The Sun Sits Low

Time is slipping away in the City of New York. There are but six weeks left to cram in all the excitement possible. With the departure of daylight savings time, it gets dark here at roughly 5:00 p.m. As a wise man once said, you don't know what you got till it's gone. Seriously, my every waking moment of daylight is spent indoors working (not that I don't love my internship). But it is already halfway through fall, and I am yet to experience the true wonders of autumn in New York City. I tried to make it to Central Park yesterday to see the vibrantly colored leaves (as I assume they are), but upon my arrival circa 5:00, the sun promptly disappeared, leaving me no gorgeous sights to behold. Time is precious and it's slipping away, and I've been waiting for you all of my life - yes, I'm talking to you, NYC fall foliage.

And with that, I will transport you back to Tuesday. The Manhattan Theatre Club officially took over my life this week. Let's count the hours, shall we?
Monday: 8 / Tuesday: 11 / Wednesday: 10 / Thursday: 8 / Friday: 4 / Saturday: 8
And the grand total: 49 hours. AHHHHH!
Of course, this tally includes 12 paid hours and 3 hours at the opening night party, but still. This week was full of crazy hijinks at MTC - opening night party for Nightingale on Tuesday, review day and fun quote ad meeting on Wednesday, Associate Artistic Director seminar on Thursday, double Patron Lounge duty on Saturday, etc. Not to mention that I worked at the front desk for an hour on Thursday and got to buzz Angela Lansbury into the 8th floor for rehearsal. We made eye contact - we made a connection.

Tuesday was a marathon of epic proportions. I went straight from working at my internship from 2 to 6 to working the front desk shift from 6 to 10 to the opening night party until 1 a.m. The party was a grand (and classy) time. It was held at the Beacon <--- seriously, click on that link - you can tell just by looking at the home page that this place is legit. I had an absolutely amazing time at the party - all us interns hung out for a few hours and bonded. We all discussed what we plan on doing next semester - about half of the interns are sticking around, and I really wish I could, too. Realistically, though, I need to get back to school so that I can graduate - yikes. But anyway, it was really great to be able to hang with the other interns - they're all really cool and nice and I don't get the chance to see them enough (if at all) outside of work.

At the same time, I am simultaneously impressed and frightened by the sheer ambition all of the interns have. They have grand plans to direct and produce theatre - and what's more, a lot of them are already doing these things on a significant scale. I'm just happy to be working at such a prestigious theatre company, getting experience in the field and learning about it all. I don't have so many strong, unflinching goals considering my future. It has been comforting, though, to talk to my adviser Sunil about such things. He definitely hadn't figured things out at my age, and at 30 he is still discovering where he wants his career to go. I think it would be advantageous for me to develop stronger goals, but I also need to accept that I will never really be able to fully figure everything out.

Anyway, I digress. I also packed in two shows this week. On Wednesday, I got student rush to Oleanna. I accompanied Sally and Kelly, who had comps for the performance (in orchestra seats far better than my third row paid-for mezzanine seats). I thought the play was good, but I wasn't completely sold on the direction and performances. Bull Pullman was solid and Julia Stiles was passable (of course nothing can beat her flawless performance in "Save the Last Dance"), but the show just didn't flow and build to the climax like it should have. This production promised to be incredibly provocative and apparently after original production many couples left the theatre arguing. Leaving the theatre, I expressed my disappointment that I didn't feel there was much to argue about... Of course, immediately following this statement, we began arguing - although it was more about the merits of the production, and not the subject matter. Oh well, it was definitely an educational theatre experience.

Although I'll tell what's not so educational - the poetry seminar I've been taking for the last 3 weeks. It is uniformly agreed that no one has gotten anything out of this class - it had its interesting moments, but was overall pretty lame. For our last session, the class went to a poetry reading that took place in an art gallery. This idea is pleasant enough on paper...except that it turns out that all of the poets were pretty bad. I enjoyed the second woman, because she was just a precious old lady, but other than that they were pretty expendable. I'm rather excited to have my Thursday nights back - more time to see shows or watch the leaves change...oh wait, it gets dark at 5:00.

On Friday night, Kelly and I (after losing lotteries for both In the Heights and Ragtime) attended In the Next Room or the vibrator play. I know, sounds classy, right? Well, actually, strangely, it was. It is a Lincoln Center production on Broadway, so you can rest assured that it is well done and legit. The show is a dramatic comedy of sorts set in the 1880s, during which time doctors were apparently treating women for hysteria using...well, you know. But the play turned out to be a surprising poignant commentary on human connection, and I found the ending stunningly beautiful. I won't give it away, but let's just say that it steadily snows - which is always a plus for me. In fact, check out my new list of shows I've seen that feature onstage precipitation!

And you may have noticed one gaping absence in my blog as of late. Well, no worries, I have ended my hiatus...and made a triumphant return to Jamba Juice! Yup, as it gets colder, my love of Jamba grows fonder. A good Peanut Butter Moo'd can turn any frown upside down, as it has indeed done for me many a time. And with that, have a plentiful Jamba week!