I Could Count Myself A King of Infinite Space

Today I had to do two of my least favorite theater things: write a bio and take part in improvised crowd yelling. One of my favorite parts of Studio Shows at UMW was not having to write a bio. It makes me very uncomfortable and I’m never sure how to go about them. It’s to the point where two theaters in Charlottesville had bios on file for me because I was so bad at turning them in. And group yelling? I can barely do that off-stage. It always feels so forced. I can’t yell on roller coasters, at concerts or after shows. I feel like I am naturally two enthusiasm notches below the rest of mankind and even when I AM caught up in the group mentality, I still can’t seem to manage a yell. All I can do is clap more loudly than usual.

Ok, so I’ve had lots recently, but that’s not the point. I was informing people of my plan to go to Charlottesville around Christmas, and my first instinct was to call Chicago home. I feel like this is something that most people deal with earlier, at some point college becomes home and the place you grew up becomes somewhere else; but I never had that with Fredericksburg, and it had been a long time since I had that with Charlottesville. Where I am in Chicago definitely doesn’t feel like a home, but I’m working on that detail. But I think I feel more like I belong here than I have anywhere in a long time.

So apparently I should issue the universe ultimatums more often, as shortly before the end of August I got a job. Then, two weeks later I moved into the city. My new place is right between Wrigley Field and Boystown, so I live in an odd mixture of old-school Chicago Irish baseball rivalry and giant, phallic, rainbow street signs (seriously unsubtle). I ended up here because one of my friends from Macbeth needed a sublet and I needed a place to live that was cheap. It’s seriously like one of those comical struggling artist stories. We share a studio apartment; I have a single bed in a closet and he has a futon in our living room. It’s funny, but even though I haven’t been here even a whole month, I already feel more at home here than I have anywhere in years. Living in the city is amazing. There’s a bar down the street with free pool on Tuesday nights, we went last week and we’re going again tomorrow. The bartender is an ex-Benedictine monk who told us stories about the monastery (apparently there are a lot of gay monks). I had a fair amount of season auditions this month some of which I never would have been able to even attempt if I were still out in the burbs, but we’ll see if they turn into anything. Today I caught a Chicago Fringe show in Chinatown, bought a Santeria candle from a New-Agey magic shop and spent an hour wandering around in some of the more densely bar-populated areas of Chicago. I’ve only been at my job in earnest for about a week now, but it’s not a bad gig and things have been going well. Plus, my boss asked me to come to some big meeting tomorrow and I am meeting our CEO later today. I don’t know what is going on yet, and they can’t tell me. Intrigue! Also, in October, Glenn (the roomie) and I are going to host a party and attempt the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? drinking game. And while my initial trepidation about Macbeth was well-justified (here is our one review, posted a week after we closed), I did meet a lot of great people doing it and I now have at least one Chicago credit on my resume; so it wasn’t horrible. Though I do have more respect for the legendary curse now.

How you doin’?