Goodnight Sweetheart, We'll It's Time To Go

I'm awake. It's too early to be awake on a Saturday. This is of course after I already laid in bed for a long time trying to go back to sleep. I'm just all wound up and nervous/thinking about too many things. And I don't have 3 men to sing me a lullaby when I can't sleep so....here I am. I'm sure I have yet another cold sore coming, which will be ever so exciting for my family in Indiana to hear!!!! They love that kind of stuff.

Speaking of Indiana, can I just say that I loved going home for Thanksgiving. A part of me was skeptical. I was the only intern, I think, that went home for the holiday and it was just feeling like it was going to be spending a lot of money for no reason. Well, that is crap. I have a ton of reasons why I needed to do it: I got presents (like christmas gels for our windows and stolen hotel coffee bags), I got to see two movies and they didn't cost a zillion dollars (Four Christmases had nothing redeeming about it except for the Taboo scene and Vince Vaughn's description of his life as Shawkshank Redemption, and Quantom of Solace was pretty darn awesome although not quite as good as Casino Royale), I ate epic amounts of food which you know doesn't happen often on my salary, and I got to just be with my family. They really are a crazy bunch of people. Example: one morning all five of us were bustling around our hotel room trying to get ready and Jackie notices all of my mom's jewelry on the table. She then proceeds to put all of it on and became the female version of Mr T. It was hilarious...but I guess you had to be there. And did I mention Irish Car Bombs with some of my cousins? I won't mention their names in case they run for office one day but it was quite bizarre and hilarious.

All of my extended family is reading this blog so I'm sure I'll here about everything I'm posting when I go home for Christmas but I think it's fun to be more connected to them than usual. How can they adore me when they don't even know what I had for dinner yesterday. Am I right or am I right? I'm also just glad that I am over and done with flying by myself for the first time. It wasn't too bad. I guess. The way home was stressful, delayed and consisted of an unavoidable $47 taxi ride, but hey! I did it all by myself. Where's my cookie?

Coming back to work after such a packed holiday was really just not that much fun. We were all stressed out and had too much to do. Opening night for YCTIWY was hectic. We had to do another audience response video and we were being legit professional about it. We made quarter sheets to pass out to people that had a blurb about it, our Talk It Out Booth logo, and a snazzy map of the lobby to show you where to go. Yeah, professional. We even had the stool, lights and backdrop set up the whole time so that people could walk by it and get interested. Well the second intermission was over and we’re doing our final prep and in walks a five piece band that set up about 2 feet away from us. I could have shot them all. The sound quality is pretty bad on the tape. And overall people just didn’t want to do it. It seems like it always ends up being a ton of work for practically no pay off. Once the video is up I’ll post a link to it and you can see what I mean. It’s not bad it just, well it’s not what we wanted it to be.

Then last Friday we had a double whammy. The Crew 10th Anniversary party was the same night as Happy Hour. We had to set up for both of the events simultaneously which mainly meant hauling around huge tables from one end of the building to another and trucking mass quantities of alcohol. And maybe it would have been okay if it didn’t happen on a day when two people got laid off and we had a company meeting about how screwed we are for next season. It was just a really sad day to be at work. The parties themselves went really well though. Drew and I made $27 bucks each in tips working behind the bar and we were finished cleaning a bit after midnight. Oh 9am-midnight days, you are only possible because of my youth and lack of ability to find another job.

I lobby managed all weekend and then bippity boppity boop I’m back at work again on Monday. No complaints because money is great, but, I think I need to scale back next year. I’m just doing too much and I fear my head will explode.

This week wasn’t as bad, but was still a long one. We had Taste of the Rep last night. There was talk of snow happening so traffic was ridiculously bad. Half of our participants didn’t show up and the food was an hour late. It’s fine. What was really awesome was when we were setting up a song came on and Fran said, “This is the song that helped me get over a break up.” So we turned off the lights and Jessica, Fran and I laid on the floor and just listened to it. Sometimes we just don’t have time to do bonding stuff like that because we’re too focused on getting more napkins and moving chairs. It was fun and will most likely be one of the truly peaceful moments I’ll have until I’m back in Iowa (coming Dec 20th to a Dubuque near you).

This was Haley, the paints intern’s, last week at the Rep which was really sad. She’s down to Earth and really funny so she’ll be missed a lot. We also did our Intern Skit for the SRO holiday party. The basic plot line was that we acted out snippets from three shows that we’ve done this season and had an actor ask the stage manager what their next line was. In a bit of hilarious I’ve-never-seen-this-before type circumstance, the stage management intern was day dreaming and then WHAM the actors transform into the dream sequence. Highlights of my acting included a Delilah reference, channeling Samuel L. Jackson for our Cakes on a Plane scene, and mocking Waiting for Godot. People were saying it was the best skit they’ve seen in years. Obvi. Our intern class is pretty much phenomenal.

OH AND DID I MENTION? This week I also went to the Deck the Hall Ball at WaMu theater in down down downtown Seattle! The bands were The Aqueducts, Shiny Toy Guns, Cold War Kids, Death Cab for Cutie and The Killers. Um. I need an iTunes gift card NOW. It is killing me to not be able to buy music. This was my first time going to a concert that wasn’t headlining five men singing and dancing for 13 year olds and I loved it. The Killers were absolutely, positively the best band I’ve seen live, which granted isn’t a long list, but get over it. I was pretty miffed off that they wouldn’t even let me into the bar area because I had a vertical id still. I just said, “Really? Really? Even though it clearly states that I’m 22 and a half?” “Um, yeah. It’s Quest policy.” And the hit list just keeps getting longer and longer.

I have another long weekend of lobby managering ahead of me, but it shouldn’t be too bad. I do get to go to my very first office holiday party tonight at Scott’s house which I’m probably way too excited for. We’re talking egg nog and singing carols around a piano type fare and I’m pumped. I’ll also be watching a lot of Mad Men Season One, which is slowly starting to push me to working more in marketing and maybe even an advertising agency someday. Okay, we won’t even talk about that. Also—I rewatched Dial M for Murder last night and it is still amazing. Netflix it, it’s good.

Alright, well I’ll try to calm down and hopefully my last week before Christmas won’t be hell on Earth. I will be going to two high schools all day Monday to take pictures and shoot videos for the Playwriting Project so at least that’ll be fun. If anyone has strong sleeping pills, send ‘em my way. I think eventually I should try to get some sleep.

Love and Frasier.

Shameless Plug

Drew and I finished our ednotes for boom soooo, yeah. You should check it out. I'd put it in the blog, but I can't figure out how to do it. 

Ur Pix Fix

This is Jessica, Antoinette and I after I won $50 from the donors that came to the Rep. They were sad they didn't win anything. I was sad that my friends aren't as awesome as I am. 
Mom and I in Seattle on our Argosy Cruise! Yay for peachmonsters coming to the Northwest. 
Just us and Obama on Election Night, looking fierce. And a random drag queen in the background. 

The Good, The Bad and The Tuna

This was another hectic week to add the annals of my so-called life. Let's just dive right in:

It's fine. No really, I don't care. Buuuut, I kind of got fired from writing the Cue Sheet. The higher ups declared it to be a "threat to the organization." So I only got to write about 6 of them. It's been hard fielding e-mails from people asking me why I'm not doing it any more. I'm supposed to answer: "The Cue Sheet is a big commitment and now that I'm in the middle of my internship I need to turn my focus on to other important projects." This is complete crap. I'd rather say it like it is and tell people, "There are people out there that don't know how to take a joke. So instead of having an interesting Cue Sheet that people actually want to read, we're just going to copy and paste department's information into a Word Document and call it a day because we're lame. And we hate fun." I feel like Eminem. It's just him and me against the FCC. Getting censored and cleaning out our closets. 

I worked a lot of extra hours this week so that I could get trained on how to run the Leo K Theatre as a Lobby Manager. I still like working as Concessions Manager more, but it's nice to know that I could do a different position if I wanted to. (That's what she said). One night we had a karaoke machine set up because an actress from last season called and said she wanted to have some fun before she saw the show. Since she can really belt people lined up to sing a song with her and have it not sound like auditions for American Idol. People were really getting into it. I opted out of singing Ms. New Booty because I'm not musically challenged, but the CAs that did it were kind of hilarious. As a fun little joke we played It's the End of World As We Know It once boom was over. We love making apocalypse jokes. PS I've been stalking the playwright of boom ever since he got in town. I'm a creeper, but I can't help it. His play is awesome and I'm obsessed.  Read it. Worth it. 

Wednesday was opening night for boom. We had the grossest food spread ever. Since we have basically no budget we made the theme "food you'd find in a bunker after the end of the world." We had the obligatory twinkies but then we also had canned sardines, peaches, mini gerkins, and oysters. Gross. I didn't eat. Not that I would have had time to. At 1pm that day Joanna from Communications asked Drew and I to make a video of audience's reactions to the show. We had 4 hours to figure out how we wanted to do it. I was channeling my desire to be on the Real World and came up with the idea of making a Confessional Booth. People would go in while the camera was taping and could say whatever they wanted about the show. Basic reactions included: "Is there a priest in there?" "What do I talk about?" "Is this thing rolling?" I mean people were just not gets its that night. Once that video is done I'll be sure to post it. We screened it the next day and here's a laundry list of what we saw:

1. Jessica crying because "Kiki is so mean to me."

2. Someone confessing about cheating on their girlfriend.

3. A woman said that she loved the movie. Yeah.

4. And Rob started smoking a cigarette. Pretty sure that's like way against the law, but it's fine. 

Someone from Seattle Weekly was there and loved that we were doing it. They want a copy of the video to blog about it. Hopefully this is the beginning of my film career. Done and done. Although I don't think AbbaDahl Films is quite a compelling name. We'll have to come up with something more Spielberg. 

The rest of the week was just a lot of working and hanging low. It's getting pitch black outside around 5 so it always feels a lot later than it actually is. Being north is weird. 

I did see Twilight and it pretty much sucked. I finally watched Rushmore and can continue my love affair with Wes Anderson. I also cooked dinner last night and tonight. I mean, that's unheard of around here. I never have the time. 

Speaking of food: we had the intern food drive on Friday in the shop. Every intern got two huge boxes full of food. I now have more peanut butter and tuna than God. There was a lot of trading going on and I didn't get rid of everything that I wanted to. But it's okay. I scored a lot of pasta so A+ on that front. And we all got a $35 gift card to Safeway. I'm using it to buy ice cream because I never have it and I want it oh so bad. Yum. 

30 Rock season one is amazing. As is Six Feet Under. Why people don't take more advantage of the library system is beyond me. Oh and Frasier season two is my new life. 

I get to go home this week! The time change is going to suck. But seeing my family and sleeping in my bed at least one night will make it worth it. I wish I could see some of my friends but I'll be in Indiana pretty much the whole time. Sadness. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday Morning, Rain is Falling

Actually it isn't raining. Apparently it only does that when my parents are visiting. Le sigh. 

 

Seattle is cool. I mean like wayyy cool. I've done some down right amazing things that, let's face it, would just never happen in the Midwest. 

1. Remember that Shitstorm I told you about? Well it happened about 3 weeks ago. We had 150 people, standing room only, in our PONCHO rehearsal hall and we talked (more like ranted) for three hours about theatre and drank dollar PBRs. We talked about this article in length. The article was read out loud and then two big wigs in Seattle Theatre started off the conversation by "contending the bone." One of them picked apart the Shakespeare point saying that we need to continue doing his work. By not doing so you're robbing artists all over the country from doing the classics and putting their interpretation into anything other than new work. He stressed that playwrights aren't the only ones that deserve to be creative. Point well taken. The other man agreed with this point and bounced off in numerous different directions basically culminating in calling the article's author an idiot. I felt bad for the journalist. He was pretty much slaughtered. But that room had an undeniable energy. People were shouting and cat calling and pretty much pouring their hearts out. I've never seen people talk about theatre in this way. The passion. The intensity. The sense of urgency. It was so contagious. It really reminded me that theatre is frickin amazing and I chose to be in this line of work. So economy be damned I'm going to do everything I can to stay in it. If not for anything else than for the dollar PBRs. Oh and did I mention that we ended the evening by singing Journey's Don't Stop Believing? Because we did. 

2. OBAMA. Obama. OOOOOOOOOBAMA! Now if that wasn't just about the most exciting night, then I don't know what was. I had some friends over to my apt and Mollie cooked dinner while we all sat two feet away from my tv and watched the results coming in. The noise level was deafening when Obama went over 270. We were all freaking out and calling/texting everyone we knew. I was shaking all over I was so excited. It's nice to feel like a vote matters. That when you vote Democratic they don't just automatically say, "tough luck." And it is SO NICE to know that America supported Obama. None of this too-close-to-count-so-let's-wait-three-days bull. He won. Change is in the air. Of course we then all started balling our eyes out when he gave his speech in Grant Park. When you see Oprah and Jessie Jackson crying and you don't shed a tear, then I'm pretty sure you're heartless. Of course the fun didn't stop there. We took to the streets of Seattle. We went down to 1st ave and marched with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of other people chanting "Yes we can!" Antoinette hugged just about every person she ran in to. Jessica and I were just screaming our heads off and dancing with strangers. It was just...amazing. Big city living perk: the liberals love to come out of their house and party it up. I don't think I've ever felt so proud to be American. Even saying that sounds corny and cliche and something that a Texan would say. But I really did feel it. It was a great night. Freedom. Democracy. America. 

3. And what about my parents coming in town? It was, to say the least, one of the best weekends I've had in Seattle. It was so much fun getting to have my dad in Seattle and not be stressing out about buying a bed or finding a discount furniture store. And it was wonderful to finally have my mom here and get to show her just a few of the things that I love about Seattle. We went to Pike Place Market, of course, and spent a lot of time there shopping for my grandpa's 70th birthday presents. We went into the Space Needle and had dinner which was soooo good. It was kind of an overcast night so next time we'll do brunch. But it was awesome and touristy. We went down to the Aquarium which was more fun than I thought it would be. I knew my dad would get a kick out of it so I offered it up on the itinerary, but I actually had a great time. Things that I love that I didn't know I loved: sea otters. They're the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Cats and dogs have never done it for me, but these little guys? I'd buy a tank if I didn't have to pay rent. It was just really nice to have my parents here and to not be worrying about, well, anything. It was so calm and relaxed. I loved it. 

4. I protested Prop 8 in the streets of Seattle yesterday. Once again I'm pretty much a Doobie Brother. There were 10,000 estimated people there wearing rainbow colors and holding Bert and Ernie balloons. There were signs about "Divorcees for Gay Marriage" and "Jesus had two dads." I won't stand on my soapbox and talk about it here, but seriously: don't hate. (Maybe this is just the thing we need for a bunch of recording artists to get together and re-record the Black Eyed Peas' Where is the love?)

5. Work Updates: I've been trained in how to work both theatres in our building as a Lobby Manager so hopefully that will continue to bring in extra money and not be too stressful of a second job. The Rep as a whole isn't doing too hot. I won't write about it because this is a public blog and, hey I kinda want to keep my job. But the economy sucks and everyone is hurting. This makes it a really interesting year to be an intern. You're watching the steamroller go by knowing you won't be affected by the aftermath. It's odd and sad. Ask me about it and we'll talk. Three Musketeers closed and it was a really great last show. That audience was ready to laugh and have a good time. The actors were pretty much doing whatever the heck they wanted. Jeff Bender yelled "You're shooting blanks" when Ryan Sham's gun didn't go off and I then I died. This was a fun cast and I actually got to know a few of them. I'll miss their opening entrance and my obsession with Hans the most. He's just wonderful. 

Well, that's all I have for now. I'll post pictures of all of these things soon. Thanks for reading. Miss  you!