I pass bookstore after bookstore and theatre after theatre as I roam around the West End . My kind of place. I restrain myself from getting carried away buying books. I have one small suitcase for checked luggage and my back pack for my lap top. This is not a trip for acquiring things - except new experiences. At the Crime and Mystery Bookstore on Charing Cross Road however, discipline breaks down and I leave the store with a signed copy of the latest Dick Francis novel. Not even in paperback – poor bulging suitcase.

Despite seemingly endless procrastination about getting organized for the trip and despite many welcome phone interruptions, here I am in the Air Canada Lounge more than two and a half hours before the flight. And in answer to those who habitually have to grab the tail of the plane as it is lifting off and who tease me about getting to the airport days before the flight crew, I say “well guess who has time to make a real head start on her travelogue (or travelblog, if you will).”

I am writing this from my compact, and mercifully cool, hotel room in Soho.

The high in London today is 28 C and I have done a lot of moving around dragging my “light” luggage. Since my natural habitat is probably somewhere close to Antarctica or maybe Siberia, I find the air conditioning most welcome.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Today's "fringeing" had an added fun dimension for me. Introducing a new audience member to the pleasures of live theatre and hopefully starting her on the road to many more entertaining theatre experiences.

With the conference, my reason for visiting Chicago, successfully concluded, I have the weekend to explore the city and get a further taste of the variety of theatre experiences Chicago has to offer. After reading the Billington article, my curiosity is at an all time high. Is the Chicago theatre scene really that great? His piece was written two years ago -- have things changed since then?

Who among us has never been brought up sharply by something we have just blurted out, and thought to ourselves "where on earth did that come from? That just wasn't me speaking!" I know that within my psyche lives many different I entities; the mother-me, the teacher-me, the intellectual-me, the-romantic me, as well as a few entities that perhaps I don't like too much (whose identities I'll keep to myself for now).

CHICAGO, IL. Steppenwolf is arguably one of the best known independent theatre companies in Chicago so I was very excited to obtain tickets to their current production. "The Unmentionables" is a new play by Bruce Norris, who has had four previous plays commissioned and produced by this company.

It took the passengers less than a minute to catch on to the answer to the rapid fire questions posed by the shuttle bus driver taking us to the McCormick Place Convention Centre.

TORONTO, ON - “May we not have peace?”  Thus proclaims The Judge, high on an overdose of his new allergy pills. Is he referring to the heated exchange between The Prosecutor, angry and frustrated in his attempt to get a straight answer from The Defendant? Or to the noisy pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protestors parading outside the courtroom? Can world peace ever be achieved if agreement can’t even be reached between one or two people?

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Until recently I hadn’t realized just how many small independent theatre festivals there are across Canada, an indication of the vast pool of writing, producing, directing, acting and technical talent waiting to take their turn on stage. Of course like most people I know of the Fringe festivals, although I hadn’t realized that the first Edinburgh Fringe dates all the way back to 1947.

I’m sitting in my car, belting out the lyrics in my customary in-the shower smooth torch-singer style. Mercifully for the people in the car next to me at the light I have my windows closed. Or maybe not.  Perhaps if they heard me they might have come to the cabaret as well.  Or maybe not.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Kudos to Glynis Leyshon and the Vancouver Playhouse team for bringing us some of the most outstanding performances of the 2005/06 Vancouver theatre season. I will never forget the incredible virtuosity of Pamela Gien and Caroline Cave effortlessly changing between the 23 different characters of the Syringa Tree.

As a university professor, I have spent much of my professional life before audiences, lecturing to students or medical residents, or giving presentations or workshops at national and international conferences. Yet the mere thought of going on stage as an actor to recall lines that I have memorized, fills me with terror.

VANCOUVER, BC. - Recently I saw Matthew Bissett perform his new monodrama, Money, produced by Construction Ink, running at the Beaumont Theatre until the 25th March. 

VANCOUVER, B.C. - A brief debate on the effect of blogs on professional theatre criticism was begun in January on the Immediate Theatre website.  Although this thread fizzled out after a few postings it got me thinking.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Blackbird is a new Vancouver theatre company, formed under the artistic leadership of John Wright to perform classic works from the “great playwrights of the ancient and modern world”.