.

It seems like it wasn’t all that long ago that I attended The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. I remember the experience like it was yesterday… because… well, let’s face it, it was practically yesterday. I mean, hell, I still haven’t had the chance to even really begin paying off my student loan debt. Unfortunately, New York City is not a woman who is overly sentimental, and not even my love of the nostalgic will stop her from changing more rapidly every day.

While I was away during the course of the past year (working to try and pay off some of that aforementioned student loan debt), I was saddened to learn that The Grand Saloon (on 23rd b/w Lex & 3rd) was being closed for good, and I wouldn’t even get the chance to have one last drink there. I mean, Grand Saloon was part of my development at The Academy. Relationships were forged there, relationships were damaged there, my opinions of people were forever changed (both for the good and the bad), money was spent, cigarettes were smoked (outside, of course), and plenty a night was wasted in the nearly-almost-empty-unless-an-AADA-alumni-threw-a-fundraiser-party dive bar… and I’ll never get to revisit that establishment for one last pint of Stella.

Now that I’m back, I find another part of my AADA experience fading into the past. During my first year at the school, I stayed in the New Yorker Hotel along with other freshman students (part of an agreement made through AADA and a company specializing in Student Housing). While this might sound kind of cool, you need to realize that the New Yorker is on the intersection of 34th St. and 8th. Avenue (which, for the uninformed, is the epicenter of hell). 34th Street, while being home to Macy’s department store, is also where some of the filth that was chased from Times Square ended up. In fact, 34th Street is the only place in the city I’ve ever almost been pickpocketed. 8th Avenue, on the other hand, is somewhere that I don’t ever want to find myself. It’s just plain dirty… and, apart from needing to visit rehearsal studios around 8th, I’d never go there.

Back in my first year of school, I didn’t know any better. I hadn’t traveled the city (apart from the walk to and from school), didn’t give myself the time to, and knew that 8th Avenue was the only thing that separated me from the magnificent Times Square.

Like I said, I didn’t know any better.

Anyhow, my first year of The Academy was also when I experienced my first drink (which, for the record, was Georgi vodka and room temperature Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi — is it any wonder I don’t like drinking?), and thus, the first time I was intoxicated. I vividly remember sitting in Zoe’s room on many a night slipping into a stupid happy state of semi-consciousness. Now, I’m a drunk who likes his food… and I rarely ever did food shopping for my New Yorker shoebox (this wasn’t for a lack of grocery stores, I just didn’t know they were there; in fact, I only shopped at the K-Mart on 34th, because it was on the way to school). Because of this, I needed a source of food… preferably cheap food that was available very late at night.

Just around the corner was this establishment… “Halal Bakery & Pizza.” The only thing worth touching was the pizza, and by “worth touching”, I mean that the pizza was incredibly cheap. Now, it didn’t taste like pizza… but when you were as drunk as I was, it didn’t really matter. I still remember the almost cardboard texture of the tasteless imitation pizza hitting my tongue… and then how it felt again shortly thereafter as I threw it up on the pavement.

Yet now, I discover, it’s to be torn down to create something new… true to form to that Chameleon-like state that New York constantly finds itself in. Again, it’s not the food that I’ll miss — on the contrary, the food was terrible — it’s the memories. Passing that red awning reminded me of living in the New Yorker, stressing far too much about being kicked out of school — my mind far, far away from worrying about continual employment or repaying student loans. I’m afraid that without that disgusting food being so readily available, it’ll be harder for me to remember being woken up late nights by my drunk classmates Joey and Maggie knocking on my door; of excitedly rehearsing repetition work sitting on the carpet; or of shoes strewn on my floor after a hazy night walking back from the Grand Saloon.

Perhaps those memories will fade without any landmark to remind me of their existance… or perhaps they’ll come blowing back to me with the breeze one night when I surprisingly don’t find myself angry walking through Times Square, and I remember how I felt as I excitedly walked down 8th Avenue on my way to hang around Toys “R” Us, passing the Halal Bakery & Pizza joint as I left the New Yorker.

I guess all I wanted to write was…

Thanks for the memories.

And so, my final full performance at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts is over. I must admit, I can’t imagine a better way to go out. Just as Women of Lockerbie was the perfect way to end Second Year, there was no play but Hurlyburly that could cap off this year so perfectly. Additionally, I’m thankful that I completely trusted everyone in my cast to have my back once the show started and the Willie Nelson music faded.

Was it a success? Personally, I felt so. Every moment of the show (especially the night performances — technical problems aside) felt amazing — felt right. Not to put Dancing in the Dark down at all (it was one hell of a show), but Hurlyburly was fun — Hurlyburly reminded me why I was acting in the first place, and helped me get my “mojo” back as a performer.

But that’s just me. What do other people think?

you guys ROCKED tonight! just wanted to let you know how the 3 hours just flew by. nicely done!
Skyler

Comment by Skyler Pinkerton — January 27, 2007 @ 1:34 am

Thank you for your comment, Skyler, I’m really glad that you enjoyed the show Friday night — and I want you for being a member of that perfect audience that gave us so much energy to feed off of.

I’m only hoping that everyone felt this way about the show.

Enough gushing for know. I’ve still got a Hurlyburly story or two that hasn’t hit the blog yet — hopefully, I’ll get enough time to tell them.

Once again, I’d like to thank everyone who came out to see the show. Your energy is what allowed me to plow through that 3-hour-long monster of a play!

Suffering from a bit of insomnia, thought I’d hit the blog.

Check out A Year At The Academy for the latest rehearsal update.

“Chekhov in Yalta” was last week. Went pretty damn well. I’m glad I got to work with such a great director and talented cast. Usually, when actors say that, they’re bullshitting through their teeth (or, in electronic form — such as this — fingers), but I’m being completely serious. I loved working on the show, and I felt we only trully got into the swing of things by Friday (not meaning to belittle the other three shows, which were also great, I just thought our timing was *perfect* on Friday) and it’s a shame we couldn’t have kept going.

And charging admission.

Okay, I’m kidding about the admission thing.

I had an incredible revelation about cereal. Okay, less of a revelation — more of an observation. Same thing, they end in -ation. Head to my Myspace blog for more on that.

I want to see “Borat” pretty bad.

Casey Affleck can’t act. I guess it runs in the family. Although, I’ll give Ben his due props for “Hollywoodland.”

The date for “Lost” draws nearer. I’m excited about the impending DJ Dan podcast. (If you know what that last line meant, you’re as much of a dork as I am… and I love you for it.)

Until next time… ask yourself — What Would Gob Do?

So, apparently I only have time to post during rehearsal.

That’s odd.

Anyway, I’ve had an extremely packed schedule as of late, working my ass off both in school and at Max Brenner. I’m starting to think that the Max Brenner thing may not be the best deal, as it’s going to be hard to make rent on a monthly basis with my wages being what they are. At the moment, I’m working about 40 hours per week (which is far much more than I can handle) and still struggling.

School’s going particularly well. It’s an emotional rollercoaster wherein on any given day I’ll feel like the worst actor in the world and become confident in my abilities the next. Regardless of the internal struggle, the play I’m in (”Chekhov in Yalta”) performs Sept. 12-15.

I finished watching all of “Arrested Development.” It’s such a shame that that show was cancelled. It’s on my top-ten list of greatest sitcoms ever. I’m currenly waist deep in the second season of “Lost.” Also amazing. I can’t wait to catch up — and then I can’t wait for the premiere in October. While on the subject of TV… I love Sundays, for they bring me “Entourage.”

Well, I should probably dash back to rehearsal and see if I’m needed yet. I’ve got an interview this afternoon for a server position at a location-to-be-named-if-I-get-the-job (let’s just say that I’m not distancing myself from chocolate or coffee as of yet).

I’m homesick. It’s killing me that I can’t see everyone before they head back to college.

See you all back on here soon!

Well, it’s been over a week now since I finished my second Graduation play at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts — The Women of Lockerbie by Deborah Brevoort. Over the past seven days, where I haven’t been bound down by class schedules or anything of the like, I’ve come to slowly realize something — I’m officially an out-of-work actor. A terrifying concept, I know, but before I truly accept this as fact (I’ve been delaying facing this realization until after Graduation… which is tomorrow afternoon…), I want to spend a little bit of blog space talking about Lockerbie.

The day our first series of Graduation Plays was over, the casting for the second (and final) series was posted. This series is especially important to the students of AADA because these are the shows that we can *finally* invite our family and friends to, after two long years of hard work. Personally, I wanted a comedy and I wanted it to be in the MM Theatre (my favorite of the three acting spaces). Scanning the list, I became elated when I found my name in Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party… and surprised to find out that I’d been double cast in Armitage by Don Nigro. I was excited about the theatres, the dates, the casts, the directors, and the shows. I quickly headed to the sixth floor and received my copies of those two plays, and began to walk out of the building with a smile on my face.

I was stopped by Josh Painting.

He diverted my attention to the cast lists, where administration had made a few changes since posting the initial, incorrect papers on the board. Josh and I had been switched. I was now in a modern-day Greek tragedy called The Women of Lockerbie. My heart sunk straight into the floor. Neil Simon is my favorite playwright, and I had had my first chance to be in one of his plays taken from me. I quickly started bitching about it to anyone who would listen (my apologies especially to Nathan, Kelly, Christian, Steffie, and Joe). Unfortunately, I made a judgement about the play without actually *reading* the play. I read it before my shift at Starbucks, and I immediately got emotional. I realize that I have an amazing role, and all-of-the-sudden, I can’t wait to get to rehearsal the next day.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I got to spend every day in rehearsals with an extremely talented cast, an amazing director, and a great script. Admittedly, there were some things I wasn’t quite used to (Jack, our director, pre-blocked the show — so, we knew when and how to move before we knew *what* we were saying), but once I learned to trust everyone around me (which happened rather quickly) things started to make perfect sense.

The more rehearsals that went by, the more I realized that I had to give my all each and every time. With a script such as this, it’s tempting to half-ass your way through it. It’s hard to go to a place of emotional pain every day for four hours. But with every day spent enduring the pain, I felt as if I were finally doing my work as an actor. My last play was an English farce, so there wasn’t as much emotional investment as there could have been with a work of drama like Lockerbie. Here, finally, after two years, I was doing complete work. Everything that both Janis and both Jackies had been teaching me about was finally coming to a head. Here, I was finally doing respectable work… and I knew it.

That’s not to say I was completely satisfied. I began to get worried because of one line in the stage directions towards the end of the play:

(Bill weeps openly for the first time. Madeline comforts him.)

To me, this meant that I have to cry. I tried as hard as I could, but no tears came. I used things from my personal life that were sure to make me cry — and, yet, nothing. Outside of rehearsals, those things made me weep like a baby… but I couldn’t do it at the appropriate moment in the play. I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to do it come performance time. I sought out advice from my colleagues, and got some good advice. The best probably came from Dominik, who passed along a hint from his director, James Warwick — keep your mouth open.

I tried this method in rehearsals and found that I was deeply impacted. Now I found myself openly sobbing… but without any tears. Frustrated, I had given up on the concept of doing it during the show, but in the back of my mind I knew that if I don’t cry, I won’t have the final moment that I need to deliver the performance that I want.

Showtime came faster than I thought, and I found myself nervously shaking an hour before curtain in the men’s dressing room. Although I hated the fact that I couldn’t control my own body, I knew that this was the nervous edge necessary for the character I was portraying. Not to sound pretentious, but it felt as if the hour and a half I was onstage felt like magic. Everything felt as if it worked. I wasn’t “in my head” until after the show was over, and it felt great.

Somehow, a miracle happened… and I cried, onstage. Furthermore, my crying made other people cry — in a good way.

I’d never felt better about my chances for getting in the Academy Company next year than in the moments following my show. I was personally congratulated by Dino, Jonathan, and my directors from the past year… and then the next day by Jackie. I was ecstatic… on cloud nine. Since then, watching the other Graduation Plays, I’ve realized that we have one hell of a second year — and that Company is still very much in the air… and I’m more than okay with that. Even if I don’t get Company, I had one hell of a great show on April 19th… and that’s an experience I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.

And so, the reading of Spellbound: The Musical Adventure was held last night at the Mary Macarthur theatre inside 120 Madison Ave., the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. It certainly wasn’t the smoothest (or quickest) we’d ever performed the show, but I’m convinced that it was still a success. The cast members that comprised our company were among the first (in a while, at least) to do something of such magnitude inside the walls of The Academy. Additionally… I’m not sure that a musical has ever been performed inside the school (I could be wrong). I’m proud of my performance last night (although I’d be frightened as hell to look at a tape)… and I think it was a great opportunity to showcase what can be an amazing show.

I’ll probably post once more about Spellbound, and my experiences with the show since this past November… but I really don’t have the energy at the moment. It’s almost a day later and I’m still physically drained. Imagine doing that eight times a week?

A portion of the Spellbound cast: (L to R) Holly, Samantha [Emischel], Caitlin [Cheryn],
Christian [Garlan], Elyse [Herianne], myself [Raven], Todd [Helmit], Kelly [Sylvie],
Joe [Darlak], Brad [Faerius]

And so, the day is upon us. As the school year winds down, so does work on the open reading of Spellbound.

I’ve spent the better part of my days after school working on Spellbound since November… and it all comes to a head tomorrow night. The open staged reading of Spellbound: The Musical Adventure takes place *TOMORROW NIGHT* at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts’ Mary MacArthur Theatre (1st floor) at 6:30pm.

This is a very important night for quite a few people. Keep us in your thoughts, folks… hopefully, there’ll be some magic in the air (no pun intended, seriously).

My schedule’s really starting to get busy. Not that I’m complaining, I’m actually happy that I’m able to keep so busy… but it cuts down on the amount of time that I’ll be able to post anything on here. Here are the things that are occupying my time at the moment.

Starbucks Coffee - After almost two years away from “the empire” (and a few too many months away from the workforce entirely), I’m making my return to the Starbucks Coffee Corporation as a barista in one of the stores in Midtown West. Unfortunately, I have to re-do my training shifts. Tomorrow will be #3 of 9. I should be completely done with training in under two weeks.

‘When We Are Married’ - The play that I’ve been assigned for the first series of plays at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Easily what I’m spending the most amount of time on (it may be my last three months at school if I don’t make it back to company). I’ve got five weeks to put this character together, as the show goes up in early March. Unfortunately, nobody’s allowed to come see this one.

‘Spellbound: The Musical Adventure’ - A musical that my friend and roommate Christian’s been writing for the last three years. I’ve been cast as Raven (a sizeable part) for a staged reading of the show before agents and producers in the first few weeks of March. Although rehearsals are only once a week, I’ve had to do a lot of extra “homework.” To check out some of the work I’ve already put in, give these tracks a listen: “Fragile” and“Caught in a Moment”.

Stacey’s cabaret - Stacey and her friend Katie are putting on a cabaret show at the Stella Adler School of Acting. Thankfully, the two of them looked past my horrible audition and gave me a spot in the show. Although rehearsals haven’t started yet, the show goes up in April (the same month as my last show at school and graduation).

So, my plate’s a bit full. Maintaining social relationships is becoming an increasingly difficult task. Let’s see how these next couple of weeks go. Hopefully, I won’t have a mental breakdown between now and May. Anyone want to take bets? Worse than that, this is probably how the rest of my life’s going to go.

Sweet.

- I’m completely updated for the week over at A Year at the Academy.

- The more I think about Boy Gets Girl from yesterday, the better it gets. One thing I’m always a bit wary about is nudity on stage (a subject I touched upon back in June)… if there’s not a purpose behind it, I don’t necessarily love it. Not that it was unwelcome in Boy Gets Girl, but I didn’t necessarily understand its relevance to the show. Normally, I’d get upset, and write gratuitous nudty to a playwright who knows they’ve wrote crap and is trying to distract people from the inadequacies of their show — but the rest of the show was so well written I knew that couldn’t be the case.

Thinking about it this morning (honestly, I was thinking about the relevance of the nudity, not just the nudity itself… really), I figured it out. A central theme of the play is to examine the way that men perceive women in society. In the course of the play, one of the characters relates himself to the stalker character — saying that he’d seen the woman and thinking that he wanted “to fuck her.” Honestly, I think that the nudity was placed into the show to titilate the men in the audience (which I’m sure it did), but to make them realize that they are thinking the exact same thing as the characters in the play. Who’s really the villain in the situation? Is there one?

Fucking genius.

- Anyhow, I’m off to see a show at Stacey’s studio tonight. This will make three days in a row that I’ve gone to see free theater — that’s amazing. Apparently, this show’s a bit distubing as well… which also makes three somewhat disturbing shows I’ve seen this week. Well, at least I’m not paying anything… right?

- Slafta and Greta are home this weekend. This pleases me greatly. Hopefully, I’ll get to see them both — I’ve been missing them both incredibly as of late.

- Finally, although I can’t state it enough over at my other site, I love Jackie Bartone. For weeks, she’s been forcing us to read the newspaper and have social events discussions, with her intent being to create intelligent actors. I’ve found more and more that my friends and I at school are having intelligent conversations and debates about politics and social issues. To top that off, I’ve been hanging out in the library more often. What the hell is happening to me? Am I actually becoming smarter in two years of acting school than I did in four years of high school?

- Speaking of high school, congrats to TZ for employing those bent on child molestation.

- As that strange foreigner said on My Name Is Earl this week (and some more obscure celebrity is known to say, as well), “Seacrest out.”

By and far, Boy Meets Girl is the best Company show that I’ve seen at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. It is acted magnificently throughout, and I can not find a single thing about the production to bitch about (which is odd, because I can sometimes bitch at length about the most miniscule aspect of a production).

The play itself is a bit lacking in its conclusion, but that is not the fault of the actors nor the director.

Julian Brennan is absolutely amazing… and there’s something that I really like about Peter Van Valkenburgh (and it’s not just the name). Props as well to Bettina Beard and Charlie O’Hara (Jackie’s husband) for putting on a clinic.

Wonderful fucking show. And, hey, it’s free folks!

“Boy Gets Girl” performs tomorrow at 7pm and Saturday at 2pm at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (120 Madison Ave.). Admission is free. Nudity & adult theme warning!