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

Postage Day!

This week has been a lot of the usual. A few classes, a bit of Broadway, ya know.

Work has been pretty same old. I'm still doing a lot of filing and a lot of organizing. Which I love, because I would be hard-pressed to find a chart or graph that I don't like. Nick and I were talking about that the other day, and how fulfilling a good graph can be. True story.

This week began with my Irma Sandrey acting class, which was quite possibly the most humbling experience of my entire life. My scene partner and I did a scene at the end of a play called Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. And my teacher TORE IT APART. I have never gotten that much criticism in ten minutes in my life. It was awful. She talked about how obviously my scene partner and I weren't ready, and it was clear that I had not worked hard enough and I wasn't doing any of the exercises that had been assigned. At the end, she found some nice things to say, but it was still devastating. However, I managed to wait until AFTER class to cry though, so my class didn't have to see that. Let's talk about things that would be awkward.

1. Asking a woman who is not pregnant when her baby is due.

2. Being recognized by someone who clearly knows you well whose name who just can't recall

3. Crying in front of your entire acting class and seasoned-Broadway performer and teacher Irma Sandrey.

Yikes. No good.

Point of the story: in retrospect, I'm glad I got the criticism. I needed it. I don't get very many objective opinions at Albion, and I think that even though classes here are ridiculously difficult, I will come home a better performer because of it. So it's legit.

The next day, my other scene went much better, even though my scene partner had a minor freak-out onstage when she mixed up a few lines. She was a lot more upset about it than I was, because I just switched what I had to say to match her questions but she got slightly confused. Whatev. My movement teacher told me I have a wonderful stage presence and my singing teacher liked my singing and told me what to work on for next week.

Plus also I learned a Cockney accent. Ergo, I will never again be speaking in American English.

We also saw Finian's Rainbow and West Side Story this week. (The first was compliments of the New York Arts Program. Thanks Dana Tarantino!) Finian's Rainbow was abound with some terrible Irish accents and a lot of very similar sounding songs, but it wasn't bad. The best part was that at the end, a circular arc downstage lit up like a rainbow. So fulfilling. Also please take note of Nick's garb - he dressed for the occasion with my (semi) rainbow scarf tied as a tie - as scarves always should be. Clearly Sally and I did not get the memo. I also didn't get the memo of Dress-Nice-For-This-Show-Guys, because I came directly from class. Which was sad.


And West Side Story was really good. The lights were great and the girl who played Anita was FANTASTIC. A lot more of the show was done in Spanish, which was very interesting. Sad for me, because I didn't actually understand it, but the actors did a very good job of portraying what they were saying even though it wasn't in English. And having the Puerto Ricans speak in Spanish allowed them to keep part of their culture and make them seem less of the bad guys (this is a paraphrase from an article about the show - I did not think of that myself, I just happen to agree with it). Plus also I was mostly just rooting for Karen Olivo, who was amazing as Anita. For real.


Yesterday a few of us went to go see Where the Wild Things Are. AMAZING. LOVED IT. But of course I did: that's the kind of movie that is basically made for me to love. And of course I cried, because I'll cry at anything: stubbed toe, traffic, spilled milk etc.

And tomorrow is my first day of my new seminar, which is an audition clinic. I'm pretty excited, because you can never learn too much about auditioning. Hooray! And then Nick and I are going to go to the Met (-ropolitan Museum of Art, not -ropolitan Opera). I'm very excited. Part of my homework for acting this week is to pick a painting and memorize every detail so we can do a sensory memory exercise based on the painting. So I will memorize a painting that I really like, then in class on Tuesday, I will imitate the painting and create the surroundings and story of whoever the subject is.

And I would like to thank the three people who FINALLY mailed me things! They all arrived on one day and it was the MOST EXCITING THING EVER!!! So thanks Aunt Pat, Ruth and Allie! You guys are the BEST.
Miss you all! Love, Kelly

Touristy Day!

For a summary of my life recently, I would recommend some serious Facebook stalking. Friends, I know it will be difficult, but I have faith that you are all experienced stalkers, and you have developed the stamina required to look through the million pictures.

Because it was a Weekend of Epic Proportions (TM). Diane Laban, Scott Laban and Beka Kroesing all came, and took the city by a storm. I could go into intimate detail, but that would literally be eleven million paragraphs and I don't think any of you are really that interested.

The most interesting thing that happened to me this week was that my Monday acting class was taught by Anna Strasberg. Yes, THE Anna Strasberg. Of Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute fame. (She's Lee Strasberg's widow.)

It was the most amazing experience of my life. She is the most vibrant, energetic, passionate, elegant and present person I have ever met. She goes off on tangents, but I don't even care because I learn SO MUCH. We played Red Light, Green Light during class, and froze at the red light parts to show that sometimes we really do move our bodies in weird ways, and to see what it's like to have coiled and reined-in energy at our disposal. She had me do an improv based on a Hemingway play and told me I did really well.

It was incredible. She's amazing. And my favorite quote of the class (if you haven't seen my Facebook status): "Now, I know you kids know how to move your hips. I see you, listening to your Bruce Springsteen...he brings out something crazy." RIDICULOUS.

The rest of the week was business as usual, until the weekend. Nick's fam showed up on Thursday (which was awesome because I FINALLY got to see Scott, my favorite Laban brother). And then on Saturday morning, Beka arrived!!! Hooray!

I kicked off the weekend with my attempts to get to the airport. As is the status quo when either Anne or I (or, heaven forbid, both of us) try to travel somewhere, it is ALWAYS MORE DIFFICULT FOR US. Subways are basically no longer running on the weekend. And the people who work for MTA are NOT HELPFUL. I scampered over the entire island of Manhattan before calling Nick and waking him up and having him help me find a working subway station. I should really get a GPS on my phone or something.

So when Beka and I were reunited (approximately an hour after we should have been), the day began. We dropped off Beka's stuff, went to lunch with the Laban clan and headed off to take the Staten Island Ferry.

I'm pretty sure people just like the ferry. There isn't anything on Staten Island. I actually had no intention of actually getting off the ferry. I just wanted to ride it right back home. This was not an option, but I did not leave the ferry area. The boat ride was a good (and windy) time however.

Saturday also brought a sobering trip to Ground Zero, a jaunt around Greenwich Village (where we gazed upon apartments we will never be able to afford, but would LOVE to steal) and a long and hard search for Little Italy. The search was eventually fruitful when we found a wonderful Italian restaurant where we were led through a dark hallway that was sketch to the maximum before emerging in a really nice restaurant.

Saturday night we also went to the top of the Empire State Building late at night, a la Sleepless in Seattle. Except for there were tons of people there and I did not fall in love whilst up there. Except with Beka. It was cold and windy and expensive and a long line, but totally worth it. We saw the Flatiron Building and the Chrysler Building and other famous buildings, and Nick and I found our building! Hooray! This was mostly exciting, because I like anything that reminds me that I live in New York City. I am obsessed with this concept, because it is still a little hard to wrap my mind around.

On Sunday, Beka saw her first Broadway show in the form of Shrek: The Musical. A good time was had by all, and Beka got to meet Broadway stars at the stage door later. Nick and I were stood up by Sutton Foster for the third time (!) and I was not thrilled. I had an elaborate plan in which I told her that I am from Troy (because she is from Troy) and when she asked me about it, I would answer as if I were my cousin. Alas. Alack.

Plus also on Sunday we frolicked in Central Park, which is always one of my favorite activities. It was the last nice day of the season, and Beka and I managed to fit in Strawberry Fields, the Alice in Wonderland statue, Belvedere Castle, the Turtle pond and the Great Lawn. Plus she was fascinated by the street performers.

On Monday I had to go to class (see above), but Nick and Beka ran around the city like maniacs. However, I did not go to class until after going to The Today Show that morning, where we saw a small child perform. He is approximately 14 and beloved in the 10-14 year old girl demographic. Those girls were CRAZY. Seriously. Why weren't they in school???

The rest of this week has been pretty normal. The New York Musical Theatre Festival is going on, and Nick and I saw In Therapy with Celine earlier this week. This is a musical based on the music of Celine Dion.

Life just doesn't get any better.

To clarify, this musical does not take itself seriously. I have never laughed so hard in my life.

We also saw Open the Dark Door today, which was very good. It needs a little work before being professionally produced either on or off Broadway, but it was still very enjoyable. And tomorrow we will be seeing Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which is an ensemble piece in which the actors perform 30 two-minutes plays, chosen from a list of...I don't know. A lot more. Tres exciting. Especially because the tickets were free. Unfortunately, the show is at 10:30 and the theatre is a forty minute walk away. Eeek. No fun.

I know I promise this every time, but I really am going to try to update this more regularly. Not even for your sake. I'm concerned that in six months I'm going to read over this and want to remember what I did while I was in New York and my reactions to being here and I just won't have anything real written. Because I go so long in between updating that all I can do is give a quick summary of everything, rather than go into the detail that I would love to have.

So we'll see how it goes. I'm very busy, especially until Tuesday of next week, but hopefully I manage to get more done.

Remember to mail me things. Seriously. None of you has taken me up on that yet. Lamefaces.
Love, Kelly

Lesson Day!

No longer sick! Yay hooray! Let's all breathe a sigh of relief, mostly out of happiness that we can all breathe through our noses AND our mouths! How novel!

On a completely different note...

I feel like sometimes this blog ends up inadequately describing this New York experience. I think it comes across as slightly random and haphazard (obviously a rather apt way of describing my life), but that isn't necessarily my intention.

Living here is amazing and scary and exciting and exhilirating and inspiring and exhausting and might be the best thing that has ever happened to me. Part of me is actually slightly upset that I've kind of set into a routine, because I'm scared that it means that I'm not actually truly taking advantage of everything I possibly can.

Part of me knows that the fact that I have seen so many shows and made so many great new friends and learned so many things from my teachers and that I go to bed truly exhausted every night means that I'm taking advantage.

But there's another nagging part of me that thinks that I need to stop staying in every Wednesday so that I can watch Glee, or that I should literally only be at home between the hours of midnight and eight AM. Which is obviously impossible, but I still think that.

But, I give you...

Things I Have Learned From Living in New York (Part I):
1. Everybody smokes.
I say this with no exaggeration. Literally. Everybody. It almost makes me want to take up smoking so that what I inhale isn't second-hand. At least then it'll be my choice! But it is impossible to walk down the street without walking behind, next to and in front of someone smoking. Classes have cigarette breaks. People are incapable of doing a task for more than an hour because they need a cigarette. I feel a little left out, until I remember what it is exactly that they are doing (breathing in tar).

2. Everybody looks beautiful, all the time.
It doesn't matter where you are going, or what you are going to do when you get there. Going to the theatre requires the same outfit, shoes and makeup as going to the grocery store on a Saturday morning. Walking around in sweatpants Just Isn't Done.

3. All stores have multiple floors.
This one took me a long time to learn, actually. I had some confusing days when I simply got angry at stores. I walked into a Duane Reade (a store similar to a combination of CVS and Target that's only in New York) just after arriving and REFUSED to believe that it did not sell Ziploc bags. I actually got completely unnecessarily furious and stormed out. True story. I also got mad that the KMart on 34th Street only sold women's clothes. Turns out in both of these stories if I had just ventured downstairs I would have located the Ziplocs and binders I was seeking.

4. Everything costs money.
This one is slightly self-explanatory. Things that wouldn't cost money at home are paid for here. These include but are not limited to: bathrooms, cups of water in restaurants, every ride individually at Coney Island.

5. Walking a mile or so to work is not only common but expected.
In high school, I drove the two and a half miles back and forth everyday. Today I walk 1.4 miles to work and back again at the end of the day. This is not uncommon. Blows my mind.

6. It is harder to make a meal than I originally thought.
At home, a meal consists of a Main Food, plus salad, rice, vegetable and bread. When I eat here, I eat macaroni and cheese. Or pasta. Or cereal. Or a quesidilla. No side dish. It's always too much work. At that point, I don't even care anymore. Being an adult is HARD. Besides, I'd rather spend money on seeing shows than eat.

7. Having "Broadway" in the location venue does not necessarily imply quality.
We have seen many off-Broadway shows that were AMAZING, but we have also seen some that made me think, "Well, OBVIOUSLY I can make it in theatre because THAT ACTOR got cast. If they can do it, so can I." While this is slightly comforting in the sense of job security, it's also disheartening that somehow things that aren't very good manage to make it and reflect on the rest of theatre.

8. When telling someone you like their outfit, one does not say, "Where did you buy it?" One says, "Who makes it?"
This is a concept completely foreign to me, taught to me by the women at work. Brand names? No thanks. Target? I'm there!

9. I like rain, except when I walk to work.
Even though I am stylin' and profilin' in the rain (rockin' argyle rainboots, pumpkin orange raincoat and umbrella adorned with flamingos), walking to work in the rain means that you feel damp for the rest of the day. It means a seeping cold that just doesn't go away. It means runny nose, wet knees and a gray settling over everything. Rain is better when I don't live in a walking city.

10. Ignoring the homeless does not get any easier.
This is very hard for me. But if I gave money to every homeless person I saw, I would literally not have any left. It's incredibly difficult to just stare straight ahead as you walk by someone begging, "Any spare change, miss, help me get something to eat?" I comfort myself by giving to charitable organizations that help the homeless, knowing that were I to give cash to a single person it would probably be spent on alcohol and crack or something they don't need, rather than a hot meal. But I've had some strange encounters with the homeless. Once a man approached Nick and me just as the Walk light changed so we could cross the street. As this man asked if I had any change, I began walking and said, "Sorry, I don't have any." (This is often the truth - I don't usually have cash.) But he called after me, "I wasn't talkin' to you, I was talkin' to him," and went after Nick instead while I escaped. Eeek. But yesterday was the worst, when Nick and I were walking home. As we walked, Nick and I got slightly separated by a group of people. As I walked by a homeless man, he asked if I had any change. I ignored him, and he called after me, using two four-letter words in particular, one of which began with an F and one with a C. Very upsetting.

Essentially, New York is not all about seeing shows and going to class. And while the things I am learning are kinda ridiculous too, they're all things that I have legitimately noticed and thought about. And it's only a partial list. I have learned and realized more, and hopefully will continue to do so. Ideally I'll come home not a completely different person, but more of a person.

Beka is coming to visit me this weekend, so I'm sure you'll all facebook stalk the photos later. :) It's gonna be AMAZING. I'm going to attempt to cram ALL OF NEW YORK in three days. We'll see how it goes, haha. That's a lot to cram.

Bee tea double U: I love Nick's new job. I am reaping the benefits in the form of comp tickets. We saw a fabulous off-Broadway show today called Circle Mirror Transformation. The acting was amazing and the story was very poignant. I actually teared up at one point. Not that this should be shocking. I'll cry at traffic. Literally anything, haha.

I have a play to read before I go to sleep (I have started keeping a list of every play that ever gets mentioned, even in passing, during classes. My goal is to read them all. I realize that this is going to be a long-term goal, but I'm excited about it.) which is sad because I'm literally falling asleep over my keyboard.

Still miss you all MUCHO. Keep in touch! Mail me letters, leave me comments, write on my wall, mail me cash, any combination of the above. All are welcome.
Love, Kelly

Peaked Day!

That title doesn't deserve an exclamation point, but I'm goin' with it. I have motif expectations to which I need to live up.

Unfortunately I am sick. My least favorite thing is being sick away from home. It's weird, but I would be more okay with being sick if it meant I got to be in my family room all day, preferably high on Vicodin again. Ahhhh, the good old days.

This week may actually have been the most low-key week we've had thus far. We didn't see a single Broadway show! (Shocking, I know.) On Sunday we saw A Boy and His Soul, which is at The Vineyard Theatre (across the street from Strasberg, actually). It was fabulous. The writing was excellent and very funny, and a compelling story about a boy coming out to his family interwoven with soul music as a common thread. Very interesting. The show sparked an obnoxious debate at our first seminar meeting. You know the conversation - "What is theatre?" Dana Tarantino maintained that it was "A impersonating B in front of C". Unfortuately, this excludes the memoir aspect of this show and people got all up in arms about it. Yikes.

I had Monday off because of Yom Kippur, which was super fun. I didn't do much, but it was nice to just kind of hang out and do nothing all day. Fallon and I went to Forever 21 though, so I did have a reason to get dressed.

And classes this week were just as hard, but not as overwhelming. It helps that I was completely abandoned by my scene partner, Yael. Let me recap:

At our first acting class, Yael and I were assigned as partners. She is from Israel (the fact that she is foreign is relevant - it comes up later). First day:
Kelly: Hi Yael. When do you think we can get together for our first rehearsal? Maybe in a few days, after we've both read the play?
Yael: Welllllll, I have to get my work schedule. I'll text you tomorrow and let you know.
Kelly: Perfect. Bye!
THREE DAYS LATER--
Text message from Kelly to Yael: Hey, did you get your work schedule?
Yael to Kelly: Yeah, I can only rehearse on Friday at 6:00.

Ummmmmm, for real? Not only are there 983791837 other things I would rather do on a Friday at six than rehearse, that is ONE WEEK AWAY. We will have had class by then! I had to do everything I could to ensure that we wouldn't be picked to perform on Tuesday.

Long story short, I faked losing my voice so we wouldn't have to go and then had to pretend to not have a voice all day so my teacher wouldn't catch on and my karma is one hundred fold. I am sick now, which is bad news bears annnnnnd after class on Tuesday, Yael came into the office to explain that she needed to take a leave of absence!!! I have been rejected and abandoned by my scene partner!

GAAAAHHHHH. It's okay, because I'm just doing a monologue, so I don't have to worry about working around anyone else's schedule, but still scary. I want to live up to Lola Cohen's rather large expectations.

On Wednesday, Nick and I attended the last Back to Broadway event: a panel discussion of famous actresses. We were once again stood up by Sutton Foster (I am DETERMINED to meet her), but Alice Ripley, Bebe Neuwirth (MY FAVORITE), Beth Leavel and Laura Benanti were all there. I can say two things about this panel (well, I could probably say more, but they are mostly all comments because I am a nerdy actor and I think tiny things are fascinating):
A) Beth Leavel and I are destined to become best friends one day and
B) Alice Ripley is INSANE. For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Csm3gy_ukU. Now take that, and add in some more CRAZY. There is a strong possibility she's on CRACK.

And this evening, Nick and I saw Blind Lemon Blues, a show about Lemon Jefferson (a blues singer I had never heard of). The singing and music were very good, even though the show was VERY light on plot and there was one guy in the cast who was potentially being paid in direct proportion to how overdone his expressions were. For real real.

So a generally low-key week. Beka is coming next weeked and I am SO EXCITED. Nick's mom and brother will also be here, which is fab. The 305 is actually going to be packed to the gills because everyone is having people visit next weekend. Not sure where we're going to put everyone. Yikes...

And if you're reading this right after I post it, and you're looking for something to do tomorrow evening, go see The Merchant of Venice at school! Word on the street is that it's marvelous. Hooray!

If you're also really bored, mail me things. I love getting mail. Seriously.

Miss you all!!! Love, Kelly

Bard Day!

I seriously don't know where time goes. Approximately 39289827 times throughout the week I think to myself, "Self, you should write in your blog this eve!" And then I watch as my friend Amanda wins me a ticket to Hair, or I watch Glee or I sing in the piano lounge with Nick for six or seven hours, or I go to the bakery down the street and buy a cupcake.

All of which are LEGIT. But not so much conducive to updating you on my life.

I had my first week of classes this week. And they were HARD. I literally came home from my first day and couldn't decide if I loved every minute of it, or if I wanted to quit and fly home immediately. But it got better.

Monday: Acting, with Irma Sandrey. Initially I was excited because my teacher's name is Irma. She is a tiny little woman and she seems very self-contained. The classes are structured so that everyone can take any class, so experienced people are in with new students, so I was surrounded by a lot of people who totally knew what they were doing. I was uncomfortable. Yikes. Four hours of relaxation exercises and sensory-perception exercises and scene-partner assigning. LONG TIME.

Tuesday: Acting, with Lola Cohen. Lola is my new obsession. She is warm and loud and passionate and fun and I love her. But the class is essentially a repeat of the day before with one notable exception. Lola had me do an improv with two other (experienced) people in the class and at the end, she said to me, "Great improv work today. You were really great. And anyone good at improv is going to be a marvelous actor." Yay!
Movement for the Actor, with Michael Ryan. I didn't expect to actually sweat - I expected that I was going to be told that I stand with too much tension in my shoulders and lower back and that I should learn to walk better. But we got to dance and jump and frolic. A good time was had by all.

Wednesday: Vocal Production, with Bruce Baumer. To sum up the class, the goal is that I will leave being completely capable of performing in a 350-seat theatre, without a mic. I hope this happens. We didn't actually do much in class, just talked about a lot of random things, like how much the teacher loves Neil LaBute (gag me with a spoon).

Thursday: Dialects, with Barbara Rubin. SO EXCITED. All we did was learn the vowels in the International Phonetic Language, but I will eventually walk out of this class capable of: Standard American, London, Cockney, Irish, Scottish, Australian, French, Spanish, Italian, German, South African and a few more dialects. Hooray!
Singing, with Jan Douglas. The most notable thing that happened was that I discovered that Jan is a man. I had no idea.

And repeat next week. Except I have Monday off, because it's Yom Kippur! Hooray Jewish High Holy Days!

This week was also INCREDIBLY exciting because Nick and I FINALLY saw Hair!!! I wasn't even there for the lottery - our friend Amanda put her name in to aid the Help Kelly and Nick See Hair Fund. And she won!

Needless to say it was amazing. Obviously I don't have the emotional attachment to the show that Nick does, nor have I been living and breathing and waiting for the show for approximately ten months, but it was still brilliant. Beautiful singing, wonderful characterization/total commitment from the actors and an emotional impact made it a fab experience. I couldn't really see the stage, ever, but I got my hair and body touched not once, not twice, NOT THRICE but FOUR TIMES BY ACTORS IN THE SHOW.

Plus at the end, Nick and I got to dance onstage during Let the Sunshine In. I made my Broadway debut this week, haha. (Stay tuned for circa four to ten years and I will hopefully have a REAL Broadway debut.)

This week we also went to a Playwright Panel put on by Back to Broadway. Sarah Ruhl, Keith Huff and Tracy Letts were all in attendance. They wrote In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), A Steady Rain and Superior Donuts respectively. (Tracy is also a man - this seems to be a motif in my life recently.) This panel was fascinating for me, because one of my favorite things in the world is to listen to the writing process of other writers. Kelly equals big nerd. But I like hearing how each person's writing process differs from mine. Because I'm a nerd.

And today we woke up early (Nick's favorite activity - ...sometimes) to rush tickets for Hamlet. We have gotten up early twice thus far and I have not been ready on time either time. (Anyone surprised? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

Hamlet was also amazing, in a completely different way. It was a well-done Shakespeare in the sense that I understood everything that was going on in spite of what can probably be called a Serious Language Barrier. Jude Law was amazing. He was a very physical Hamlet - he did a lot of hopping and laughing and jumping and frolicking. Rollicking good time for everyone. Except Ophelia.

(Speaking of, she was the only serious disappointment in the show. The woman who played Ophelia wasn't quite as committed as everyone else and her singing was not as fabulous as it could have been and it was sad.)

The light design of Hamlet also did exactly what The Runner Stumbles tried to do, haha. Specific blocks and shafts of light. Luckily in Hamlet, you could actually see faces. I consider this a plus. Broadway: One. Forrest Hutchins: Zero.

I'm sorry this is so horribly long all the time. I get easily distracted during the week and forget to update. I'll try to be better about it. I really will. Cross my heart and hope to die. (But if you put a needle anywhere in, on or around my eye, I will cut you.)
Love you all, Kelly

Week Day!

Unfortunately, I have not written in this blog for a week. I'm not sure what I did instead, but somehow it managed to take up ALL OF MY TIME.

Work has been pretty good. All the women in the office are super fun and super marvelous. Pat and Joyce are married à la Lauren Perry and Kathleen Egan, and Joyce and I spend most of our time speculating that Emmelina is trying to steal Pat away. There has also been some chaos because every student EVER decided to wait until the last minute to register for classes and everything. So right after orientation has always been super busy.

I had my Strasberg Institute orientation on Friday, which was really fun. I was put in a group with about fifteen other people, and I was the only American, haha. There were tons of accents (including a South African one that made me miss Ruth Goveia) and I was actually feeling slightly out of place. Very odd.

The teacher who ran the orientation was named Hope Arthur and she was a) very talented, b) talking about how she has been teaching at Strasberg for the last 125 years and studied under Lee Strasberg himself and c) slightly batty. (Read: HILARIOUS). She had some serious presence. She walked in wearing a polyester pant suit decorated with palm trees, done in the same colors as my phone – pinks and lime greens and oranges. The pants and the shirt were the same pattern - sensory OVERLOAD. But we learned a bunch of relaxation techniques and some Strasberg history and about how we are going to be taught to lose our "habits of inexpression". Which I am all about.

But it was funny, because she talked about how no one makes any big gestures anymore. She talked about how no one completely extends their arms to gesticulate when talking and how people don't express anything anymore. And I thought to myself, "Obvi, Hope Arthur and I do not spend enough time together." And then later on in the day, I accidentally smacked a man while I was telling Nick a story and I felt really bad about smacking this (slightly intimidating) stranger. So I scampered away right quick.

We've also seen lots of shows recently, including Naked Boys Singing (yup, they were naked. And they sang and danced. I knew it was going to happen, but there was no time to emotionally prepare. They entered on stage in the dark, and they were NAKED - I was NOT READY for such gratuitous nudity). It was really funny, even though only about half of the boys were good singers and only one was ridiculously attractive (there were about four more who received admirable but not excellent scores on the standard 1 to 10 scale and the rest were all of "take it or leave it" quality).

And we saw A Steady Rain, which has just begun previewing this week. Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig were both excellent and the writing of the show was FLAWLESS. All in all, an excellent experience. We are going show-viewing CRAZY, which I do NOT hate. But my RA paycheck betta arrive soon, because if not, Imma run out of money quite soon.

And last but not least: TODAY! We went to Coney Island! A dream come true for me. I ate funnel cake, rode the CYCLONE and saw all the locations in the season finale of Law & Order: SVU where Stuckey killed all those people. We saw the scary ride that Finn and Munch rode together and everything. It was really cool, actually, even though it sounds kind of lame. I’ll be the first to admit it: I am obsessed with SVU. It might be unhealthy.

So I paid eight dollars to ride a roller coaster today, and I do NOT regret it. TOTALLY worth it. It was slightly rickety, but fab anyway. LOVES IT.

My first day of classes is tomorrow, and I'm very excited. Acting from 1:30 - 5:30 with Irma Sandrey. Hopefully I learn a lot and make new friends! Yay! But there is a strong possibility that I will be trying to perform scenes from The Glass Menagerie with someone who has a strong Eastern European accent. This is potentially a win-win situation. :)

Miss you all! Sorry this is slightly long and unnecessary. But I wanted to update one week in one post. Kinda difficult. Hopefully I’ll be better about writing from now on. Because so much happens all the time, and I want to be able to tell you all about everything.
Love, Kelly

Theatrical Day!

It has been quite a busy last few days. I've seen a lot of shows and other theatrical things and it was FABULOUS. I also worked, which was significantly less interesting.

To start the post with a downer: work on Friday was DEATH. It was fun to chat with Pat and Joyce and everything, but I needed to cut out index-ish cards for each Strasberg student. They were printed four per page. There are 300 students. I cut out 1800 INDEX CARDS ON FRIDAY. And no one mentioned that they needed to be organized, so I just kinda threw them around willy-nilly. Only after I was done did someone mention, "Oh, by the by, Kelly, those need to be in a VERY SPECIFIC ORDER." I had to organize alphabetically by teacher. And within those categories, by day the class is taught. And within that, by hour of the day. And within that, alphabetically by student.

DEATH. I started this task at 10:30 on Friday and didn't finish by the time I left at 5:15.

But the rest of the weekend was very theatre-filled and fab. Ish. On Friday, our NYAP advisor gave us tickets to a show called Race Music. Hearing the description of this show (something about a black man in a Midwestern city applies for a radio announcer job and is rejected because he is black. The show is an examination of racial relations in pre-Obama 1999) makes it sound really interesting, but it ended up being...not very good. And that's being generous.

The biggest issue is that the writing was TERRIBLE. You could see the actors struggling to make their lines sound legit (any show that tries to work in, "Harv, that is so uncool" is never going to really succeed) and they tried as hard as they could, but could only go so far. On the upside, the lights were GREAT.

So Nick and I made a game of comparing Race Music to every Albion College production that has happened during our college career and deciding whether those were better or worse. The conclusion: our school's shows lack the polish of Race Music (let's be honest, they were professional actors and they were a legit Off-Broadway show). But mostly we decided that The Runner Stumbles was the worst production EVER.

On Saturday, Nick finally wandered down to my room at 11:30 (I had clearly been awake for EVER) and we just up and decided to try to win the Hair lottery. Which is at noon. So we scurried the fifteen or so blocks (we are all about scurrying places) to make it in time. But unfortunately my 8 to 6 luck did not extend to Hair. But God of Carnage was literally fifty feet away, so we decided to get SRO tickets for that. GOOD DECISION. The show was only 90 minutes or so, so it wasn't terrible to stand, and the show was AMAZING. IMMACULATE. I can not find anything wrong with it at all. Marcia Gay Harden was flawless, as were the other actors. The lights were beautiful. The set was perfect. The play is so well-written that I am currently considering inventing a new religion in which Yasmina Reza plays are my Bible. Seriously. It was amazing.

Plus I got to meet Marcia Gay Harden. Who was SO NICE. She was very approachable, we chatted and she was so gorgeous. A wonderful person.

And today Nick and I headed back to Times Square to go to Broadway on Broadway, a free outdoor concert where all the musicals of Broadway perform. Also AMAZING. It was perfect weather (it had been raining on Friday and Saturday, something I was only willing to tolerate because A Steady Rain opened on Friday and that's exactly what happened, haha), all the performers were great, we got to see a preview of things like White Christmas and Finian's Rainbow and was just a whole pile of fun. Seth Rudetsky did a song along, and then we saw him later on at the Avenue Q box office, and stalked him slightly. Not for long, because he eventually got in a cab, and we didn't talk to him because he was with his family, but we definitely creepily followed them for a while and snapped some photos.

And then later on today, a whole bunch of us went down to the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall, realized people had been there since 9:00 AM and we couldn't see anything and bailed to come back to the 305 and watch them on TV. But we saw all the setups for the VMAs! Hooray! Just as interesting, if you ask me. Actually, if you were to ask me in person, I will probably tell you that I actually ATTENDED to VMAs. Yup, I met Taylor Swift. I saw Shakira and Pink show up in the same dress. I saw Kanye go CRAZY. True story.

So it was a busy weekend. I got to do a lot of amahzing stuff, and I was even on call on Saturday night. I'm just a social butterfly. :)

I miss everyone from back home. Your thoughts on everyone moving to New York City to be with me? I have one extra bed, so you'll all have to share. TOTALLY fine, I imagine, haha. I'll be expecting everyone next weekend. :)
Love you all, Kelly

PS: Today, Nick and I took the subway for the first time since we got to the city. I'm pretty proud of us.