Second cross-Canada Tour
My second cross-Canada tour was a much bigger deal than Rhapsodic Tour 2000 and involved extensive planning for more than a year in advance. We started in Vancouver on April 12th, 2005, and ended in St. John's May 31st. In total we reached more than 1600 Canadians of every sort: young and old, rich and poor, anglophone and francophone, with or without much knowledge of Canadian history.
Tour Blog
We kept a Tour Blog throughout the Tour; unfortunately the images seem to have vanished from Blogspot, but the text is still there. Start at the bottom to follow our progress; at the top are some End of Tour Statistics, which I reproduce:
Total days of Tour: 50
Days featuring a performance: 28
Days driving: 15
Days off / devoted to logistics: 8
Ferries taken: 7
Total kilometers travelled: 11 675
(=Total miles travelled: 7,254)
Total cups of Tim Horton's coffee enjoyed: as countless as the grains of sand in the Libyan desert
Total hours of documentary digital video footage filmed: 46
Total gigabytes of documentary digital video footage: 552
Number of print interviews given: 4
Number of radio interviews given: 7
Number of TV interviews given: 1
Number of blog entries: 61
Total schools performed at: 16
Total school performances: 29
Total public performances: 13
Total performances: 42
Total audience for school shows: 1315
Total audience for public shows: 292
Total audience: 1607
Average length of performance, in verses: c. 450
Total verses performed: c. 18900
Total verses in the Iliad: c. 16000
Average length of time to deliver one verse, in seconds: c. 5
Total length of time spent performing verses, in hours: c. 26
Tour Pictures
Galleries showing me performing the poem and my brother and me on tour.
Tour Materials
The Dominion Institute produced a fine Tour Brochure and put out a press release announcing the start of the Tour on 6 April. I also created a Teacher's Guide to the Siege of Quebec and Homeric Epic Poetry, some Activity Questions for students, and A Quick History Lesson.
Epic Tour Team
Myself, performer of poem and main writer of Tour Blog.
David Mitchell, my brother, general consultant on and documenter of the Tour.
Annie Forget, Programme Coordinator for the tour at the Dominion Institute.
Alison Faulknor, Managing Director of the Dominion Institute.
Rudyard Griffiths, founder and executive director of the Dominion Institute.
Tour 2005 Print Coverage
- Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (20 April 2005): "Plains of Abraham put in poetic narrative" (p. C2).
- Canadian press story by Scott Edmonds. This appeared in the following papers:
- Prince George Citizen (6 May 2005): "Epic poem is longer to read than battle it immortalizes" (p. 38) [photo]
- Fort McMurray Today (6 May 2005): "Classics scholar takes epic poem on the road to teach about Canadian battle" (p. C12) [photo]
- Welland Tribune (6 May 2005): "Classics scholar takes epic poem on the road" (p. A13)
- Red Deer Advocate (7 May 2005): "Epic poem teaches about Canadian battle" (p. E9) [photo]
- The Guelph Mercury (7 May 2005): "Classics scholar takes epic poem on the road to teach about famous Canadian battle" (p. C2)
- Cornwall Standard-Freeholder (7 May 2005): "Epic poem teaches about historic battle" (p. 29) [photo]
- Summerside Journal-Pioneer (7 May 2005): "Classics scholar takes epic poem on the road to teach" (p. 11)
- St. John's Telegram (7 May 2005): "Learning in iambic octameter" (p. B2) [photo]
- Corner Brook Western Star (7 May 2005): "Classics scholar takes poem on the road to teach about epic Canadian battle" (p. 38) [photo] ["factbox"]
- Prince Albert Daily Herald (11 May 2005): "History lesson takes centre stage" (p. 10) [part 2] [photo]
- North Bay Nugget (11 May 2005): "Scholar takes epic poem on the road to teach about Canadian battle" (p. C7) [photo]
- Niagara Falls Review (13 May 2005): "Classics scholar takes epic poem on the road" (p. D1)
- Embassy Magazine (11 May 2005): "Canadian epic" by Christina Leadley.
- The Globe and Mail (21 May 2005): "Montcalm, Meet Homer" by Julie Traves. (Photograph by Brian Atkinson.)
- The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine (Aug/Sep 2005) (Photograph by Christian Fleury.)
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Tour 2005 Radio Coverage
- CBC Radio 1 (Toronto) Here and Now (3 May 2005) with host Marichka Malnyk
- Radio-Canada (Ontario) Les arts et les autres (6 May 2005) with producer Alain Godbout (in French).
- CBC Radio 1 & 2 Bunny Watson (7 May 2005 and 8 May 2005) with host Bill Richardson
- CBC Radio 1 (Ottawa) All in a Day (9 May 2005) with host Brent Bambury.
- CBC Radio 1 (Quebec City) Breakaway (24 May 2005)
- CBC Radio 1 (St. John's) Radio Noon (31 May 2005); interview by Heather Barrett
- CBC Radio 1 (Quebec City) Breakaway (3 June 2005)
Post-Tour Coverage
- Interview with CBC Radio in Halifax (10 March 2009). I talked with Phylis McGregor about the significance of the poem and the anniversary of the battle (it was then the 250th anniversary).
- Interview with KZSU, Stanford student radio (2005).