geez...

i haven't been this busy in a long time...  i've worked 40 hours in 3 days, and i'm back at work again...  here's my week...

i get up early to go to work, work all day, get home late, pack for the next day, and so it goes on...

i love christmas, and i hate that i'm too busy working to not be with family and friends so i can really enjoy it.  being a grown up has its lame-ness aspects...

in the meantime, merry christmas all.

Currently Watching 24 - Season Two By Kiefer Sutherland, Xander Berkeley, Penny Johnson Jerald see related

Only in New York

So, my family members kept asking me for details about my adventure.  I wrote a long e-mail to appease all, and decided to paste a bit into here for those of you wondering...  It's not everything granted, so ask me if you want more.  Yeay for friendship.  ;)


    Okay, so here goes.  On Tuesday, July 22nd I flew out to New York City to visit my old roommate Kelsey while her husband, Chris, was working in North Carolina for a couple months.  While I was there we decided to go on a few auditions, so I could get a feel for what it was like to audition in the city.  That Friday we went to an audition that we found on an Actor’s Equity website in the West Village at the Manhattan Theatre Source.  Kelsey and I got there very early, being non-union actors, and luckily, some people didn’t show up so they fit us in.  I auditioned, then I got a call asking me to come for a call back on Saturday, did the call back on Sunday, got the call asking if I wanted the role on Monday!  They had originally said they'd call those cast on Sunday night, so I was a little bummed on Monday, thinking how awesome it would have been getting cast from my first audition out there, then they called!  It was bizarre but so exciting.  So I cut my trip with Kelsey short, to two weeks instead of 25 days. 

    I came home, moved out of my apartment into a house with my roommate in Anaheim, worked as much as I could, then headed back out to New York on September 3rd.  The first rehearsal was pretty intimidating.  I had met Jason, the guy who played my love interest, very briefly at call backs, but I hadn’t met Bill before.  Bill played a character I never interacted with in the show.  They had a read through of the script without me prior to this, so they had all already met together: Bill, Jason, Shannon (my director) and Bekah (the playwright).  Shannon, mentioned I couldn’t be there that day because I was working in Los Angeles.  They thought that meant like I was doing some kind of professional television or film work.  Haha, oops.  Nope, just Ruby’s Diner.  Made me sound cool though.

    I was pretty intimidated on Day 1, both men were memorized, had characters, everything.  I thought, ‘Oh no, what am I doing here?’  They were really great though, and never made me feel out of place.  The rehearsal process had it’s frustrations here and there, but I don’t regret a second.  It was interesting being a show that's never been done before.  I couldn't steal from any other actor's work, and the play was being changed here and there as we rehearsed.  Jason got strep throat after a week and a half, so we didn’t have rehearsal for 9 days before tech.  We only had 5 rehearsals, 2 techs, then we opened.  It was crazy but great!  All of our shows were sold out but one, which was an incredibly awkward audience.  I had to wear a hideous fat suit since my character talks about getting gastric bypass surgery.  It was really just cotton sewn into a tank top, but it was funny to me.  It was mishapen nightly, just terrible.  One night I looked pregnant and made some comment about mistakenly getting that way, to which a 12 year old girl in a different show told me, 'Well that was irresponsible of you.'  Oh New York kids...

    I met some pretty rad people too, from the other shows.  There were 5 short plays in our show, so it was fun to meet more people then just my two guys.  The guys were great, but making new friends is always great too...  My Mom came out for my last week, saw my show, met my friends, and I got to show her the city.  It was a great great time, and I can't wait for more.

Here are some pictures that all pretty much look exactly the same: