Double Monkey Trouble

The other day I was standing in line at the post office, like ya do. This frazzled mother was at the window, trying to mail some items and simultaneously watch her twin three year olds. They were wearing these adorable monkey backpacks where the tail of the monkey is a leash for her to hold on to! However, she had given up on that and they were running around like mad men. One was a drummer, just using some pens to drum on anything and everything (like his brother) and the other was the hyper one, running all over the place. As he passed by, an old man in front of me calls out:

OM: Kevin! (as though trying to get his attention - I thought perhaps he was the boys' grandfather, trying to tell him to quit misbehaving)
*no response from the boy, who keeps running by*
OM: (shrugs) I don't know, he looked like a Kevin! (in a New York accent)
*the little boy makes another lap*
OM: Joe!
*still no reponse from the boy*
*he runs by a third time*
OM: Pointdexter! (thinks) No, that would be unlikely.


LESSON OF THE DAY: Latin American children are rarely named Pointdexter.

Ice Skating and Ethiopian

Yesterday, we met our friend Brian and went ice skating in Bryant Park - so fun! So painful! =) Bryant Park has a ton of cute little holiday shops set up right now so we walked around and checked out all of the booths. We went ice skating for about an hour - there were so many people there! The ice skating is free but the skate rental is not. If you had your own skates, it would be a sweet deal! We had a great time even though our feet hated us. Unfortunately, some people aren't so smart when they skate - for instance, people with small children - why are you in the middle of the rink? You are at a complete stand still which is crazy dangerous for everyone else. One of the skate guards told us they lose 25 fingers a year! But I digress. Then we decided to pig out on fair food - kettle corn, caramel corn, funnel cake, apple cider. We also bought some awesome hand warmers to get us through the winter. They are so cool - you just flex a disc inside them and they activate. Then you can boil them in water and reuse them at least 100 times! We got purple ones (the best color) and I think they are going to be so handy. And feet-y. Ok, wow, that was bad.

That night we went to meet our friend Tiff from highschool and her husband, Miguel. They took us to a neat Ethiopian place (which you know is a stretch for me) and I actually enjoyed parts of it. Of course, I had pigged out earlier on fair food in anticipation of maybe not being able to eat much. But I really did like some of it! It was great to hang out with them and catch up - I hope we'll get to see them again. We talked about checking out some live music around the city.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Small children, dumb people, and those with no inherent balance should not ice skate.

Show Whore

Saturday was show-tastic. We went down to try our luck at the Hair lottery again and our friends kindly ran down to meet us to increase our chances of winning. Stephanie won for us and then James won! So, we turned down the second win only to find out later that the woman screwed up and kept his name in on accident. So, really, we won three times! Haha! James of course was kind enough to purchase the tickets for some girls who really, really wanted seats with their friends. They were very happy. We headed out to the Apple store in search of a voice recorder for my iPod touch to no avail. That's what the internet is for, I suppose. The show was a blast - we were in the box seats which meant that I got my hair played with by Will Swenson and Caissie Levy, I was handed a daisy and later had another actor (John Wilkes Booth) try to eat it! Haha! One of the best things, though, was how excited James was when he realized that one of his drum idols, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, was playing drums for the show. Our worlds collided! He was so stoked to get to hear him play live that he probably didn't actually see the show at all - just stared at him the entire time! It's always nice to see how excited he gets about that kind of stuff because he's a pretty mellow dude the majority of the time. =) At the end of the show, Will Swenson auctioned off his pants for $1000 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Awesome!

After the show we went to Vynl where we had some tasty mac'n cheese. That night we had tickets to West Side Story because our friend Lauralyn is the vacation swing. It was soooooo awesome to see her on the Broadway stage - she is such a beautiful dancer and so fun to watch. That show just has amazing choreography and music - it's always a treat. I was also stoked because West Side Story has the best schwag - they have hard clear plastic cups with lids that you can take back to your seat for only $5! They have the logo on the side and are super cute. At the end of the night, I grabbed ones that other people left behind so now I have four of them - love it! James had to check out the drums set-up since they have three of them! Lauralyn's mom and sister were there that night so we were able to all go backstage after the show and we took some pictures on stage. Then we went to the Broadway Lounge in the Marriott Hotel and had food (yummy pizza) and drinks. Her family is great - it was so nice to see them again!

LESSON OF THE DAY: Having good schwag is important.

The Vibrator Play

Friday was pretty chill (and chill-y) - we slept in and did some things around the house. Then we decided that we would try to win the Hair lottery so we headed downtown. Our friends met up with us to throw their names in the hat to try to win for us but we all ended up losing! Then we walked over to Next To Normal to try to win that lottery for Stephanie and Betsy won! It was freezing that night so we walked over to TKTS to see what else we could see. Our friends highly recommended Sarah Ruhl's play "In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)" and we ended up getting amazing seats from TKTS - row 6, center, on the aisle! The play was amazing - I was weeping at the end! It's so funny and at the end, so poignant. Sarah Ruhl is an amazing poet - her images and ideas are so striking. The play touches on so many interesting themes/ideas - not the least of which is the actual historic reality of vibrators being used purely as medical treatment for women's "hysteria". I found the themes of being seen and heard, whether or not touch equals love, true connection, etc. very stimulating. (Sorry, bad pun. I can't help it - I'm married to James.) But seriously, everyone must see it - it is beautiful. Afterward, we went over to Betsy's for another round of apple cranberry crisp - the perfect end to a wonderful evening.

LESSON OF THE PLAY: Sarah Ruhl rules.

First Thanksgiving in New York

Well, it was very odd to be having Thanksgiving somewhere other than Seattle. James and I have been married for 6 1/2 years now and have spent all of our Thanksgivings as a married couple in Seattle. Luckily, we have a bit of a Seattle family here in New York and they invited us over for the holiday. We had a great time getting the food ready and then James finally arrived! The weather was amazing so we did a lot of walking just to be outside in it for awhile. Dinner was so tasty and Julia made 4 or 5 pies so of course we had to taste them all. My favorite was the apple cranberry crisp - perfection! It was so nice to hang out somewhere that felt like we belonged - like I said, family.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Love the family you're with.

Last Week's Auditions

Whew, it's been crazy Thanksgiving times so I'm behind on blogging! Let's see...last week I went to the American Idiot EPA. I got there super early so that I could get in and out and I was able to go in the very first group at 10 am! I think it helped that all of the men are required to play the guitar so that made for less people overall. It's the new Green Day musical so I rocker chick-ed it up - blue leather jacket, skinny jeans, boots and straight hair. I went in and sang my Janis Joplin cut which was fun. The problem with dressing sexy is that a)women hate you and b)men like you too much. I knew there was a reason I spend most of my time in jeans and a t-shirt! The day before Thanksgiving I went to an ECC for Sophisticated Ladies - I hadn't signed up on the list ahead of time so I got there early to be first in line (after the other 200 names were called). 9:30 rolls around and they start reading the list - check this out - they called close to 200 names and of those, only 22 girls were there! What?! Insanity. So, I lucked out (thanks for not showing up ladies!) and was able to be number 24. There were so few people in the room (40 tops, and that's including non-Equity and EMC!) that they upped the amount of bars we could sing from 16 to 32 (unheard of!). So, basically, I showed up to a chorus call and got to do a principal call - nice. Happy Thanksgiving to me!

Then Brian and I went to the Dreamgirls matinee - my friend Jarran had gotten us free tickets! It was just as awesome the second time. Then I went home and did laundry in preparation for my baby flying in for Thanksgiving - I could hardly wait!

LESSON OF THE DAY: Go to every audition, you will be rewarded.

Chiropractor Stroke

Yesterday I finally got to be seen by a doctor for the first time since I got rear-ended by a 17 year old just days before leaving Seattle. My car got fixed faster than this Char! He was able to take x-rays and everything looks good - there is definitely tension there and I will go in again on Wednesday. The best part though is that my chiropractor has an agent contact that he can give my headshot/resume to - this town is hilarious! Everybody's connected to show business! The funniest part came when I was laying face down on the table with some electric therapy patches attached to my shoulders and I overheard the following on the television in the waiting room:

(Random News Channel)
Announcer: A man suffers a stroke after chiropractic adjustments. Are chiropractics related to strokes? Tune in at eleven to find out...

I'm not even kidding.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Don't have fear-mongering news channels playing on the TV at your place of business. Inevitably they will at some point feature a story trying to kill your business.

First Class

Sunday afternoon I was able to take a class with Rachel Hoffmann at Telsey Casting. I was sooooo nervous but it was great! I got some great feedback and they videotape you so you can watch yourself later. I haven't worked up the nerve to watch the DVD yet (ha) but I think it will be really helpful. I felt really great about the work I did so it was a successful class - I even got a compliment from a girl in the class on our way to the subway! Then I had to book it to get home and take care of Violet and get ready for the NYMF Gala. Crazy day!

LESSON OF THE DAY: Do things that scare you - even when you have cotton mouth and your heart is beating soooo hard you think you'll pass out.

NYMF Gala

I had the immense pleasure of accompanying Grad to the NYMF Gala on Sunday night. The event was being held at the Edison Hotel Ballroom and I was excited to get a chance to wear the new outfit that Kathryn and I had bought at Bebe. We arrived early and Grad introduced me to Isaac, the founder of NYMF, and Sharon, the Board President. They were busy finishing up last minute details so we helped with namecards. The ballroom was very beautiful but also intimate which was nice. We had a table up near the front which would be great for the performances later in the evening. Our dinner companions arrived and I met the people we would be eating with – they included Warren Adler (author of War of the Roses), his wife Sunny (former editor of the Washington Dossier), several doctors included the man who perfected the liver transplant technique and their daughters, one of whom, Dana, is a senior in vocal performance at Ithaca College. Dana and I chatted through the cocktail hour which was nice since we had a lot in common. Later, we went downstairs for dinner – I had filet mignon (delicious) and potatoes. They started the awards section of the evening and we were treated to great performances from some of the shows from this past Festival. A couple parts of the awards made me think about Mo and Ryah. Mo because the Title of Show folks did a spoof on New York One’s theatre report and Ryah because of the awards for Fat Camp, which she was in. Once again, it’s funny how many random connections I have to things here from Seattle. Later we had dessert (chocolate lava cake and lemon meringue tart) and they also came around with random little items like mini ice-cream cones and HoHo-like sandwiches. I had a great time talking with such fascinating people and everyone was very kind and interested in what I was doing here. Although I did get quite a few “It’s such a hard business” talks. =) And yes, I’m aware. And no, it doesn’t change anything.

Later in the evening there were some famous guests including Richard Kein, Chad Kimball, Alice Ripley, Gavin Creel and Sherie Rene Scott. And I was so happy to see Greg Naughton and his wife Kelly O’Hara as well. We did a Christmas concert a few years ago in Montana and they are so sweet. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to say hi to them because a woman at our table lost her purse so we spent a lot of time looking for it at the end of the night. She thought she had put it in her gift bag (bad idea since everyone’s looked the same) but some staff later found it in the women’s restroom so that was a relief. Her husband came back and I ran it out to him from the afterparty location – the Paramount. We went over to the Paramount and the afterparty was very fun. At first, it’s always strange to be at these schmoozy things but they usually end up being fun and Grad is great at introducing people. I ended up talking to Chad Kimball (I had seen him in Memphis but had no idea he was from Seattle!) and I met the lovely Soara-Joye Ross not realizing that she was the beautiful girl in the purple dress during the awards (she won for her performance in a Festival show) and she was the one who performed later on in costume as an older slave woman. Seriously transformative. What was hilarious was that at the party I finally made the connection because she had accidentally left on her gorgeous rhinestone heart cascade earrings for her performance but no one had told her. So when I saw her wearing those earrings at the party I finally made the connection and I told her about it and she was mortified that no one had told her because she had made sure to take off all her rings, etc.! We had a great laugh about it and I told her I should have stood up and yelled it during her song because at one point people were yelling and clapping during her song at a particularly rousing point. She thought that was hysterical – playing Mama Lyla with some serious bling. I think I will call her Ms. Bling from now on. Haha! I also ended up meeting a girl who had worked as a stage manager at SecondStory Repertory and was the house manager when I did Pirates of Penzance there back in 2005 or something! How random! This just keeps happening. Manhattan – the Biggest Little City in the World! I also had a great time with Dana and her dad – they explained the Yule Log on TV to me. Who knew? Instant party in your home – just turn to channel whatever it is. Yule Log burning 24/7 throughout the holidays. We had an awesome time at the afterparty and totally shut it down. I got home around 2:00 a.m. and of course had to Skype with James to tell him about my awesome night! That meant not going to sleep until 3:00 a.m. Gross. But totally worth it!

Sardi's and Bye Bye Birdie - 11/21

Tonight I went out to Sardi’s for dinner with Grad and Randall (author of the reading I saw earlier in the week – Shadows). They were very surprised when we got there at 6:00 and it was already busy. Apparently in recent years there had been a decline in dining there but it looks like it has turned around. We sat at the bar for awhile and had some drinks while enjoying the provided cheese spread and crackers – yesssss!! We were a little rushed for dinner but it was wonderful – I had an extremely tasty roast chicken breast. We had an appetizer plate as well but I’m the world’s pickiest eater so I had to stick to the salami. Boring, I know, but I can’t help it! I just never outgrew the 5 year old’s tastebuds. What can I say? After dinner we went to see Bye Bye Birdie.The show was fun – it was rather odd though to see actual teenagers playing the teenagers!It wasn’t what my ear expected to hear so it was hard to get used to but I’m not sure if I think that’s good or bad. Just different. The show had great energy but I didn’t love the lead actors. But overall, a very enjoyable evening. I just love being here and seeing all of this theatre - so energizing!

Only A Week, But A Lot To Catch Up On

Now I've only been here by myself for a little over a week but I had lots of great times with James, RJ and Jen before they left me here. Boo hoo. Anyway, here are some highlights from when they were here:

James and I got in on Saturday from Florida where we had just seen the opening of Joel's graduate directing thesis project "Waiting For Godot". It was awesome and I am so proud of him! We went to the opening night and then the opening night party and the after party and then we hopped in our rental car and drove two hours to the airport for our 6:00 a.m. flight to New York. Let me just preface this by saying I had NO idea how far away Jacksonville is from Tallahassee when I booked that flight - so stupid. I thought it was similar to the distance of SEA-TAC. Haha. Basically, we got to New York and hadn't slept for over 24 hours. Gross. Then we managed to get the one taxi cab driver in the city who doesn't know where Washington Heights is. Seriously?! Here's the hilarious exchange between our cab driver and the taxi dispatcher:

CD: I can't take them to Washington Heights - is that in Manhattan?
TD: (incredulously) Are you a taxi driver? If you don't know where Washington Heights is, I can't help you.

Yikes. Thank God for Google Maps on your phone - yay technology! We managed to tell him how to get to my new place and I wondered, "Why don't all taxis have GPS nowadays?" Ah well.
We got to the apartment and crashed - soooooo sleepy. That evening we went out to dinner with Betsy, Caitlin and Julia - it was so nice to see some familiar faces that we adore. Even if the service was terrible. =)

SUNDAY:
We met up with RJ and Jen for brunch and then later went to Caitlin's 18th birthday party! I can't believe she is now officially an adult - time flies. The funniest part though was that almost everyone there was from Seattle - what a random collection of Seattle-ites all there at the same time. Later that night we went to go see Next To Normal which we were all very excited about since our very own Brian Yorkey wrote it - how awesome is that? And our friend Louis Hobson is in it - we really lucked out because we had intended to see it on Tuesday but Brandon got us tickets for Sunday instead and it turns out Louis was leaving for vacation on Monday so we would have missed him! The show was amazing and the entire time I sat there staring at Alice Ripley thinking, "I want to do THAT. That is awesome."

MONDAY:

We got to meet up with an old roomie of ours: Lauralyn. Love her! We had a great date at Amy's Bread - yummy. I can't wait to go see her in West Side Story - hopefully we will see her go on sometime after Thanksgiving when James is here. She is a vacation swing so it's hard to know when she will be on. That evening we went to see Cutting-Edge Composers II - a concert very much like Brandon Ivie's New Voices concerts in Seattle. It was fun to hear new music and see some great performances (Katie Thompson - wow).

TUESDAY:

This was a wreck of a day. Started off well with lunch at a diner, seeing David Freidman's beautiful apartment, a sighting of Stephen Schwartz (or his homeless doppelganger). Then everything went south - James headed back to the apartment but didn't realize he didn't have the keys. Doh. Lots of mix-ups ending in a person picking something up from the apartment and no one's there disaster. Let's just say it's impossible to get ahold of someone when they are on the subway on their way to the Staten Island Ferry and by that point, it's way too late. RJ, Jen and I went on the Staten Island Ferry which is an awesome way to see the Statue of Liberty for free! Later, we were supposed to go to New Jersey to see a dress run of On The Town at Papermill Playhouse since Brandon was in town assisting Bill Berry but our key fiasco had put me in a bad mood and I needed to just go home and chill out. James and I had a very romantic candlelight dinner of hotdogs, chips, soda and candybars for dessert. =)

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday was jam packed with theatre - we saw Ragtime and Dreamgirls. Ragtime had great performers but I was disappointed with the choreography. At times, the numbers looked like KIDSTAGE ensemble choreography when you have 50 children on stage and they follow each other around in lines. Very frustrating. Also, the sound didn't wash over you like a symphony - it sounded very small and far away. This made me crazy because I love that music and the orchestrations. Argh. Dreamgirls was AWESOME! I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it very exciting. It was the first show I've seen that used the LED technology in a way that really worked for me. My friend Jarran was in it and it was soooo fun to watch him. It was also really cool to see it at the Apollo - rich with history and perfect for this show. Afterward, we met RJ, Jen, Anthony Federov (our Joseph at the 5th Ave) and Diana DeGarmo. They had gone and seen Diana in The Toxic Avenger. It was so nice to meet her - she was so sweet and down to earth. We hung out at Snug Bar and ordered some burgers. They screwed up our order multiple times so we finally just ate the messed up one. Later, they brought the correct one and after James and I left, they were upset that we had eaten both burgers. Wait, what? It was your fault and so we ate the messed up one thinking it was all we were getting and then you finally bring the right one so, what? We're supposed to pay for the messed up one? Bogus. Ah, well. At least we were already gone.

THURSDAY:

Saddest day of our trip - James, RJ and Jen had to go back to Seattle. We grabbed lunch and ran a few errands and then met up for them to head to the airport. Anthony is a total sweetheart and gave them a ride to the airport. He had a keyboard in his car so we packed them all in like it was a clown car and they headed off. I cried a lot - I cry every time I have to leave James or he has to leave me. I can't help it. I always cry when my family leaves too. It's how I roll. This is going to be really hard without him. Later that night, VP let me audit his class which was a nice distraction. Oh, did I mention that I'm staying with him and being his dog nanny? Yup, pretty awesome gig. =)

FRIDAY:

I got to go to dinner at Montenapo in the New York Times Building and then Finian's Rainbow with Grad. It was such a treat! We had a great time and the show was really fun. What a strange plot, though - very weird. Afterwards we headed to Sardi's which I have never been to before. We had some great creme brulee - so tasty. He invited me to go to the NYMF gala - some awesome people are going to be performing and it will be great to meet some people.

SATURDAY:

I audited VP's class which was fun - it's always nice to see that there is no one like you. Everyone is so unique. I was feeling inspired to go home and work on my book and practice but when I got home I had a sinking feeling because I couldn't find my audition book. Are you kidding me?! It made it's way home in the front pocket of James' suitcase - argh.

SUNDAY:

I had a great chance to go on a walk with Kirsten and she got to meet Violet. We took a lovely walk in Fort Tryon Park and then took Violet home so we could go out to dinner. We ate at a really yummy restaurant called La Estufa (I think?). Very tasty. It was great to catch up with Kirsten - it's been a year since I saw her last.

MONDAY:

This day was all about errands - I ran up to Target and came home with a taxi load of stuff. I finally got a dresser and some underbed storage bins so I could put all my stuff away and actually be able to find it again! Then I went to Midtown to have lunch with Caitlin and then we went to Equity to pick up my temporary card while the actual one is in process. After that, we did a little shopping for some items I needed - very fun! We found a cute wallet and the perfect hat/scarf combo. It's always nice to have another opinion when shopping and Caitlin is very helpful.

TUESDAY:

The day of my first "I live in New York" audition! Due to the prior audition book fiasco, I had to improv together a book and run to Kinko's etc. to get everything together. Normally I would freak out about this kind of thing, but I was unusually calm. It's nice to learn that you can handle things on your own and there's no need to freak out. The world will not end if you get there late or don't know where a Kinko's is. You can deal. And I did. =) When I got there, the line was very long and I was number 37 on the waiting list. Luckily, I was free to wait around and the waitlist went very quickly. I was seen by 11:30 - not bad! I had finally found a great 32 bar cut of Gorgeous and was very excited to do it. Thanks to VP's class - I had a blast! It's so great to feel that being in Seattle has prepared me so well for being here now. The people I've met, the connections I have, the credits I've been able to build up, it's all been perfect for now. I had an awesome time at my audition and even though I was nervous, I was able to apply David Friedman's Thought Exchange and just acknowledge that my heart beating faster is just a physiological thing. No big deal - move through it. It was so fun and I didn't care what the auditors thought - it was just awesome to get to do what I love and play! Thanks VP! =) They asked me if I had just gotten done doing Joseph at the 5th Ave and I said I had (they are actually reading my resume - huzzah!) and then I thanked them and left. Very positive start to this auditioning journey. Then I headed out to Chelsea to go check out a reading of Shadows that Grad had told me about. His friend Randall is the writer and they were having a backer's audition. It was great to meet Randall and I really enjoyed the piece - a very interesting story told with scenes, music and ballet/dance.

WEDNESDAY:

My friend Brian got us free tickets to Phantom of the Opera. It's been AGES since I've seen it - James and I went to Kansas City to see it when we were in college. I had a great time and it was nice to set aside the usual disdain for the show and enjoy the music and interesting story again. It seems like the theatre community is usually so over it but I went home and I was singing that music - I couldn't help myself! =)

Well, that's not quite everything so far but I think a few of them deserve their own post so I'll save them for later.

Charissa, You Got Some 'Splainin' To Do

Well, after six awesome years in Seattle, I decided to make the move to New York City to pursue my Broadway dreams. It has meant some big sacrifices - my husband, James, is still in Seattle finishing his PhD (go, baby, go!) and has a great job with a start-up company there. He is my everything and I miss him terribly. Luckily, he's the most amazing husband in the universe and knows that I need to be here - I truly couldn't do this without his un-failing support and love. He is going to be visiting me a few weeks out of every month until we get this thing figured out. I wanted to come here to check it out - see what it's really like to be here in the every-dayness of New York theatre life. Auditioning, auditioning, auditioning, taking class, etc. It's almost a test of Olympic proportions and I wanted to challenge myself to do it. So, here we go!

I've been here a little over a week and I keep having the most amazing experiences and learning the wackiest things so I thought I would start this blog so that my amazing Seattle family and other friends can keep up with my adventures. And I can keep a record of some of these wacky stories. Enjoy!