast last week! Thanks to all those who came out and made it such a great night. I was thrilled to hear the response - especially to the new stuff. Don't forget that there are still two more gigs in our NewClear @ Joe's Pub series, 7 PM and 9.30 PM on Monday 3 April. I know the craziness you guys all had with tickets and tables, it was great to see so many faces out there but mad for y'all I'm sure. It's so much better doing two in a night so we can fit everyone in!

I'm looking forward to seeing our competition winner Helen at the first show. Plus all of the CDs and posters have been sent out to our other winners now so you should have them in your mailboxes soon. If you haven't already, check out our competition page to see if you are a winner.

Another exciting note is that CDBABY sold out twice last week and so we've been rushing to have more discs printed to fill their orders. We also learned that NewClear is being featured on their Top Sellers List. It's nice to hear that the music is getting out there.

My producer friend Jen and I are beginning to get our heads together on a video for the title track... just a melting pot of ideas at the mo but definitely something we could have fun with in the future.

Oh, here's a new thing... I have entered the world of MySpace and now have my own MySpace page. You can listen to some of my favourite tracks from the album and register as my new friend at www.myspace.com/officiallyeuanmorton. My friend Fiona who works for some of the student music papers back in London insisted that I get with it and join the MySpace universe. It seems the whole world will soon be one big MySpace page and there will be no need to ever see another human being again... it really is The Matrix.

Measure for Pleasure closed the weekend of 26 March. Another chapter ends. It was really great sharing the stage with such a talented cast of actors. Weird when it all ends though, and everyone moves on to their next thing. It's a great team they have at The Public Theatre though. I was hoping to be able to have a wee rest these next two weeks before Brundibár begins but of course it has all become about NewClear. After Joe's Pub, it is then off to VA for the ArtSpeak! gig, then I'm off to the University of Utah to play a gig out there.

It's great singing on the student circuit and I'm looking forward to going back out to Utah... though a much different part of the state from Sundance.

Saw The O'Donnells R Family Cruise documentary All Aboard this week at the HBO Theatre in New York. Memories! What a great film. Nice theatre too, the HBO cinema.

Anyhoo. There was probably a lot more to tell you but there was so much going on in the last couple of weeks that most of it has gone from my mind! My Family have returned home so it was a sad goodbye, especially to baby Erin who really is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.

I was also sad that I didn't get the chance to avenge my losses to Kevin at air hockey. 2-5, 3-5, 2-5. Argh! (webmaster edit : 7 games - 7 wins... HOOHA!)

So, that's all for now... Come take a peek into the MySpace universe.
Much Love and Thanks.
Euan.

ps. There are loads of cool NewClear goodies now available at www.cafepress.com/euanmorton. Have a look! I've been wearing my black t-shirt for two weeks now. Reckon I should get it washed now.