When Family Comes to Call

Last weekend my parents, little sister, and grandma came to visit Chicago and it was quite a treat! Without asking for it I had Friday off, so I had a full four day weekend with my parents and it was fabulous!!

Look! Here we are waiting for Let Them Eat Chaos on The Second City Mainstage

My parents and sister (Mary) got in late Thursday night. So we started all of our adventures bright and early(ish) on Friday.

Friday: 

My Mom, Dad, and Sister ventured all the way from the loop down to my neck of the woods to see my lovely apartment and eat at "a cute little ethnic place" by my house. I had yet to eat at any of the "cute little ethnic places" by my house, so I had no idea which one to take my parents to. Thankfully they stopped a "cute little mexican bakery" on their way to my house and got a recommendation of a Mexican Restaurant close by. It was pretty delicious, and as a matter of fact I just finished off the home made tortilla and fajita left overs as I sat down to write this blog. 

After Lunch we ventured on down back to the fun and exciting touristy areas of Chicago. We decided since we didn't have much time before we had to leave to go get my Grandma at Midway, we went down to the Navy Pier and walked around. 

Ohio Street Beach. I have very vivid memories of playing on this beach as a 10 year old the last time my family visited Chicago

Navy Pier

On the Navy Pier they have a Fun House Maze, which I remember going through as a young child when we vacationed in Chicago. So just for the heck of it my parents paid the outrageous $20 for my sister and I to do the Fun House Maze. Now I wish I could tell you that it was really lame and the maze wasn't really a maze and we didn't spend 20 minutes running around in circles and running into mirrors. I wish I could say that my sister and I whose cumulative age is 36 could reason our way out of this maze, but alas, that would be a lie. My sister and I got so lost that we spend probably 20 minutes running around while many other people came and went, finally we got a hint from the people who run the house that you have to push. After that is was easy peasy (although again I would be lying to you if I told you that I didn't scream at the silly little noises and gusts of air...).

 After our adventures on the Navy Pier my Dad and I hopped a couple of trains to Midway to pick up my Grandmother. And after we were going to meet Megan at Giordano's (deep dish pizza), however, we did not have the forethought to think there would be a 2 hour wait.. So after much confusion we ended up eating delicious barbecue at Jake Melnick's Corner Tap. 

Saturday: 

Being in my early 20's and the person that I am I could not fathom making plans before 11 with my family. They on the other hand toured the Tribune building and one of the bridge houses before our 11 o'clock meet up at Lou Malnati's (a better deep dish pizza joint as recommended by several people on the train ride from the airport). 

After our delicious and filling pizza our plan was to head down to Shedd Aquarium, however, apparently all of Chicago also had that plan. The line was an hour and half long just to get tickets (why can't we get away from lines?). So in a quick change of plans (seems to be a recurring theme on this trip) we headed next door to the Field Museum. 

Here we all are again (Dinosaurs!)

The Field Museum has a rad Ancient Egypt exhibit, an enormous amount of Native American stuff, and a pretty decent dinosaur exhibit (which we rushed through as the museum was closing). But what I really wanted to see was the Chicago Worlds Fair exhibit that wasn't open until October 25th (coincidentally today, the day I am blogging) so we didn't even get to see it :(

Oh well! There was also a giant fancy party being set up throughout  the day. Beautiful tables with gorgeous center pieces, waiters in tuxes with white gloves, and a red carpet amongst other extravagant things. As we were leaving we started to see the lucky guests arrive in their limousines in their fancy ball gowns and tuxes (NOTE: this is not an exaggeration). 

We had planned to go down to the Twin Anchors in Old Town for dinner, but we were all pretty much pooped so we headed to a little fast food(ish) restaurant called Pockets (cue concierge at hotel sticking his nose up at the very idea). So yet again our plans changed. 

Sunday: 

We woke up bright and early (6 am for me) to make it to the Aquarium a solid 30 minutes before it opened, just to be sure! But to be clear... it was totally worth it! Shedd Aquarium was everything that I wanted it to me and more, I more or less turned into a 5 year old at Disneyland! 

Outside the Aquarium

Yes, my parents did buy the souvenir, green screened photo of us at the Aquarium because "It was just such a good picture... everyone had their eyes open."

The Aquarium was fantastic!! We got to see the special jelly fish exhibit where I learned more about jellyfish than I ever thought possible! There were some that were so tiny and clear and looked like little contact lenses, and they talked about some that get as big as mini vans, weigh 450 pounds, and can capsize a boat easy! We got to go and touch the sting rays, which is a first for this Colorado Girl!

We spent a while here and my sister and I were forced to leave by our bored parents. 

We got to see the Beluga Whales and Sea Lions getting fed. We caught the aquatic show where they showed us how easy it is to train a dolphin (in fact it is just like training a dog... and they proved it!). We even got to see the 4D Sea Monster movie, which was my Grandmother's first ever 3D, let along 4D, experience complete with something hitting your legs, bursts of air on your face, getting splashed in the face with water, and a rather jarring punch to back during the Shark Attack. I couldn't stop laughing it was so much fun.

For lunch my parents ran down to one of the hot dog vendors and I enjoyed my very first ever Chicago Style Hotdog. 

Mmmmm.... Delicious

After Lunch I had to duck out of the Aquarium to rush down to Wrigleyville for class at the iO. After which I rushed down to Second City for Let Them Eat Chaos. The show was fabulous as to be expected and my mom bought me a rad Second City sweatshirt (which I happen to be wearing right now). 

I didn't include my face because it is quite a hot mess this Friday afternoon. 

Sunday: 

On Sunday we had a nice brunch at a cute little breakfast place near my parents hotel, called West Egg Cafe. Afterwards we just walked around the Magnificent mile and my grandmother bought me this great hat (which I will not model right now, due to the fact that my hair is a disgusting mess). Hopefully I will post a good picture of it at a later date.

I said goodbye to my family before I had to go to class. I had such a blast seeing them last weekend! It was really great to get to see my family since I wont be able to make it home for Thanksgiving!

Now to start saving money for Christmas... 

Laundromat Thoughts

I posted this on Facebook earlier today. 

I chose to be a real adult (rather than a pretend adult) and do laundry THEN watch SNL and eat cookie dough ice cream! 

I am sitting alone in the laundromat (which is much busier than I would have guessed for it being the middle of the day on a rainy Tuesday) and thinking about my life and career! I know deep thoughts for a Tuesday at the laundromat 

I wrote this blog in a notebook first, who needs modern technology... (also, I don't understand how people take instagram pics of everyday life, cuz I felt so stupid taking this picture.)

Last night after our last Level 1 class our teacher, Megan Hovde, let us ask any and all questions we could think of about Chicago, Second City, Comedy/Improv, and her career. It continued for so long that we moved the discussion to the bar across the street. She talked about a lot of great stuff and gave some really wonderful advice. Here are the bits of advice that stuck with me: 

• Don't quit your day job
• You don't have to be a "starving artist"
• On average is takes 5-7 years of classes and putting yourself out there to get into touring shows
• Get involved
• Don't get too involved (Advice is never straightforward)
• Be a triple or quadruple threat
• learn to dance
• learn to sing
• learn to play an instrument
• take acting classes 
• if you have considered learning how to do something, now is a good time to learn
• You have to be persistent and persevere, it could take many tries at auditioning to get cast with Second City

If you know me at all you know that a couple of things on that list terrify the shit out of me (especially singing). After being told "You have to sing, you got into a business where you say 'Yes and...' not 'Yes, but not that....'" I have resolved to get over my fears (no matter how many dollars and tears I have to shed). First, voice lessons to get over my fear of singing in front of people and then musical improv classes to get over my fear of not having the words given to me. 

Other classes I would like to take in the next few years of my life: 

• Stand Up
• Dance (Which kind? Who knows! Some of everything?)
• Writing
• Movement
• Clowning
• And more... 

I figure if this is what I want to do I better learn all I can about it. I am not entirely sure how all this is going to manifest itself in terms of a career, but what I do know is that I want to keep going and find out! 

On the Prowl

Here we are on the hunt for a job, yet again. Don't worry... I didn't get fired... But my job will be ending in a month. So I  have been hitting the nanny applications hard. So far I have applied for 35 new jobs. And I have had a few bites. The past couple weeks I have had 4 interviews and 2 more scheduled for this week.

One job in particular stands out as being absolutely terrifying! The family has two daughters and they want someone who will speak spanish to them. Now despite the fact that I have no where on my profile listed that I speak spanish they wanted to talk to me. To be fair I have taken 5years of Spanish in high school and college, but I am by no means conversational (what does that say about our education system's language programs... or my inability to learn a language). Anyway, while they seem like a lovely family and in many respects a good fit I am not sure if I can function speaking only in spanish at work.

In a totally different job avenue I have applied for a job at the Goodman Theatre as their Young Performer Supervisor for A Christmas Carol. It would be a great job for me as a stage manager who also takes care of children. It would be combining two of my greatest strengths!! Not only that but it would be great for my professional resume. Unfortunately, due to my improv classes and rehearsals/performances, it would pose a bit of a scheduling problem. But I figure I would apply anyway and just see what happens.

Wish me luck as I am embark on one of adulthoods least fun adventures, The Epic Job Hunt!!

BYOT

Last week I promised I would write a post dedicated to seeing Shrek from the stage manager's booth... To be fair I kept my promise and wrote a beautiful post about how much I learned and how fun it was. But alas, it was all lost to cyberspace..

Because of this unfortunate turn of events I will just say I had a blast, learned a lot, enjoyed the show, and I would be more than willing to talk about it so call me, beep me, message me, email me... You know the drill. But here are a couple pictures for you. 

View from the booth

So a couple of really fun things have been happening in my "comedy" career the past few weeks. 

First things first, a group of friends and I started an improv group. We have rehearsed a few times and performed 3 times at a show called BYOT, (Bring Your Own Team) an "open mic" type situation for improv teams. It has been a lot of fun and we have gotten a pretty good response, which is really encouraging. 

Photo courtesy of Travis

We haven't quite settled on a name just yet, but we have tried out a new one each week including Fare, Prince John III, and most recently Southeast of Wellington. This week we will hopefully be deciding on a permanent name that suites us a unique group of improvisers. 

BONUS: Alli, a good friend from school, visited Chicago last weekend we got to hang out with her and she honored us with her presence as an audience member at BYOT! And most importantly Alli will be moving here in a few short months and we can continue to have wonderful evenings like last Saturday!! 

In addition to rehearsing and performing with a talented group of people that are quickly becoming some of my closest friend, I auditioned for and was cast in a coached ensemble at Second City. So what that means is that I will be rehearsing for the next 10 weeks with an entirely new group of people (who I have yet to meet) and a coach learning a new form of improv. Then come December we will have 3 performances in the Skybox theatre on December 5th, 12th, and 19th (in case you plan to be in Chicago any of those weeks). I meet for my rehearsal tomorrow and I can't wait to see who I will be performing with and what style of improv we are going to do. I am super excited to learn a new form of improv, get to work with another faculty member at Second City, get more feedback and coaching on my improv, get to perform on a Second City stage, and get to put an official Second City group on my resume. 

Look at me taking the improv world by storm... and loving every second of it!! 

It's a Small World

This blog is a prime example of how I like to procrastinate... So to catch you up a bit on my life:
-I started the Conservatory at Second City a few weeks ago and it has been a lot of fun!!
-I am going to start the the program at iO (formerly Improv Olympic) next term (October 13th) which I am pretty excited about!
-We started our own improv troupe... we don't have a name yet but we have had 1 rehearsal and we are going to perform at BYOT (Bring Your Own Team tonight at the iO)
-On September 22nd I am going to audition for the coached ensembles at Second City, which means, if I get cast I will be in an ensemble with a few other people coached by one of the faculty members and then we would get a 3 show run in either November or December. I looking forward to those auditions quite a bit.
Alright, well I think that catches you up on at least the more interesting aspects of my life. WOHOO!

Moving on, 3 weeks ago I had a really cool opportunity to talk to Jayme, a Second City Touring Co. stage manager and watch her call Summer in the Second City.

First of all, the theatre world as we all know is pretty small. Jayme had David Grindle, the executive producer of USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technologies), as a professor in College, who also coincidentally enough visited NAU this last spring to have some seminars and workshops on stage management and just professional theatre in general. I was talking to David Grindle about my plans to move to Chicago and study improv but that I didn't want to stop stage managing and he told me to find Jayme and talk to her. I tried really hard to contact her but couldn't figure out how, and then magically an opportunity to meet and talk to her fell in my lap!

So with that crazy coincidence on my mind I met Jayme who was awesome, kind of quirky, really fun, big personality, really down to earth and willing to help me out. We met over coffee and talked for a little while before going up to the Up Comedy Club and getting everything set up for the show and then I got to sit in the booth with her while she "called" the show (I put called in quotations because she sat in the booth and completely ran the light board by herself and the musical director controls sound completely on their own without contact from the stage manager). She gave me her book to look at before the show and then said I could just follow along with the show if I wanted to. So I got watch the lights and effects of the show while getting to follow along with the cues in the script. I had an absolute blast, the show was a lot of fun, and sitting there in that booth I realized that I could do this job. I have the skills to do what they do.

View from the booth in the Up Comedy Club

Jayme said a lot of the same things that Kimberly said about working at Second City
Here are some things that seem to be a general consensus:
-You are kind of the mom for the show, you have to make sure that you get everyone where they need to be and when they need to be there
-Second City is an incredibly supportive community to work in
-The people (actors, staff, etc...) are really great
-Second City seems to hire based a lot on personality and ability to keep your cool, rather than your knowledge of technical aspects and ability to design lights or design props...

Jayme comes from an opera background and she said that she likes Second City because it is nice to work with a smaller company where you have more hands on responsibilities and technical responsibilities. She said that she likes have some control over the lighting and technical stuff. When on tour she is entirely responsible for those things and since often you just have to play with submasters for lighting she said that "she feels like a DJ" while controlling the show. It is definitely a job with a lot of responsibilities and stress (but what theatre job doesn't have stress) and Jayme says that it is so worth it in the end.

We had a little bit of time for her to look over my resume and give me a little bit of feedback on it. She was impressed with my resume but gave me a couple of tips to make it a little bit better.

I had a lot of fun talking to Jayme and getting to see the show with her.

BYOT tonight!!

And look for a post tomorrow about Shrek the Musical!!

Opportunity Knocks

My Mom always says, "Ask and you shall receive." Nobody wants to admit it, but since I am an adult now I can appreciate it, my Mom is (almost) always right.

Upon my arrival in Chicago and attending just a handful of shows at Second City varying from end of term student shows all the way to The Mainstage I noticed they all had something in common... they all had a stage manager. I then thought to myself, who better to stage manage an improv show than someone who stage manages and also does improv. So I sent a couple of emails out; one to the Second City administrative offices, and the other to their internship program. Many days later (long enough for me to forget about the emails) I heard back from both of them with some really exciting stuff.

The internship program at Second City said that they do not currently have a stage management program but because enough people have expressed interest in it they are thinking about developing one. So that is something to look forward to in the coming year. YAY!

I also got an email back from Joe Ruffner the producer of Touring Companies and Associate Producer of all Second City Theatricals. He gave me the contact information for two Touring Co. stage managers. Both of them were incredibly willing to meet with me, answer questions, look at my resume, and even let me sit in the booth during a show.

I met with Kimberly on monday who is currently the stage manager for Green Co. She was super helpful she talked a lot about what makes a stage manager at Second City different from your typical stage manager. Not only is the stage manager responsible for running rehearsals and the show, but for designing the lights to mirror the archival videos, designing/finding/building necessary props for the show, driving the van, set up at each venue, keeping track of which sketches are being used for the show, keeping track of new sketches and new sheet music, ability to "stay calm even if you just drove the van for 10 hours and the venue has nothing they promised they would have." She said "you are the Mom and the Dad for the show, the director doesn't travel with you and you don't have any ASMs or crew." Pretty intimidating.... but also something that I think I could definitely do. She went into a lot of detail about the typical tour schedule, pay, rehearsal schedule, etc...  She also raved about how great of an environment it is to work for Second City, everyone is super understanding and helpful, due to the fact that Second City has this improv mentality of well that didn't work so let's try something else and "yes and..." At the end of the meeting she said that if I ever want to send her my resume or cover letter to look over before applying to jobs she would look over them for me. She also said that she would be willing to send my resume on to some storefront theaters in the city if she knows of positions that are available.

WOOHOO!!! So meeting number 1 went so well and I got so much great information from her.

I will be meeting with Jayme tomorrow, she is the stage manager for Blue Co and is currently stage managing Summer at The Second City so she is letting me sit in the booth with her during the show and listen to her call the show and see what that looks like. So I am very excited to get another perspective and get to see the "stage-managers-eye-view" of a show.

More to come on that meeting later.

Lastly, remember how I am the nanny for a Chicago Shakespeare Theatre stage manager... Well, she arranged for me to get to sit in the booth with the stage manager for Shrek next Saturday!! Plus she said she will try and continue to get me backstage for different shows as opportunities arise amongst her friends and colleagues (potentially Wicked when they come to town this fall).

I am really looking forward to meeting and talking to these people, getting to see two totally different kinds of theatre being called from a stage manager's perspective, and the possibility of more opportunities like this in the future!!

So like my Dad always says "It's not what you know, it's who you know!"

Funny People Live Better

Did you know that funny people live better? Yep, according to advertisements on the "El" for Second City, funny people live better. I am not exactly sure how they conducted their research to come to that conclusion.... but from personal experience I would have to agree.

I bet you are wondering what I have been up to in the past few weeks since its been a while since I posted. If you have been on Facebook you know that I auditioned for the Conservatory at Second City and I got accepted!! Which is super exciting and just makes me feel like my life is kind of starting! I am finding something that makes me super happy and I am able to continue doing it.

I might have cried a little bit when I read this email!! 

Megan, Travis, and I all got accepted in the Conservatory. What is great is 7 out of the 8 of us who auditioned got in and so we get to continue this process with some of the friends we have made in class. 

A Reflection on Auditions

This was probably the only audition I have ever gone into that I knew I was 100% prepared for. First of all it is an improvised audition so there is only so much you can do before you walk into that room, because you have no idea what your scene partners are going to do or what your suggestion is going to be. Not to mention we had done two different audition prep days in class, once with out teacher (who was also going to be one of the auditors :) ) and a substitute teacher (Michael Gellman, who incidentally was also the first person to make me cry here...). I felt pretty prepared, we had done work with 3 person scenes, played the fastest craziest game of freeze, and even worked with Ryan on what to do if someone in your scene just totally "steamrolls" the scene, more fondly known as "shitting the bed." 

Needless to say I have never wanted something more, felt more prepared, or been more nervous walking into an audition. And after the audition we all kind of just went, "eh.... well that happened." The general consensus amongst my classmates was that it wasn't our best improv and definitely wasn't our worst. Mostly, when I walked out of the audition I just thought, "Well in September when I have to re-audition, I will be so prepared!" 

But, good thing for me and my nerves, I wont have to audition again... Until after Level 2. 

A Reflection on Class

So the first 4 weeks of class were the equivalent of completing Improv for Actors 1, which was taught by Ryan Archibald who was so chill and encouraging! Ryan was a lot of fun because we all got to a point where we were joking around and having fun, while also improving out improv skills quite drastically. I don't know how often he says this to classes, but he changed our curriculum to catch up to us, and told us that he really enjoyed our class and hopes that he can work with all of us again in the future :) . 

Our brief run in with Michael Gellman, who has directed at Second City since 1980 and actually was one of the leading faculty that developed the program I am in right now, was incredibly intimidating but I learned so much in those few hours. He substituted for our class twice and the first time he walked in dropping F-bombs and commanding us to move chairs and tables and then started us with all these (Bob Yowell type) warm ups and exercises that ended in all of us feeling a little bit like it was the first day of class all over again. This was my birthday and at break I cried because I felt like I was in my head too much even though he told us not to be. However, he gave us so many tiny tid-bits of advice to quickly start and scene and develop a character. The second day we had him he it was definitely less of a shock, it also helped that he walked into the room and said "Wow, I was a total dick to you guys last time, wasn't I?" Anyway, he really got us ready for auditions and I think helped us all out a lot in terms of developing characters and relationships. (If you wanna read a little more about Michael Gellman's improv advice I would look at this article: http://boilingpointimprov.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/lessons-from-the-masters-volume-1-michael-gellman/ )

Our teacher for the second half of class is Megan Huvde who is such a sweetheart and is super good at giving really direct comments to individual people to help them specifically get better. We have only had 2 classes with her, but already I really like her and think that the last 3 weeks of class are going to be really fun. 

Conquering one of My Worst Fears

So I absolutely HATE singing in front of people and if you don't know a lot about improv, 9 shows out of 10 there is at least some singing... soooo..... I knew that at some point I would have to buck up and try to get over my fear. 

That day came a lot sooner  than I thought and completely unexpectedly. Apparently they build in one day of musical improv to class. So that was surprising.... but I did it... I sang 3 whole lines of improvised dialogue in front of my whole class, and I didn't die. 

While it still terrifies me, at least now I know that I can do it and it will only get better from here. 

Let Them Eat Chaos

I know that this post is already really really long. But I wanted to talk briefly about the fact that Megan and I went to see Let Them Eat Chaos (The Mainstage show at Second City right now). We have seen this cast in the free improv set almost every Tuesday and Thursday, so I already loved them. But seeing the actual sketch/improv show just blew me away. It was fantastic, they tied together themes of "being someone to somebody," living in a world of  personal disconnect but connection through social media, and a few other current issues while also just having fun. So theoretically this is the end goal. To get through the conservatory and work my way up to being on the Mainstage or E.T.C stage in a few years. It was cool to see what we could be doing in a few years right after finding out that we were accepted in to the conservatory. 

Podcasts

I have been listening to some podcasts with people who are prominent in the improv scene here in Chicago. 

These are ones that I have listened to that I really liked: 

Improv Nerd Episode 28: Norm Holly (Norm Holly is the guy who ran and facilitated the auditions.)

The Poor Choices Show Episode 187: Ryan Archibald (my teacher for 4 weeks)

The Poor Choices Show Episode 196: Edgar Blackmon (in Let Them Eat Chaos, he is soooo talented)