"Only in New York"

Only in New York City can you go to China for dinner, Italy for dessert, Poland for a parade, a Broadway audition, and an Off-Broadway audition in a matter of 5 days!

On October 1st, my one-month anniversary of living here in the Big Apple, I attended my first Broadway audition!!! It was for a new show called "Catch Me If You Can" (yes, it's based on the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio by the same name). It was really exciting to finally go to an audition! When I got to the audition studio about an hour and a half before they were to start, there were hardly any girls there. I thought I was going to be good to go! The monitor got there and we all began to sign up for audition numbers (I was #20). Well, at that point, a TON of Equity women started arriving for the audition. For those of you who don't know what Equity is, it is the actors union, and all Broadway shows are AEA (Actors' Equity Association) shows. However, there are auditions where non-Equity people can be seen. Well, in this case, after all of us non-Eq girls signed up, the monitor thanked us and then said the would not be able to see any non-Equity women for the day. So unfortunately I didn't get to be seen, but I attended my first big B'way audition and that was the first big step I needed to take!

The next day, some of the roomies and I decided we wanted to go to Chinatown for dinner because we wanted some authentic Chinese food (well, NYC authentic that is). We found this place called the Singapore Cafe. Some of my roommates have eaten there a couple of times, and it is SO good! I tried curry for the first time and I actually liked it! (And most people think that curry is an Indian food, but it is actually a cross-over Singapore/Indian food!) So after we stuffed ourselves, we walked back through Little Italy. We came across Ferrara's, which is a popular, well-known dessert place. I got 2 mini-cannolis, one regular and one hand-dipped in chocolate. They were the best desserts I think I've ever had. So whenever anyone comes to visit me up here, we are going to Ferrara's for sure!

On Sunday, Margo, Marj and I went to Central Park and had a picnic. It was the most beautiful day and it made me want to share it with all my Bowling Green people! And to give you perspective on where we were if you know the park, we were over next to the Balto statue! On our way to the park, we were on 5th Avenue, and the street was closed down for a parade. It was the General Pulaski Committee Parade and there were people in "Polska" uniforms and red and white outfits everywhere! Who knew that a Polish general would someday have a committee that would then someday have a parade in his honor! It was really neat to see!

Yesterday, I went to my second NY audition! It was for an Off-Broadway show called "Dear Edwina." I love the music by the composers and I thought the show would be perfect for me! Well, I got a little further in this audition than last time. There were close to 400 auditioners in this little audition studio space, so the casting directors thought the best thing to do would to begin with typing. Typing is when the auditioners go in so many at a time in front of the casting panel, and they look at you to see if you have the "look" they are going for for the show. They were taking people in 30 at a time and I was #214 so I had a while to wait. My entire group except for maybe 7 guys and 2 girls got typed-out, which meant we were all released for the day. Oh the life of an auditioner! Even though I wasn't able to be heard this time, I got one step closer than last time! It's all a part of the process and I'm just excited that I'm starting to do what I came here to do!!! I have more auditions to come and will continue to keep everyone updated!

Only in New York... :)