If you've been following Alex on social media, you probably already know about Evermore Park.

It's a new park in Utah. It's designed as an old European village, mixing authentic relics with a lot of fantasy elements. I've been keeping on eye on it during its development and it looks pretty cool. It's described as a "fully immersive, live-action, theatrical experience; performed on what is being touted as the 'world’s largest stage.' It sounds to me like the guest experience is a mix between a theme park and live role-playing, where there's a story going on and the guests participate in it. Kind of like the show "Westworld," though probably less graphic.

They made attention to detail a point of emphasis and their makeup / costumes look amazing! They're planning seasonal events, starting with Lore: "this haunted experience comes from Celtic Lore and explores the battle with darkness."

If you're like me and are planning to go see CaraNua pretty much no matter what, you may want to give Evermore a look, especially if you're into fantasy. CaraNua's only show in the US so far was in Utah and it's a good bet that if they do more shows, at least some of them will be in that general area.

Even if you're not into fantasy, it's clearly important to Alex, so that alone should make it worthy of consideration.

The official opening is Saturday, September 29, 2018.

Here's their web site for you to explore!
https://www.evermore.com/

Orla is performing in Toronto on Dec 1, 2018 as part of Celtic Christmas with the Upper Canada Chorus:
https://www.bandsintown.com/e/1011831501-orla-fallon-at-toronto-centre-for-the-arts?came_from=257&utm_medium=web&utm_source=artist_page&utm_campaign=event

Show time:
7:30 PM
Dec 1, 2018

Location:
Toronto Centre for the Arts (I saw Chloë there last year and it's a pretty nice place).

Tickets go on sale starting this afternoon!

The best part is it's on a weekend, so in spite of having used up all my vacation days (except a few I'm saving for CaraNua), I can finally go see her!

I'll be seeing Celtic Woman, Orla, and Chloë within the span of a week, all within 3 hours drive!

Come on CaraNua, let's make it 4 shows that week!

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Set List (Night 1)

Act 1

Ancient Land
Homeland (group)
(the girls said an intro for the special)
Moorlough Shore (Eabha)
Ae Fond Kiss (Mairead Carlin)
Amazing Grace (group, Megan opened the song)
Long Journey Home (group)
Sive (Sadhbh Ní Bhruinneallaigh) (group)
Shenandoah (Megan)
Love and Honour (Tara)
Ballroom of Romance (group)

Act 2

Follow Me (group)
Mná na hÉireann (group)
Over the Rainbow (Megan and Mairead)
Tara's Tunes (Tara)
Danny Boy (group) (x2)
Siúil a Rún (Eabha vocals and whistle, Tara harp)
Be Still (all but Tara)
Going Home (x2)
The Enchanted Way (Tara and dancers)
(Intro to the Parting Glass, which was a tribute to David Kavanagh) (x2)
Parting Glass (x2)

Track Notes

- During Amazing Grace there were jets of fire coming out of the pool around the fountain was a pretty cool effect.
- The harmony in Homeland sounded even better than it did during the Homecoming tour!
- Over the Rainbow was really, really good!
- The arrangement for Siúil a Run was outstanding! The instrumental parts were so good!
- Tara danced during one of the songs (Love and Honour, I think) ... she looked really graceful.
- They had drummers walk on stage during some of the songs (ie. Moorlough Shore) and a few songs with a whole group of pipers (including Anto)
- During Amazing Grace, Anto came in through the crowd to our left (stage right). I guess there wasn't a practical way to get up on the castle roof and back down in time for the end of the song.
- The Amazing Grace and Danny Boy arrangements were very similar to what they've been like in recent years. Tara played violin instead of harp in Danny Boy.
- At the end of several songs, they had the girls hold their positions for a while. They did that at the end of Follow Me, but for that song, the girls finished the song in dance poses. Mairead had her back arched back with the arm of her dance partner supporting her. They had her hold that for at least 30 seconds or so. Mairead was pretty funny and broke the pose for a moment to stretch her back, made a sound like she was fatigued, smiled at the audience for a bit, then giggled. Then, she got back all serious into her dance pose. It was great!
- That was one of many great moments from Mairead between songs that probably won't make it on the DVD:
* She had an emotional dedication to Dave Kavanagh on night #1 before The Parting Glass
* She had her hilarious "wooo, slippy!!" and "Celtic Woman on Ice" remarks on night #2


Dresses:

Act 1:
- They were really gorgeous and they looked like they belonged together this time
- Colors: Different shades of green for Eabha (dark, almost an aqua) and Megan (a lighter shade), blue for Mairead, greyish for Tara
- The tops were glittery and the bottom was smooth and silky
- The dresses had some extra pieces around the shoulder area for the opening number which were removed for the rest of the show (kind of like A Christmas Celebration)

Ballroom of Romance:
- All wore silky green dresses with yellow sashes

Act 2:
- White for Eabha and Mairead
- Pale/subtle pink for Tara and Megan

The dresses looked amazing!

Lighting:
- The lighting was fantastic!
- They lit up the whole face of the castle in beautiful blends of colour.
- The fountain had some nice lighting effects too.
- They also lit up the trees behind the audience with coloured floodlights. It looked really good!

The Irish flag on top of the castle was a nice touch too.

Stage

The stage had a short staircase up and back down from the back to the main stage. There main stage was a large circle that had a stylized logo on it like the one CaraNua uses (the symbol that appears in Newgrange). There were 2 side platforms on either side, as well as a ramp at the front of the stage. It wasn't overly elaborate, but it looked fine.


Format and Content

- It will be available on CD, DVD, and Blue-Ray
- There will be a "behind the scenes."


The Experience

- The show started late as they adjusted the lighting and waited for people to arrive
- There were some empty sections in the stands, so they moved people around and blacked out the empty sections using tarp and by adjusting the lighting.
- Before the show, we could see and hear the girls rehearsing a bit

- We had second row to the right of the stage from the girls' perspective
- There were photos allowed before and after the show, not during the show
- Between acts, one of the PBS pledge drive personalities did a segment right in front of us. She's the oriental one. I'll need to look up the name later.
- There were some songs they re-did to tweak the lighting. But most of the performance went really smoothly. They did re-takes of the crowd reactions far more than retakes of the songs.

- I got to meet Glenn and Ronan (who were sitting in the reserved seats behind me) and Anto
- Ronan was going back and forth with drinks for people before the show
- The girls did leave through the general area we were standing after the show. But we weren't standing in exactly the right place as it turned out. Some people got to meet Megan and Eabha as they were leaving.
- We didn't get to see Meav. She was probably backstage.

- It was cold and a bit windy for the show, but it stayed dry
- My ankles were definitely feeling the chill, even with decent socks on


Additional Notes:

- Megan told someone after the show she was really nervous. She didn't show it much. She looked really comfortable on stage and had a great presence.


I'll update this thread if anything else comes to mind.

Last night, I saw Lisa Lambe in Jimmy's Hall.

Here's the synopsis from the Abbey Theatre site:

Bursting with music, dance, poetry and song, the must-see feel-good show of last summer returns.

Jimmy’s Hall tells the true story of Leitrim farmer Jimmy Gralton, the only Irishman deported from his own country. His crime was to build a dance hall where he encouraged the local community to learn, to argue and to dream, but above all to dance and have fun. As the hall grew in popularity its free-spirited reputation brought it to the attention of the church and politicians who forced Jimmy to flee and the hall to close.

A decade later, at the height of the Depression, Jimmy returns from the US. The hall stands abandoned but as Jimmy sees the poverty and growing oppression in the village, the leader and activist within him is stirred. He decides to reopen the hall, and so takes on the established authorities of the church and the government.

They opened the theatre doors at 7:00 and for the 30 minutes before the show started, the cast performed various music on the stage.

At 7:00, they transitioned into the play. Both the music and story were fun, yet deeply moving. There were lots of moments to clap along. There were also moments I was legitimately in tears. The acting from the entire cast was tremendous. Lisa was great! Actress Sarah Madigan was REALLY good; she has some serious talent! Quite simply, it was the best live stage play I have ever seen.

After the show, I found the stage doors, but it was complicated. There were stage doors on opposite sides of the theatre. I could only watch one side at a time. There were maybe 6 stage doors per side. I picked the right side and stood sort of in the middle of the bank of stage doors, not knowing which one Lisa might come out. She came out of the ones that was furthest back of the main entrance. She was really in a hurry, rushing to a bus or something perhaps. I kind of called after her but she didn't hear me and there was no way I could keep up with her. So I did get to meet her this time. But during curtain call, she smiled and waved at me, so that felt pretty amazing.

Jimmy's Hall is really well done! It's definitely a must-see!

Mairead let us know yesterday that she'll be re-launching her website soon with the existing address:

https://www.maireadnesbittviolin.com/

Stay tuned!

Nathan Carter has a new special that's airing on many of the PBS stations:

Nathan Carter: Celtic Country

It was recorded at the 3Arena in Dublin.

I don't think Chloë is a guest star this year.

It actually aired last night on my PBS station. I, of course, found out about it today.  

There was apparently a "special ticket offer" but I'm not sure what it was. I checked the Donation page on my PBS station's website in case they had M+G tickets for Nathan's show I'm going to in December, which does have Chloë as a guest. There weren't any tickets listed, so either it was only available by phoning in or all those tickets are gone.  

Well, I'm going to try stage and greets twice in Dublin, so between that and Nathan's show in December, hopefully one of these stage and greets will finally work out for me. First time for everything, right?

The good news is the PBS special re-airs for me overnight on Wednesday night, so I can watch it on Thursday and let everyone know how it was.

Megan was the winner of The Soloist in 2014. She performed with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI) in 2015 and 2016, including The Peace Proms.

There's a DVD of the 2018 Peace Proms in the works (http://peaceproms.com/store/dvds/). But I haven't been able to find any Peace Prom DVDs from 2015 or 2016 when Megan would have been involved.

I doubt CBOI has any DVDs left from 2015 / 2016 if any were made, but I've asked them anyways, to see if they may have any or if they can suggest where I can find some.