Tomorrow a Penthouse: Quest for Stardom in NYC – Day 2

Sadly sitting on my pull-out bed at 7pm, mourning the loss of my free wi-fi connection, I await confirmation that coming to New York was really a good idea at all. Yes, I love this city and cannot wait to live here someday. But, no, I do not enjoy the lonely confines of my aunt’s apartment with the two cats and bedtime around 10pm. I also do not enjoy waiting beside my blackberry for some form of communication from (a) my world at home or (b) a job opportunity.

I am not a patient person. Supposedly this is a hallmark of stage managers but when I am outside the realm of my job, I am just that bitch who can’t handle being a minute off schedule. I have come to terms with this aspect of my personality but I am not sure how it will affect my future endeavors in the theatrical world. In one way, it may help me because, well, stage managers are hired to keep things running smoothly and on schedule in a very artistic and often ill managed business.

In another way, it may hinder me because most theater people are artists and artists tend to avoid the concept of time. They are the first people to complain about people not getting in touch with them and the last people to return an important phone call while the information is still prevalent.

Tomorrow, apparently, I will show up at the Ohio Theater to work on god knows what with some woman I have only exchanged one email with. The lack of communication was not due to me not trying. I sent her approximately four emails to her one response and then appeared on the door step of the theater and begged for information.

Overall, I felt as though I was a starving actress, waiting for a casting agent to give me the time of day. And I didn't like it one bit.

Tonight, The Y: Quest for Stardom in NYC - Day 1

I am on a train right now headed to New York City. All I know is that I need to get to the City and then, bam, I will be in the cradle of my dreams. I’ll be so close to having my name up in lights that all I’ll have to do is reach my arm out and…

This is my pre-college attempt at making it in the biz. Every person who has seriously considered show business as a career has also considered packing up everything and heading to New York or LA to see their dream realized. I’ve been told that there are two ways to make it. Option A: Go to college and get a B.F.A. in your area of study, check out Grad School and then use the connections you’ve made over that period of time to get a job. Option B: Go to New York, start working as a waitress by day and apply to every theater in the city by night.

I chose option A because God knows that in this economy even getting a job at a diner isn’t the easiest thing in the world. But this mini adventure to New York, this is my one shot to see if I can make connections in the city that makes stars before I go off to Cincinnati.

Maybe I’ll discover that this is the way to go, leaving everything and everyone behind to pursue my dreams with a little less than $300 to my name. Because there is this nagging feeling inside me saying that once I graduate my BFA will do nothing more than be a wall ornament in my first apartment.

Going to a conservatory gets you jobs. Everyone who is anyone in the business looks to conservatories for the newest rising talent because that is where the best go to train. So who is to say that those connections aren’t all you going to get out of 4 years of college tuition.

When I interviewed at Cincinnati, my interviewer casually admitted that she would look at my transcript once she dug through the mail pile. I wasn’t too astounded that my admission to CCM had nothing to do with how well I did in math freshman year but it did slightly suck to know that I had a very good GPA that no one really cared about.

And I am all too certain that the same thing rings true for getting jobs in show business. Theaters just want to know that, yes, you do have an education in the field. Then it comes down to who they think can handle the job or looks right for the part. Your BFA is sitting in the pile of resumes and headshots that some producer will eventually dig through.