Nathan Schmidt waxed on about the importance of the right apple in rehearsals for The Diary of Adam and Eve the other day. So, I asked him to write it down for the blog. Some decisions are very important.

Alright. Let me tell you about apples. You got apple pies, apple turnovers, apple sauce, apple dumplings, apple fritters, candied apples, apple butter even apple computers... more apples than you can shake a stick at. Then you got MacIntosh, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Red Delicious and Spartan, to name but a few. So when Brad Graham asked me what kind of apples I thought we should have for our production of The Diary of Adam and Eve I had some choices to make. In my time doing this acting gig I have come to have some strong feelings about what is the best type of apple to use in a show. If I have to eat a whole apple in a scene then I don't want any big apples cause I won't get it finished. If you have to cut it with a knife then you don't want a really chalky apple flesh that is gonna crumble apart, nor do you want it too juicy so it gets you all sticky and the costume gets apple juice on it. You want the apple a bit tart so that it doesn't get your mouth all sugary and sticky but keeps the saliva moving so the tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips move along trippingly. I also thought, "this is the most notorious apple ever eaten." This is the apple that prompted the term "Adam's apple" for the bump in a man's throat after the notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit sticking in Adam's throat. The fall of man. The loss of innocence.

Not a light decision. But in all honesty, when it comes to picking an apple to eat on stage, nothing gets the job done like a Spartan apple. They have a good medium size, a nice red colour, the flesh is pleasingly dense and they give a satisfying crunch while remaining tart and delightful. The Spartan variety of apple was developed in 1936 in Summerland B.C. and will be crunched mercilessly all summer long in The Diary of Adam and Eve. Buy a bag and see how you like them apples!