Hitting the Road

This May, I will be graduating from college. Finally. First things first: I will be making my way home to direct the Manhattan Experimental Theatre Workshop, celebrating my 10th year of involvement with the workshop. That's one spectacular anniversary. I will sleep on my mother's floor, as tradition dictates, trying to stay cool. I am currently attempting to find some steady work for my summer in MHK.

The real task at hand, however, is to find something to do with myself when that ol' lease is up in August. I'm exploring a number of options to ensure that I will in fact be able to move out of Kansas for the first time in my career as a human being. Basically, I'll be moving somewhere across state lines in August; where exactly will depend on a variety of factors.

I'm currently exploring the following avenues to attain some sort of occupational status for the fall:

1. I've sent off a letter to the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York City, in the hopes of getting an internship with Richard Foreman. I will happily buy his coffee, paint his trashcans, work 40 free hours a week, and get a real job to support myself, if it means watching Richard do what he does.

2. I've sent a similar letter to the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis. For reasons, see above.

3. I'm driving with a group to the Unified Professional Theatre Auditions in Memphis, TN in a week, where representatives from a bazillion theatre companies will watch our 90 second auditions (I'm attempting to do 2 monologues in 90 seconds, which means 6 lines of Shakespeare and the veeeeery end of a contemporary monologue. Yikes.) and decide if they want to call us back to see more. There are some swell companies (Shanendoah Shakespeare) and some questionable companies. If nothing else, I'll get to see Graceland.

4. I'm driving with a group to the Twin Cities Unified Theatre Auditions at the Jungle in Minneapolis. This is like the better (cheaper, less intimidating, no chance of getting called back by a cruise ship) version of the UPTAs. I don't have to rent a hotel room and I can eat at True Thai. Big score.

5. I'm trying to get the UT SM to teach me how to use Final Cut Pro, so that I can be a viable candidate to apply for the This American Life internship in Chicago. (This is an internship I will apply for in the next few years, regardless of whether I apply for the fall.) I'm pretty sure I'm wearing him down. Plus his sound assistant just quit, so I might even be useful.

I used to think to myself after getting out of Audition techniques, "I admire people that do that. I'm never going to do that in A MILLION YEARS." Heh. It's a good thing I heart irony.

If nothing pans out, I'm moving to Minneapolis, finding a job as a barista, living with Ariana (actually, that part is a given no matter where I go, unless I join a touring company. . .weird idea), taking the GRE, and perhaps applying to Aveda so I can learn a lucrative skill. What's great is that while some options are better than others, none of them are bad. Life is full of possibilities.

I will have a lot more to say on this subject in the upcoming months, so watch out. I have a feeling they will get progressively more frantic.