Summer Play Festival
Interns Blog

The ongoing mission of organizing the SPF press clippings has come to a victorious denouement for Sir Andrew Maillet and myself. We sliced and pasted every last brilliant, colorful add and then organized them according to their date of birth and alphabetical rank.
Methods and systems used: the system of numbers (including 0), the English alphabet (mainly in song form), and the system of verbal and physical communication.
The task was indeed tumultuous, though nothing that we brave few couldn’t face up to and say, “Not today, you clippings. Today we will prevail. Today we will make organizational dreams come true!  Our children’s children will see what we have done, and they will laugh in face of entropy!”
Then I had a bagel.

Yesterday we went to see Odet’s “The Country Girl” on Broadway.  It was lovely.  Peter Gallagher and Frances McDormand stole my heart, and Chip Zien (the Baker in Into the Woods) was in it so that made me happy.  Among the other things that made me happy were the delightfully cries from the audience (average age 65) at the surprise kisses, water spills, and one liners throughout the play, the long, continuous stream of the curtain across the stage during scene changes.  Somebody told me that the reason the angles of all the set pieces were scewed was because of “forced perspective.” I thought it just looked forced.  But I will say it was interesting to look at when I was bored of looking at the actors.  Eh, but it was lovely nonetheless.  Just lovely.  Lovely lovely.

I have spent many hours in the last couple of days organizing press clippings for SPF.  This involved organizing a mass of messy newspapers, magazine articles, ads, internet printouts, and greeting cards into concise, formatted organized (I’m kidding about the greeting cards) files.  While it might not seem the most creatively stimulating of work, this actually involved huge emotional investment on my part, as I debated whether to label clips “The New York Times” or “New York Times,” “The L Magazine” or “L Magazine,” “Daily Variety,” or JUST SIMPLY “VARIETY”!!!  (I shudder at the memory).  Now that I am through I am considering hiring myself as a professional press clippings maker, or..ooh!… professional press clipper!  That’s my future in the theatre.

Bye now my friends.  

Only two days into the internship, and I’m pretty sure I’ve walked half of New York by now! SPF’s fitness regime is one to be admired; they seem to be trying to foster the althlete in all of us. The first day was spent flyering Hell’s Kitchen with Tom, who is possibly the best tour guide I could have gotten,having grown up around there. Folks in the restaurants and cafes were quite sweet, taking our flyers, and we certainly weren’t shooed away at any point. Then the meet-and-greet happened in the evening; not too common a social event on the Emarald Isle, and I can’t say I’m too upset about that, don’t think I have the talent for these things But the conversations I did engage in were really interesting, although I’m sure I’m probably boring the other interns to death with my basic need for the New York 101info. Apologies!

If there is such a thing as Intern VIP Treatment, myself, Susannah and Randa certainly received some of it today! Our task was to help out Jackie from marketing, by going around businesses in the Soho district and asking them to join our membership program or donate something for our silent auction. So I got to see some more of New York, talk to some really nice business owners, and promote SPF while wearing one of their cool tees Then, the pièce de résistance of our day; we went into this amazingly wonderful chocolate shop called Vosges(Randa and Susannah told me about a million times, I kept forgetting the name,sorry!), where we were given free chocolate and ice-cream. Why? Because we were with SPF, and they’re sponsoring the festival!So we felt super looked after

Then straight after a group of us went to a talk being hosted by the Theatre Intern Group. The guest speakers were Frank DiLella and Juliane Hannett, both prominent members of the New York Theatre industry. Speaking of their experiences, they revealed a whole new world of publishing and press that before had been this mythological world that seemed so distant to me. The variety of skills and professionals required to run theatre is really quite amazing, and I’m looking forward to the next talk in July!

Tomorrow it’s to Broadway to see The Country Girl...so to summarize:
Intern Life:AWESOME!

I’m going to write this in the present tense, because I write scripts and I’m not much of a novelist, truthfully, so it’ll read a little “film noir”, but I’m perfectly alright with that.

I wake up in my second floor apartment in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn and the clock says eight. I eat my Prevacid Solutab for the day and rise with a series of pops and cracks. I rush to my brand new, less-than-dependable, but not inconsistently so, laptop, hoping that it will finally turn on so that I can read the script for Tio Pepe before I leave for my first day as an intern. It turns on and, with a little praying and a lot of cursing, finally connects to the internet. I go to the kitchen to make a high fiber breakfast, balanced by a hefty cup of coffee. The roaches scatter and the next twelve hours stretch before me when I notice the empty bag of coffee grounds. I eat quickly and manage to read the script in about three hours, satiating my need for caffeine with several glasses of Arizona Green Tea (with ginseng and honey).

After my first day at work I head over to the Flatotel, where an SPF party is to be held, and await the rest.

Everyone arrives and a few servers dress the tables with an array of appetizers, including calamari (and I ate the entire apple…) I’ve forgotten about my head ache, stomach ache, and ego ache brought on by bad dress and I decide to have some fun and meet everyone. My line producer is incredibly welcoming, offering to buy me a drink right away. He’s having a Stella—my beer of choice, and so I’ll have what he’s having. I like him a lot. I proceed to meet a fantastic group of people, including most of the cast of Tio Pepe, and the playwright himself. I tell a few people about the musical I am writing, marinating my words for later consumption, I’m sure. I limit myself to two drinks (it’s my first day), and take off once I realize that I’m the only intern left at the place.

I naturally forget to close my tab and have to go back for my debit card after one block, but this turns out to be a blessing. I am honored with the company of Mathew Lopez, writer of Tio Pepe, and one hell of a nice guy. We spend the train ride to Brooklyn talking about writing. He gives me some advice that I’ll never forget, and the conversation steers to Tio Pepe ( thank God I was able to read it this morning).

Another day in New York City—from apple cores to calamari. It’s a city that keeps you aware of your existence; it’ll smack you in the face harder then most places, but that only makes the mending feel that much better, and I’m perfectly alright with that.

Just like meet n greets, blogging is awkward.  I came home and thought to myself, “Posting my first blog could be fun, but then again, I don’t wanna be the first loser to post.” Snaps to Max for taking one for the team.  Anyway, I’m pumped for SPF. I’ve read the play on which I will be working, Green Girl, as well as The Ones That Flutter. Both intriguing and beautiful.  I can’t wait to start working with my production team.  Especially considering that I spent the first few weeks of my summer vacation in bed, on my couch, in front of the MTV, yes MTV, and being a pretty sloppy excuse for a human, I need to do something creative with my life.  But something that doesn’t require me running up and down the theatre district with brochures in 90 degree weather.  Ease out of laziness one must.
And after the heat came the rain.  I might as well have been negotiating my way in between water droplets as trying to sneak my way into conversations gracefully.  I’d hoped I’d get to meet some of the people I’d be working with but alas I was stuck trying to chat it up with people I’ve never met, who are working on plays I haven’t read yet.  Not a good look.  Props (which are not the same as snaps) to Sam for looking like Mister Congeniality the whole time.  To the rest of my slightly socially challenged interns, we’ll get them next time.  Until then, work on your knock, knock jokes.
Oh, and you didn’t hear it from me but some of the interns may or may not have a secret handshake.

The days are drawing excitingly near, and finally the interns, as well as the rest of the cast and crew of Tell Out My Soul, began the rehearsal process. It was a day chock full of read-thrus, measurements, and apparently the occasional cocktail. Myself, as well as my fellow interns and teammates, Emily and Lily, got to see first hand, fly-on-the-wall-style, how to mount and produce a new work. It was exciting and daunting at the same time to hear those first few lines of the amazing play, written by Jacquelyn Honess-Martin. We have an incredibly diverse cast and our director seems like he has a few tricks and ideas up his sleeve. The day ended with a big old meet and greet, happy-hour, at the Flatotel (we couldn’t pronounce it either). It was great to be able to meet the writers, actors, line producers, designers, and directors of all of the immensely different pieces. It was, however, somewhat awkward at first, but soon the group embraced us, and we were able to learn a bit about the many collaborators, and true artists that are working on SPF. I had a blast discussing colleges, Journalism, the theater community, and even the occasional trashy reality show. We finally got the ball rolling, and it is rolling fast and furiously!

The interns have finally arrived and are learning how to blog! Wo-ho!