So. It's been forever. I'll attribute that to long hours and just about no real free time before midnight.
But now I'm back. And plenty's been going on. This update's just gonna brief you on what's been going on and where I am now. I've a couple posts that will be coming up (likely tomorrow) where I'll start giving more of my impressions of NYC and the theatre world as I've encountered it so far.
To start with, I've been living in the city for about three months now, and was fortunate enough to find employment at a restaurant (Island Burgers and Shakes) as well as an internship with the off-broadway theatre company New York Theatre Workshop.
NYTW is a pretty cool place. I'm one of two artistic/casting interns, and I've been very fortunate to be around the high quality theatre artists that populate the workshop. When I arrived at the theatre two months ago they were in the midst of rehearsals for The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman directed by Ivo Van Howe. Now, the show itself is somewhat, well, boring. This production, however, was one of the most visceral and engaging performances I've ever seen. Before the show went up I was able to sit in on technical rehearsals as the person on book and got to watch Ivo, a celebrated director from overseas (he's Flemish), work with his actors, which was absolutely fantastic. The direction of the piece was so incredibly dynamic and well thought out, it was clear that no moment had gone unaccounted for. Everything worked seamlessly, there was a fluidity and movement to the piece that I could never have anticipated based on the stodgy pages of the seventy year old script.
I'll get more in to what I do on a day to day basis later, but as a casting intern I've been able to sit in on a bunch of auditions and EPA's, and yesterday I was fortunate enough to meet and sit with Roger Rees and Alex Timbers (the directors of Peter and the Starcatcher, which is coming up next at the workshop) and watch some auditions before going out to monitor the rest.
That's not to say there aren't frustrations. I'm incredibly busy being split between two workplaces and have had very little time to pursue my own artistic endeavors. Also, costs are extremely prohibitive and breaking into Directing is a completely wild thing, there's no prescribed method and no means of audition. It's all about contacts or self producing or festivals. I'm working on all three, and we'll see what comes of them.
New York's a bit of a crazy town. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that I truly do live here. But when I walk home from the station at 181st and look out over the Hudson (I live right on the river, right next to the George Washington Bridge), I realize just how lucky I am to be here, with a job, an internship, and a lot of time ahead of me.
It's truly exciting, because I have no idea where I'm going from here. I suppose that should be frightening, and in a way it is. But at the same time, there's so much freedom to make my own path. That's one great thing about NYC. If you are willing to take the initiative, the opportunities are there. You just have to find them.
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