I love new york in may, how about yay?

I'm just cooling down from another wonderful session of "The Gym." My classmates are particularly engaging this time around. i found out that the one woman that I loved so much from last week (thanks to a little google research) has for good reason, been in several Broadway shows. I was really intimidated to sing tonight and ended up going very last. But it was a good experience and I felt connected to my material instead of trying to prove myself as a musical-theatre type. That's a much happier place to be! I find John's comments so stimulating and exciting and I find that I take pages and pages of notes. Some highlights so you get a taste of the genius!:

When approaching a song, it's all about narrowing in on the most dangerous person you could possibly have this conversation with...
Look at underscoring and interpret it on your terms.
Be strong and wrong! (Make strong choices!)
Auditors want to see someone make a choice.
Creativity is in my discomfort. Be courageous enough to be in that uncomfortable place.
Start shedding the "acting" and land on who you are---you are interesting enough as a person. Look for opportunities to put that special self into the work.
Find material that doesn't necessarily excite you musically but rather has ideas, characters and stuff to fight for. You have to be working through something in a song.

The weather has been beautiful here, although it turned a bit hot today. A mere foretaste of what Adrienne promises to be a hellish summer of sweat and smells. Yesterday, after hitting an EPA early and getting seen by 10am (yay!) I met Jackie and Jenny for lunch at the zoo. I then spent some time reading by the pond, which is apparently the popular site to film movies. So beautiful it feels fake! After bible study I went to a basic ballet class taught by a very NY woman. Clearly a former prima-ballerina, she did not mess around and expected a lot even from beginner-beginners. I was glad to reunite with Kat there and finally meet her boyfriend Danny after hearing so much about him.
Today I talked myself out of auditioning for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show after Danny's comments about how look-driven they are. I did a bunch of practicing and ended up walking across the park to pick up my scores for the Millbrook shows! Yay! I just found out I'll be participating in a Royalty Dinner the night before the rest of the Company arrives. I guess 4 of us will sing a bunch of excerpts to get the patrons excited for the upcoming season. I'm glad to get to know the staff better and let them know me better by pitching in in that way!
I did some shopping before grabbing a quick dinner at Whole Foods (do you know they have whole-wheat pizza? yummy! almost as good as mine.) I saw Jerry Mitchell, the director of the new Legally Blonde on Broadway, carefully selecting cuts of meat for his din-din. I wrote some cards and studied for class in Union Square and enjoyed all the buzz of kids careening towards the park and friends calling eachother and explaining which corner they were located. Balmy bliss, really.