So here's what's been going on so far:
I arrived in New York City very late at night on Sunday, September 14. The next day I started work as an intern at The Public Theater. My job is in their literary department and it consists of scanning all the scripts from their archives and adding to the digital archive set up over the summer. The guy who did this over the summer doesn't seem to have been very good at it, since I've only been there two weeks and I've done as much if not more than he did in two months. I also do little jobs they need done, like copying scripts they're producing this season and running to the Food Emporium to get a cake for someone's birthday in the office.
Although the scanning thing is pretty boring, I've been reading a lot of scripts as I go along and some of them are pretty interesting. A lot of them are pretty screwed up, though. One I read involved coma rape, incest, and masturbation using a figure of Jesus Christ. Some are good, though. I read another based on the family of the first soldier to be declared "Missing: Captured" in the Iraq war.
The most interesting thing to read is the coverage of the scripts. The archives I'm scanning are The Playwright's Files, which are mostly scripts that were submitted and either rejected or given readings/workshops but not produced as part of the Public's main theater season. So some files contain write-ups from the literary department that are written for the artistic director to give him a sense of whether a play is worth his time or should just be sent back. It's really interesting to see what kind of plays the different readers like (there are a LOT of different readers with very different taste, which is unfortunate if you're a playwright and your play is given to the reader who is particularly disposed to not like your type of play).
Last week on Tuesday there was a big meet-and-greet for the big musical they're producing this theater season, "Road Show," which is a new version of a Sondheim show that's been formerly known as "Bounce" among other things. It hasn't done very well in the past but they feel good about this reworking. It's being directed by John Doyle, who did the amazing revival of "Sweeney Todd" recently and the less amazing revival of "Company." This new production is starring Michael Cerveris, who starred in the above mentioned "Sweeney Todd" and won a Tony for playing John Wilkes Booth in the recent revival of "Assassains." Anyway, Doyle, Cerveris, and Sondheim himself were at this big breakfast schmooze fest. I didn't get to speak with any of them personally, it was my second day and I was barely getting to know my fellow interns, but it was awesome to be at this event. At the end of the thing the artisitic director of the Public, Oskar Eustis, had us all stand in a big circle and everyone introduced themselves and what sort of work they did at the public (i.e. "Anne McGrath, literary intern"). So technically Stephen Sondheim, Michael Cerveris, John Doyle and I have all introduced ourselves to one another.
Then, later in the week when I was hard at work at the scanner/copier, Michael Cerveris walked by on his way to the microwave (the kitchen is right behind the copier I work at) and said "hey" to me when I awkwardly smiled at him. Then my friend Anne, an intern in casting, came by to get coffee since casting doesn't have its own coffee machine or anything. I started talking to her about how unfortunate it is that casting doesn't have its own coffee, since it's not very close to our side of the building, and Michael Cerveris kinda chimed in with sympathy about Anne's lack of proximate coffee. It was all very cool.
Then last night I went with John, my dad's business partner, to the opening night of "Equus," a play which he's a producer on. This particular production is what's also known as "The Naked Harry Potter Play," since it stars Daniel Radcliffe and features his full-frontal nudity. I thought the naked thing was just going to be like a moment but it turned out to be a whole scene of him running around naked. It was a little weird, since we were sitting really close, but his performance was really good and the show is gonna be a big success so congratulations to John and the rest of the producers.
Afterwards we went to the afterparty which was at Chelsea Pier and met up with my dad. I met some cool people, such as this man who bought the rights to "Harry Potter" before it had even been published, and subsequently made a ton of money when the books took off.
There were a lot of cool people at the party, none of whom I really got to talk to but it was still cool. James Lipton, of "Inside the Actors Studio," was there, and my dad tried to point him out but all I could respond was "I KNOW WHO HE IS; HE WAS ON ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT!," since that's clearly all that matters. Austin Scarlett, who was on Season 1 of "Project Runway," was there and is taller than I thought he would be and was wearing these absurd pants that were a cross between like old-school poofy pants and riding pants, I'm sure to be fashionably in the spirit of the play, but they were a little ridiculous. Also in attendance was Haley Joel Osment, whom I used to be obsessed with so that was exciting for my 10-year-old inner self. He's really short though, which I wasn't really expecting.
So last night was cool, some other stuff has been cool, I went home over the weekend and went to the opening of "9 to 5" which was also fun, and that's about all I've been up to so far. I'll keep this updated probably but I can't guarantee that anything else exciting is going to happen.
If you want to read something actually interesting, read Becca Title's blog:
She's in Ecuador right now and doesn't have access to internet except on the weekends, but it's really good writing and really interesting experiences so yeah, check it out.
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