Closing Time

Today was the last performance of LONY, which marks the end of the insanity that has been the past quarter. I've been working on a show literally since before the semester started, and I'm finally done.

LONY was such a unique experience. Every performance was sold out and we had people waiting on a stand-by list to see if they'd get in. And the cast definitely improved as performances went on. There was even a minor scene thrown in right after opening and our lead, Dan, picked it up and memorized it flawlessly. It was so exciting to work on this show and to get to see it built from the ground up. Our director John described it as a "workshop with a bit of stuff", meaning a workshop with added costumes and props and sets that a workshop might not normally have. Well, we had quite a bit of stuff. It took 45 minutes every night to clear and put away all the props and costumes every night.

It was an interesting experience, working backstage. At times it kind of felt like Alex (the other assistant stage manager) and I were being taken for granted, but then there would be moments when cast members thanked us profusely, and made comments like "the program is lucky to have ASM's like you guys". After the closing show, the cast gave us and the stage manager "I <3 NY" cups with our names on them that they all signed. It was so sweet! We all had to help strike, and afterwards the cast went to Silver Spurs and had dinner, and I was invited as well. It was kind of nice to hang out with them as people, instead of just interacting with them backstage. The drummer was there too and we all got to know him a bit as well.

Overall this has been a really rewarding experience. I'm so glad I signed on to do this. In the beginning I wasn't too thrilled, just because I felt like I wasn't doing much, but once we got into the theater that all changed. I've always been interested in the backstage work and this show gave me a great opportunity to be a stagehand. I earned three of the four crew credits that I need to graduate, but a lot of the seniors are encouraging me to argue for four, because I worked so hard and put in so much time. We'll see about that, I don't mind doing spots for a show next year and getting two points for that. I might ask about working the Senior Showcase in April for one point, so that I can get it all done this year.

Tech Week, Fondly Nicknamed Hell Week

My life the last couple of weeks has been Legend of New York (LNY) and this past week has been no exception. Because it was spring break, we've been having rehearsals from 2-10. Thursday marked our first official day of tech and it was LONG. I'm going to be "backstage" during the show, but in our theater that means I'll be in one of the two voms that lead to the dressing room. Our theater is not like most conventional theaters. The backstage area is actually underneath the audience, as opposed to being actually behind the stage. That means that actors have to use one of two voms to get to the backstage area. The voms are just long hallways that lead underneath the audience, I think the name originated from theater in the olden days, I have a very vague understanding of the name.

Anywho, I'll be on headset for the shows, which is fine except the headsets aren't portable which means I'm basically tethered to the wall for two and a half hours. Our stage manager has a portable one, but it makes sense that if anyone gets it, it's her. It just means that during tech when actors need me to get something or if I need to move something I have to remove the headset and potentially miss something that might be said over headset that I need to hear. It's not that big of an issue in the end, though. During tech I get to catch up on my reading, which is nice. I need to remember to bring a reading light because I don't have much light on my side. I have a nice little stool and I created a makeshift table to put my coffee on. It's quite cozy back there, actually.

We were running behind a little, but today our director said that the tech crew had put in a bit more work and pre-teched some lighting cues so that we could run straight through the rest of the act and hopefully not have to stop much. And we almost got through act one! We just have one more song to stage and a small scene and then that's the first act. Tomorrow and the rest of the week is 6:30-midnight, so hopefully we'll get everything done before we open Friday. We're hoping to do a dress rehearsal tomorrow with the band and then finish teching as much of the show as possible. I think everyone's starting to feel the time crunch which hopefully means that people will come into tech more focused so that we can get a lot of stuff done.

PYT Reunion in NYC And It's Starting to Feel Like Spring

The temperature has been staying above the freezing mark for the last few days--it's starting to feel like spring!!! I brought out my North Face jacket and I've been wearing my high-tops instead of heavy duty winter boots. I even wore my sunglasses today! Unfortunately I've been cooped up in rehearsal for most of the day but I still find some time to enjoy the sunshine. Washington Square Park has been crazy crowded the last few days because the weather's been so nice. There's a guy who usually plays a baby grand in the park and he came back out today because the weather was finally nice enough. The irony with all of this is that this week is supposed to be really nice (Tuesday is going to be 57!!) and then spring break it's going to snow. But at least it'll be warm snow, it'll be in the high 30's, low 40's.

Sage Yort is in town visiting for her spring break, she's staying with Jason Vu for a few days, and so Sage and Annalise and I all got together on Friday to hang out and get coffee (Annalise goes to Pace which is about a twenty minute subway ride from NYU). It was really nice to hang out and catch up, and to rehash old PYT stories. It was so weird that all of us were hanging out again in New York City of all places!! And then on Saturday night I went to Jason's apartment because he was having some people over and Sage and Annalise were there (Annalise lives in the building next to Jason) and that was weird--to have all four of us hanging out in NYC. Someone should have taken a picture!

Saturday night I went with a bunch of program people to the show Chris Murrah was directing up at Columbia--he had directed Once On This Island and a bunch of us wanted to go out and support him. Plus, my voice teacher was in it! I knew he was a grad student at Columbia but I'd never seen him perform before. It was such a cool experience. He had a reeeeally long monologue halfway through act two and when I talked to him after the show, he said it was something like ten minutes long. That's insane! The show itself was really weird, it was some obscure new play that I can't even begin to describe. But Chris did a good job, as always, and it was really cool to see Dan perform.

We move into the theater on Tuesday for the show I'm assistant stage managing, and I'm really excited about that. It'll be cool to see the actual set, as opposed to the taped out squares and platforms on the floor. Alex, the other ASM, and I stayed after rehearsal to put stuff away and rip the tape off the floor and I have a newfound respect for whoever did that at PYT. It was fun at first but we had a lot of small pieces of tape to rip up because we had dotted lines denoting the edges of various platforms, so it was a lot of extra work. My fingers hurt now from ripping up the tape.

Blooooood!!!

So I donated blood today for the first time. That was definitely an interesting experience. I had signed up to do it at 2:15 but when I got there they said there was a 30-45 minute wait. I filled out an information sheet and signed in and sat down, and I kept noticing people getting sent outside to where the blood drive truck was. At one point I noticed a few girls who had definitely gotten there after me going in, so I walked up to the sign up sheet and saw that the lady had skipped my name, and crossed out names before and after mine. So I was like "Hey, that's my name and I'm here, so..." and she said "OH! I'm so sorry! You'll be the next one in."

When I first went into the truck, I walked back into a tiny closet of a room where a guy took my temperature, blood pressure, and he pricked my finger to take a small amount of blood (and that hurt a lot!). He asked a few questions based on the info sheet I filled out, like about how I went to Europe this past April. Then when he was done with me I sat down on a small bench to wait for a free chair to get my blood taken away. The chairs were super comfy, they looked like permanently reclined squishy chairs set into the walls, with armrests on the outside for the arm that they would take the blood from. The guy taking my blood wasn't as nice as the guy who took the tiny sample, and I kind of wished the other guy (I think his name was Jon) would do the procedure because he felt more comforting. It wasn't too bad in the end, though. The guy asked if I wanted to see the needle and I was like "NO!" so I looked away while he stuck me and it HURT!!! And then it just felt weird after that. The tube that ran from the needle to the bag was resting on my arm and it was warm which was the weirdest sensation ever. It only took about 15 minutes, which was less time than I was expecting. When I was done, they took me over to an area of the bus which had apple juice and various snacks, so I took a few apple juices (hehehe).

I walked home and I was fine, but I laid down to watch a bit of TV just to relax and I felt really not well. I texted Carolyn, the stage manager for the show I'm working on, and told her I didn't think I was going to be able to come into rehearsal because I'd donated blood and wasn't feeling well, and she said it was totally okay. I've spent the rest of the night drinking tons of water, sleeping, eating a bit, and watching Gilmore Girls. My 8 am class tomorrow was canceled earlier in the week so I get to sleep in tomorrow too, which is nice. I'm going to get lunch with Elle around noon because we've both been so busy, we haven't had time to hang out much.