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.