Can't Hope to Compete with the Epicness of Shannon's Post Last Night

The title says it all. Seriously. If you haven't read it, go to catsinchicago.blogspot.com right now. You can come back to me later.

Anyway, this will be a big update since I was far too tired yesterday to write anything. Shannon says that this is indicative of the beginning of the end of the Adventures of Spackle, but I vow to maintain it, if somewhat irregularly.

So, yesterday. My first full day on the job. The morning commute isn't bad. If I can time it right, I can walk out my door, and when I get to the bus stop a block and half away, the B67 bus pulls up. Then when I get to the 7th Ave/9th St station, an F train pulls up. Then when I get to Jay St/Borough Hall station, an A pulls up, and I'm in Chelsea in 40 minutes flat. That did not, however, happen on Tuesday. I missed each and every one of these public conveyances by about 15 seconds. But! I learned from my mistake, and actually made it to work early today! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So anyway, I arrived at work, and continued to have usher-finding responsibilities to take care of (as I do now). At 11:15-ish, it was time for my first-ever staff meeting. The entire staff that was in the office that day met in one of the School studios and sat in a circle and everyone, including the interns, gave an update on what they'd done that week. Since I had first arrived at the office less than 24 hours prior, I had understandably little to report, other than proudly announcing my ability to find an usher for the previous night's performance of GABRIEL with only a few hours' notice. After the staff meeting, we had a smaller "management" staff meeting, with Jamie, the General Manager, and Aaron, the Company Manager (my "bosses"), as well as Tom the Executive Assistant and his intern Parker, and Ian the Operations Manager and his intern Kent. Mara and Teresa, the Business Managers, as well as the Finance intern Ayla were also present.

As a sidebar, I found out today that Ayla is from the Pittsburgh area and went to high school at Fox Chapel, less than 10 minutes from my high school. Eerily small world sometimes.

Anyhow, that meeting was mostly listening for the interns, or asking about a few things we were unsure of. It was decided that next week during a photo shoot of the cast of GABRIEL that is unrelated to the production itself and therefore contractually unable to be overseen by the stage managers, I will be filling as the go-to guy and errand boy.

After that, I went with Aaron to the Linda Gross Theater (the main stage) on W. 20th for the matinee of GABRIEL. I shadowed him in his pre-show preparations, and got a chance to meet a few of the actors. Everyone I've met at Atlantic so-far, from the Artistic Director Neil to the box officer managers Fran and John, has been incredibly warm and friendly and welcoming. It's like stepping into a big family.

It's kind of amazing how hard I've been working, though. I'm quite proud of what I've accomplished in the past 2 days. Allow me to make a list:

1. Assembled press packet for agent of GABRIEL playwright, Moira Buffini
2. Continued to find ushers for the GABRIEL extension (an ongoing job)
3. Printed 1000 sheets of understudy announcement inserts to put in the playbills
3a. I am in the process of cutting these 1000 sheets into 4000 little ones. It will take a while.
4. Assembled packets for today's Finance Committee meeting
5. Created analysis of Dusk Rings a Bell ticket-holder no-shows
6. A number of miscellaneous errands, mostly to the theaters, including:
i. Delivering tickets
ii. Hanging a new house board
iii. Mailing things
iv. Delivering comp ticket lists (while doing so, I found out that I missed Frank Langella as an audience member at DUSK by 1 night!)

I have essentially worked through lunch the past 2 days to get everything done. I don't think I've ever worked this hard for a sustained amount of time, and it's only been 2 days. But the funny thing is, I absolutely love it. Like, I could do this for the rest of my life. Which is good, I guess, since I plan to.

On a more extra-curricular note (and I'm getting very near the end, I promise), I had dinner with James and Stephanie at this lovably cheesy and stereotypical Mexican restaurant complete with mariachi band in Morningside Heights, called Mama something-or-other. Great food, including freshly-made-by-your-table guacamole! We then retired to the terrace on the 9th floor of James' building for a little relaxation before I made my trek back to Brooklyn. Which brings me to right now! There you have it! The entirety of my past 2 days, if you've managed to make it this far.

The only thing I have left to say is how terribly I miss Shannon and how her absence is the only thing wrong with this summer so far.

And now, as a reward for your fortitude in reading this tome of a post, pictures of my apartment! My apologies if they are blurry, for I am no photographer.















That's all! Goodnight!