You know the suspense was killing you.
Awesome awesome awesome day in New York City :D
I'll try to make this brief. ha-ha.
SO! My mom and I wake up at some un-godly hour of the morning and get to Laguardia airport with, surprisingly, very little trouble. We catch a cab into the city and to our absolutely adorable little hotel! It was somewhere off 31st and Park.
We unload and head right to Canal Street. We are immediately bombarded by the usual sellers, but I wanted to try for the back-closet shops instead of the freaky warehouses. Eventually, we gave into one persistent man who took us to his room 'o knock-offs. I was very scrutinous during this process but then spotted a really great Prada bag, and after some debating, finally got it for $30. My mom also got an incredibly soft Chanel bag too. Yay! After that, we bought some random jewelry and Canal Street was done!
After lunch, we went back to the hotel and I loaded my new bag with all the Flea Market essentials - Sharpie pen, Wicked playbill, Anthony's book, RENT CD, and Phantom DVD cover for autographs, and the camera for obvious reasons. And it ALL FIT! XD
We kind of got lost on the way but eventually found the festivities on Shubert Alley. Huuuuuge event. There were people evvvvverywheeeere! I made my rounds at all the shows' stands, where they were auctioning things, and bought Shannon her b-day present: a Wicked apron that says "Wicked good cook!" on it XDDD; Then after I looked around (and actually didn't buy anything from the stands) I gaped at the RENT stage door they were auctioning off on the big stage. I sooo wanted it, but it was about $3500 *tear*.
THEN! It was time for the celebrities! I had missed Eden Espinosa, which was fine. I squeezed in line around 2 to see Patrick Wilson, and ended up talking to this girl who was there for her 16th birthday. We became buddies for the duration of the celebrity events and saw a lot of the same celebrities together. I got some shots of Patrick from line and talked to him about North Carolina, since he lived there in the '70's *dies*. Oh yeah, I got Julia Murney, the former touring Elphaba, to sign my playbill too haha.
Then the moment of glory - Anthony and Jesse were up next! The line was craaaazy. I was about midway through and spotted my new friend farther back in line, so I let her cut in front of me. We both started getting nervous because they were holding us back from paying and getting in the real line, and time was passing fast. Luckily, they numbered off ten more people - her being nine, me being ten - to be the last ones to get autographs. How lucky was I?!
So after lots and lots and lots and lots of waiting (and failed attempts to snap pics of Anthony from line) we were about to the front of the line and they announced that Anthony was going to the picture booth! Thankfully, my friend held my spot for me and I ran over to the picture booth and GOT MY PICTURE WITH ANTHONY RAPP AAAAAH! I was almost too flustered to say anything! This is pretty much the conversation.
Anthony: Hey.
Me: ... Hi!
Anthony: How are you?
Me: ......*squeaks* good!
*dude takes picture*
Me: Thank you soooo much!
Anthony: *says something like "you're welcome"/"no problem"*
So I run back to the line, which hasn't moved anyway. Anthony comes back for autographs but then JESSE goes to the picture booth! By that time I was like, "screw it." XD;
So I finally finally get up to Anthony and kind of timidly push my book forward and say, "hi, Anthony!" He says hi back and asks for my name and spells it right! Then I said how I really enjoyed reading his book and how great it was, and he said, "thank you very much." (!!!!) Then he signed my CD and I told him thanks again.
To make a long story short, I got Jesse's autograph on my CD too. YAY!
My mom and I then run back to the hotel and change for dinner/the show. We eat at a nice Spanish/Italian restaurant and walk to the Circle in the Square Theatre, where Spelling Bee was playing. We had some trouble finding it but eventually did. It's right beside WICKED! :D
We get in the theatre, and here's where it gets interesting. There are people from the show walking around with clipboards, and asking people, "Are you a good speller? Do you want to participate in the show?" My mom therefore decides to nominate me against my will and runs off to the bathroom. Cool.
So the girl asks me a few questions and tells me to take my form over to a guy sitting down at a desk, where there are a bunch of other people crowded around. She says that 4 people will be chosen out of everyone. I go to the guy and he starts asking me questions, and notices I'm from Charlotte. It turned out he graduated from Vance! Small world. He said, "Charlotte represent!" to me and I think I about died.
So the questions were simple - are you comfortable on stage, are you a good speller, etc. He tells me to go sit in my seat and come back in about 5 minutes for the results. When I come back, guess what - I was chosen! I think he chose me because of the whole being from Charlotte thing XD. The other people were: some 40-year old lady, an Asian girl around my age, probably a few years older, and a guy in a hoody who looked to be the Asian girl's age too.
They take us back into an office to detail what's to happen. After the opening number, the female judge character will announce that there's a few spellers missing, which is our cue to go on. Then from there, cast members were to take us to our places on stage and we would act as if we were really in a spelling bee (that's basically what the musical is, anyway).
However, they told us that no matter how easy or how difficult the word was, we always had to ask two questions at the microphone - 1. for the definition, and 2. if they could use it in a sentence. If we got it right, we sat back down, and if not, the "comfort counselor" a.k.a. a convicted felon rasta-man who was "doing community service" for the bee would escort us offstage. I went back to my seat in a daze.
The show starts, the opening number happens. The female judge calls us onstage and we all assemble over at the judge's table. We get our big yellow numbers to wear around our neck (I totally forgot what my number was) and the cast members come over to take us to the bleachers, where we all sit during the show. I'm taken by the stereotypical Asian Catholic schoolgirl and I sit beside her during the show. She was hilarious! She would randomly start un-zipping my boots and staring at me XDDD;
Anyway, so some of the cast members start spelling words - really hard words, too! There's a musical number here and there, and then the 40-year old lady goes up to spell. She totally hams it up (which she wasn't supposed to do) and misspells. Mitch the comfort counselor goes to her and gives her many hugs and a juice box and sends her away, while the cast members serenade her goodbye XD
More cast members go, then it's the Asian audience member's turn. When each audience member is called up and walks to the microphone, one of the judges says something about them. So when Tina Kim, the Asian audience member, is walking up, the male judge says, "Tina Kim someday hopes to acquire a third first name!" I was totally cracking up onstage XDDDDDDDD. Tina spells her word wrong, same procedure as before, and she leaves.
More cast members, then it's hoody boy's turn! He get's the word "Mexican" and obviously spells it right. The cast members look pissed that he got an easy word.
More singing, more cast members spelling, then it's finally my turn. As I walk up the male judge says, "Miss Meeks was formerly known as Bachelorette #3!" Hah XD So I get up there and adjust the microphone and the male judge says, "Miss Meeks, your word is... cow." Everybody started laughing. I felt ridiculous saying the next part, but I had to:
Me: Can I have the definition, please?
Mr. Panch (judge): ...It's a cow. *lots of laughter*
Me: ... Could you use that in a sentence, please?
Mr. Panch: Just spell the word.
Me: C...O...W. Cow.
Mr. Panch: That is correct!
Lots of applause, and I go and sit down. When I do, all of the cast members are staring at me and start singing a song about how life isn't fair, "life is pandemonium", whereupon the bleachers start spinning around with all of us on them! Then they make me and hoody guy get up and start dancing with them! Us two had to hold hands and jump up and down while they danced around us XDDDDDDDD;;
SO! Back to more spelling. Hoody boy goes up after some cast members and spells his word wrong. Now it's just me left of the audience members! More cast members go up again, and then I go up for a second time. Panch goes, "Miss Meeks recently got lost in her own backyard!" Thanks. haha. And then, he says, "Miss Meeks, your word is... catterjunes."
I blinked a few times. What? I'd never heard of that word before! I ask for the definition and use of a sentence, but get very vague answers. I take a deep breath and spell very carefully, "C-A-T-T-E-R-J-U-N-E-S... catterjunes?"
Panch, astounded, goes, "...That is correct!" The audience bursts into applause, they were going craaazy! I go back to the bleachers, where all the cast members are staring at me with incredulous looks. But right after I sat down, they called me up again, and promptly said, "Spell Xerophthalmia." I was retarded and thought it started with a Z, and therefore messed up.
Mitch comes over, gives me hugs, gives me a juice box. But then he takes me under his arm and starts singing this "prayer" which he apparently does to each remaining audience member, and it lasts for a while! Then as he helps me offstage, I assume that the cast members will just sing the standard Goodbye song.
WRONG! They start following me allll the way to my seat, singing! It was hilarious, but even funnier because I had to take the longest route back to my seat evar, even though I had a front-row seat! The whole time, the character Leaf Coneybear (played by Barrett Foa) is making the most priceless face while singing. And the whole time people were still applauding! I finally get to my seat and my time on stage is over.
It was such an amazing experience though! Just seeing the cast members stay in character all around me and watching them perform a seriously hilarious script, and including us in all of it - it was amazing. Not to mention that after I sat down, 1. the female judge mouthed "good job!" to me at one point, and 2. the Asian character, Marcy Park, gave me a really funny wave from stage. :D It was definitely the highlight of my trip. I totally recommend it! I think what was funniest was that after the show, I had about 10 people tell me I did a great job! ^__^
When we got outside, guess who was standing there - Barrett Foa! GOSH he's handsome. I pulled out my sharpie and my playbill and timidly approached him.
"Oh, hey!" he exclaimed, immediately recognizing me. "How was your first Broadway debut?" I said it was really awesome and he wrote his autograph. Then I got a picture with him squee! I also spotted Josh Gad, who played William Barfee, and got his autograph/picture.
Here's the funniest part: when I got home, I searched for Spelling Bee in Wikipedia. I happened to find a list of all the words used in the show, and the specific ones used for the audience members. Sure enough, cow and Mexican were there, as was catterjunes. BUT... they had it spelled as 'catarjunes'! Not only that, but they said it was completely made up for the show! AND I know someone who spelled it as 'catarjoons', and was deemed correct too. *dies*
So that was my trip in a very long nutshell. It was incredible, just... what an incredible day. Thanks for taking the time to read this if you did!
I'll put pictures from the trip in my next post. Whee!
Tennis Conference starts on Tuesday. Wish me luck!
I'll try to make this brief. ha-ha.
SO! My mom and I wake up at some un-godly hour of the morning and get to Laguardia airport with, surprisingly, very little trouble. We catch a cab into the city and to our absolutely adorable little hotel! It was somewhere off 31st and Park.
We unload and head right to Canal Street. We are immediately bombarded by the usual sellers, but I wanted to try for the back-closet shops instead of the freaky warehouses. Eventually, we gave into one persistent man who took us to his room 'o knock-offs. I was very scrutinous during this process but then spotted a really great Prada bag, and after some debating, finally got it for $30. My mom also got an incredibly soft Chanel bag too. Yay! After that, we bought some random jewelry and Canal Street was done!
After lunch, we went back to the hotel and I loaded my new bag with all the Flea Market essentials - Sharpie pen, Wicked playbill, Anthony's book, RENT CD, and Phantom DVD cover for autographs, and the camera for obvious reasons. And it ALL FIT! XD
We kind of got lost on the way but eventually found the festivities on Shubert Alley. Huuuuuge event. There were people evvvvverywheeeere! I made my rounds at all the shows' stands, where they were auctioning things, and bought Shannon her b-day present: a Wicked apron that says "Wicked good cook!" on it XDDD; Then after I looked around (and actually didn't buy anything from the stands) I gaped at the RENT stage door they were auctioning off on the big stage. I sooo wanted it, but it was about $3500 *tear*.
THEN! It was time for the celebrities! I had missed Eden Espinosa, which was fine. I squeezed in line around 2 to see Patrick Wilson, and ended up talking to this girl who was there for her 16th birthday. We became buddies for the duration of the celebrity events and saw a lot of the same celebrities together. I got some shots of Patrick from line and talked to him about North Carolina, since he lived there in the '70's *dies*. Oh yeah, I got Julia Murney, the former touring Elphaba, to sign my playbill too haha.
Then the moment of glory - Anthony and Jesse were up next! The line was craaaazy. I was about midway through and spotted my new friend farther back in line, so I let her cut in front of me. We both started getting nervous because they were holding us back from paying and getting in the real line, and time was passing fast. Luckily, they numbered off ten more people - her being nine, me being ten - to be the last ones to get autographs. How lucky was I?!
So after lots and lots and lots and lots of waiting (and failed attempts to snap pics of Anthony from line) we were about to the front of the line and they announced that Anthony was going to the picture booth! Thankfully, my friend held my spot for me and I ran over to the picture booth and GOT MY PICTURE WITH ANTHONY RAPP AAAAAH! I was almost too flustered to say anything! This is pretty much the conversation.
Anthony: Hey.
Me: ... Hi!
Anthony: How are you?
Me: ......*squeaks* good!
*dude takes picture*
Me: Thank you soooo much!
Anthony: *says something like "you're welcome"/"no problem"*
So I run back to the line, which hasn't moved anyway. Anthony comes back for autographs but then JESSE goes to the picture booth! By that time I was like, "screw it." XD;
So I finally finally get up to Anthony and kind of timidly push my book forward and say, "hi, Anthony!" He says hi back and asks for my name and spells it right! Then I said how I really enjoyed reading his book and how great it was, and he said, "thank you very much." (!!!!) Then he signed my CD and I told him thanks again.
To make a long story short, I got Jesse's autograph on my CD too. YAY!
My mom and I then run back to the hotel and change for dinner/the show. We eat at a nice Spanish/Italian restaurant and walk to the Circle in the Square Theatre, where Spelling Bee was playing. We had some trouble finding it but eventually did. It's right beside WICKED! :D
We get in the theatre, and here's where it gets interesting. There are people from the show walking around with clipboards, and asking people, "Are you a good speller? Do you want to participate in the show?" My mom therefore decides to nominate me against my will and runs off to the bathroom. Cool.
So the girl asks me a few questions and tells me to take my form over to a guy sitting down at a desk, where there are a bunch of other people crowded around. She says that 4 people will be chosen out of everyone. I go to the guy and he starts asking me questions, and notices I'm from Charlotte. It turned out he graduated from Vance! Small world. He said, "Charlotte represent!" to me and I think I about died.
So the questions were simple - are you comfortable on stage, are you a good speller, etc. He tells me to go sit in my seat and come back in about 5 minutes for the results. When I come back, guess what - I was chosen! I think he chose me because of the whole being from Charlotte thing XD. The other people were: some 40-year old lady, an Asian girl around my age, probably a few years older, and a guy in a hoody who looked to be the Asian girl's age too.
They take us back into an office to detail what's to happen. After the opening number, the female judge character will announce that there's a few spellers missing, which is our cue to go on. Then from there, cast members were to take us to our places on stage and we would act as if we were really in a spelling bee (that's basically what the musical is, anyway).
However, they told us that no matter how easy or how difficult the word was, we always had to ask two questions at the microphone - 1. for the definition, and 2. if they could use it in a sentence. If we got it right, we sat back down, and if not, the "comfort counselor" a.k.a. a convicted felon rasta-man who was "doing community service" for the bee would escort us offstage. I went back to my seat in a daze.
The show starts, the opening number happens. The female judge calls us onstage and we all assemble over at the judge's table. We get our big yellow numbers to wear around our neck (I totally forgot what my number was) and the cast members come over to take us to the bleachers, where we all sit during the show. I'm taken by the stereotypical Asian Catholic schoolgirl and I sit beside her during the show. She was hilarious! She would randomly start un-zipping my boots and staring at me XDDD;
Anyway, so some of the cast members start spelling words - really hard words, too! There's a musical number here and there, and then the 40-year old lady goes up to spell. She totally hams it up (which she wasn't supposed to do) and misspells. Mitch the comfort counselor goes to her and gives her many hugs and a juice box and sends her away, while the cast members serenade her goodbye XD
More cast members go, then it's the Asian audience member's turn. When each audience member is called up and walks to the microphone, one of the judges says something about them. So when Tina Kim, the Asian audience member, is walking up, the male judge says, "Tina Kim someday hopes to acquire a third first name!" I was totally cracking up onstage XDDDDDDDD. Tina spells her word wrong, same procedure as before, and she leaves.
More cast members, then it's hoody boy's turn! He get's the word "Mexican" and obviously spells it right. The cast members look pissed that he got an easy word.
More singing, more cast members spelling, then it's finally my turn. As I walk up the male judge says, "Miss Meeks was formerly known as Bachelorette #3!" Hah XD So I get up there and adjust the microphone and the male judge says, "Miss Meeks, your word is... cow." Everybody started laughing. I felt ridiculous saying the next part, but I had to:
Me: Can I have the definition, please?
Mr. Panch (judge): ...It's a cow. *lots of laughter*
Me: ... Could you use that in a sentence, please?
Mr. Panch: Just spell the word.
Me: C...O...W. Cow.
Mr. Panch: That is correct!
Lots of applause, and I go and sit down. When I do, all of the cast members are staring at me and start singing a song about how life isn't fair, "life is pandemonium", whereupon the bleachers start spinning around with all of us on them! Then they make me and hoody guy get up and start dancing with them! Us two had to hold hands and jump up and down while they danced around us XDDDDDDDD;;
SO! Back to more spelling. Hoody boy goes up after some cast members and spells his word wrong. Now it's just me left of the audience members! More cast members go up again, and then I go up for a second time. Panch goes, "Miss Meeks recently got lost in her own backyard!" Thanks. haha. And then, he says, "Miss Meeks, your word is... catterjunes."
I blinked a few times. What? I'd never heard of that word before! I ask for the definition and use of a sentence, but get very vague answers. I take a deep breath and spell very carefully, "C-A-T-T-E-R-J-U-N-E-S... catterjunes?"
Panch, astounded, goes, "...That is correct!" The audience bursts into applause, they were going craaazy! I go back to the bleachers, where all the cast members are staring at me with incredulous looks. But right after I sat down, they called me up again, and promptly said, "Spell Xerophthalmia." I was retarded and thought it started with a Z, and therefore messed up.
Mitch comes over, gives me hugs, gives me a juice box. But then he takes me under his arm and starts singing this "prayer" which he apparently does to each remaining audience member, and it lasts for a while! Then as he helps me offstage, I assume that the cast members will just sing the standard Goodbye song.
WRONG! They start following me allll the way to my seat, singing! It was hilarious, but even funnier because I had to take the longest route back to my seat evar, even though I had a front-row seat! The whole time, the character Leaf Coneybear (played by Barrett Foa) is making the most priceless face while singing. And the whole time people were still applauding! I finally get to my seat and my time on stage is over.
It was such an amazing experience though! Just seeing the cast members stay in character all around me and watching them perform a seriously hilarious script, and including us in all of it - it was amazing. Not to mention that after I sat down, 1. the female judge mouthed "good job!" to me at one point, and 2. the Asian character, Marcy Park, gave me a really funny wave from stage. :D It was definitely the highlight of my trip. I totally recommend it! I think what was funniest was that after the show, I had about 10 people tell me I did a great job! ^__^
When we got outside, guess who was standing there - Barrett Foa! GOSH he's handsome. I pulled out my sharpie and my playbill and timidly approached him.
"Oh, hey!" he exclaimed, immediately recognizing me. "How was your first Broadway debut?" I said it was really awesome and he wrote his autograph. Then I got a picture with him squee! I also spotted Josh Gad, who played William Barfee, and got his autograph/picture.
Here's the funniest part: when I got home, I searched for Spelling Bee in Wikipedia. I happened to find a list of all the words used in the show, and the specific ones used for the audience members. Sure enough, cow and Mexican were there, as was catterjunes. BUT... they had it spelled as 'catarjunes'! Not only that, but they said it was completely made up for the show! AND I know someone who spelled it as 'catarjoons', and was deemed correct too. *dies*
So that was my trip in a very long nutshell. It was incredible, just... what an incredible day. Thanks for taking the time to read this if you did!
I'll put pictures from the trip in my next post. Whee!
Tennis Conference starts on Tuesday. Wish me luck!