"Here I Go...There's No Turning Back"

All right. Now that I got that introductory stuff out of the way, Now's the time where we get to the INTERESTING stuff as opposed to my nerdy ramblings. My journey out to Poughkeepsie began the other day on Saturday, June 13th in the wee hours of the morning. Given how much the college life has screwed up my sleeping patterns and how excited and adrenaline-filled I was, I only had one solid hour of sleep the night before leaving. I had been prepping and packing all week: two suitcases, a carryon, and two boxes that will be shipped to me at a later date (fingers crossed for this Wednesday). Anyway, I finished my final packing requirements and then, along with my lovely mother and sisters, we groggily made our way to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport so I could board Southwest Flight #1296 to NY-LGA. In the words of Little Red from Into the Woods, I was "excited AND scared." Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's such a uniquely wonderful feeling as one prepares to conquer a world full of unknowns.

As we were cruising down the highway that early morning, I, naturally, turned on the Sirius Broadway Radio station so that I could "get in the zone," or rather, just torture my mom and sisters and force a little more musical theatre knowledge down their throats one last time before I left. Naturally, I was sad to be leaving my family and friends for the summer, since, originally, I was going to be working closer to home at First Stage Children's Theatre in Milwaukee for the summer (another amazing theatrical organization if you do not know about them). We pulled up to the airport unloading zone and we got my bags out and we said our temporary goodbyes and I walked through the doors to begin my my 24-hour adventure to NYC.

Since my contract for the summer did not Start until yesterday, June 14th, we figured that it would be best for me to leave for New York on the 13th so that if any travel problems arose, I would have a buffer day of travel. Because of this, I decided to spend the night in the City soaking up the energy that, in my opinion, continues to pulse and inspire the world of the theatre. I got all checked in and made my way through security and onto the plane with a great deal of time to spare. Once we took off, I enjoyed a very smooth flight filled with snoozes, Coca-Cola, and honey roasted peanuts, as one does on a 1.5 hour flight.

I finally landed in New York City and made my way to baggage claim. Thankfully, mine were some of the first bags off of the plane so I did not have to wait very long. Before I left I had done an online Taxi Fare Calculator to get a rough estimate of what my trip into the city was going to cost me. While I was waiting for a Taxi, a fancy-schmancy driver game up to me and told me that his ride that he was supposed to pick up did not show and he was going back into the city so he said that he would give me my fare for a flat rate, which ended up being the same money that I had allotted for my taxi. I thought, "Eh, what the hell, why not" and we proceeded to go to the car, which I thought, would be some SUV of sorts.

Now, in the movies, this would be the part where the mysterious men come and grab me and throw me into a sketchy van as I frantically try to dial Liam Neeson's phone number to alert him of my distress. Instead, he ended up taking me to a white, stretch limo. So for the same price as my ride in a yellow taxi, I was driving into the city in a limo. I'm not complaining one bit.

After we pulled up to my hotel (shout out to Pops for helping me make those arrangements), I checked in and was delightfully surprised to find out that I could check-in right then and there and not have to wait until three o'clock. So I got my reservation squared away and proceeded to go up to my room and conk out for about two hours.

Since I had been up so early traveling, I figured that the next best thing would be to get some sustenance so that I could make it through the 2PM matinee of An American in Paris that I was going to see with my wonderfully awesome friend, Angi, who attends school in the city. Since I love the Rockefeller Center area so much, I decided that I would walk there to get food. Now, my hotel was in Chelsea which, according to iPhone Maps, is a 45 Minute walk from Rockefeller Center. However, since I am an avid promoter of "walking with purpose," I was able to make it there in 30 minutes with Potbelly's Sandwiches calling my name, and the soon to be blisters on me feet angrily screaming at me.

After lunch, I spent time people watching in the Square where the giant Christmas tree is located. Eventually, I met Angi at the theatre to enjoy the matinee. Overall, I loved the physical aspects of the show: the sets, costumes, lights, dancing, performances, singing, etc. The only thing that did not do much for me was the book. The elements of the classic Gene Kelly film were definitely there, but in an effort to expand the musical canon of the piece, it seemed that the book was crafted in order to accommodate additional songs, as opposed to further expanding and fleshing out the characters. That is not to say that the book was terrible by any means; it just did not do as much for me as I was expecting.

As soon as the curtain call was over, Angi and I rushed to the subway where we headed uptown to Lincoln Center to see if we could get tickets to see Kelli O'Hara in The King and I. Now, this production is one that I have been wanting to see since it was announced that Lincoln center was going to be producing it. I tried constantly to get student tickets in the weeks leading up to my trip, but to no avail. Our only hope was the possibility that they might be selling student rush tickets. Being the firm believer in the adage "everything happens for a reason" that I am, I was somewhat glad that I was not able to secure a ticket to the show as Kelli was out with bad flu and won't be returning to the show until tomorrow. The box office attendant told us that they would probably be offering student rush to the show since she was out and some would be returning their tickets, but if I was going to see the show, I wanted it to be first seen with Kelli playing her Tony Award®-Winning role. What can I say? I'm a die-hard fan of hers.

We then left the gorgeous grounds at Lincoln Center and, over a cup of gelato, we decided to forgo a show that evening and just go back to my hotel and grab some food and veg out and catch up. We went back to Chelsea and stopped at the hotel for me to change my shoes (yes, mom, you were right about the shoe choice) and then we went to a delicious burger place called Bareburger which serves delicious burgers made with grass-fed beef. After grabbing some cookie butter and some wine following dinner, we went back and spent a wonderful evening catching up and swapping stories, just like the gals on Sex and the City.

After Angi left, I showered, crawled into bed, and got some sleep before my early train to Poughkeepsie the next morning.

After I woke up, I packed up my things, checked out, and made my way to the magnificent Grand Central Station where I boarded the 9:43 AM train to Poughkeepsie. The train ride, like my flight, was nice and smooth with only the occasional crying baby disrupting my siesta. When I got off the train, I was greeted by the lovely NYSAF Company Management staff and made my way to the company van where another one of the interns and myself rode to the Vassar College campus to begin move-in.

After receiving my keys and other various pieces of paperwork, I made my way to my apartment and unpacked my things in my room. The apartments are pretty nice: they could stand some paint and some minor fixes, and, you know, Air Conditioning, but other than that they're lovely. Since I was so exhausted, I lay down for another brief nap before our Company Meeting where we would meet the staff and the other interns.

At the meeting, we all went around and introduced ourselves: who we were and what our position was. After that, we split into groups and took a tour of Vassar's lovely campus. Highlights of the tour included the Martel Theatre, the Shiva (pronounced SHEE-va) Theatre, the Pool (which is not a pool, but a large square patch of grass that is slightly lower than the other parts of the grounds), the Powerhouse Theatre, and my personal favorite, the Streep Room (bought by and named after Vassar Alum Meryl Streep).

Once the tour concluded, we headed back to the Martel Theatre where we participated in an hour of team-building/introductory exercises to help strengthen us as a company and as a unit. All of these activities proved to be very eye-opening and provided a great deal of perspective for me as to how I envisioned the remaining eight weeks going. After our activity leader left, we went back to the apartment courtyard for a welcome barbecue graciously provided to us by the Company Management team.

Following those festivities, my three roommates and I decided to enjoy the nice weather last evening and do a quick grocery run so that we could stock up on the necessities. You know. Like Wine. As we were leaving, one of the Company Management Interns ran into us on the street and offered to give us a ride home which was good for us, since it began to rain. We then unloaded our Dollar Store grocery treasures and proceeded to chat a little bit before bed. We all turned in somewhat early (in theatre world that is any time after 10 PM before midnight) since we all had busy first days ahead of us.

For us SM Interns, we began our day by having a meeting where we received our show assignments for the summer. As I stated in my previous blog post, we produce a variety of works here at NYSAF and I have had the great fortune to be assigned one of the plays in our first Play Reading Festival entitled a boy put this girl in a cage with a dog and the dog killed the girl by Clare Barron. No Joke. That's the title. More information will follow once I get a chance to read the script. My other two assignments for the summer are two of the three Musical Workshops. The first one is Rain with Music and Lyrics by Tony Award® Nominee Michael John LaChiusa, a Book by Tony Award® Nominee Sybille Pearson, based on the short story by Somerset Maugham, and Directed by Barry Edelstein. The second piece is entitled Noir Music by Tony® and Grammy Award® winning composer Duncan Sheik, Book by Kyle Jarrow, Lyrics by Kyle Jarrow and Duncan Sheik, and

Directed by the Obie Award®-Winning Rachel Chavkin. 

I will not only get tow work with all of these prestigious creators, but there are also many Broadway Actors that will be appearing in these two productions as well as the rest of the season. I got a look at the cast lists and since I am unsure if I can publicly post our lists, I will refrain until we get further into our productions. Needless to say, I'm excited. 

The rest of our day was spent cleaning and organizing and prepping for the upcoming season; this is basically our task throughout the week. We do anything from cleaning rehearsal spaces to organizing office supplies, to printing scripts, to setting up green room spaces. After a long day of work, I walked back to the grocery store to get a couple more things and then to Big Lots! to buy a fan for my AC-less room. Unfortunately, when I got home, the damn fan was broken so I get to trek back to the Big Lots! and return the fan for a new one. Until then, I'll just have to adjust to the fluctuating weather which, at the moment, is a mixture of cool and balmy. There's a lot of moisture in the air since we've gotten a bit of rain in the past 24 hours. 

Since I was smelly and sweaty from my grocery adventure, I hopped in the shower and then went to our SM End-of-Day meeting where we made a game plan for tomorrow. Then I went home, enjoyed a nice dinner of Chicken and Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat). Which brings me to now. The final sentences of my blog. I know this was a lot to take in, but, I promise, that future blog posts won't be as exciting and detailed as these ones...okay they might be...at any rate, they will become standard and concise since my life will soon be consumed with rehearsals. SHAMELESS PLUG: I have included a link to the website at the bottom of the post so that if you wan to find out more about the company or the shows that we are doing, you are free to do so. For better or worse, I'm here, Im in this for the long haul, and, hopefully, you aren't bored to tears by these posts. If you are, then, clearly, I need to amp up my writing style. Or, there is something wrong with you, the reader...Yeah. That's it... ;) Until next time!