Chewing Gum & Graphite.

There was one awkward pause in the show on Friday but Adam and Ty came to see it and then on Saturday so many people came and it was overwhelming. Alexis got me flowers and my parents took the two of us out to lunch and I got a lot of hugs and sometimes I question why I want to be an actor because it’s difficult and uncertain and I get so nervous sometimes but then I do a performance like we did on Saturday and I remember why.

On Tuesday I had rehearsal until about midnight and then The Comedy of Errors opened on Wednesday and it went quite well! After the show, a bunch of us walked in the rain to Robin’s apartment in South Philly, where we met his housemates who are also actors at UArts. The night was filled with beer, Super Smash Bros., a roof with a beautiful view of the city, good jokes, fake swordfights, and great people. It was so, so much fun and Robin was even kind enough to walk me home at 1:00 in the morning.

Since then, we’ve done two more performances and it’s getting better each time. The audience tonight was particularly responsive, which is always awesome. One of my good friends, Zoey, and her mom came to see it and I had no idea until I saw them after the show. So, that was nice.

I’m getting slightly less angry about having to wash off boatloads of eye makeup each night. But only slightly.

And there is definitely a joke in the fact that I am an actor playing a waitress in a play. Practice for real life, or something.

Let’s recap.

Monday - We had an all-day rehearsal for Into the Woods and all of the hope I had mysteriously gotten for it went away. It was the first time we had ever run through the whole show (hell, it was the first time we had ever run through a whole act!) and the first time we had lights and sounds. It was kind of a disaster. After school, I hung out with Seamus and Gemma because Seamus thought that we had a show that day. The weather was horrible, but we walked to South Street and got delicious hummus and falafel. It was really, really fun and I miss(ed) them.

Tuesday - The first act of the show went pretty well, but there were too many awkward forgotten-line moments in the second.

Wednesday - The two shows were better than the one on Tuesday, thankfully. I got home at like, 10:30 and hadn’t eaten anything since like, 11:00 in the morning.

Thursday - I was exhausted and had to take two finals. The last show was probably the best one; that’s usually how things go. It was a relief for it to be over, but I will miss wearing my costume (the skirt was awesome) and through all of the unbelievable stress, it was still fun to perform. It definitely came together a lot better than I had expected it to.

Friday - After school, Amanda came to my house because there was some art show that was put on by a few kids from Masterman that we wanted to go to. On our way, we ran into Russell and Sarah Levin, who were also going there! The Facebook event promised free cupcakes and pretzels, and while there were soft pretzels, there were no cupcakes. The prospect of free cupcakes was probably what I was looking forward to the most. Ah, well. Some of the art was pretty cool, some wasn’t. It was kind of weird to see/talk to people who I used to be friends with. The four of us didn’t stay for long and walked to Rittenhouse, where it was peaceful and lovely and a good temperature.

I have too much work to do this weekend, but there is no school on Monday! 

Three projects, two finals, and two legitimate days of school to get through. Then high school is pretty much over. YES. 

FRIDAY:

-Mary, Scott, Camille (who came to see the show, yay!), and I sang (or rapped, really) the “Greens, greens, and nothing but greens” song from Into the Woods.

-The first show went really well, partly because the audience was good and large (compared with the fifteen people who came on Tuesday) and it just went a lot smoother than the show on Tuesday.

-Pizza in between shows! YES.

-Night show was also good! I was so hype all day; it was fantastic.

-Drove to my Grandma’s house when I got home. It was an exhausting but satisfying day.

SATURDAY:

-Got a free NYU messenger bag and a Tisch yo-yo. Like, are you kidding me? So awesome.

-I love theatre people. So much.

-I love NYU. I am SO EXCITED for college. Ahhhh.

SUNDAY:

-It was a BEAUTIFUL day. My mom and I sat in Central Park for a bit, waiting for the box office to open.

-I LOVE JOHN GREEN AND DAVID LEVITHAN. They were hilarious and interesting and wonderful.

- I was the very last person in line to get my book signed, but it was more than worth it. They complimented me on my lightning bolt earrings (SQUEE!) and we had a brief conversation about Neutral Milk Hotel. I told John about the Looking for Alaska quote that we used in The Mirror, which he seemed to appreciate. I still can’t believe I met JOHN GREEN. JOHN FREAKIN’ GREEN. MY FAVOURITE VLOGGER AND SECOND-FAVOURITE AUTHOR. GAAAAAH. ::falls over::

TODAY:

-Final performance! And my last show at Central, which is weird to think about. It went very well, even though I couldn’t stop coughing. Before the show we were all being silly, playing helicopter with the fake boobs, pushing each other on a cart thing, throwing around the innertube, talking about how beautiful Mr. Durkin is. I love, love, love (almost) every cast member so much. It’s definitely a relief for the show to be over, but it was so much fun.

I’M GOING TO SLEEP BECAUSE I NEED SLEEP. Also, I told myself I would listen to “Sawdust and Diamonds” by Joanna Newsom and then get off of the computer, and the song ended right after I typed the word “SLEEP.” Nice.

This is literally impossible for me to answer. I love far too many songs to only pick ONE. Nope. Impossible. Sorry.

In other news, Will Grayson, Will Grayson arrived in the mail today! I plan on finishing it before Sunday, when I see John Green and David Levithan in New York (which I am still in disbelief about, frankly). Five pages in and I laughed out loud. Eight pages in and one of my favourite bands is mentioned. WHY IS JOHN GREEN THE COOLEST PERSON EVER?

Our first performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was today. It… wasn’t a complete disaster. Ehhhh. I am so tired of high school theatre. Hey college, are you here yet?

Tomorrow it is supposed to be around 90 degrees. NO THANK YOU. At least it’s a half day.

Updates updates! By day:

THURSDAY - Our last rehearsal at Kathy’s lovely apartment. We did some improv, which I was a bit scared of because I’m not the biggest fan of improv, but it wasn’t too bad, especially since I had an established character. We improvised a few scenes that weren’t in the play but could have been: Franny going to Inez’s house after Billy and Perdita leave her, Perdita and Inez hanging out (Inez was teaching me how to frost cakes… haha), Perdita at the gas station after Billy leaves her, Billy and the Man after they leave Perdita (which was HILARIOUS; they got to talking about fairs and hog wrestling), and what the last scene might be like if Billy hadn’t killed himself. It was a really interesting rehearsal, to say the least.

FRIDAY - Our last rehearsal. It was a really good one. Running through the show has always been fun but that time it seemed especially fun for some reason. I had to bring my afghan blanket home because the scene it was used in got cut, so I had it around my shoulders when I walked home and got lots of funny looks. Ian walked with me most of the way, talking more about his coming months of adventure that he had started telling me about the day before after rehearsal (he’s apparently going to hike from New York to Massachusetts on the Appalachian Trail, for one thing) and I told him about the frustrations of high school theatre.

SATURDAY - I got a state ID so that I can go on airplanes and registered to vote at the same time (thanks, Motor-Voter Law!). Amanda came over and the line for the Joanna Newsom show at the Church was crazy long, but we ended up getting decent seats anyway. The Moore Brothers (the opening band) were fun and had nice voices. Annnd Joanna was super adorable and super amazing. I could gush for a few sentences, but I won’t. She makes me want to learn how to play the harp. Later, my mom, Amanda, and I saw The Sleep Detective (another PlayShop show), which was… weird. It had its moments, but I wasn’t a huge fan overall. Also, we barely avoided the FLASH MOB on South Street, which was beginning to form when we got out of the show. Absolutely ridiculous.

SUNDAY - Our last show. Ian forgot to bring his shoes and had to run to a nearby thrift store to get new ones. Meg forgot her script and we had to start the show a bit late so we could wait for her boyfriend to bring it. But in spite of those minor-ish glitches (and the fact that it was a zillion degrees in the theatre), the show went really well! A lot of people that I knew saw it, which was nice. Caileigh made me four beautiful paper flowers and she, Lyle, and I went out to eat after the show. Later, my mom and I saw Our Lady of Balenciaga (another PlayShop show), which was good. Though ::in lofty tones:: not as good as our play, if I do say so myself. After the play was over, I waited around to do the strike, which didn’t take long. I got to keep the sweater I wore (for a mere 50 cents!), which made me happy. After loading all of the set pieces into Matt’s truck, we got our checks, I hugged people, and it was all so fast, and then it was over (OH SNAP, line reference!). We all sincerely hope that Kathy’s play gets produced (even if none of us get recast, haha) because it is so, so wonderful and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. I still can’t believe I can say that I ORIGINATED the role of Perdita Flannery. Crazy.

So those four days were really fantastic, albeit rather bittersweet. Today it was rainy and gross, which was especially suckish because it had been so nice over the weekend. My mood paralleled the weather. I felt kind of sick, and Mondays are never fun, and I was sad about the play being over. And I have a bunch of African American History stuff that I have been putting off for too long, but that I REALLY don’t feel like doing. BUT then earlier, I was looking at the message boards on http://collegeconfidential.com and there were people discussing the cryptic e-mails from NYU and a couple people said that they called the admissions office and if you got one of those e-mails, it means you got in! So I freaked out a little bit and got really excited. Hell, I’m still really excited. ALSO, Mumford & Sons are going to be here in May! ::explosion of joy::

Okay, I’m finished. This was too long and if you actually read all of it, I commend you. I need to decide between sleeping and homework now, though I kind of have a feeling about which one is going to win.

So far, I’ve heard from four colleges. I didn’t get into Purchase, but I wasn’t expecting to, so that’s no big deal. I got into Goucher, which is nice; at least I know I’ll be going somewhere. I didn’t get into DePaul (my feelings about this will be determined by other acceptances/denials) and I got wait-listed for Emerson, which kind of sucks. But hey, wait-listed is better than denied.

I got the DePaul and Emerson letters today, and it’s rainy and gross out, so I’m in a pretty blah kind of mood. I ate the last piece of my birthday cake from Meg to make myself feel better, but then I was still sad because there was no more cake. Haha.

ANYWAY. Here’s a list of better and more exciting things:

1. On Saturday, Caileigh, my parents, and I went to Pod for a celebratory birthday dinner. We were going to watch The Hangover but I took the disc out of its Blockbuster envelope to discover that one side of it was broken. WHY DON’T THE BLOCKBUSTER PEOPLE CHECK THESE THINGS BEFORE THEY SEND THEM? So Caileigh and I watched Up instead, because she had never seen it before.

2. We sold out our show yesterday! All 42 seats! Hahaha. We were the first PlayShop show to sell out, though, which is pretty neat. The show went well, and Amanda and Mr. Burns saw it! I can’t believe there’s only one more week. I don’t want to think about it.

3. I got the part of the Baker’s Wife in my Drama class’ production of Into the Woods! I am very excited about this, because it’s a fantastic part and Into the Woods is a fantastic musical, but we’re going to kill it because there is no way that you can put on a decent musical with the 24 random kids in a Drama class. A lot of the kids in that class either don’t care, can’t sing, can’t act, or a combination of the three. Eh well, hopefully it’ll be fun anyway.

Because yesterday was fantastic.

First of all, my voice was better, which was a huge relief. I was afraid that it was going to die halfway through the show or something, but it didn’t! Thankfully.

The show itself went really well! I wasn’t too nervous (it’s a great comfort having the lines right in front of you) and even though the play is about an hour and a half, it seemed to go by pretty quickly. Kathy told Ian and I that it was amazing, which was a huge validation.

After the show, us cast members and David were going to go to Johnny Rocket’s to get celebratory milkshakes but there were too many people there, so we went to the South Street Diner instead. It was so much fun; it’s pretty cool that I can hang out with people who are all way older than me and not feel out of place.

I was going to walk home because it was actually really nice out, but instead Ian’s friend Christine, who had come to the show and the diner with us, gave me a ride.

When I came home, I talked to my dad for an unnecessarily long time, partly because I was energized from the performance and partly just because I could. Being a rather vocal person, it was not fun or easy to be unable to talk much for an entire week. I’m excited to recommence reading aloud in class and not being crap in rehearsals and sounding like myself, rather than an 80-year-old chain-smoking version of myself.

Oh, good times. I can’t believe there are only two more weeks of Front Row Seat! I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself after March 21st. I may actually cry during the last performance.