Vardaan and Patrick Video Blog

First Week Recap!!!

Wow wow wow!!!!!!

The most incredible/exhilerating/exhausting/hardest week of my life is over. Where to begin?! I think I left off on Tuesday, so that's where I will begin!! Tuesday was the first day of "placed" classes, first I had my Jazz dance class, which was INSANE! As you all should know, I am NOT a dancer in any form of the word, so accordingly I was placed in the the Beginning/Intermediate class. The first class alone kicked my ass. After the warmup alone I was ready for bed, but of course we still had over an hour left of class. So after the longest/sweatiest hour of my life we switched over into the other studio for Vocal Technique. This class focuses on the "how" of singing, but I'll get into more about how the class is later. So for our first day we had to re-sing our audition songs for our two teachers (David Kelso and Marlene May) to determine which of the two was better suited to teach us. The thing I was SHOCKED by, was how absolutely amazing everyone was. I'm not saying this to be nice etc. but this is genuinely the most talented group of people I have ever been around. Even the people who you thought weren't going to be singers were INCREDIBLE. Anyhoo, I ended up getting placed in David's class, but again I will go into the specifics later.
After lunch I had the most INCREDIBLE class I have ever had. As I noted in my last blog, I was placed in David Hibbard's vocal performance class, the oddness of this being that last summer when my Dad and I visited New York the first Broadway show I saw was SPAMALOT. As things turn out David was in the show and subsequently my favorite part of the show. In fact, I met and took a picture with him afterwards (see pic above). Basically, this class is the performance side of singing, rather than the technique. It's hard to describe what exactly happenned in those three hours, but I can describe the absolute feeling of knowledge and growth when I walked out afterwards. It's amazing that this was only our first day of class, I felt like I had learned more in those three hours than I have ever learned ever about anything! David is an AMAZING teacher. Watching the growth not only in the performance of my song, but in everyone else's performance was absolutely AMAZING. People grew exponentially in the few short minutes that he worked with us individually.
That night we saw the most incredible piece of theatre I have yet to experience. AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. There are only three words I can use to describe this incredible piece of theatre. Oh. My. God. Hearing the audience gasp, laugh, and cry at the same time is something that is a VERRRRY rare thing to find in the theatre. Never have I come across a play that can instill so many different emotions at once. AUGUST is coming to SF next summer and it would be a crying shame if you missed it. Truly, if you want to leave the theatre feeling entertained but by the same regard feeling that the foundation of everything you thought you knew has been shaken and rattled, SEE THIS PLAY. Afterwards, we had the incredibly fortunate opportunity to have a talkback with most of the actors who were both incredibly informative, and also unbelievably kind.
Wednesday, I started class in Modern. For those of you who don't know what modern dance is/looks like, it is essentially pilates. So after an hour and a half of getting my ass kicked yet again, we went to ballet only to (surprise!) have my ass kicked by another dance teacher. I'm fairly positive that there is a reason that our bodies are not meant to move in the way ballet demands. I'm pretty sure I have never been put into so many uncomfortable situations in my life... After the longest three hours of my life, we had acting class. The class that I had assumed would be the one that would be able to skate through, turned out to be the most intense, challenging class yet. Our teacher (Josie Whittlesey) put a single chair in front of the entire class and said that she would call us up one at a time to interview us and get to know us better. Seems pretty easy right? Nothing could be further from the truth. First we sat one by one on the chair and she would time out a minute of silence where the entire class would just look at, and analyze every inch of you. From there she asked us questions along the lines of "what scares you? Tell a secret nobody else knows etc" many a person left the chair bawling. At the end of class she assigned us all scene partners and plays we needed to read. I was paired with my friend Haley, which was nice because we were already pretty good friends to begin with , and were assigned COWBOY MOUTH by Sam Shepard. As a side note, Sam Shepard is a noted "absurdist" in his plays, in other words they don't make sense and they're not supposed to. That being said, COWBOY MOUTH is the WEIRDEST PLAY I have ever read, it is CRAZY. It's about a woman who abducts a man, but they fall in love, order lobster from the lobster man, and she has a dead crow as a pet. The worst part is, I'm not kidding.
That night we saw PASSING STRANGE. Which isn't so much a musical as it is a rock concert with a plot. But mind you a powerful, wonderful plot at that. It is the story of a young black man from LA, who goes and lives in Europe for several years learning about himself, and eventually finds himself lost. The "musical" is the autobiographical tale of Stew, its creator, star, and primary musician. My entire row was a MESS by the end of the show. There was not a dry eye. I was not expecting it to have the effect it had on me. But its power was absolute.
Thursday morning I had Jazz and vocal tech again. In jazz she taught us the full warm up, which includes more sit-ups than should be legal, and other ridiculousness. Our vocal class was interesting to say the least. We did a lot of breathing exercises, and learned how to breath "through our feet". Sounds crazy but damnit, it worked.
That night we saw ADDING MACHINE. This was the darkest piece of theatre I have ever seen. Its theme, its lighting, the overall look of the show, EVERYTHING was just dark. However, there was something anout it that I really enjoyed. As dark and depressing as it was, I found it to be really very interesting, and I ended up liking it a lot more than I anticipated.
Friday I had back-to-back ballet and jazz. It was BRUTAL. By the time lucnh came around I brely made it into the elevator to take us up. NOT FUN.
That afternoon we had Vocal perfrormance with David Hibbard, and he assigned us our songs that we need to learn for Tuesday. The songs are all standards from the thirties, and quite honestly at this moment I for get the name of mine. But we have to go through and first write the lyrics for the song, then break down into phrases, then essentially annotate it (Thank you IB English!!). He told us to learn it as a monologue first, then learn it as a melody, and be ready to perform it on Tuesday.... I should really start on that.... hmmm.
Then we saw SOUTH PACIFIC, the show itself was great, I am openly not a huge fan of the structure of the show, I think it was written at a time when composers were still perfecting the art of writing a musical and finding the appropriate places for songs etc. so my overall feeling towards the show has not changed that much, however the production itself was beautiful seeing a (good) 20 piece orchestra, rather than, for example, a couple keyboards, was wonderful. Actually being able to fell the music in your gut, is a great, great thing. It was also a really welcome breath of fresh air after the much darker shows that we saw earlier in the week. It was great going into it and not having to think about the deeper meaning, or worry about missing the plot twist, you could just sit there tap your feet and call it a day. We had another talkback afterwards with most everyone, and the questions that were asked, one in particular, had the actors debating with eachother, really challenging them. Needless to say it was great.
Yesterday we had a "day off". My friend Pasquale and I went to coffee and then over to the huge Whole Foods in Union square for lunch. Then we saw the new BATMAN. Oh boy. If you have not seen this movie yet, RUN. Heath Ledger was bar none amazing, truly one of the greatest performances by an actor ever. He really went out with a bang. After the movie we headed back to the dorms for about an hour then went over for our catered dinner, which ended up being Cuban food, something that I was not used to, and can't say I particularly enjoyed... Last night we also had our first "all programs dance". I don't think anyone knows quite how it happenned, but somehow all of the CAP 21 kids and RA's ended up dressing CRAZY. It was hilarious seeing the shock on the faces of the kids from the other programs when they walked in. Priceless.

Well there's really not much more to say at the moment. Today we are going to the Met and then lunching in Central park. I AM EXCITED!!!!
Until Next Time!

-Patrick

Crazy cool list of things I learned today!!

1) My vocal performance teacher is David Hibbard who was in Spamalot last summer, with whom I have a picture of myself with. Crazy

2) Tomorrow we see Tony, Pulitzer, any other award you can think of, winning play AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, and we have a talkback afterwards with the cast!!!

3) I had this really great conversation with Michon Peacock (Some sort of executive director at CAP 21) and she was super nice to me, etc. Turns out she was in the orginal B'way cast of CHICAGO, AND is considered the original "conceiver" of A CHORUS LINE, and her interviews were among those that were included in the show.

4) Thursday we see SOUTH PACIFIC, and word on the street is that we are getting a backstage tour AS WELL AS another talk back with the cast.


That's really it for now. Tomorrow we start classes so everyone is really anxious to get in there. I have modern first thing. YIKES!!
But before I go let me tell you of the wonders of a dance belt. For the sake of children I won't explain what it is, but I will tell you it is an undergarment that "keeps everything under control", and seems to be lacking something in the back, but at the same time there is an addition of something that is common among women, but not so much with the men. Let's just say I don't have to worry about panty lines in dance class. Catch my drift?
It comes down to the fact that I was in this God-forsaken device all morning, and dancing in it was not at all pleasant. :)
Okay, that really is all I have for you at the moment.
Until next time!!!

-Patrick

Day 1-2: The Diana Dilemma and First Day Shennanigans

Hello all!!!

Well as promised here are today and yesterday's goings-ons!
Day 1: The Diana Dilemma
So I got here at about 7:30 yesterday morning after taking the LONGEST red-eye from San Francisco. Here's the deal, so I get on the plane and I see this adorable little baby and it's mother, and I realize that they are sitting right next to me. So all is going well until about an hour in to the flight when the baby just starts screaming. At the top of its little lungs, screaming. This went on for almost all of the flight, so all that much needed rest I was planning on getting went right out the window...
I get into the baggage claim to find my incredible/wonderful/amazing friend Diana waiting for me, so we grab my bags and head to the airtrain (a transport monorail around JFK) to get to her sister's apartment. All was going well until we thought we were going the wrong way, so we changed directions and went the other way only to think the same thing. This went on for a good hour until we finally asked someone who told us that we needed to take the train we initially got on all the way to the end. So we do that and reach the subway which we take to the apartment in Brooklyn, Diana then asks me if want to take the bus or just walk the 7 blocks. I decided just walk , why not, right? Unfortunately, this was the 7 blocks from hell, I lugged my ginormous suitcase up a ridiculous amount of subway stairs and then 7 blocks UPHILL, over really not very pleasant asphalt.
After this wonderful start to my trip, exhausted/sore/just plain tired me and Diana, reached the apartment. We then decided to go take the subway to Times Square just to give us something to do. From there the city was our playground, we went all over the place, from the Whole Foods in Union Square, up to attempt to see strawberry fields only to run into a free Bon Jovi Concert in Central Park. We then hook up with my drama teacher/mother Ms . Byrne at Broadway Barks in Shubert alley. For those of you who don't know, Broadway barks is a benefit put on annually by Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters for stray dogs. There are TONS of broadway stars who attend, and lucky me, met AND HUGGED Harvey Fierstein and Nathan Lane. Essentially the greatest thing that has ever happenned to me. :))
Diana and I then go to see our show for the evening SPRING AWAKENING. So we walk into the theatre and I see an usher who looks REALLY familiar, then a name popped into my head. So I walk over and say "Ummmm, this is REALLY weird, but are you by any chance Kelly Brandeburg.?" It was none other than Montgomery High School Alum, and actress extraordinare Kelly Brandeburg. Now let me explain the awkwardness of this situation to you, Kelly and I have never met, I know her purely through talk, we have never talked, and she essentially had no idea of my existence. Luckily, Kelly is a really wonderful person and we ended up talking and making plans to meet up after the show to go and surprise Ms. Byrne.
Diana and I take our seats onstage and notice two things, 1) the drums are really friggin close, 2) the seats around us are empty. Well, 1) the drums were REALLY FRIGGIN loud and 2) we were completely surrounded by actors. I was very let down by the show this time. When I saw it last summer it was one of the most incredible thing I had ever seen, but the show I saw last night was lackluster, to say the least, with a not too amazing cast.
Moving on.
We then went and surprised Ms. Byrne and her sister Kathy, with Ms. Brandeburg to grand effect. We had dinner at Joe Allen, which is a very popular restraunt in the theatre district very similar to Sardi's. And who is sitting next to us but Peter Gallagher a la The OC, Guys and Dolls revival etc. What a small town. :))

Day 2: First Day Shennanigans

I checked in at about 1 o'clock-ish, but according to all the "official rules and regulations" , unfortunately Diana was not able to show me up to my room, and they made her stay outside. So I went up to my room unpacked all my bags, made my bed, organized the desk etc. and then went to go meet up with my fellow "Tischers", with whom I have all thoroughly enjoyed and fallen in love with up to this point. Seriously, the nicest, funniest, all around greatest group of people one could ever hope to meet. We were told to meet down in the lobby of the dorm at 4:30 for orientation etc. which gave about two hours to do with what we pleased (without leaving the actual dorm, mind you). So I went and hung out with all the photography and imaging kids for a while, then came back up to meet most of the rest of the drama kids. At around 4:30 we all headed down to the dining hall where we had dinner and then orientationized as a whole big group.
After all this we broke up into our smaller program groups and were given sort of the basic outline of what to expect and all that great stuff. We had further orientation with the drama group where we played theatre games, given a further outline of the course, and played several name games.
After all the orientationing was finally over we headed back to the dorm, I went on a quick Kmart run with some of the group to pick up some extra items, then came back and hung out with people from my group until our curfew approached at around 11, and I proceeded to pass out... :))

So today we have auditions etc. and let me tell you, I am petrified. After the day is over I'll give you all a rundown of how everything went down...

That's all for now!!!!

-Patrick

This blog's purpose.

Hello all!

In case you are not aware, I was accepted to NYU's summer musical theatre program through the Tisch School of the arts, as well as, CAP 21. The purpose of this blog is not only as a way for you all to keep tabs on me, but for me as my persnal journal of the unravelings this program promises to unravel. Also, for students who are interested in this program for future years, other blogs that I read when I applied, are what truly "sealed the deal" to this.
So I'm blasting off into the big unknown of NYC by myself for 4 weeks. Wish me luck, and away we go.
That's all for now!
-Patrick

I'm here!!!

Hello all!!
Well, I've made it to New York safe and sound!! I had one of the weirdest days in a really long time, more on this to come. Seeing as how it's about 2 in the morning here (yikes!!!) I hope you understand that I am DEAD TIRED, an d know that once I am checked in, unpacked, orientationized etc. I will be posting a blog explaining the oddity of July 12th (erm 13th too?) in the very near future!!
That's all for now!!
-Patrick