In early September the Boyne company reassembled in Boston, MA for the start of our fall tour. We had several new faces joining us for this leg as well as a handful of previous Boyne dancers who will be moving on to the Avoca (Europe) and Corrib (Asia) touring companies in October.

We had a couple days of rehearsals and staging before the show opened to a packed house on Friday. The energy and enthusiasm was apparent in both returning company members and new dancers who were excited to be onstage as a Riverdancer for the first time. Our executive producer, Julian Erskine, was out for opening week and commented that the energy in the theatre on our first night in Boston rivaled any of the great Riverdance performances in the history of the show.

Following the finale several cast members went into the lobby to take up a collection for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. They raised $2,943 which was matched by a donation of $3,057 from Abhann Productions for a total of $6,000 in disaster relief. After our performance one of the local hotels had a reception for the company to socialize with each other as well as get to know some of the people who had attended the show. They prepared an amazing array of food and we had a very enjoyable evening swapping stories and jokes.

Boston was one of the original American cities and possesses many interesting sites and landmarks which were within walking distance of our hotel. The harbor is probably best known as being the site of the "Boston Tea Party" during the Revolutionary War. Today the harbor is home to a multitude of scenic cruise ships and whale watching boats. We had Monday off between our two weeks in Boston and as it was a beautiful day, many cast members took this opportunity to take a whale watching cruise. The three hour tour took us several miles out into the ocean where we were lucky enough to spot several different kinds of whales and actually get very up close and personal with two humpback whales who seemed to enjoy having us as an audience as much as we enjoyed watching them.

After the cruise we headed over to Quincy Market which is a lovely pedestrian area of shops and restaurants. Here we met up with the other company members who had been relaxing and shopping for the afternoon. It's always great to have a night off and even better when it's somewhere like Boston where you can sit outside in the warm end-of-summer weather and enjoy a nice meal with friends.

Another popular place to spend time during our stay was Boston Common. The Common is a large grassy park area complete with towering willow trees, beautiful flowers, ponds and swans. On any given day it was filled with Bostonians lounging in the grass reading a book or simply people watching. There was always something new to see as recreational sports teams played games, mothers brought their children to play and hundreds of squirrels, birds and ducks got on with their lives!

Overall Boston was a great city to start off in whether you wanted to relax, shop, dine or sightsee. The house was packed every night for the show and the audiences were fantastic. The weather even seemed to be accommodating us as it was sunny and warm almost the entire two weeks. If this is indicative of what the rest of the tour will be we're in for a great three months!