Monday, June 29, 2009

New York state of mind...

On June 28th, I packed my bags and headed up to the city. The flight was uneventful (save for a little turbulence, which was fun). We landed a little late and I had to check in for my shuttle. The woman working behind the check in desk at LaGuardia Airport was an excellent specimen for a character study! She was so stressed and frazzled, and had a hard time multi-tasking! The shuttle finally came and the radio played Michael Jackson for the entire trip. We drove through Queens and into Manhattan and a couple hours later, I was at my residence. I guess now I understand why the shuttle is so cheap!

When I checked in, I was a little unsure about the place. My room is very small and basic, no AC, shared bathrooms, etc. But now that I've had a day to adjust, I am growing to like it! Couldn't do it long term, of course, but everything is taken care of. Maid and linen service once a week, two meals per day (though unfortunately I might become a vegetarian while I am here...), and a 24 hour attendant who has to buzz you into the building, so I feel pretty safe. It's been pretty cool up here so far so the no AC thing is not a problem, yet (knock on wood). Also, free internet access which I am using right now! I took some pictures of my new surroundings.

This is my room:

This is my street!

I live right by Edgar Allen Poe St., which I just thought was cool...

I have more photos, but I'm having technical difficulties.

Today I woke up at the butt crack of dawn (6:15 AM, it's amazing what you can do when you actually WANT to go somewhere), got breakfast and hopped on the subway to make my 8:15 orientation. The school is a very lovely old building on Madison Avenue. They said it was built as a boarding house for "proper" women. Anyhoo, we got our schedules and I am happy with it. I have acting Monday through Thursday, Voice & Speech Monday and Wednesday, Vocal (singing) on Tuesday, and Movement on Thursday. I will have 2 electives starting next Friday but we don't have that schedule yet (I'm taking Musical Theatre and Career Counseling).

After orientation, I went to acting class which was held in one of the theatres. My teacher is very nice, laid back, and says the F-bomb a lot :-) I like him...I think I will like the class too. It seems it will be mostly Meisner-based, which is perfectly fine with me, because strangely enough in all my acting classes in college I never really studied this method. It's weird, more improvisational, and kind of fun. I was somewhat relieved they're not teaching Stanislavski's System, because that was what I mostly got in college. It's a useful technique, but now I'll get to see if old Mr. Meisner was on to anything! We also did a relaxation exercise where we laid on the floor then walked around the room shouting at the walls like total lunatics...yep, I've chosen the right career.

Next I had Voice and Speech. The teacher is a younger woman who went to AADA herself but she was very smart and knowledgeable in the subject. She said we will be correcting speech problems in the class, and working on breathing. We have to memorize a very long tongue twister by next Monday. We also did a relaxation exercise where we laid on the floor...I am seeing a pattern here! I think this class will be useful.

After classes, I spent some time looking at job listings and trying (unsuccessfully) to find the library - I'll go tomorrow. In the evening I went for a run/walk in Central Park...it was so cool! Some great views of the city, happy people, dogs, and a lovely running trail that winds around the lake. Then it was back home for a spaghetti dinner, blogging, and now bed! Blogging is exhausting!!

Saying goodbye...

Before I left for New York, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a week with my Mom, Dad, and brother in Orlando! Greg (my brother) was there for work and so we were able to stay in his hotel for free. Thanks, government! We got there Tuesday night and due to the rain, we went to the kick-butt Orlando mall. Torture, I know. Actually, it was, because I couldn't buy anything! (See previous post about quitting well-paying job.) Wednesday while Greg was at work, Mom and Dad and I went to Universal Studios! It was pretty awesome. My favorite "rides" were the Terminator ride and the Mummy ride. It was very hot though. Later that night we saw Transformers 2 (which was, erm, interesting) and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Greg tried to get our waitress to bring out a cake for Dad's birthday, but she was too busy hitting on him! I don't really have any pictures because we used Mom's camera, and she hasn't sent them to me yet! (Hint, hint...)

Then on Saturday I got to chill with my oldest sister, Andrea, and her two sweet little girls, Elena and Isabella! We went to the pool and had lots of fun. Now that I *do* have pictures of...









I love my nieces to pieces!
The only one I didn't get to see was Julie, Jeff, Grace, and Kody :-( .... wait, correction, I DID see Jeff as he came up to the airport to get my car! Take good care of my Ruby, please :-)

Life is too short, so love the one you got!

On June 19, 2009, during one of the worst economic recessions of my lifetime, I quit my cushy, secure, well-paying and boring job as a Bodily Injury Claims Specialist (III) at Liberty Mutual to come to New York City and study the only discipline I have ever really been passionate about: theatre. The extremely competitive, not-so lucrative world of theatre.

...

I must be crazy! But I figured if I never took a chance and did something crazy when I had the opportunity, I would come to regret it in my later years. After all, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I did something cool when I was young! Working in a cubicle day-in and day-out at a job you hate, not so cool. I really liked all my coworkers and my boss, but at the end of the day, I was not happy with what I was doing, and life is too short to stay with something you don't like! So, I will be keeping this blog and dutifully updating it with my latest adventures in the Big Apple. To start with, here are my headshots, taken in September 2008. You have to bring your headshot and resume on practically every audition you go to, so they're pretty important!



I think this one is my favorite:





But this is the one I have been using:



Wow it feels kind of self absorbed to post a bunch of pictures of myself, but there they are! Finally figured out how to upload them to this site.