Long time coming.

I feel as though I should preface this post with a long apology coupled with a synopsis of what has otherwise occupied my time the past couple of weeks... but I feel like that would be a poor excuse. I should also commit to saying that aside from my two jobs, 18 credits of schoolwork, and rehearsals for both Grad Alley and the one-act that I'm in, I kind of got wrapped up reading the Game of Thrones series. So, needless to say... my time has been otherwise engaged. But with that... I have almost three full weeks of events to write about!

I was in the Player's Club One Acts! We performed today. It went well. I also have a choir concert in two weeks. If you live in New York, you should attend.

The past few weeks have been an ultimate blur. My birthday weekend was both insane and incredible. The weekend began when Lauren, Joe, Ben, Curtis and I went to see Leap of Faith on Broadway. I don't feel that I possess enough authority to adequately review the shows I see, but I cannot emphasize more strongly to anyone not to see this show. It was tremendously disappointing. The music was written by Alan Menken, so I suppose that I expected a lot more than what was delivered. The music wasn't bad, but the book was terrible - and the actors did very little justice to the script. We saw it the third night of previews, so I wasn't expecting that much, but they also had to stop the show for technical difficulties. Overall, it was  extremely disappointing.

The next night made up for my Leap of Faith experience ten thousand times over. Mary, Matt, Lauren and I went to see Sleep No More on the night of my birthday. It was the most incredible experience of my life. The performance begins when you enter an old hotel - you're given a mask to wear the entire time in order to "preserve your anonymity", and you are forbidden to speak. The ambiance is a very dark, sort of mysterious, vintage feel. An elevator chauffeur lets you out on a random floor, and you are left to explore whatever you wish. The performance is actually a mostly wordless telling of Macbeth. The majority of the story is a choreographed set of physical actions between the characters - and you rarely see more than three of them together at a time. You can rustle through papers, go through drawers, open cabinets, wait in a room - or follow a specific actor through the hotel. Your experience is entirely yours to control. The scene I saw first was what I believed to be the killing of Banquo. After following Macbeth for a while, I found myself just exploring as much as possible. I was pulled aside by three different actors during my experience. Lady Macbeth used my hands to wipe her face (weird) after she bathed, a male actor took me aside and danced with me, and a nursemaid locked me in a cabin with her. The interaction with the nursemaid was my favorite. She took off my mask and made me a cup of tea, then spoon fed it to me, and told me a story about when everything was dead. She pressed her finger into my palm, and then grabbed my arm and stood me up. After placing my mask back on, she pushed me out the cabin door and sent me on my way. The entire performance lasts about 3 hours. We entered the hotel around 11:15, and the performance concluded around 2:00 a.m. I cannot begin to explain how unique and incredible the entire experience was. We began the next day with Saturday brunch at a restaurant called The Park. Mmm! I worked the rest of the day, and spent Easter Sunday in Brooklyn with the sis. :) It was a relaxing way to end the weekend.

Because this post would be seven years long if I chronologically accounted for everything I did over the past three weeks, I've resolved to just give you some highlights.

Once. The musical. The new musical. On Broadway. Incredible.
Joined Instagram. Mmmm. New Obsession.
Classes are over in two weeks.
Started writing a book.
Filed taxes.
Hung out with David.
Started new countdown.

Cheers,
-Em
Coming home: 23 days!