There are certain memories you carry with you forever. You may forget what you had for breakfast yesterday morning, but there are experiences, even from years and year ago - moments in time that stick in your memory like a magnet on the heart, that you will never be able to shake. It could be something as significant as a special birthday or as insignificant as one random rainy sunday afternoon - or in my case, a movie night with friends.
I remember so clearly being in the basement of my house in Newtown, CT when I was about 9 years old, nestled into a fort of pillows and blankets, watching the movie Grease with my sister, and two other girls who were family friends. We had just finished eating some delicious pillow bread and we were slowly falling asleep, despite our best efforts to stay awake. Looking back, at that age I missed all the sexual comments and innuendos, which is the beauty of being young and innocent - all we cared about was the music. Tonight, I went with Rob and Gordon to see the West End production of Grease, and it brought back this memory in particular. And that is when I realized that like the familiar smell of pine on a Christmas night or the feeling you get when you are in the theater, some things stay with your forever and awake a feeling inside of warmth.
Before rushing off to the theatre, we had a full work day of course. It was actually a great Monday in the office - a perfect balance of work, but not too busy where I was at a constant state of stress. The beginning of the morning was the usual maintenance, and we all went through emails for quite some time filtering out and responding to the necessary inquiries. Afterward, we had a meeting with our client Carla who is going to the callback for the tour of Fame. It is so interesting because she is planning on covering a character who is a black lady, which is comedy because she is white as snow, but a delightful actress with an incredible voice and dance technique fit for the part. The play is set in America, so we worked on her American accent and read the two scripts she had to have prepared for tomorrow's audition. She was really impressive considering her forte is music and not acting, but if you love performing it is essential to be the triple threat, and lucky for her, she is.
After that meeting, which lasted about an hour, I mailed out some contracts for the company to go out to youth client's parents to sign and return. But I forgot to have Robert sign the contracts before mailing them out, which of course creates confusion on the receivers end and frustration in the office. I am really hard on myself when I make mistakes because I always try to put in 110%, but I have to realize I am not perfect and mistakes happen to all of us, experienced and not. After, I typed up some document sheets for some of the new youth clients we took on through The School of Comedy, as well as made some client calls about wages and castings.
Our client Leanne Jones is going to New York City in December to meet with Casting Directors, in hopes of beginning a career in America. I have come to find how interesting it is that even though Leanne is a major name in London theatre, she is not well known in America. Robert was telling me that English people rarely make it in America and when they do, they are slightly shunned by English people who do not support "outsourced talent," - meaning they are jealous that spending more time in America than in Britain. My roommate who is working with invincible media group, is putting out a reality show for Britain's Next Super Star was telling me that when asked, most of the contestants said their final goal was to be famous and popular in America. It truly brings to the surface how influential and significant American media is to the world.
To get Leanne set up in New York, I spent the afternoon doing research of casting directors, phoning to get email addresses (which was a welcome relief to talk to people I could completely understand). Robert is working very hard on setting up these meetings because Leanne's contract comes up for renewal in January and Rob definitely wants to keep her as a client since she is such a reputable talent. Gordon wrote the press release and I found the email addresses through research so it was a great team effort.
After work, we had a DELICIOUS and super cheap dinner at my fav restaurant here called Slug and Lettuce (50% off on Monday nights! AMAZING!). The boys told me all about their boy band, which made for quite a fun evening (yes - they were in a UK boy band about 8 years ago :) that is how they met, believe it or not!) We then walked to the theatre, and enjoyed the show, which was surprisingly GREAT! The production was all jazzed up with pyro-technics (like fire... is that the right word?), great singing, two new songs, and awesome dancing. It is not my favorite production because while it familiarity is nostalgic, it can also be redundant at times, but overall I really enjoyed it.
When I got home I spent about two hours on the skype phone talking to family and friends because my connection was miraculously amazing, and the more I talk to them, the more excited I am to hug them all and be home (yes, I mean you!) But with everyday here, I am creating memories like the childhood one I described above - memories I will remember as clear as day years from now (if not by memory, than because of this detailed blog of mine...). The great thing is, I am certain these memories will make me feel the same warm feeling inside, and in a lot of ways, they already have.
Love and hugs,
Jenny
Shout outs: Mom, Don, Dad, Lynn, Lynnie, Monica, LITTLE (Alex) and Ike - so good to catch up! For those of you I didn't get to talk to - I miss you!
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