Day 35: Thursday, March 23
After the success of Wednesday’s show, Thursday dawned
much brighter. The weather was beautiful—clear and chilly. It was in the 30s
most of the day, but eventually warmed up (by the time I left the theatre, it
was in the mid-40s. (It looks like that will be my last “cold” day for the
trip. It should be in the 50s and 60s the rest of the time.)
I decided I wanted to get out, but wasn’t sure where.
I remembered I’d seen a Yelp listing for Tompkins Square Bagels only a block
away (Pidge had even gone there), so I walked over, and ordered a bagel with
cream cheese and a tea (a process that wasn’t easy, given the vast amount of
choices on the menu). Even though there were a lot of tables in the back, I was
lucky in that a guy sitting at a window seat got up just as my food came, and I
was able to sit there and watch the world go by on Avenue A. It couldn’t have been
a better day for that and I couldn’t have been in a better mood—which was a
complete turn-around from Wednesday.
What a day!
After a while, I reluctantly got up, took the long way
home, just to enjoy the weather, then went home and got through a number of
newspapers that had been stacking up.
Eventually, 4:00 rolled around, so it was time to
leave for the theatre. What with the weather, I decided to walk the three
miles, and was glad I did. Going through Grand Central, I needed to use the
restroom. Knowing that using the men’s room at Grand Central was likely to be
an adventure, I was dubious, but was actually well-rewarded, as one crazy guy
was yelling about something and another one (in a stall) spent his time
alternately muttering about the first guy and yelling back at him.
#OnlyInNewYork
I continued to the theatre, settled in as usual,
passed time with Beth (we dissected both Wednesday’s performance and the
current visit by her family) and Brendan (ditto for the dissection, followed by
discussion of political matters and a running of Scene 6), then went on.
It was a pretty good-sized house, but they started out
quiet (Brendan speculated that they weren’t sure if they should laugh, and I
think he was right) and it took them a while to catch up with us. Our timing
was a little off (I felt like I was rushing in places and he mentioned that he’d
dropped some stuff in Scene 1; if he did, I didn’t notice) and it took us a
while to get in a good rhythm ourselves. Scenes 2, 3, and 4 went all right
(though I still felt a little rushed—though that may due to our not getting a
lot of verbal response).
We started 5 and things got—well, not weird, but just
not the usual. (At one point, a person in the front row got up and left, and I
thought “Hmmm,” but they came back, so I guess it was a bathroom break.) It
wasn’t a bad scene, by any means, it was just slightly off. I was trying my
best to be in the moment, but the moments were just slightly off; again, not
bad, just different.
Scene 6 went fine, and the applause was politely
enthusiastic, but it felt like everyone in the room—including us—was ready to
go home. Afterward, we did another dissection in the dressing room and it feels
like we need to go back to the punctuation we’d so stressed during rehearsal.
That’s my homework before Friday’s show.
Being that it was so nice, I decided to walk home—or to
at least go as far as I could. I wanted to get some supper and remembered Pete’s
Tavern on Irving Place, which dates back to 1864 and was frequented by O.
Henry. I walked by—and even tried walking in—but it was too crowded and too
noisy to stop for even a drink, so I passed, figuring I could just make
something at home.
I want to go to there
I figured I could use a cocktail, though, so I stopped
at a liquor store on 2nd Avenue and bought a couple of airline-sized
bottles of Bushmills. As I walked down 11th to the apartment,
though, I again needed to use a restroom, so I stopped at Veneiro’s, figuring I
could order something at the café and use their facilities.
In the event, they have only baked goods, ice cream,
and drinks, so I passed on the eclairs and even the coconut cake (I’ll be back
for that) and had an apple tarte tatin a la mode with a beer, all of which was one of the best things I've ever eaten, and so
filled me up too much for anything healthier when I got home.
There's a reason these guys have been in business since 1894
I finally arrived home, had a cup of tea, and went to
bed, where I fell asleep watching TV.
I'm anxious to
see how Friday's show goes. I plan on being not just cautious and "in the
moment," but also to try acting well—for a change
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