...opening a show

This week I opened my show, Monster by Neal Bell.

Photo from the play- by Stan Barouh

Last week I went to see the fireworks over the Hudson River with Eleni and some of her friends.  It was so crowded-  Eleni and I talked about how we missed the nice easy-going Buckland Park firework days.

I took Alex for a walk.

I shadowed the Stage Manager of Memphis on Broadway and got to listen to the stage manager call the show while watching it from the house and also got to see everything backstage- it was a wonderful experience!

Mom and Zoe arrived in the city and we moved Zoe into her Barnard dorm for the week.

Zoe with her ID card-- is she already looking more collegiate?

...first week in NYC

A lot has happened in this first week.  The reason why I haven't posted within this past week is because the internet hasn't been working at the house I'm staying at, so I'm at a Starbucks in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

My week...

Re-packed in Vermont and began my journey to NYC.  One of guys in the show, Noah, drove Britian, Boomer and me to Burlington, Vermont to catch the megabus to the city.

The bus was of course late.  It rained for a good portion of the trip, but eventually ended in a gorgeous rainbow.

 I stayed with my cousin Julie for the first night in the city.  These are her two cats.

Julie took my on a little tour of her area of Brooklyn and this is a view of Manhattan from Brooklyn across the East River.

I also met up with Boomer (above) and we found the theatre -- Atlantic Stage 2.

Left-- Julie's building is the blue one in the middle.

Right-- This is the house that I'm staying at for the next two months.

The two pictures above are of my room.

So this picture is a picture in the lobby at Atlantic Stage 2-- it is of Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele in the original production of Spring Awakening, which started at Atlantic Stage 2!

Yep, that's Lincoln Center-- where I'll be working for the next 10 months.  No big deal.

Load-in for the show!!  This picture is from a few days ago-- the set is now completely in and we had our day of tech yesterday!  We have a Dress Rehearsal and our first Preview Performance tomorrow.

Us at lunch a few days ago. L-R Paula, Boomer, Jim, Ken & Britian!

This is Alex, the dog- the family's dog.

 Images from Chelsea Market- where we stopped by in between tech sessions yesterday.

I saw Bob (Eleni) a few days ago and saw her amazing dorm and met her really nice roommates!! Above are two of the many silly pics we took the other day.

The show continues to rehearse and have Preview performances through the next week and then we open a week from today.

...the final days in Vermont

On Thursday, a BBQ was hosted for the theatre festival...

so we travelled to their beautiful home...

...and took silly pictures.  The food was really great- they had a great variety of salads.  

Pictured above is Britian making a funny face. 

Friday night we took a little trip around midnight to the Middlebury graveyard.  (We were doing research for the show!)  Ken told us ghost stories while we walked through.  To make it even creepier- it also happened to be the solstice that very evening.  

Above are all actors in Monster- (L-R) Joe, Boomer, Paula, Britian & Ken!

As we were walking into the graveyard.  Wonderful evening for a creepy stroll.

Last night was the final night everyone was in Middlebury, so we had a party of sorts with lots of ping pong and ukulele playing- along with singing!  We all had lots of fun!  ...it's going to be a very different kind of pace and life in NYC- not in a bad way, just different.

This is from dinner tonight right before most everyone left Middlebury.

I leave for NYC tomorrow and I'm practically moving to the city for at least the next year- it's crazy!!

My next post will be from the big apple!

...into the sun

We've had a few beautiful days recently...

This picture was on my walk home from rehearsal.

Our day off on Monday was really nice and relaxing.  A bunch of us just stuck around the house and spent the majority of the day outside- the weather started out a little chilly, but turned into an absolutely beautiful day!  This is our frat house.

Britian taking some pics.

Tim gave me a flower, which is actually a weed, to put in my hair-- my reaction.

Drinking some twisted tea and playing banangrams outside on our day off!

Sitting around after throwing around a frisbee.

We took a walk into town and passed the waterfall.

Today was incredibly hot and humid!  We went to this restaurant called Fire & Ice for dinner.  The interior was really quirky, but was a fun place with great food!

After some competitive bananagrams, we ended the evening with some singing and ukulele playing.  Pictured above are Joe and Paula- both actors in the play!

Can't believe we only have a few more days here in Middlebury before heading to the big apple!  It feels like we've been here for a month- but it also feels like we should be here for another few weeks!

...hosting a pot-luck

We finished staging Act 1 today and ran the act at the end of rehearsal.  The show is coming along really well and the company is really coming together.  We're all having so much fun!

Amidst our intense ping-pong tournaments at our frat house, we had a pot-luck this evening with the entire company.  There is one other show besides Monster that is part of the theatre festival, so it was both shows together.  The pot-luck was at our frat, Kappa Delta Rho.  WOO!!

The company during the pot-luck!

A lot of us played frisbee, soccer, and got bitten up by the bugs.  All of the food was also really good!

...experiencing Middlebury

It's been a nice few days of rehearsal- the play is coming along really well!

Some goings on in Middlebury...

After the rain cleared yesterday, the sun came out and it was gorgeous!

The sky on my way out to "town."

It was open mic night at the only bar open in town and Boomer brought his guitar and played.  Britian and I were 2 of like 5 audience members.  The open mic night was really like band rehearsal for one of the bartenders and his friends- slightly bizarre.

Britian and myself cheering on Boomer!

The view out the window of the CFA today- a completely clear sky!

We got ice cream tonight!  But we had to rush there because they closed at 8pm sharp- oh Middlebury.

Britian with her matching mint chocolate chip ice cream and sunglasses.

We had an epic ping pong tournament in our game room in our frat house tonight.  Pictured above is the director and one of the actors gearing up for a game!! (Britian and I were partners and we had the longest winning streak of 5 games in a row!)

...into a frat house

The house we are staying in is the Kappa Delta Rho house- the fraternity of fraternities.

We have a ping pong/pool table.

and a home theatre.

Besides living in a frat house, we had our first rehearsal today!  All went very well.  It was really rainy today, so no beautiful pictures of Vermont.