Notes on Living in NYC

So I think I feel so out of place in New York because I neither smoke nor drink coffee.  In order to fit in here (especially at the Public!) you pretty much have to do one or the other or (ideally) both.  In LA people may look down on you, but at least you can get away with drinking tea or hot chocolate and have peers who might actually do the same.

In other news, I was getting on the uptown 6-train after work today and I saw this woman who looks JUST like Allegra only a few years older and a much more New York attitude (read: cold hard bitch).  But not only did she look and walk like Allegra, she was also dressed like an east-coast Allegra.  Crazy.

Work today was alright.  I spent the weekend at home in LA so it's always hard to come back.  The trip home wasn't that exciting, I spent pretty much the whole time with Leland which was great for me (and hopefully for Leland) but probably boring for everybody else to hear about.

So yeah, work today.  One of the higher-ups is on vacation this week, so I get to use her desk and I'm trying to catch up on labeling all the scanned files.  It's pretty boring.  And I stayed at work until six today for the first time since pretty much I've been here since I'm working next to Lisa, my boss, and I don't want her to think I'm a flake.  It's not like I'm not getting my work done when I leave early; I've done more in three weeks than my predecessor did all summer on this project.  I also did a little project for Barry (of the Shakespeare Lab) where I copied all the teacher evaluation packets from this summer's Shakespeare Lab participants and made packets to be given to each teacher so they get the feedback.  It was cool to read the feedback packets and see what the Shakespeare Lab is like in the words of people who actually attended it.

The Shakespeare Lab is a 12-week summer intensive for professional/at least college-student-level actors interested in furthering their classical theater technique.  They take classes in text analysis, movement, voice, acting (scenes and monologues), stage combat, poetry, etc... and put on a showcase at the end of the program.  It's basically summer camp for grown-ups, since the participants have to pay to attend and attendance is mandatory for full-day, full-week sessions, so working during this time period is very difficult.  Many of the feedback sheets reflected the fact that a) it was very difficult financially to participate in this and b) the Public might lose some great applicants due to financial issues.  The program is audition-only, so I imagine these people must be at least mostly talented.  But reading their comment sheets was also kind of hilarious.  I respect that actors find the acting process a fairly moving experience, but some of the language used to describe "life-changing" acting experiences can be fairly hilarious.  In fact, the amount I will respect someone is directly related to if they have ever described acting in flowery, religiously undertoned, language, with extra points subtracted for use of the word "orgasmic."

The Shakespeare Lab also has Shakespeare Lab Jr. for underprivileged kids and this is what I was doing research on other summer programs for comparison for Barry last week.

Oh, and in the vein of actors, this morning they were holding a casting call for a play they're doing called "A Free Man of Color."  I didn't really know what they were casting, so I asked someone there what it was for.  I had come out of the area Public employees have access to, and I was in the lobby ON MY WAY OUT, and I asked this guy "What's this casting call for?" and he goes, "It's for A Free Man of Color, an off-Broadway play that--" 

I interrupted - "I know what it is.  I work here."

I mean, I was in the theater.  I was on my way out.  I obviously have some sort of Public affiliation.  But whatever.

Then when I was leaving tonight the lobby had been transformed from a free-for-all actors' hang-out to a little cocktail reception.  It was weird but kinda funny, I guess.

Sexy Secretary

I'm in a good mood right now because I had a pretty good day at work, and by that I mean I spent absolutely zero time scanning or renaming files.  Wonderful!  And I don't have work tomorrow, thank you Jewish population of New York City.

Today was kind of interesting though.  All morning I was manning the reception desk (10-2) because it's Jasmine, the receptionist's, day off.  (It's always hard for me to figure out how to punctuate appositives when there's a possessive... just a little thing that confuses me about grammar...).  It's not like anyone particularly interesting called, but it's fun to feel like I have actual power in the office.  Perhaps a holdover from my attraction to Stage Managing.

This one guy named Zachary kept calling because he's trying to get an internship with Barry, my boss for the Shakespeare Initiative, and his e-mails weren't going through so I was trying to help him with that but I was checking my e-mails on the internet instead of through Outlook so I couldn't tell if his attachments were coming through and it was this whole big thing.  But I hope he gets the job, mostly just so I can meet him.

But after reception I got to usher a staged reading, which was definitely a throwback to H-W and made me miss that performing arts department like mad.  Even more, the doors to the theatre were near the set construction shop and the set construction guys are really friendly.  It's not like I actually talked to any of them, but they all smile really genuinely unlike pretty much everyone I've encountered in NYC besides people I work closely with (not many people).  I looked in their shop as well and Rees Pugh would die if he saw it; it's so nice in there.

The reading was alright.  It was called "The Concubine," which is a musical adaptation of a novel with the same name.  It was kinda weird and not terribly coherent, but it was a staged reading for the purpose of a) working on it and b) showing it to producers/theater directors who, they hope, will give it a home for further workshopping to make it into a good show.  I don't know, maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea, but I wasn't too impressed.

So yeah, today was pretty much a good day.  :)

Inaugural Post

Hey people. Pretty much everyone else on a gap year is doing a blog, so I figured I might as well jump on that bandwagon. I mean, this has all seemed pretty boring so far, and it is on a day-to-day basis. I'm not like Becca, who's doing this really awesome abroad program, but based on what I did last night I guess mine isn't too boring.

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:

http://www.mindthegapper.blogspot.com

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.