August update and NYC trip

It's been awhile since I've updated. My life has been crazy busy lately. School starts in less than 2 weeks.
I can't believe I'm about to start my senior year. And yet, at the same time, I'm almost itching to enter the real world. After living in London last fall, I outgrew the small suburban campus lifestyle. I also out grew some friends and situations I was in my freshman and sophomore years. I am excited to be living with some of my girl friends in the apartment we wanted, and enjoy the prestige of being "seniors" and also being able to go out drinking. I hardly ever get drunk, but I enjoy going out for a drink. I enjoy the social aspect.

Anyway, back to the real world thing. Lately I feel like it's now or never to jump into the acting industry. I see auditions for the fall and winter but can't attend because I still have school. My acting project of the summer with Resonate! has gone through a lot of changes. We started out wanting to do Bang! Bang! You're Dead. Then too many actors dropped out so we decided to do a festival of ten minute plays. We started out doing 7, and dropped down to 4, because of another drop-out actor. We actually had a meeting the other day to see if we should continue trying to get this thing performance ready. We decided the show must go on, we wanted something to show for the commitment, those of us who stayed, put in. So we perform August 22nd. Right before my school return.

In other theatre-related news, Jen and I had a crazy adventure in NYC last Wednesday. Our plan was to rush 2 shows: Next to Normal and In the Heights. We woke up bright and early and took the 8:01 train into Grand Central. We walked to Next to Normal to wait for the box office to open for tickets. To our shock, there were only three people in line. When the box office opened, we were all saddened to find out they no longer have Wednesday performances. Our waiting was not in vain, however. While in line, we started talking about theatre to the guy in front of us. After we found out about the Next to Normal fail, we talked to him about back up shows. We decided to all help each other out. Jen and I would get tickets for him and his daughter using our student IDs and he would put his name in the lotteries for us to increase our chances.
After running around to a bunch of box offices (lots of Wednesday matinees no longer exist sadly) we ended up at the Hair lottery. We all put in our names. Our guy friend's name got called and so Jen and I knew we were all set. Several picks later, my name got called! I was shocked because I usually never have luck with those things. When he said "Shannon" I thought he was going to call a different last name, until I heard him hesitate with the pronounciation of my last name. But anyway, so he got tickets and I got tickets. Having no luck with the other shows he had wanted to see (sold out or unavailable) he decided to go. He sold the other ticket to a girl who overheard us talking about the extra ticket. Then he came with us around the corner to this Nathan's/Subway place for lunch. I asked him about his life and low and behold, he was quite an interesting character. He lives right near where South Pacific is playing. He used to be in the NFL but is now a personal trainer. He's trained both Regis Philman and Conan O'Brien. His wife works at Pepsi which is near Jen's school, and they have 2 kids. Funny, both Jen and I thought he was gay when we first met him. Never can judge a book by it's cover.
During Hair we got split up. Jen and JC (the guy) were in the left boxes and the other girl and I were on the right. I started talking to the girl, Danielle. She was very nice, a fellow actress, and a very interesting person. When I asked her about her favorite musicals, she mentioned she had been little Cosette in Les Miserables when she was younger. I had assumed she meant in community theatre, but it turned out she had actually been on Broadway! This also made her an Equity actress. We got to talking about Spring Awakening, one of my favorites, and she told me she had auditioned and was called back 3 times for Wendla! She also auditioned for American Idol but they claimed she was too "Theatre." Their loss. We were talking about Spring Awakening audition songs and I didn't recognize one of the ones she mentioned so she sang a few lines and she was really good. That's the other thing, she told me they are having SA auditions on Monday...when I'll just happen to be in the city to see Matt Doyle perform at Joe's Pub that night! I am now determined to go an sit on the non-Equity bench and try my luck. I just need a song and sheet music. Right now I'm thinking either "The Circle Game" by Joni Mitchell or "Keep On Loving You" by REO Speedwagon.
The rest of the day was slightly less exciting, but still fun. Jen and I went to the In the Heights lottery. We started talking to an English girl (of course, when I'm missing London like crazy!) who was on vacation and taking dance classes in the city. Soon Danielle joined us looking to get a ticket for her father. The four of us hung out and waited through the lottery. The English girl was the only one of the four of us to win, but we were happy for her. Luckily, we were right near the box office door, so when the lottery ended I was able to rush in and get one of the discounted partial view tickets. I also got one for Danielle's father. Since Jen had already seen it, she decided to go see another show. We went to the 9 to 5 lottery. Danielle came too and we all put in our names for 1 ticket. It came down to one ticket left and none of our names had been called. It was a smaller lottery than the others we had been to that day, with more seats available, and Jen's chances were tripled. We all were thinking it was ridiculous one of our names hadn't been called. Then, low and behold, my name got drawn. Apparently I just had luck on my side that day.

So, show critiques. Hair was a lot of fun. They were constantly breaking the 4th wall and involving the audience. They would come out and rustle our hair, hand out daisies and flyers, protest in the aisles, make people dance with them, ect. After the first song, "Aquarius," there were some latecomers in the orchestra and the tribal leader guy heckled them for about 5 minutes. There was one actress I really admired. She wasn't one of the main characters, just part of the tribe, but she was a bigger girl and even had the confidence to get naked. I like seeing curvy girls on stage or on film. It gives me hope.
Hair was a very good reflection on the area it was portraying. There were a lot of good songs and it was a very fun show. I liked all the audience participation, including the giagantic dance party on stage at the end (second Broadway stage I've stood on--first I've danced on :D). My problem with it was lack of storyline. There were very loose ones or ones that were mentioned but never furthered or brought to a conclusion. Being a writer and appreciator of stories, that bothered me. But as my mother pointed out, "That's what happens when you get a bunch of hippies together to write something."

I enjoyed In the Heights a lot. It made me cry for about two songs. That's the mark of a good show--one that can get the audience emotionally involved. The set was amazing--although the top half was cut off for me from where I sat (woot sitting in row X because you're a poor college student!). If I had to describe it in references, I would say it was West Side Story meets hip hop meets Raisin in the Sun meets Rent. It really is an entity of it's own. The cast was so sweet. Everyone came out the stage door and took pictures and humbly accepted compliments. Towards the end when the guy who played Benny was out signing, I saw the guy who plays Sebastian across the street in The Little Mermaid come over and talk to him. Later I caught his eye and told him I'd seen him in Little Mermaid and great job and what is he doing crossing over. Turns out, he had gone on as Benny in In the Heights and that's where Disney found him! The other excitement of the stage door was this group of theatre campers who started serenading the stage door with one of the In the Heights songs. The Benny actor and Sebastian actor got a huge kick out of it, along with all the fans. The Benny actor actually asked them to sing it again after he called the writer of In the Heights so he could hear it! It was an amazing experience and I'm sure the kids loved it, especially the little girl who had the solo. What a voice!

This is why I love New York. You never know what's going to happen or who you're going to meet and make friends with. I also love theatre for all the people it brings together and what a difference it can make in people's lives. That's why I yearn to be a part of it, I suppose. It truely is its own kind of magic.