Sunday, April 30, 2006
 | Back in the Junc So I'm sitting here between shows on my first double-show day of "8-Track: The Sounds of the 70s." My eyeliner wings out a little farther than my eyes, my hair is feathered out a la Farrah Fawcett, and my stomach is full of Olive Garden salad, breadsticks, and seafood ravioli. I've been back in the Junc for over two weeks now. I still can't get over how when I was moving to New (Jersey) York, I couldn't have possibly guessed that less than three months after arriving, I would leave to do a show in Colorado with the Cabaret. I really did debate this quite a bit in the three days before I had to give my answer to Steven. My parents, Rochelle, and Erik had to act as sounding boards as I bounced all of my verbal processing off of them: The Cabaret offered me a good contract. They agreed to give me an understudy so I could still go to Argentina. And I would be the alto part in a four-part show eight shows a week for seven-ish weeks.... But I have worked for the Cabaret before. Having a show like "8-Track" might not necessarily enhance the resume. And I JUST got to the city! Did I really want to leave just as I finally was getting the hang of spending too much money, talking back to rude people, and riding dirty public transportation? And what about my job? But Erik put it the most concisely and brilliantly when he said, "You're a performer. Isn't that what you want to do?" I mean seriously, was I really going to give up a job on stage for a job answering phones? Really? So here I am. Been here since Easter weekend. The actor house is significantly less ghetto -- my bedroom has a closet AND a light switch, and the dishwasher doesn't fall out of the wall when you open the door. I have three roommates this time as opposed to six. The car they have provided us is, however, an even bigger POS than the one they provided two years ago. I don't know how somebody let that Volvo pass an emissions test and can still sleep at night. Just sayin. But we get free meals from the Cabaret and free gym memberships. So that's a step up. My roommates/castmates are very considerate people to live/work with and they fill the standard prerequisites required to be professional actors: they drink coffee, stay up late, sleep late, work out daily. They enjoy a good bit of partying but only when it doesn't affect the next day's performance. They make crude jokes and share their food and internet. We like to spend evenings unwinding after a show or rehearsal with some red wine and a movie. It's a very comfortable arrangement. I'll confess something to you guys.. I don't miss New York. Not yet anyway. Not to say I prefer the Junc over New York (or almost any other town), but I will say that the change of pace is refreshing. The people here are nicer and I have hardly spent fifty cents since I've been here. I do miss the access to Broadway and off-Broadway shows and the fact that you can get anything you could possibly need in a two to three block radius.. delivered. And I miss my sister like crazy. But I don't miss the non-stop feeling of stress. I feel like I am relaxed for the first time in three months. AND I'm doing what I love. Eight times a week. I'm still figuring a lot of things out.. I am constantly re-examining what I'm doing with my life and wondering if I'm making mistakes.. but today I'm happy. And still pretty bloated from the Olive Garden. |
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