160. EXTREMES
in which the show we rehearse is not the show we do!
this week felt extreme in a lot of ways. one major way was the crushing heat wave that descended on new york city. another was the whiplash-inducing intensity of the 48-hour job i worked at lincoln center. yet another was the shock and joy of zohran mamdani becoming the presumptive democratic nominee for new york city mayor. and another was the immense gratitude i felt in looking around at my life and realizing how much i love it. amidst the chaos and the moving boxes and the sweaty subway commutes, i can see just how much good there is. i’m a working director. my life is full love. i have a happy home. the future is bright. and that feels extremely good.
reading.
finished show don’t tell by curtis sittenfeld. (should i read prep?)
started prodigal summer by barbara kingsolver.
both the long articles i read this week come with cautious signs. first, there’s this gutting piece from yiyun li on the deaths of her two sons. (content warning for extensive and detailed discussions of suicide and suicidal depression.) and then there’s this profile of reverend jeff hood, who counsels men on death row. (content warning for lots of death, as well as detailed descriptions of some of the crimes committed by the men hood counsels.)
seeing.
olivia rodrigo’s genius snl performance of “all-american bitch.” it remains so good.
this reel of musical theater acting tricks made me laugh out loud.
this before-and-after video of severance’s special effects is just so cool.
when i was crashing out because i was worried my score prep for harawi wasn’t thorough enough, my sweet boyfriend lovingly showed me this video of telly crashing out in elmopalooza. i felt very seen.
this breakdown of zohran mamdani’s excellent campaign branding.
went to the beach with nao and charlotte and jonny! what joy!
hearing.
making.
had the huge deal pitch meeting i mentioned last week and… it went unbelievably well. i worked incredibly hard and fast to prep, and i think i did a really good job. i have no illusions about the fact that i likely won’t get this job due to reasons totally outside of my control, but i’m really glad i was able to make a solid case for myself. on to the next…
my big focus this week was harawi at lincoln center as part of the run amoc* festival! i associate directed for the genius zack winokur, who was also slated to appear IN the show itself. it was a wildly fast process: some prep in the days leading up to rehearsal, rehearsal and tech on wednesday, more tech and a show (but not the show we planned!) on thursday.
my tuesday — yes, the day that hit 101 degrees in nyc — was spent going back and forth to gowanus to print a copy of the score and the blocking notes and pick up the props for the show, then take them back to my apartment, then double back to staples to reprint the score because the pagination was off. (major shoutout to my girl kelsey at the brooklyn staples, who reprinted and rebound the whole thing for me FREE OF CHARGE in UNDER TWENTY MINUTES! kelsey is a real one.) i also spent a lot of the day reviewing the blocking and music. it’s always a trip to dive headfirst into a show that others have been working on for years, but i’ve yet to drown.
on wednesday, i was in an lyft by 7:10am with the props in tow. (i was remarkably awake due to a combination of coffee made for me by my sweet boyfriend at 6:30am and giddiness at mamdani winning the democratic mayoral primary.) listened to the harawi score in the lyft and made it to lincoln center by 8:10am to leave the props with brilliant producer julia bumke, then hopped on the subway in the opposite direction to make it to rehearsal at little island. during rehearsal, i marked up my script while zack (aforementioned director who is also dancing) and bobbi (dancer) reviewed the choreography. we stayed there until around 2:30pm, then took a cab through bumper-to-bumper traffic to lincoln center. alice tully hall, the venue for the show, is gorgeous. (everyone else was being very cool and chill about it. i was also cool and chill on the outside. on the inside, i was like, “LINCOLN CENTER!!!! 💖💖💖”) also, if you have an associate or an assistant, know it goes a long way when you hype them up. i was introduced to the performers with, “this is nina, she’s amazing,” and half an hour later, when i interjected to make sure we didn’t skip over a crucial section, one performer said, “wow, nina, you really DO know how to do your job.” and you know what? i do! and it feels great! i love my job! we worked through some of the trickier choreography bits onstage under work lights, took a dinner break, and then did a little more staging review and gave notes on lighting. i was out by 8pm, which was a surprise and a delight.
then, on thursday, everything went to hell in a handbasket. a combination of laryngitis, plantar fasciitis, and chaos led to the team deciding to cancel harawi and replace it with the book of sounds, an hourlong solo piano performance featuring the excellent conor hanick, who was also the pianist for harawi. what this meant was we had approximately four hours to mount an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SHOW. i pulled up conor’s last performance of the piece on youtube and started listening at 2x speed, our lighting designer chris gilmore immediately started reconfiguring instruments, myriad producers leapt into action… and somehow, it happened. i’m writing this totally exhausted, adrenaline finally dropping, but very happy that we got to share some beautiful music.
i do wish my move hadn’t precluded me of seeing more of the festival’s other programming — especially comet/poppea — but it is very delightful to be back in the orbit of so many of my pals from crossing, matt aucoin's brilliant civil war opera, which i worked on back during my gap year. i’m touched that so many of them remember me from 10 years ago! i was basically a baby!
and, last but not least, we announced (most of) our team for road kills! i am beyond excited to be working with these brilliant artists, and i can’t believe rehearsal starts in just a few weeks…
