NYC Day 2-9
DAY 2
So on the second day at Yana’s we rehearse for three hours
and immediately afterwards we leave to go to a restaurant where we drink
Prosecco and eat oysters (my first time ever!).
It is very classy and tasty and hip but doesn’t cost a bomb
because it’s happy hour…
After a healthy dose of fish Yana has to take a phone call
and while she talks we walk to one of her director friends theatre (Kristin
Marting) where we see a couple of play previews. I get tipsy easily and
compounded with the jet leg and the dullness of the first play’s subject matter
I have to fight hard to stay awake ( the play “Elements” is about mathematics…
zzz) . I try not to be rude and clap even though I have hated every minute of
it, but force my eyes open for the second play. This one seems a lot more
interesting. It features clones, camera effects that stretch the two characters
into infinity and lights that trap them into imaginary cages. I am fascinated
by the fact that all of this can be achieved with just two i-phones taking
videos of the performance at each side of the stage. The event is called
“Culturemart 2016” by “Here” and the plays are “Elements” by Lainie Fefferman
and “Assembled Identity” by Purva Bedi, Kristin Marting and Mariana Newhard.
Afterwards we meet the Assembled Identity director Kristin
for some feedback (this is just a preview), a playwright (whose name I forget) and
an actor (friends of Yana’s) at the bar while I try to keep myself awake and
social… (I am still suffering from jet leg and lack of sleep due to late nights
and getting used to sleeping with sirens going off during the night).
A couple of drinks later we’re off to walk the city,
visiting little Italy and Chinatown. It turns out the latter has been taking
over little Italy, and I can see that the Italian former glory has turned into
a bit of a tacky tourist attraction rather than an authentic thriving suburb…
(sigh).
Although it’s quite late by now we keep on walking through
the Village all the way to UCB (Upright Citizen’s Brigade ) headquarters to see
a show by an Improv team trained by them. I must say despite really looking
forward to this both me and Yana are disappointed. My Improv friends in
Edinburgh are actually funnier than these people… as I find their style of
party monologues a bit bland and boring… and they are guilty of the “talking
heads” syndrome which consists in forgetting that the craft of acting is very
much about the body! (I am harsh I know but that’s nobody wants to see a
talking head)
Past midnight we venture back home and take the subway back
to Brooklyn, arriving an hour later and crashing for the night like a sack of
potatoes on the floor.
DAY 3
After an okish night sleep (I am now taking sleeping pills
to nod off because there is no way I can survive without sleeping and it’s a
real challenge to fall asleep to loud sirens and snoring) I wake up to an empty
apartment as Yana has had to wake up early to go to work.
I take advantage of it to do my morning yoga and publish my
first day blog amongst numerous technological difficulties… I long for laziness
but know that I must do a lot more than nothing. Amongst other things I have to
rehearse the play’s songs and after some procrastination I do it but in a very
rushed manner I confess… because I need to pack again to dash across town to
Heather’s apartment in Queens. Yana’s apartment is quite small and her flatmate
has told us she rather we left after three days so we are going to stay at
Heather’s.
Logging a very heavy wooden guitar case, my backpack and another
suitcase I get back on the subway for 1 hour and try not to fuck up my journey
following very detailed instructions to Heather’s house. For my first solo ride
I do remarkably well.
It turns out Heather’s suburb is heavy in constructions.
Gentrification is rampant here where new investors are buying old buildings,
tearing them apart, rebuilding and raising rents, thereby forcing old tenants
to move out of the city. This is because it takes about 15 minutes of train
time from here to Manhattan and it’s very convenient for tourists as well as
residents to live here. It also turns out that 45th street is a very common
movie location because of the ‘old’ fashioned building style…
As soon as I put down my luggage at Heather’s we have to dash
off again back on the subway (I am not too thrilled but there you go) to go to
“Materials for the arts”, a very cool wharehouse where arts organizations can
come to claim recycled materials ranging from computer equipment to office
furniture to books to textiles for use in artistic projects. I find lots of
very cool editions of classic writers here and if I lived in NY it would be
amazing to have these copies but alas I cannot lug this back to the continent!
Strangely enough though I find a book in Italian (!!!) about
a famous spirit medium as well as a usb disk and a silver bookmark which I
decide to keep for myself and bring home as a gift. Heather finds lots of stuff
and we log it all on a massive trolley.
After getting a cab using a phone app that can track the
position of cabs in real time as they approach your location (amazing uh?) we
drop off the materials at a friend’s of Heather where they’ve been filming for
the last few days and we get back home where we meet with Yana and proceed to
go to a nearby bar for a cup of coffee and grocery shopping. The café is very
cool and has a back room where you can put quality records on while sipping
your favourite beverage.
An hour or so later we’re back home and off again to see
another play, called “Opaline- a delirium for a parched planet” by Fengar Gael
(another of Yana’s friends). This play is all about Abisinthe and the goddess
Circe and it’s set in England in some unknown Monty Pithonish era where
everyone speaks with a posh accent. It’s weird being in America watching
American actors speak British English. Afterwards we talk to the playwright and
drink a couple of glasses of champagne at the “Secret theatre” while I try to
explain to Fengar the concept of our play. I feel rather awkward giving my
‘pitch’ but I know this is good practice for the Fringe…
Back home the night is far from over. Despite being very ready
for bed we proceed to smoke some weed and try on costumes both for the “Brides
of March” (description to follow) and for the play photo shoot which is to take
place later in the week while Heather is busy sewing veils and providing
assistance with wardrobe selection. She has an amazing closet with all sorts of
clothes from two decades of collecting and in there you can find any kind of
accessory you can dream of. She also has a system of lights controlled with her
apple watch, and can recreate any lighting atmosphere from pictures she has
taken or downloaded from the internet with the touch of a button (or by
speaking directly to her watch). I am impressed. And I thought I was a bit of a
tech geek…!
I try on various outfits and try to remain awake chirpy and creative
but eventually cave in and finally reach the floor around 3 am when we turn in…
DAY 4
After a very bad night sleep I wake up grumpy and very
tired. Not a good start. I try to get myself together and we spend several
hours rehearsing in Heather’s backyard until we annoy the neighbours with my
loud singing… and we are told we have to stop. Yana has to go to work anyway
and I am done, so while she does that I spend several hours on the couch correcting
the script and adding stage directions. By dinnertime I finish and
unfortunately have to cancel an Improv class I had signed up for at the Magnet
theatre because there just isn’t enough time in the day!
We decide to go out for dinner at a very cool macrobiotic
café restaurant and walk around bar hopping… Heather and Yana want to show me
all the cool places and the nightlife so we poke our heads in various bars,
including a very cool Japanese hang out which is too full for us to enter, an
ex nail bar where we see one of the most bizarre and hilarious comedians I have
ever heard (Blair Saki or Sockey), and
finish the night in the East Village talking to a guy who turns out to be a
really cool painter type who reminds me (both in character and looks) of
another American artist friend I met in New Zeland 15 years ago… random! The
bar is called, very aptly “Night of Joy” and it’s advertised by one of my
favourite Tarot Cards on one of the outside walls “The High Priestess” (see
picture).
We return home a little tipsy having drunk numerous
cocktails and quite happy.
DAY 5
Oh this is a big day. We wake later than usual (I guess we
were all very tired) and have to rush to get to the “Brides of March” meeting
in time. This is something that started as an annual Cacophony Society event that takes place in San Francisco (and other cities around the US and
Canada) around March 15th. Intended as a pun on the term “Ides of March”
(the date of the assassination of Julius Ceasar in 44 BC ) and a parody of weddings in western culture it apparently began in 1999
as part pub crawl and part street theater, where brides of either gender wear thrift store wedding dresses.
Unfortunately we are late and miss the brunch start at a
restaurant somewhere in the city so we are forced to wander around town trying
to find them. The task proves difficult because apparently the other brides are
not checking their phones and we have to rely on facebook updates to try and
catch them. We finally find out they are on the Staten Island ferry so we jump
aboard with some frozen margaritas disguised as coke and find them at the
terminal bar. Here we are given some salt and a ‘envisioning spell’ as well as
rough instructions on how to carry it out. I dream of fame and fortune for the
play and put it out to the universe only to realize later that such goals are
silly, and that really what I should aim for is to just to have fun and to
perform the best I can.
After getting back to the mainland and before we hop to
another bar we detour to Battery Park where we experience one of the highlights
of the day, which is riding on a very cute carousel with golden fish and adults
and children alike. Afterwards the brides proceed to get quite drunk at a bar in
Manhattan where most of them are happy to dance and sing to an expensive jukebox
while talking to the random strangers that are not terrified by our attires.
Most of the afternoon is spent taking pictures, smoking pot,
drinking and generally frolicking. I am not really a drinker and my dress is
mighty uncomfortable and it happens to also be too cold for my liking (I forgot my
leather jacket at home duh!) so I must admit there is a point where I have had
enough and just long for comfy attire, a bed and a movie, but have to endure my
discomfort and ‘suck it up’…
The plan is to join another party of dress-ups who
apparently are going to play bowling all dressed as David Bowie so after
waiting and pacing myself for hours so I don’t get too drunk or too tired or
too grumpy we finally get a cab to the bowling alley but – to our surprise –
the place is hell. Contrary to our expectations the alley is not a cool rock
and roll hang out but rather a very tacky mainstream place with screens
everywhere displaying bad music videos and sports reports. The party
degenerates into a bit of a scene where people either split or have disagreements
and after a prolonged wait and see we end up leaving too.
The Brides on the Carousel
The Brides at Night swinging in the children's park
The Brides on the Carousel
DAY 6
Because of not being able to use Heather’s backyard as a
rehearsal space due to her car being injured and needing to come a safe
familiar space Yana and I go to the park carrying all our props (including a
chair) and start rehearsal there. In the middle of the show a girl called Alaa
comes and sits down to watch. I wonder if I am going to panic but manage to
stay calm and focussed and I am happy at the results. This is my first official
public viewing !
Afterwards we invite her to the “Art Tea Salon” event that
Heather and Yana have organized back at the house. It turns out Alaa is from
the middle east in New York to find inspiration for her first novel so it seems
apt to let her join us. Back at the house we meet with various artists
including Jamie Leo (painter and sculptor, playright, song writer, artistic
director) Brian Hornby (inventor) , and Carol Crump , all members of the
“Calling all parties” Art Collective Yana and Heather Woofdield (film maker,
interdisciplinary arts) are part of. We engage in interesting and stimulating
conversation, exploring our motives for doing art, and our future dreams and
objectives as well as discussing challenges on the way.
Afterwards Yana and I go to town to a meeting for the 10th
Annual Dance Parade and Festival “Decade of Dance” which Yana helped organize.
This is a massive street parade that brings together people from all walks of
life as well as race and nationality. The meeting showcases some of the talent
among which I see amazing performances. After the showcase funky music ignites
my soul and body and I dance with a huge grin on my face with people from all
over the world, including all ladies who aren’t afraid to boogie! I feel
suddenly full of energy and make an impression - it seems - on various people
who ask for my phone number ( a girl even throws her card at me later when I am
about to get into a cab in a true New York moment – she must have though I was
a VIP or something, perhaps due to my guitar case…) I enjoy the momentary
popularity and don’t do much to dispel the illusion…. and back at Yana’s
apartment I reward myself by immersing my feet into a bucket of warm water
wearing a silly hat on my head.
Beautiful fusion dancers at the Party
DAY 7
This is the day we are supposed to do the poster photo-shoot
but the photographer doesn’t show up and we spend a while trying to find a
space to rent for rehearsal and for shooting video and photos ourselves. We end
up finding a dance space in Brooklyn but after three hours of rehearsing we end
up with not much usable material. My camera’s battery has unexpectedly run out
after 1 hour and it’s just not easy to shoot material and perform at the same
time. We end up just rehearsing and working on the script.
I feel I have a long way to go to make this material
performance ready but Yana seems to believe I can do it and it’s only a matter
of time and practice. She is pretty amazing at her job. Unfortunately we get
the time wrong (daylight savings clock mistake) and we are kicked out of the
space too early and have to rush across town to another of Yana rehearsals
where I am asked to perform in front of two teenagers since one of my
characters is a teenager and so this is a good opportunity to observe and be
observed.
Afterwards it’s time to go to Sidewalk Café where we are
going to sign up for an open mic which is supposed to be cool. We get there at
7:30 and learn that it is rather different from what I am used to in Edinburgh.
Within minutes there are so many people all around us the bar is packed. We
quickly learn that it doesn’t matter at what time you have shown up; at 8 the
mc gets on stage and announces that the order of playing will depend on the
‘lottery’ number we are assigned. So we all get in line and wait.
If feels like some TV contest where young aspiring stars are
hopeful to be discovered. I admit I feel a bit silly. I get number 48 which at
first I assume is good but little do I know: three hours later we are only 16
people through, of which only 3 are of passable quality. Add to it that the MC
is in love with herself and is pretty damn mediocre at her craft, taking
advantage of the fact that apparently she’s been on the scene for three decades
and probably once played on the same stage as Bob Dylan (or someone like him
given her very derivative style) by playing too many of her songs and giving
more playing space to her favourite friends. I am exhausted, pissed off at how
ridiculously long this is taking, at the overpriced bar food and feel like
punching the MC for her self indulgence. I decide to bugger off home. It’s just
not worth it.
On the way back home we amuse ourselves by taking pictures
next to the graffiti that adorn storage containers along the streets (some of
these have apparently been here forever) and in the subway. I am so tired I
almost fall asleep hugging my guitar on the train.
DAY 8
This is the last day before my departure and it’s also the
deadline for the Fringe registration so I spend the morning trying to sort out
the application form for that. Do some yoga, try to think of what picture to
use but around 3 o clock I decide I better get out of the house because
otherwise I won’t get to see Central Park and it’s one of the things I wanted
to not to miss before leaving. The next few hours are spent getting there,
walking for two hours in the park and then down to Times Square where I am
appalled by the insanity of the place. I cannot understand why people would
want to be inundated by advertising and actually come here for it. Nevertheless
it is an experience I am glad I have not missed, if nothing else for its
anthropological worth. Apparently New Yorkers avoid this place, much as a lot of
Romans avoid the Colosseum.
I come back home to Yana and Heather’s and we spend the
evening filling in forms as well as taking pictures for the Fringe poster. We
get some good ideas and manage to send everything within minutes of the final
deadline. Phew!
The rest of the time is spent packing before bedtime.
DAY 9
And this brings me to my departure. We run through the play
once again and today I realize what a steep learning curve is ahead of me. I
know there’s still a lot of work to be done before I can say the show will be
ready for the public. But the commitment is there and both Yana and I will do
all we need to keep the momentum going and perform to the best of our
abilities. I have chosen to challenge myself and push myself out of my comfort
zone because that is the only way to grow. So I decide to push away my fears
and my self doubt and enjoy the process of learning!
Also, if before I had
fantasies of moving to NYC I now am pretty sure I would not thrive here, if
nothing else because the pace is too much for me. In as much as I love how
‘loud’ New Yorkers seem to be and how open to just talking to anyone, and in as
much as I really appreciate how everyone is from somewhere else here and yet
they all seem to be able to share this place together, I am not really a city
girl. I long for the reflection and the peace of the countryside and need
silent spaces and quiet places to go within and hear my inner voice. I love
nature too much to only survive on human made culture and the thought of going
home to Edinburgh to a slower pace of living seems appealing.
Thank you everyone who have made this trip possible. I want
to finish with a a quote I found on a sticker I was given at the Sidewalk Café:
The social responsibility of the artist is to survive and
nibble away at society’s thick hide with love and sharp teeth. Amen.
The Subway to the airport
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