New week, new opportunities :)

Okay, so I continually gush about all of the opportunities that are just handed to us as interns at this theatre, but it's just amazing what I get to do, and I feel very fortunate. So here goes (again):

Sunday I went to help with InterAct's booth at Philly Gay Pride. I didn't get to see the parade because, well, I needed sleep (stupid insomnia), and I didn't have to be at the booth until after the parade got over. After I made it through the bunches of people and made it into where the rest of the booths were, I got to interface with the gay community a little bit on behalf of InterAct. How convenient that the play that is running right now is about a gay couple adopting a baby! Anyway, that was a fun experience even though I didn't get to go around to the other booths.

After that, I went to a reading of Seth Rozin's new musical A Passing Wind. It's a musical about a man who can fart at will! It was a very interesting show to see even at this stage of the process, and with a little bit more tweaking I think it could be very fun to see a full production. Josef Pujole, who becomes acquainted with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Erik Satie, Sarah Bernhardt, and Claude Monet, tries to make his name in Paris at the Moulin Rouge after leaving his life baking bread in Provence with a very, very unique act. The trouble is, however, that after Germany attacks France, it is unknown what will happen. Thrilling stuff, really. It is very full of puns and wit, though at times it is somewhat predictable. I'm eager to see what happens to it in its next draft.

On Monday I had another normal day at the office, though this time I was not stuffing envelopes. This time I was on the phone doing recruiting people based on a survey to come to a research discussion about InterAct. I don't really enjoy talking on the phone, and I despised the job I had for a few weeks at the PhoneCenter, but the people I was talking to generally had a love for theatre and really wanted to help and participate if they could. It was a reassuring experience and now I know that people are coming to the shows and really taking something away from them and want to be involved.

Today I went back to the office to finish up the survey group I was working on yesterday, and it was also our weekly intern meeting. This week we caught up on how we are doing on our casebooks. I haven't gotten a very good start, however, because I was waiting on an updated copy of my script before I began my research, but it seems to be taking longer than I expected. I just need to start on something with this copy and can work accordingly later on. Other than that, we began to tear apart the script Becky gave us and we each got 2 (very, very big) subjects to focus on in order to improve the play, and are to come up with a plan of attack before next week, and try to work out how to fix it. It needs a lot of work. A lot. It's a play about a black Muslim American who goes to school in Cairo, Egypt, and rooms with an Egyptian Muslim. The main idea is that these two try to fight stereotypes, but as of right now the play lacks focus, conflict, and character development, among lots of other things. It definitely has potential, though.

The interns also got invited to be readers for Philadelphia Young Playwrights, so we will all get to read play submissions from middle schoolers and high schoolers and evaluate them. Totally awesome opportunity anyway, but the icing on the cake was that after I read the information I found out that we will be getting paid for it! It's not much, but it will be my first paid theatre work ever! I'm picking up scripts tomorrow.

That's all I have for now. If you can't tell, I'm really enjoying my time. I guess I just have to make sure I'm using my time efficiently. So much to do!

P.S. -- In the photo is Gomez. He is my cuddly friend in the office!