"Too Darn Hot"

Most people on a Friday night, decide to go out on the town and try to be the life of the party. Given the fact that I am regularly a raging party animal, I decided that, tonight, I would take some time to fill you all in on the past couple of days here at NYSAF. As you might have guessed from my blog post, it has been hotter than Satan's kitchen up here the past couple of days. For people in normal living conditions, they are able to retreat into the comfort of their abode and relax in the nice, cool breeze of the AC. Here, this is not the case. We have the great luxury of staying in one of the few places on campus that does not have air conditioning. Normally, this problem is solved by the purchase of a fan, which, yours truly made. However, upon buying the fan, I found out that it was defective, so I needed to return it; not necessarily a task of convenience when you are an intern without a car. So, when it has been rainy for three of the past five days and you are without a fan the air becomes somewhat thick and unbearable, especially, when you have to make multiple treks across Vassar's vast campus grounds. These treks are made somewhat bearable by the presence of the groundhogs that inhabit the campus.

Just some of the many groundhogs on campus.

As the SM interns, we have the unenviable task of doing a bunch of presswork for the productions that are to come this summer. This includes anything from organizing office supplies for each of the individual rehearsal rooms, to setting up the call board (a place for company members to know the goings on for each show that is rehearsing) to putting together first aid kits, to setting up green room areas for the companies of each show. For those of you that don't know, green rooms are places for company members to go and relax and partake in coffee and tea and various other things during breaks in the rehearsal process. There are certain standards that are required by the AEA (more on that in a minute)  in terms of what is in the green rooms and what supplies are required, etc.

As a company, NYSAF has put together a packet of requirements for each rehearsal room that is based upon AEA's standards. Our ultimate task this week was to knock off each of the items on the checklist so that we are ready to go when we dive in head-first with the first readings festival this upcoming Tuesday. Two of the five SM interns are already in rehearsal for shows  so the remaining three of us began to work through the list. Each day, we would report to our supervisor and see which of the things on the master list he wanted us to get done. Usually, we would check in with him two or three times a day. Tuesday and Wednesday, we cranked through a huge chunk on that list, so he sent us over to help Company Management turn over 10 apartments for the artists and designers that will be arriving early next week.

In the theatrical world, Company Management is the branch of the company that is responsible for the hospitality side of things. They make sure that the apartments are all in functioning and livable conditions, take company members on grocery runs, organize company activities, etc. Basically, they make sure that everyone is happy in their life outside of their working environment. Yesterday, we three SM interns helped the CoMan Interns with their changeover so we swept, wiped, mopped, and organized the various apartments that would be housing the artists. It was a long and tiring day, but for a day that was slightly muggy, it was nice to be working in units that HAD air conditioning.

Hogwarts...er....I mean the library...

Today, we returned to our generic SM tasks which we, once again, accomplished in a very timely manner, so our supervisor sent the three of us home early, which allowed us a little time to explore. Earlier in the week, we three interns went to the campus library to check things out (get it?) The library itself is similar to the Great Hall in the Harry Potter series. I'm pretty sure they even shot on location there...just kidding. FOOLED YA! Anyway, we went to check out some books so that we might remain cultured and educated, but because we are only allowed access to certain campus amenities, we were unable to check out books. So, we decided that today we would head to the public library and sign up for cards.

After that, one of the other interns and I were contemplating about going to the gym or getting groceries, so we decided to kill to birds with one stone and go on a literal grocery run. We changed into running gear and grabbed our backpacks and ran from our apartments to the grocery store. In case those of you were concerned about me being able to return that defective fan, don't worry, I did, and am now enjoying the comfort of a very nice fan as I type this blog. We then went to the lovely Dollar Tree as well as the local Stop and Shop Grocery store and then walked back home with our goods in hand.

In my last post, I had told you that I would let you all know about some of the cool people that I will be getting to work with this summer. Well, literally the next day, our press release went out to all of the big Broadway news outlets highlighting our summer talent. Some of the people that will be gracing us with their presence for this first half of the summer are are Michael C. Hall from Dexter, Tony® Award-Winning Lena Hall from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Tony® Award-Nominee Condola Rashad (Phylicia Rashad's daughter), Carmen Cusack, who has played Elphaba in Wicked all over the world, as well as Jason Danieley, most recently of The Visit with Chita Rivera, Derek Klena from Wicked and The Bridges of Madison County, and Finn Wittrock from American Horror Story: Freak Show. I also found out that the director that I will be serving as SM for on boy/girl/cage/dog is the granddaughter of the famous playwright, Harold Pinter. The world keeps getting smaller, ladies and gentlemen.

I also mentioned earlier in the post something about AEA. In case you are still burning with curiosity as to what that stands for, it is an acronym for the Actors Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers. The organization was founded in 1913 and is currently run by Broadway veteran and former Miss America, Kate Shindle. The organization provides the guidelines for various theatre across the country ranging from every show on broadway, to theatres all the way out in California. It helps to maintain professional and ideal working conditions for theatre artists as they continue to hone their craft and also provide adequate pay scales depending on the level of the theatre and the contract that is utilized by that theatre. The various contracts are typically determined by the location of the theatre and the maximum seating capacity of the performing house. You're probably wondering "what does all of this useless information mean"? Well, I'll tell you! After some more useless information...

The most common way for one to join the union is to obtain work at a professional, Equity affiliated theatre and then they can enroll in the Equity Membership Candidacy Program (EMC). Once enrolled, applicants have to accrue 50 weeks of work which is kept track through a point system; one point for every one week of work. Anyway, I found out earlier this week that as SM interns, we have the opportunity to begin the EMC enrollment process, so I have elected to do so. That way, I will be one step closer to being able to work not only in NYC and on Broadway, but also to work with many prestigious companies across the country.

I know I said that the posts would start to get shorter and not as detailed oriented but what can I say? I'm a Stage Manager. Details are my strong suit. That being said, I am going to wrap-up for the day and try to unwind some more before heading to bed. Thanks again for reading! Until next time!