One year down in school. I survived. Too many things happened already for me to start listing stuff that happened in the school year including escaping both a crazy landlady and a burning building, getting kicked out of a bar, going on my first true assistantship, witnessing complete hippy anarchy, getting in a car accident, and hooking up with a masseuse (by now everyone knows that story). Old news. So here is what is going on now:
I have moved to NYC for the summer. My photographer/college buddy Sam is "vacationing" at Williamstown Theatre Festival currently so I am subletting his apartment and roommate in Astoria. It's working out fabulously. I bought a plane ticket with money only for rent and a Metropass and started looking for work.
My first job literally fell into my lap as I was making my connecting flight in Milwaukee. I said yes before I knew what it was. Turns out to be an Off-Broadway show with both a stipend and a budget. This is both rare and AWESOME. It's a restoration comedy, The Country Wife, set in an industrial, decrepit theatre. The acting and directing for this piece is truly phenomenal. Check it out: http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/MacCary_Minshew_Bobst_to_Star_in_THE_COUNTRY_WIFE_20010101
Part of my daily routine is cruising the net for jobs. My third day, I found another show, Den of Thieves, looking for a lighting designer that happened to be in the same space (again, Off-Broadway) that the first one was in. They got excited and hired me. I got excited and charged almost double the first show. Heh.
I found one more show that week, and it was one that is a new work in a really good Off-Broadway house (New World Stages). I really loved the piece and created a fantastic presentation for the director meeting. He got excited about me and my ideas and I'm pretty sure I'm top choice for this. This is a big budget show with a set that is in a two-story department store, really exciting and challenging. Unfortunately, I did a little checking up on this producer and he's got three different write-ups on Ripoff Report for not paying people. One of the reports including a video. Apparently this really fun producer was a failed American Idol contestant, one of the ones they put on the show for everyone else to laugh at. Yikes. This project is still pending, I'm a little shady-ed out.
CalArts Alum Association (AKA the CalArts Mafia) is pretty incredible. I'm managed to find a ton of alums that are totally cool with having a newbie around for whatever projects they are working on. One of the projects I helped out with took place in the Swedish cottage in Central Park. It was the Oresteia told with true puppets and Greek people. Working in a puppet theatre was actually a little bizarre. Everything is miniatured, even the lighting equipment! I felt like Alice in Wonderland, completely out of scale! It was fun and an interesting thing to be a part of.
The show that I am helping out with now is called Conni's Avant-Garde Restaurant in Cambridge, MA near Harvard. It is dinner theatre completely reimagined, staged in a club, and is running in rep with a nightclub show. It's theatre of the absurd but it's completely collaborative with the theatre group. They function like a family and this piece is so incredibly unique that I am having a blast. We are staying in a house of puppeteers, which is awesome. There are all kinds of puppets shoved in every corner of the house; art supplies, plants, cats, and journals strewn about amongst the clutter. Here is the show link:
I will post more soon, chronicling the activities and sights that I have been experiencing soon! Also look forward to Working in the B.A. Part II: Spiderman The Musical (yes, it is going to happen).
Til next time!
-s
