This past week has been very busy for me. My Groundlings class has been going well and after class, some of my friends and I go to a couple shows a week. As students we get to see all the shows for either free or at least half price, so I always take advantage of that.
On Thursday night I went to The House of Blues, which is a cool, (purposely) run down shack-looking building on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. My boss and I went to go see Darren Criss (Glee) and his theatre company, Starkid, perform some of their popular hits. (Starkid was originally created at the University of Michigan by Darren and other Michigan theatre students. They gained success through Youtube and now have been traveling all over the country performing their songs. Probably the most famous of these parody musicals is A Very Potter Musical.) The entire group did a nice job performing, although I must admit it wasn't my sense of humor. I thought some of the gags were very middle school and I would say the humor is kind of Disney meets Nickelodeon meets South Park. Anyway, still an enjoyable evening. Thankfully I got to sit upstairs in the VIP section unlike the hundreds of tweens that were standing and packed in like sardines below. Oh, and I also sat next to Darren's agent which was really cool. She was very friendly and offered me a pair of ear plugs to try to drown out the hundreds of screaming voices below. ;p.
And on Friday night I went to a small intimate caberet performance to celebrate the release of Georgia Stitt's latest album. For those of you who do not know Georgia Stitt, she is the wife of Jason Robert Brown. The evening performance was entitled "You Don't know Stitt" and it took place in the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, which is right next to the Kodak Theatre. I talked to Georgia and JRB beforehand, and was shocked when they said they remembered me. (I met them both last year at Eric Whitecre's performance of his new musical Paradise Lost in Disney Hall)
Anyway, Georgia is one of the most kind and charming people and her music reflects that. I felt very privileged to be there and listen to her latest musical songs. If any of you are interested in listening to some of her music feel free to check out her website: http://www.georgiastitt.com/.
Yesterday I found time to bike to the beach. When I have free time, that is one of my favorite things to do. There is nothing like laying on the beach and reading a good book. Right now I am finishing up a book entitled "Outliers", which examines the factors that contribute to the high levels of success of individuals. Outliers was on the New York Times best seller list in 2008 and I HIGHLY recommend it. It is a fascinating read as it analyzes many of the most successful people in all of history and the factors that allowed them to be successful. But enough of that, yesterday evening I went to a first annual 12 hour improv in West Hollywood. I didn't go until evening, but the event started at 12 p.m. and went all the way to midnight, with over 50 improv troupes performing in three different intimate theatre spaces. I met up with my friend Brad there, whom I met last summer in my Groundlings class. He had been there since three, and the two of us stayed until midnight and watched the final troupe perform. It was neat to see to be a part of such a positive and high energy atmosphere and to see all different levels of improv actors perform.
Today, I have been working out filling out grant applications for the Festival of New American Musicals as we are a nonprofit. The deadline for one of these is coming up, so I have to finish it before I leave for New York on Tuesday. I will be in NYC for a week, attending NCORE (the national conference on race and ethnicity.) Every year this conference is held, and the purpose is to learn more about different cultures and races other than our own. We also will spend a good deal of time discussing current events in the media that deal directly with race and ethnicity (so for example the Treyvon Martin and Zimmerman case). This program is organized through ISU, and is something I applied for last fall. I'm very excited to be heading to NYC for a week, and in my free time I hope to take in a Broadway show or two.
Anway, that's it for now.
P.S. I really have been enjoying reading everyone's posts on here! Sounds like everyone is having a fun and exciting summer! =)
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