Last (Work) Day!

Last week of working at Strasberg. And last full week of living in New York without having to have a real job or pay rent or really do any of those things that make you into a real adult. Not looking forward to any of that when I really move here.

Also on the list of things that I'm not looking forward to:
1. Packing
2. Unpacking once I get back to Michigan
3. Turning thirty (I am very prone to midlife crises, I feel)

This last week of work was pretty marvelous. Lots to do, because everyone is busy registering for their Winter Session classes. I helped Amanda get Young Actors organized, I called millions of parents about registration.

And I continued my new daily activity of recording all the attendance. And I will be forcing all teachers to take a new seminar called Tim Crouse on Attendance. (Tim Crouse is a fab teacher at Strasberg.) All his Absences are in red felt-tip pen and all the people present are in black pen! INSPIRED. GENIUS. POTENTIALLY WORTHY OF A NOBEL PRIZE. The Peace Prize, obvi, because it keeps me from SHANKING SOMEONE AT WORK.

This week started out kind of lame and picked up as time went on. I spent most of Monday at work wrapping Hannukah gifts for Anna Strasberg's grandchildren. Devil Wears Prada anyone? Anyone? Bueller? RIDICULOUS. But then I wrapped gifts for children in the pediatric ward of the Harlem Hospital, and that was more legit. On Monday night, we had the 305 Holiday Party. Our sponsors were invited, so Amanda and Donna made the trek up to twenty-ninth and eighth to put in an appearance. We ran into Michael Fentin (!) which was marvelous, because I won't be seeing him for quite a while. We ate, we chatted, a good time was had by all.

On Wednesday at work, I was running errands all afternoon, and when I got home, Amanda pulled me into her office and said, "Oh my god, it's Donna's birthday and we completely forgot. Run to Whole Foods and buy a cake! Any cake!" And she shoved me out the door and down the street.

So I am freaking out and I run into Whole Foods like a bat out of hell and yelp at the man behind the counter at the bakery: I NEED A CAKE! ANY CAKE! He believes that I am insane and have a deathly cake addiction. So I calm down enough to explain that we completely forgot our manager's birthday and we need to pretend that we didn't and got her a cake. He picks up a beautiful cake, deftly writes HAPPY BIRTHDAY DONNA in gorgeous script and off I go.

I call Amanda from outside, she lets me in the back, we dig up some candles and walk into Donna's office, singing Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

Ummmm, except SURPRISE! It's a party for ME! Because I was an awesome intern!

The problems with this?

I sang Happy Birthday to someone whose birthday is in March. AND I BOUGHT MY OWN CAKE! AND MY "YOU'RE AMAZING, KELLY" CAKE SAID HAPPY BIRTHDAY DONNA!!!

Haha, I jest. It was amazing. I was totally surprised and I've never had a surprise party thrown for me before. And they gave me the most amazing present - a hat with ears and mittens like paws! I look like a polar bear! It's precious.

Thursday night I saw Billy Elliot. Notable mostly because I went all by myself! And I won't even eat alone! Yay me!

The show was amahzing. Trent Kowalik did approximately eighteen pirouettes in rapid succession. The dancing was phenomenal. Literally, beyond words. The dialect work was flawless and the story was heartwarming. Wonderful. And the four people next to me left after intermission (!) so I got to move more towards the center for act two.

And today was my last day of work! My main goal was not to cry. This did not happen, even though I'll be seeing Amanda tomorrow. But I cried at the very end. I'm going to miss everyone so much, and the entire semester was just such a perfect experience.

But it's SO REASSURING to know that I'll have a job when I come back here. Donna even put it in writing in my Christmas card, haha, and told me to bring it back as proof of a guaranteed job. That's so much worry off of my life, knowing that I will be able to pay rent when I get back here. I finally have a plan! I haven't had a plan for the last twenty years!

And tonight, Nick and I saw A Little Night Music. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury: what could be better??? The show was lovely. And lovely is a perfect word to describe it too. Sondheim is a master - the lyrics were witty and beautiful. Catherine's rendition of Send in the Clowns was beautiful and heartbreaking, which was exactly what I was hoping for.

And Angela was PERFECT, as she always is. I literally watched the show and thought to myself, "Angela Lansbury is perfect in this role. How could anyone else have ever played her? It wouldn't work, because the role was waiting for Angela." And then I smacked myself and said, "Kelly! Pay attention!"

However, she stood us up at the stage door again. I understand that she is eighty-four years old and it was very cold out, but STILL. She has now stood us up multiple times. I am very upset.

But I met Catherine Zeta-Jones. And I meant "met" in the sense of "laid eyes on". She signed my Playbill and she was absolutely beautiful. She is one of those flawlessly attractive people who turn heads simply because they are so classically beautiful.

Just. Not. Fair.

Yikes. I want time to just keep spinning out and out and out and slow way way down. I'm only here until Wednesday. Tomorrow we are going ice skating and then seeing Ragtime. Sunday, Nick and I are planning on mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Superior Donuts and then our last UCB show. It's going to be Days of Last. And those are my least favorite days. Last Class. Last Walk to Work. Last Jamba Juice. Last Broadway Show. (Yikes, I'll cry again. Gotta stop this line of thought.)

I should also probably pack at some point. (See above: list of things I am not looking forward to.)

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll see you soooooon!!!
Miss you! Love, Kelly

Holi-Day!

Remember the last time that I blogged and it was snowing? Marvelous, n'est-ce pas?

MALHEUREUSEMENT, it has not snowed since then. It has rained multiple times (of course, because my rain boots eventually bit the dust and I had to throw them out because "well, it's October - it's not going to rain anymore!", so please raise your hand if you regret that decision. Kelly raises hand. THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT) which is no fun.

But since the wonderful snowing/Christmas tree experience, much has happened.

On the work/classes side of things, everything has been great. I had my last classes for everything except Singing and Dialects last week, and it was bittersweet (heavy on the bitter). I ADORED my classes. I won't be sad to see my one crazy scene partner go, but I'll super miss my awesome one, and my teachers were all great and talented and fun and (in the case of Irma) intimidatingly awe-inspiring.

I was horrendously ill for my final scene in Lola's class. She took one look at me and told me to go home and go to bed, but I had dragged myself all the way there, so I was going to perform, dammit. And she told me that I'm hilarious and that I could be on SNL (!) and that she doesn't think I should be going back to Michigan because "credits transfer so why on earth can't you just stay here???".

Needless to say, I walked around high on praise for a few days. Still feeling good about it, actually, haha.

And work has been fun. I have been getting some free lunches out of it, and as everyone knows, I love the lunch. I took approximately six days to register the first and second year NYU students for their second semester, which is about five days and six hours longer than it should take. I'm pretty sure I just kept getting distracted. Amanda would have a story, or someone would start yelling and then all was lost.

I also helped out at Young Actors at Strasberg which is a) exhausting, b) chaotic, c) the most bizarre program in the world and d) the best birth control EVER. Watching fifteen screaming seven-year-olds reenact The Wizard of Oz was potentially the most terrifying thing I have ever seen in my entire life. If anyone ever asks you if you want to help out in an acting class for seven to nine year old, just SAY NO. IT ISN'T WORTH IT.

And this last weekend was Young Actors Open House, where parents are invited to attend and watch what their kids did all semester. And I felt terrible for the kids whose parents didn't bother to show up or anything. Devastating. Perhaps this is because I was raised by Rob and Nance Voigt, who not only attended every single thing I have ever been in, but also usually offered to sell tickets, bring pizza to the tech day and gave me flowers afterwards. They also went to every single Evelyn Schuette Choir Concert and Christmas Spectacular. Good for them.

And actually, speaking of Christmas Spectaculars...

WE SAW THE ROCKETTES.

And it was amazing. Carol-singin', high-kickin', wooden-soldier-slow-fallin' and between-5'6"-and5'9"-bein' and everythin'. Calling it a Christmas Spectacular is no hyperbole, my friends. It was so much fun. Radio City is huge, and it was totally decked out in wreaths and holly and mistletoe and lights and trees and it was amazing. And the Rockettes were just so FUN! I saw them a long time ago, when I was little and they came to Detroit, but I had forgotten just how much they do. My favorite might have been the tap dance number to the 12 Days of Christmas. I'm a sucker for a tap dance number. But the LIVE CAMELS at the end also hold a special place in my heart.

LIVE CAMELS. Seriously. Just hangin' out. Celebratin' the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus H. Christ. Ain't no thang.

Later in the week, Nicholas and I went to the opera. And let me tell you, there is nothing like a show at the Metropolitan Opera. We saw Il Trittico, which is a group of three Puccini short operas. The first two are tragedies (a man kills his wife's lover in one, and in the second, heartbreaking one, a woman who was sent to a convent for having an illegitimate child finds out that her child died and then she kills herself) but the last is a comedy and it was HIGH-LARIOUS. I love the opera. The set was mobile, and there were THREE DIFFERENT SETS. ONE FOR EACH SHOW. That's incredible. They struck and entire set and moved on a different one in twenty minutes. Beautiful. And then there was a different light design for each one! Aaaggghhhh!!!! The magic of the theatre, my friends. MAGICAL.

Last night, Nick took me to a reading of a new play at MTC. It was called Glenhawk. Sometimes I find it hard to listen to staged readings, but this one kept me engaged. The play is pretty good. It could use a rewrite and a bit of commitment to some of the character choices, but overall it was fun. And more importantly, I got to see where Nick works every day. SO LEGIT. He works in a real office. With a real desk. With a real mug of pens and pencils and a real computer and a real tray with dividers and folders and important looking papers.

Perhaps I am only in awe because I hope to never work in an office, but it was all so REAL. He has a REAL JOB. Wowwwww. Hooray Nicholas!

And that was pretty much the week.

We're getting down to our last few days here, and it hits me a little harder every single day. For a while it was easy to say, "Oh, a month longer. That's AGES." But now we're down to ten days, and I have seriously PACKED those days. I'm excited to come home for Christmas, but sad to end the best semester ever and say goodbye to the best city in the world. Such a double-edged sword (my favorite phrase as of late). Coming home a new person? Maybe. I think just more of a person. Plus also I got a Twitter while I was here. So there's that as well. Haha.

Miss you! Love always, Kelly

Snow Day!

It snowed in New York today. I have never been happier.

The city is gorgeous at the holidays. This is coming from someone who was transfixed by a picture of the Manhattan skyline when her age was still single digits (read: I've always loved New York). But the holidays make everything magical. (And stop laughing at me...I'm serious here. I have committed to describing the city as magical. Just go with it.) But my love for the holidays knows no bounds. As is evidenced by my need for a Christmas tree, at left.

Case in point: WHY DID I EVER AGREE TO LEAVE NEW YORK??? Nick and I were talking about this today. When we come back after graduation, we are going to need to find actual jobs, pay rent, be REAL ADULTS. This is both unacceptable and terrifying. And this is also assuming we graduate; I prefer to assume that time will slow down to an infinitely slow level and we can just stay in college forever.

But I'll be home pretty soon: two and a half weeks. Where did this semester go? Fastest three months of my entire life.

My classes are almost over, which is the most disappointing thing in the entire world. They were arguably the hardest thing I have ever done, but I think I needed the challenge. School has only moderately challenged me for a while, and it made me semi-lazy. Bad news bears.

Since Thanksgiving:

On Tuesday night at 8:00, Broadway dimmed its lights for World AIDS Day. Nick and I were very excited (not for AIDS, but for seeing the lights dimmed). However, we went to see Fela! instead. So we missed it. But they will dim again. People will die, AIDS research and care will still need awareness. There will be another chance. In the meantime, however, I am still devastated.

Fela! was really good. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did (which always made me feel slightly racist). Afrobeat music has never really been my thing. But what the show lacked in my taste in music, it seriously made up for in crazy technical things. There were gators. On the curtains. And their mouths opened up. (I know this sounds less exciting, but I was ENTHRALLED.)

Plus also...I saw Sting! He was at the show! And he seemed to enjoy it! And he had significantly more facial hair than I remember from the last time that I saw him! I considered telling him that Anne and I are probably the only two people under thirty who have seen The Police more than once in concert, but I (barely) refrained.

On Wednesday, Nick and I headed to Rockefeller Center for the Tree Lighting Ceremony. I got there at 5:00. There were already thousands of people. We could see the tree, but we were a block away from Rockefeller Center. We could not hear the announcers or performers. It was raining. The tree was not actually going to light up for four hours.

We bailed.

But we went back to get After pictures to go along with all the Befores. So we really did get the best of both worlds. I think that counts as a win?

On Thursday, we went to go see Race, David Mamet's other show on Broadway. SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST (Oleanna). It was really good. It was not about a competition to see who arrives somewhere first, but instead about the color of one's skin. It brought up a whole bunch of interesting topics about race, including how anything a white person says to a black person about race is automatically offensive, regardless of their intention. The link on the side of the page under the list of Shows I've Seen is an article in the Times about the purpose and themes of the show. (This is a useful link, instead of the other absurd and random ones, haha.)

This Mamet was performed much better than Oleanna as well. I think it helps that Mamet himself directed it, but the rhythm of the words was spot on in this production. James Spader was on point (as he is wont to be?) and Kerry Washington was nothing to shake a stick at either. The dynamics between the characters were very interesting. At the very beginning, I wasn't sure who Kerry Washington's character was but as soon as that became clear, her relationship towards everyone else in the play became very intriguing.

And then yesterday I was sick all day. I actually got up, got dressed and was about to leave for work when I realized that there was no way I could make it through. So I went back to sleep for about six hours. I need to start sleeping again.

Today was my introduction to the Young Actors at Strasberg program. Most effective form of birth control. I was in charge of the 7-9 year old group, and they all did a lot of screaming. Unnecessary screaming. Yikes.

But at the same time, it was a lot of fun. I wish when I was seven that I had been able to take legit acting classes. I remember taking a musical theatre class that was super fun, but not as legit as the musical theatre class I experienced today.

First, they did as expected: a song and dance routine to I'd Do Anything and You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile. But then they sat down and learned musical terms.

Teacher: Who can tell me what Legato means in Italian?

Student: To bind! (I didn't even know that!)

Teacher: Who can tell me where the emphasis on a word is placed in Italian?

Student: The second to last!

Teacher: And an exception to that rule?

Student: (thinks for a bit) Subito!

Teacher: And what does that mean?

Student: Immediately!

These are words I did not learn until I was significantly older than seven. Wow.

Another quote from the children: "You're a weirdo." "I'm not a weirdo! I'm Arabic!" Hahahaha.

My time in New York is winding down. I am currently four shows away from having seen everything on Broadway. (Superior Donuts, Ragtime, A Little Night Music and Billy Elliot.) Well, that's not exactly true - we didn't see Burn the Floor, but I've accepted that. It wasn't a theatre piece as much as it was a dance piece. So I've come to terms with it. So should you.

At this point, it just needs to be done. They all need to be seen. We already have tickets for A Little Night Music (Angela had betta not disappoint this time!) and hopefully the Ragtime lottery doesn't continue to break my heart night after night.

I'll be home soon...weird, right? Why did I agree to LEAVE???

Miss you! Love, Kelly

Thankful Day!

Long time, no blog. And I apologize, for the approximately two (one?) of you who wait with bated breath. Haha.

This weekend the Voigts Took Manhattan by a windstorm. South Pacific was seen, the Museum of Natural History was visited and Kelly was reunited with the people who are required to love her.

And, more importantly, I hailed a cab. Twice. SCORE.

I am writing this post in between filling out my Program and Seminar Evaluation forms. BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. Seriously. Feels like I have homework again. And different than the fun theatre and acting homework that I get at Strasberg.

Point of the story: I am looking for any excuse to distract myself. And it's been a while since I've updated you on my life.

Last week began with another trip to the Upright Citizen's Brigade, which became the best part of my adult life. I saw Amy Poehler perform improv, and Seth Myers touched me. I have never been happier. Seriously.

The week before Thanksgiving was busy at Strasberg. And I'm not sure why.

Wait, scratch that. I know exactly why.

Because Anna Strasberg wanted a Thanksgiving party, for which there was ACTUAL turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing. None of which I ate. Though I provided the pumpkin muffins, and it was agreed that they were a smash. (I feel like there's a really terrible pun there, but I got nothin'.)

Nicholas and I also saw Wishful Drinking, which was AMAZING. Carrie Fisher, talking about her experience as Leia, her experience with being bipolar and her experience with Hollywood Inbreeding. A guaranteed HIGH-larious show. Carrie Fisher was hysterical and she also did the show barefoot.

That right there. That's my dream. Be hysterical and barefoot. Often at the same time.

And then my family arrived! Such fun, such laughs! We had a marvelous time. I was a tourist in my own town, which was fab.

Wednesday: Arrival of the Michigan Voigts. The night before their arrival, my sleep was punctuated by dreams that followed a general theme of me answering my phone and hearing, "Hey Kel, we thought we'd surprise you early at work, and we got off the train at the wrong stop. That sign says 'The Bronx' and some guy just offered us crack..." TERRIFYING. But they made it to Manhattan in one piece (well, three...) and we dined together. Allie saw Times Square for the first time the way it was meant to be seen for the first time...at night. And she experience her first Jamba Juice. She declared a Peanut Butter Moo'd to be delicious. Although, unfortunately Nick and my Jamba dealer, Jesus, was not working, so Al didn't get to meet him.

Thursday: Thanksgiving! I LOVE holidays! We woke up SUPER early to get to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade; we left 305 at about 6:30 in the morning and were three rows in on 42nd St. and 7th Ave. LEGIT. And trying to stay away from my serious bias, I still say the Detroit Parade is better. (This is just like that time we saw the Fourth of July fireworks in Washington DC and the Detroit fireworks were better.) The balloons were really cool and GIANT and I got some awesome pictures, but there wasn't a Briefcase Brigade. SAD. But one day I will walk in this parade dressed as an egg on a tricycle. For no particular reason. Actually, I already have the costume so...

Thanksgiving dinner was also a rousing success, which is good because if it hadn't been, it would have been my fault because I planned it. But it was delish. And the snooty person who answered the phone when I made reservations was not there. Which is good, because I might have kicked him in the shins.

Friday: A bus tour was taken! And it was so fun! I had no idea. I need to get out of my little box of Midtown more often, because we took the downtown loop tour and I saw so many things I had never seen before. I heard someone say the other day, "Why would you voluntarily spend time above 14th St.?" And I might actually agree.

Friday night we saw South Pacific. It was PERFECT. They just don't write musicals like that anymore. Kelli O'Hara was a DREAM as Nellie and the whole production was absolutely marvelous. Even the people in the show who were slightly less than stellar (coughcoughCablecoughcough) - I was willing to forgive them because the rest of the show excellent. LOVED IT.

Saturday: A knee sprain on the part of my mother early in the morn put a damper on this day right quick, but we still managed to have fun with the uptown loop of the hop on/hop off bus tour. I managed to go above 66th St.! Hooray! I made it all the way up to Harlem and the Apollo Theatre. So far uptown! Look at me, takin' the town by a storm.

And then we headed over to North Bergen, NJ: The Restaurant Capital of the East Coast. Except NOT. We drove around for approximately 39823759187 hours before finding an Applebee's. I actually FELL ASLEEP during this process. That's how difficult it was to find a restaurant that wasn't an IHOP or something that doubled as a crackhouse once it got dark.

All in all, it was a successful visit. I had a super lot of fun. Except for the part where the fam was leaving and my mom said, "See you in three weeks, love you."

!!! <-- You are meant to regard this as that motion that I do where I flail my hands and look upset, confused, defiant and slightly indignant all at once.

Three weeks??? Where did the time go? I am NOT ready to go home. I am excited to see my friends and family and for Christmas and everything, but I want to do that for a while, and then move back to Manhattan. I can't wait two more years to be back here!

So I've decided to just deny that I'm going home for an extended period of time. Denial - not just a river in Egypt.

Yesterday, we also saw arguably the worst Broadway show EVER: After Miss Julie. Sienna Miller was so terrible that I want her to take the part of her bio that says, "Studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute" OUT. She was abysmal. Atrocious. A blight on the theatre community.

And there was basically nothing redeeming about the production. I could literally tear it apart, because it was awful. It was an hour and a half, and I walked out thinking it was at least three hours of my life down the drain.

Sum of my life: busy. And some of my classes end next week, which is CRAZY. I don't want it to end! I love my classes, and I love my teachers and I love Strasberg. But all good things come to an end. Sad news.

But I'll be back home soon, brimming with stories and Christmas cheer. Hooray!

Love, Kelly

Non-Theatrical Day!

I'm waiting for my scene partner to show up (her favorite activity is rehearsing at the most inopportune time EVER). And so I will therefore update on my life.

Our conversations tend to go like this:
Kelly: When are you free to rehearse this week?
Scene Partner: Ummm, well, how about on Monday and Tuesday?
Kelly: Perfect. I'm done at 5:30 on those days. Right after I get out of class?
Scene Partner: Wellll...I was thinking maybe on Tuesday morning. At about 7:30, so we have time to rehearse before class at nine?
Kelly: ...They have a 7:30 in the morning too??? I thought there was just one at night.

I don't think Scene Partner realizes that when we rehearse at 7:30, I have to wake up at 6:00. Yikes. Remember high school? Remember when I woke up early every day? Thank GOD that's over.

This week was mucho fun. Good things happened in rapid succession.

On Tuesday, Nick and I ventured to Pace University with the rest of the Strasberg Institute to see the taping of Inside the Actors Studio with Kate Hudson. It was...okay. I kinda hated Kate Hudson (except in Almost Famous), and I still don't love her, but she's better now. Of the women in that family, I much prefer Goldie (First Wives Club, anyone?).

And I would have preferred that they ask her more questions about her actual acting method, rather than about being the spawn of Goldie Hawn (which not only rhymes, but is also something I desperately desire for myself). They never really asked her what her process is for developing a character, or how she approaches a role. So it wasn't so much Inside the Actors Studio as it was Inside Kate Hudson's Family. Psuedo-intriguing, but not what I was looking for.

And Wednesday was the Culmination of my Adult Life. WE SAW THE TYRA BANKS SHOW. Oh. My. God. She is on crack. And I LOVE it.

The day started with getting to walk through the Tyra Door, and then being told to fill out a card with interesting facts about myself. This presented a problem for me. I am overflowing with interesting facts about myself when they are unnecessary (I have never been stung by a bee! I dream in color unless it's a dream about something that has already happened to me and then it's in black and white! I have won lots of spelling bees! I can read mirror writing and upside down just as fast as normally!) but give me a pen and paper and tell me to write interesting facts and I have very few.

I was also limited by the fact that I was concerned that Tyra was going to try to involve my interesting facts in her show (that ruled out anything involving the piano, singing, performing in any way, shape or form or anything that has to do with my nonverbal communication skillz). So I was slightly limited.

The shows were bizarre, but not as crazy as Tyra can get. One of them had a theme of Makeover! and the other had a very loose theme of Body Image. There was a woman who keeps getting plastic surgery sans anesthesia to save money. Crazy woman say whaaat???

And Nick won a dance competition. He won a dance competition against three black chicks and a Latina. I have never been prouder. Should I be called upon to give a speech at Nick's wedding/graduation/deathbed (which is something I will be doing, regardless of whether or not anyone has asked me to), I will recall that moment.

Wednesday, I finally got to see a show of Michael's! The first since...Little Shop of Horrors, circa 2007? Blast from the past, right there. The show was marvelous, and I was very excited. I can't wait until I move back here and we actually get to see all of each other's shows. Yay hooray! Plus I went alone, which is a big step for me. I don't often do things alone (eat, attend shows/movies, sit and do nothing...). So let's all take a moment and be proud of Kelly for taking a Big Step Forward. Haha.

Also on Wednesday, Ed and I had our "second date", seeing Spliterheads in Union Square. Thank Zeus it was fo' free. Because it was not good AT ALL. If anyone ever asks you if you want to watch Splinterheads, say no and go home and do your homework instead; you'll have more fun that way.

Thursday/Friday was also the midnight showing of the new Twilight movie. FUNNIEST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN. I don't know if I couldn't find a plot because I haven't read the books or because there isn't one, but it was terribly written, the acting was even worse and Kevin and I spent the entire time making inappropriate jokes. None of which I will repeat. Wildly inappropriate.

A good time was had by all. Except probably for the girls who were there to actually scream at the Lizard Man. They were slightly upset, I imagine. I also found this HILARIOUS.

Dana Tarantino will probably be thrilled that so little theatre has been seen this week. Although this is mostly because of a person named Anthony Vasquez, who wins EVERY LOTTERY IN TOWN. I swear to God, he follows Nick around and wins instead of him. Still furious.

And also: I don't have to set an alarm tomorrow. Mere words cannot explain how thrilling this is to me. Hooray!

The fam arrives in T minus four days. CAN'T WAIT. The Voigt Family Does Manhattan is sure to be an instant hilarious classic, warming hearts and touching souls across the nation.

Either that or we'll wreak havoc. Jury's still out on that one.
Miss you all! Love, Kelly

New Obsession Day!

New obsession: blogging. As a concept, as an activity, as a way of life.

Haha. Sometimes I crack myself up.

Point of the story: this is really for my benefit anyway, so that a year from now I can go back and read what on earth was happening while I was here. But it's also sort of a life update. Sort of.

Plus also: I'm a sell-out. I got a Twitter. And I'm pretty sure it will be taking over my life. I love that I can update from my phone. Yikes. I might suddenly become obsessed with what Ellen Degeneres is doing today, or what Jason Segal is thinking. I may or may not have a problem.

Anyway, busy weekend. Sort of. It was a lot of busy surrounded by a lot of sitting around and doing literally nothing.

As I said, Friday was another Hair day. Saturday morning was a combination of my final audition seminar and my first real audition! Hooray!

Amanda and I went to Chelsea Studios early Saturday morning to sign up for an audition time, making sure that we would be late enough for us to get to Seminar and back. So we talked to the audition monitor, signed our names up as numbers 46 and 47 and trotted up to our seminar.

The seminar was fine. I was allowed to keep the monologue that I originally chose for myself, rather than being assigned a different one (which I might have preferred, actually, because I am always looking for new monologues to work on - my goal for the end of senior year is to be able to perform twenty because of this article: http://www.monologueaudition.com/ma_why-20.htm).

I don't feel like I learned a ton of things from this seminar. I think it mostly just confirmed everything that I already thought about auditions. But it was nice to have that at least. Kathy (the woman running the seminar) went over my resume and told me what to change, and told me that I was too still during my monologue, and needed to allow for organic movement. She's probably right; I am always wary of moving for the sake of moving, and I think I end up erring on the other side, where I look like a talking 2 x 4.

After Amanda and I did our monologues for class, we immediately peaced out and ran back to Chelsea Studios to...wait for hours on end. Seriously. When people tell you that an open call involves waiting around all day, THEY ARE NOT KIDDING. I could have used that time to write my NYAP journal, jog around the block, memorize a whole new monologue, write a novel and fix the economy. Seriously. WE WAITED FOREVER.

All for this:
Kelly: Hello, ny name is Kelly Rose Voigt and I will be doing a monologue from All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. [hands over headshot/resume]
Auditor: Whenever you're ready.
Kelly: [insert monologue here] Thank you.
Auditor: Yes, thank you.

Haha, at the end was a distinct tone of Don't call us, we'll call you. Just as I expected. I'm not too broken up about it. Actually, being cast would have been horribly inconvenient, because I would have had to take a semester off school and find someplace else to live in New York and it would have been a lot of work.

But SUPER awesome at the same time.

And that was my first audition experience. Hooray! I've got one rejection down; hopefully not too many more to go.

The rest of the day was lame. I was on-call again, because Sally's family is here, so I'll be off for the next two weeks, so I can spend T-giving with the fam. Hooray! I'm already getting SUPER EXCITED for them to arrive. I've never been away from home for this long, and it's starting to drive me a little crazy. I miss my bed, I miss my dog, I miss my desk and piano and DVR and family room couch and access to salsa and velveeta dip and car and shower with actual water pressure and mom and dad and sister and stuffed animals and space to store all the crap I own and all my books and having someone else do the grocery shopping and multi-colored walls and also a million other things.

But it's a weird homesick: one that doesn't want to go home at all, but also wants to go home just to be there for five minutes. But I don't want to move away from Manhattan ever. Kind of an inner conflict with myself.

Another new obsession = Upright Citizen's Brigade. I've been wanting to go for a long time, but I've been busy for many Sundays in a row. Today I finally managed to make it and TOTALLY LOVED IT. Chevy Chase was there, as well as a few other New York stand-up artists and it was HILARIOUS.

Plus also, at the very end, they gave away a couple of pairs of tickets to a movie screening that two of the performers are in. To determine who got them, they asked if anyone in the audience was on a first date and wanted to have a second one. My friend Ed, sitting next to me, immediately grabbed my hand and raised our hands in the air. So we got tickets! Hooray! Plus also now we're in love, haha. (This is a joke.)

Tomorrow in class, Jessica and I will be doing our scene. We rehearsed today as well, and I think we're going to be great. Because performing in Irma's class without practicing and adding sense-memory is like trying to put together an IKEA bookshelf with just the instructions. Written in the original Swedish. You have a vague idea what on earth is going on, but you're basically left with a few pieces feebly hammered together and no explanation for what is supposed to happen next. Bad news bears. (See description of her class a few weeks back.)

But we should be fabulous. Also up this week: a trip to see the taping of Inside the Actor's Studio, a taping of The Tyra Banks Show, Michael's show at NYU, "second date" with Edward and the midnight showing of the Twilight movie where I will probably spend most of the time either a) confused about the plot - or lack thereof or b) laughing at the terrifically bad acting or even c) laughing at the crazy thirteen-year-olds screaming at that one guy who looks like a lizard and a hobo had a child with crazy cheekbones. Should be a marvelous time.
Love always, Kelly

PS: I know this is kind of unnecessary, but I like blogging. So I will, even if I don't really have anything to say. So there.

Lottery-Winning Day!

I've seen three musicals this week, and I do NOT hate it. A good time was had by all.

After seeing Next to Normal (see previous post), Nick and I spent a few days doing a whole lot of nothing. Which was actually really nice. Although it probably would have been smart of me to have used that time to actually do something like memorize a few monologues or memorized some scenes or just basic memorization. Haha - that's basically all I do. I lead a sad existence.

So after spending Tuesday and Wednesday basically hanging out at home and watching Glee or lots of unnecessary episodes of Tool Academy, we decided it was necessary to see another show. (Dana Tarantino would be furious - she told both Nick and me in fairly uncertain terms that we had theatre-itis and needed to experience more culture. We took this to mean "Go to the Met one day, and then see more Broadway.")

So we tried the lottery for In the Heights. And I won! Hooray! Nick decided he was gonna show up late, so he was lucky I was there and that I took some Felix Felicis. I love winning lotteries. There is no other feeling that having someone draw out a piece of paper and hesitatingly say, "KELLY...Vo-it?" A wondrous feeling. Although I think that because you endured the agony of waiting (this is mostly just for In the Heights, where the girl takes her SWEET time pulling out names, and then stops and contemplates why she was put on this earth in between each one), you should be allowed to choose where you sit so you aren't always all up in the grill of the Broadway stars. Let's also agree not to discuss the run-on potential of that last sentence. It's cutting it close.

In the Heights was fabulous. Made me wish I were Hispanic, haha. We had an understudy for one of the main guys and I didn't even know, which was nice because I didn't go into the show thinking, "Oh, understudy. Lame." I sometimes feel superbad for the understudies because everyone walks into the show assuming that they just aren't going to be very good. But when you think about it, they still work for a Broadway production. It's not like they are street performers. Still legit.

I was fascinated with the set for In the Heights. It takes place in Washington Heights, way uptown (which is interesting for me, because I've never been farther uptown that about 80th St, and this took place at 189th St). And the level of detail to the set was AMAZING. They had an ATM. They put graffiti on everything. The neon sign flickered. There were subway signs. It was exquisite.

The only weird thing about the show was because we were in the front row and we could see the actors in detail. One of the main girls is supposed to be returning from her first year of college (therefore about 19 years old) and it was clear she far too old for any of the undergraduate nonsense.

And today, Nick won the Hair lottery! So against my better judgment, I chose not to do all the work I need to get done and joined him for a second performance of Hair. I still couldn't see, which was the most disappointing thing in the world. What happens in the Broadway production of Hair center stage and stage left? I have no idea. I am all about the activities that take place down right, however. Got that stuff MEMORIZED.

And it was my second Broadway debut. Hooray! Now I just need to wait for my Broadway debut with actual lines and blocking and curtain call. That'll be a good day too.

At work this week, I did a whole bunch of unnecessary things. They've started giving me a lot of free reign with what I do throughout the day. And I've realized the reason that they all have to work all the time: it's because they don't get anything done throughout the day. A random sampling of the bizarre things I did this week:
1. Watching Donna draw a Thanksgiving dinner on a dry-erase board. Which I followed up by drawing my own turkey, outlining my open hand and coloring it in. Oh the nostalgia.
2. Rubbing Pat's shoulders
3. Accompanying Pat to JC Penney in Harold Square so she could buy a winter coat. I served as fashion consultant.
4. Carrying approximately 8371947139 boxes up six flights of stairs and organizing the 19875198237698619384 files in the 8371947139 boxes alphabetically.
5. Printing my own headshot on Strasberg's photo paper
6. Convincing Amanda that she is not crazy (this was done about eight times a day)
7. Watching Aaron (the other intern - the legit one who gets paid) do laps around the office because he is an unnecessary member of the office and doesn't have enough to do to fill the day. I think I'm going to start some kind of betting pool where we guess how many times he will pass the windows.
8. Planning Lee Strasberg's birthday party for November 17th. (He died in 1982. Has anyone told Anna Strasberg?)

Ridiculous. My job is bizarre. But I love it.

And tomorrow I have my final audition seminar, where we get to perform for Dana Tarantino, Kathy Rossiter (the woman who ran the seminar) and Mama Linda (the woman who basically RUNS the New York Arts Program).

Following which, I will be going on MY FIRST REAL AUDITION. Amanda and I will be heading over to audition for a national tour of a stage production of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I'm pretty excited. I don't have any serious expectations about this and am expecting some rejection, but I'm excited for the experience. It'll give me an idea of what life will be like in two years (not that I'm talking about moving on into the real world - because I'm trying to convince myself that we'll be in college forever).

But wish me some serious broken legs anyway! I mostly just don't want to look like a fool in front of real casting directors. Yikes!
Love always,
Kelly

PS: Did you know that plants, like people, can get fevers when they are sick? How does that even work???

Next Day!

What did I do with myself for the last week of my life? That's a good question. I have no idea. Time passed quickly, some shows were seen and I have no idea how an entire week went by.

Early in the week, my friend Sally got comp tickets to Oleanna through her internship at EST, so I was her plus one. I'm very proud of David Mamet, because he currently has two shows on Broadway. New goal for myself: star in a Broadway show and have a show that I wrote running on Broadway. Best of both worlds. So A-1 Dave!

Oleanna was very good. It's a he-said/she-said story in which the girl comes across as CRAZY because she accuses a professor of sexual harrassment when he clearly never touched her, and the afteraffects of that accusation. Very interesting. But it's written in typical Mamet-style, so the dialogue is very rapid and half-finished. The main complaint that I had with the show was that Julia Stiles stalled the rhythm a few times, which was no good. She had lines that were written to be cut off, but she didn't have anything to say past what was written, so it sounded awkward. But it was ninety minutes with no intermission, which is Nick and my preferred method of seeing a show, haha. But you can give me Save the Last Dance or 10 Things I Hate About You any day of the week.

On Friday, Nick and I saw In the Next Room (or the vibrator play). Yup, it's about what you think it's about. (And the parenthetical statement there is actually in the title of the play - I'm not just elaborating for your benefit or indulging myself in my love for parenthetical statements.) It's by Sarah Ruhl, who is one of my recently-discovered new favorite playwrights. Her plays are funny and engaging and touching and beautiful. This play took place in the late 1800s and it talked about the cures used to fix "hysteria" in women before the turn of the century. Very interesting because it was also historically accurate. And the end of the play was poignant and beautiful. Highly recommended. And it SNOWED. I'm a sucker for precipitation on stage. And clearly so is Broadway this season.

The rest of the weekend was nondescript. I was on call on Saturday, and Nick worked all day, so I spent most of the day doing nothing. I had my seminar in the morning, and we worked our monologues for the first time. Everybody did really well, so it was a successful seminar. I got the first line of mine out then completely BLANKED and had to start over, which was not cool. Let's hope I never do that in a real audition. For real.

(Speaking of: I'm going to a real audition on Saturday! Non-equity open call for a national tour of Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing. Children's theatre? Ummm, I'll take a paycheck.)

Saturday night Nick was still working, so I spent the evening watching the Farmington High School Marching Band perform at States. I was able to stream the performance live online, which was AMAZING. I am SO PROUD of my little seestor.

And Sunday I got to spend some time with Adam Cuthbert, blast from the past from high school. He was performing in New York as part of GVSU's New Music Ensemble, so we got a chance to walk around the city and I kept him from getting horribly lost. I also saw his performance which was crazy, unusual, new and fun, but mostly crazy.

Most importantly: today. GRAND DAY. My scene partner and I did a half-and-half of our scene and it REAFFIRMED why I do theatre. It was amazing. SO MUCH FUN. And I've always had trouble with anger on stage and making it real instead of a flat, contrived anger. IT HAPPENED TODAY. For literally twenty minutes after finishing the scene, I still kept feeling the adrenaline rush and my whole body was shaking. It was amazing. And Irma loved it, so don't worry - I didn't cry this week, haha.

And then we went to the Next to Normal lottery and Nick's name was the first one called! And my name was the eighth one called, so I didn't even need the tickets! So we got to see Next to Normal and it was FANTASTIC. Alice Ripley is still INSANE, but she has got a serious set of pipes. For real.

The story was devastating and haunting and beautifully written and the two females in the show were the epitome of perfect. LOVED IT.

Following which, we were on our way to Jamba Juice when we saw that the Bernadette Peters Benefit had just let out of the Minskoff Theatre next door. So we hung out for a while and took some photos of: Martin Short, Mary Tyler Moore and BERNADETTE.

All in all, BEST DAY EVER.

Still missing you all! Love, Kelly

PS: Sad news - I ended my last post with the plan to see Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. Unfortunately we did not get tickets. But we plan on seeing Turandot next week. And everybody loves some good Puccini.

PPS: The title is a reference to the fact that I saw two shows with "Next" in the title. Not that this is being written on the next day. There was apparently some confusion, haha.

Halloweekend Day!

This week has been quite long, but culminated in the BEST HOLIDAY TO CELEBRATE IN NEW YORK. I love Halloween. For real.

To start at the beginning of the week:

On Tuesday, Nick and I saw Memphis, which is a new musical that recently opened. I thought it was really good. It takes place in Memphis, obvi, in the 1950s, and was written by David Bryan (of Bon Jovi fame). It tells the story of Huey Calhoun, the first DJ to play music by black artists on a major radio station. The choreography was brilliant and the songs were amazing. I was very emotionally attached to all the characters, even though the dialogue in between all the songs was slightly sparse. It was still marvelous. (First act better than the second however. Not by a lot, but all the conflict happened and resolved in the first act, and then there was a tiny bit of new conflict later. Which is bizarre, and made the show feel slightly lopsided.)

On Friday, the RAs of the 305 threw a smashin' Halloween party. I basically used this as an excuse to throw another Albion College Players Halloween party, haha. We ate candy and cupcakes, Single Ladies was played on repeat, costumes were judged and certificates were given (literally the exact same ones I printed last year for Players with the name changed) and most importantly...doughnuts on a string! It was a knee-slappin, rip-roarin' good time. Fun fact: Nick won Most Creative costume again. How does he do it???

And Saturday...Halloween!!! The day started off normally, with a whole lot of doin' nothin', but became chaotic at about 4:30 when we all realized we needed to eventually get into costume. For we were heading to the parade! Reference: http://halloween-nyc.com/. Anyone in costume is allowed to walk in the parade; unfortunately, my costume as Little Edie Beale was slightly unrecognizable (I looked vaguely Islamic which is slightly offensive and also just unnecessary).

Something else unfortunate: it was a perfect evening to sing Don't Rain On My Parade. It poured. Buckets. Sheets and sheets of rain came down and I was completely soaked and my feet hurt and it was very sad. But I was in the parade and that was super fun. There were some AMAZING costumes (my personal favorites: Jon and Kate + 8 and Legends of the Hidden Temple) and the floats were pretty cool. And it was mostly just a really fun experience to have.

Because Halloween in New York is crazy. Everyone dresses up. Everyone. There were people of all ages and all walks of life at this parade. I clearly did not get the memo that you are supposed to go all-out on your costume, because I basically dressed out of my closet. I was unaware that you are supposed to plan your costume for MONTHS and spend hundreds of dollars. Ooops.

All in all, I count it as a successful Halloween. Hopefully, next time I'm here it will not steadily rain throughout the festivities. Cross your fingers.

And today was a Two-Show-Day, which is my favorite kind. First we went to the matinee and closing performance of Brighton Beach Memoirs.

It was amazing. I'm scared of committing to this phrase but: I think it may be my favorite Broadway show. I literally cannot explain how amazing this show was. The entire cast was flawless, individually and as an ensemble. The relationships between the characters: brother to brother, father to son, mother to son, cousin to cousin - all perfect. The set was absolutely beautiful - they built a house onstage. Literally, a house.

The only complaint I have is one light cue. That's it.

It's completely devastating that it's closing after only nine performances. Stupid modern audiences don't want to see straight plays anymore and stupid tourists can really only be counted on to go see Big Broadway Musicals. So straight plays struggle and something not good like Finian's Rainbow can get rave reviews and survive while Brighton Beach Memoirs doesn't get enough ticket sales to continue.

Plus also I met Neil Simon. Who is the most adorable, grandfatherly man ever. And I idolize him, haha. Awkward moment in Kelly's Life: Neil Simon came out of the theater and Nick, Amanda and I had no idea who he was. We just kept asking, really loud, "Who on earth is that random man everyone is stampeding? Why would they want him to sign their Playbills?" And a man finally took pity on us and hissed, "That's Neil Simon." Haha, we were kind of awkward. But I basically love Neil (yeah, I call him Neil). I forget how fabulous his writing is, especially because it's the kind of writing that needs to be said aloud to get the timing and humor and everything. MARVELOUS.

And then we followed it by watching a performance of Still Life. Ummmm, if anyone ever asks you, "Would you rather watch Still Life or break your own collarbones with a crescent wrench?" you should think long and hard about that decision. Well, I exaggerate. But it wasn't good. And I am seriously in the minority when it comes to that opinion because everyone around us loved it. At one point during the show, I audibly said, "So unnecessary" and the guy behind me said, "So intense." Ummm, I beg to differ.

A few samples of the show's quality:
1. It was impossible to determine the character's names. Somehow they never really came up during the first act, which made it impossible to match a bio to an actor.
2. A few completely unnecessary dream sequences with the main character's dead father.
3. A throwback to a 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress moment, when one of the characters just pulled out a little bag of cocaine. For real???
4. The show managed to mix together a womanizing prick, a feminist argument, cancer, father issues, drugs, the downhill slope of the American culture and a huge relationship-betrayal and fear of commitment. SYSTEM OVERLOAD.

The saving grace of the whole Still Life experience? It was at the Lucille Lortel Theater, which is the one with all the stars of famous people outside. And that's just a good time.

Plan for tomorrow: seeing Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. Hooray!
Miss you all! Love, Kelly

Cultural Day!

Here's the thing: very little has happened in my life since I last updated, but Nick writes in his blog all the time and I have no idea how he does it.

So my new plan: chatter like a monkey until I have absolutely nothing left to say. And beat Nick. (With a stick as well as in Number-of-Legit-Blog-Entries.)

This weekend was semi-busy. Saturday morning was largely spent in an activity I like to call Waiting for Nick to Wake Up. Followed by a wonderful trip to The Met, which was AMAHZING.

The easiest way to describe The Met is GINORMOUS. Literally. You walk in, and there are rooms and rooms with little offshoots of rooms on either side of you, which have hallways to other rooms and it's this huge labyrinthine mess that is IMPOSSIBLE to navigate. (They have maps everywhere, but I cannot think spatially, and maps need to be oriented like the layout or I just can't figure it out. Ergo, useless maps.)

I always forget how much I like museums. I was just at the DIA this summer and I had already forgotton how much I like museums. Nick and I started in Greek and Roman art and it always shocks me that something manages to last for so long. Thousands and thousands of years, and sculpture is still intact (well, often sans nose. But hey).

Think about it for a second. Thousands of years. Wow. And the detail on sculpture is incredible. A woman's feet actually looked like feet. There was a bust of a head and the guy's lips were slightly parted and you could see the teeth. The detail was enough that you could see the tips of teeth inside his mouth! Wow.

We also got to see a special exhibit of Vermeer, which was amahzing as well. Vermeer painted Girl with a Pearl Earring. He's most noted for painting women and girls performing ordinary and daily tasks. I'm using this painting for my acting exercise in class on Tuesday: http://wahooart.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-6WHL79/$File/G.jpg (Also, please note that this website is called Wahoo Art. That just sounds like a good time.)

We spent some time looking at Impressionists and saw some Rodin, Claudel, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Seurat (disappointing lack of that painting from Sunday in the Park with George--it's in Chicago and I'm slightly upset about it). We saw some artist self-portraits (think Andy Warhol) and some intriguing photos taken by a man who traveled around the US and photographed average Americans. There were some photos from the Detroit area, but none in places that I recognized.

Case in point: Nick and I probably saw less than half of The Met. Which is probably for the best, because he almost destroyed a painting (accidentally, he says, but I've heard him rant and rave about art and how much he hates it. You should hear him: "Artists! Pah! I'll show you art!" [At this point he makes an obscene gesture.] It's really quite insensitive of him.). But we'll go back and pay less money this time. Recommended prices, bee tea double you, are my new favorite things.

And then, after our day of immersing ourselves in culture and high class, we went home and watched a made-for-MTV movie called My Super Psycho Sweet 16, which is like the TV show except with a psycho killer and a lot more blood.

LEGIT.

And today was a whole lot of nothing followed by a spur of the moment venture to see if tickets for Mary Poppins were available. They were. We partook. And I really liked it. My fam did not enjoy when they saw it in Chi-town, but the cast was great and the choreography was so fun. And Mary Poppins flew! SO CLOSE TO US. I COULD HAVE REACHED OUT AND TOUCHED HER AND WE WERE IN THE FRONT ROW OF THE MEZZANINE. That's far away from the stage. She was flyin' like CRAZY.

Plus also the set was brilliant. Literally brilliant. It rotated and moved and went up and down and there were about 9873249817359187 screens in about a .000000003 foot space and it was designed with this crazy economy of space but attention to detail that literally blew my mind.

And Christian Borle (formerly married to Sutton Foster, which was the cutest Broadway couple ever before their divorce, which is just sad) tap-danced UPSIDE DOWN ON THE CEILING. So legit.

So I dunno what my crazy fam was thinkin', but I liked Mary Poppins.

And if anyone has any Halloween costume suggestions, I would love to hear them! Hooray!
Love, Kelly