I’m just gonna cross my fingers and pray that I say nothing incriminating and no one at work finds this. Hopefully, it doesn’t matter because previews have started! And only like 80 people read this.
For anyone new here, I’m an assistant to David Stone, a prominent Broadway producer of Wicked and Next to Normal fame, etc. His latest project? Purpose, a new play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins — Princeton alum! And Tony Award winner for Appropriate last season! Imo one of our best modern playwrights if not THE best — which starts previews Feb 25 and opens March 17.
Typically this is just a normal office job. I work M-F, 10-6 pm, in person, all the time. I help with investor relations (I actually made the pitch deck for this show), I make dinner reservations and book theater tickets, I file papers and checks away, I read scripts and give summaries, I do a lot of stuff. It’s awesome and I love it. My bosses and colleagues are amazing people who I have a lot to learn from. And I like office culture! I like the coffee machine and the water cooler and our monthly lunches. I like the community of it all and having work friends and allies. And I love an event! I love an office holiday party or an opening night.
This week the typical schedule became a little coo-coo since we are in tech, baby. As this is my first Broadway tech, I kept a little diary of how I was feeling and what was happening. I hope you all enjoy.
Wed, Feb 19
The big day! I woke up this morning feeling really energized, actually. I didn’t make it to the gym which was probably a bad call. I hate that feeling. When you decide to sleep an extra hour instead of gym. An hour is nothing. The gym feels amazing.
Anyway, I came to work at 10 am as I usually did with an extra pep in my step because I really am starting to feel useful! I love my job. I feel like I contribute and it’s a challenge but a good one. My responsibilities are slowly growing but it’s all mostly lowkey. I pull the wraps for Wicked each day, which means I send a report to all of the producers with the daily numbers: how much we made at the show last night, how much we made for future ticket sales, our advance, etc. I start my day with this because it makes me feel like a hacker or something. I need my 3 screens to pull this off and I still wince before I send this email out to all these big NBC executives. There was actually a discrepancy I caught that is still being sorted by Nederlander, the theater owner of the Gershwin.
Today was a fun one because I sat with my boss and brainstormed possible casting for a play he’s thinking about doing. A couple of my suggestions got on his shortlist! Casey was in town and I ran across the street to grab a bagel with him. My stomach has been acting up so I got dairy free creamcheese which was gross.
We have a normal day of office work but around 5 my boss announces we’re off to Sardi’s for a pre-tech drink. 2nd floor bar, of course. Tummy issues so I just get a Diet Coke while they drink bourbon and vodka sodas. We get to tech and do a big circle-up meet and greet. Unfortunately, I still don’t know anyone’s names, but I’m working on it. The goal is to mingle a little more and shadow a little more tomorrow. It’s obviously a lot nicer than college but I hate to say this - it’s not very different from a triangle tech! There’s just a lot more people and unions. Everyone is a bit more quiet and in their own lane. And the snacks are upgraded - we’re talking Dough donuts. Like apparently I am not allowed to plug my phone into the wall because a union electrician would need to do that (we can plug our phones into the power strips that have been set up by union electricians).
I’m thrown into this situation and left to do whatever I please. It’s kinda stressful, being put in cool rooms but not really knowing what to do with yourself. All I want to do is be out of the way. This tech is very short - only 5 days. Big musicals would have 2-3 weeks of tech. The script is really the most variable part of this show, but we’re on a script freeze until the first preview. Phylicia Rashad is a magical being not of this earth. I hope I’m leaving a good impression? I just want to sit and listen but I can’t help but feel I could be doing more.
Thurs, Feb 20
Broadway is one of those industries that is predicated on groveling your way to the top. The industry as it stands is pretty new - depending on who you ask, this era of Broadway as we know it started in like the late 80s and early 90s. The people who created the blockbuster shows we know today are still very much alive and still very much in charge of things. Since those people had to work for no money and put up with mean bosses etc. it sometimes feels like they expect the same of the new generation. And the cycle just continues because the 80-year-old generation taught the 60-year-old generation taught the 40-year-old generation that.
All this is to say, you go into this expecting that the older people are gonna uphold that old school, grovel-and-figure-it-out-yourself mentality, but it often feels like the millennials do it just as much. They want to test you and see what happens when you’re thrown into the deep end. There are some people at my office who are probably like 35 and for some reason I just can’t ask them a simple question without a sassy answer. And it drives me crazy! But if you think Imma lose my cool you are mistaken. Part of me probably likes the little game because I feel like I can succeed at it.
It’s a good challenge for me to not have all the validation I want. Tech today felt a little like a high school cafeteria. I was stressed about where to sit and how to be included. And maybe it’s just my insecurity but it totally looks like people form little cliques who they whisper to. I am still relatively new so I don’t feel like I’m in a position to just walk up to a group of murmuring people and perhaps that is my cross to bear.
The production meetings have been really short and easy. It feels like every department kind of knows what they want to work on by the end of rehearsal and has already spoken to the people they need to speak to. In a lot of college production meetings we hashed everything out together but this feels like only the relevant people are included in relevant conversations, which is probably good from a professional standpoint.
Fri, Feb 21
Today we have a few of our co-producers coming to sit in on tech so I’m going to leave the office early and go to the afternoon session and the evening session of tech. Whew! This was chill though I just said hey and showed them their seats and continued to do work from my seat in the back.
Anyone can understand this, but it’s so hard to be entry-level and opinionated! I have so many opinions about things lol. On this show but also in ad meetings for Wicked. I feel like I have a lot I could contribute especially because they’re running a Spanish language campaign.
While I was at tech today, I wrote a big investor update email and sent it out which was fun. They finished cue to cue on the show and ran Act 1! During dinner break I fully bought like $50 of groceries and cooked a whole ass meal. I’ve been having stomach issues (mention counter: 3) so I went for a lettuce wrap with rice and pork meatballs. The meatballs I made were SO GOOD. Here is the recipe except instead of Ssamsang I used a combo of miso and gochujang.
Sat, Feb 22
I had a little morning to myself today. I had fancy sleep last night (fresh sheets, matching set) and treated myself to about a 10 am start. I went to the gym and got a good pump in! Trying to do less meaningless cardio and more actual weight lifting. I wanted to use the steam room but the lady told me it cost $2 to get a towel so fuck that. I will bring my own towel next time, and it will have the Bratz dolls on it.
I made myself oatmeal because tummy issues (mention counter: 4) and then met up with Daniel for a little coffee. We wanted to go to Cafe Grumpy but it was full, along with about 5 other places we looked for. This is actually my least favorite feeling in the world. But it’s okay because we went to my tried and true, Amy’s Bread. Where there is never anyone sitting down. I think it’s because the lights are just a weeee bit too dim.
I got to tech around 1 pm and the cast was running Act 2. I continued to do my own thing with a few work things peppered in. I consistently feel like I am not sitting in the right place. Do I need to be with the movers and shakers? is this a construct in my mind? Where are people having the real conversations? During dinner break I learned bananagrams which stresses me out. After, they started the show from the top and ran most of it, but a lot of people were still calling line.
After all of that, I went to a birthday party. My co-worker’s 30th birthday to be exact. And at a restaurant owned by my neighbors who I have known since birth. This, of course, became a topic of conversation. As an industry full of messy gay men, many scandals were revealed over the course of this party. I got perhaps a little too drunk to be around my bosses, but c’est la vie. I think I act pretty normal. When I Facetimed Daniel that night I fully picked my nose and ate my booger and forgot he was on the camera.
Sun, Feb 23
I was supposed to tutor from 10-12, but this got canceled last minute. Daniel came over in the morning to have a little breakfast, bless his heart. My dad came over too to fix a few things. He is basically my super.
As soon as I stepped outside, I regretted not having taken a long walk. It was BEAUTIFUL out. And off I went to the dark theater. But immediately my coworker wanted coffee so I offered to go for a coffee run. I extended this coffee run into a 30-minute walk to Dunkin Donuts, which was lovely. I made one grave mistake by getting cow’s milk in my coffee, when I had specifically been avoiding lactose this week. Needless to say, this fucked me up, stomach-wise, but I wouldn’t feel it until later that evening.
During dinner break, my coworker took me out for ramen. I wasn’t feeling like soup so I got a little chicken sandwich on a bun made of rice. I could eat perfectly cooked rice forever. For invited dress rehearsal, I invited Reis and a friend who recently left my company. We got a drink after the show with some other work friends and discussed, in true theater industry fashion.
Mon, Feb 24
This is when I started getting tired and aware of the fact that I just worked through the whole weekend. I made it to the gym before work - absolutely vital to my wellbeing. I had a lot of office stuff to catch up on after many days in the theater. About halfway through the day, my stomach started deeply hurting and making me nauseous. I figured maybe it was that I had dairy the day before and I was becoming lactose intolerant. It felt more like a giant bubble of gas that needed to escape but couldn’t. I am backed up as hell.
Around 3pm I needed to call it. Even though I live right across the street, I needed to not be here. I needed to be in my bed. So I was brave and asked to work from home the rest of the day, which I did. This let me do some much-needed laundry. Luckily, I have a gastroenterologist appointment tomorrow morning and can hopefully get to the bottom of this. The day ended with a successful showing in trivia and a hot toddy. Yeah, I’ll have whiskey but I won’t have milk.
Tues, Feb 25
It’s beautiful outside again so I get to bust out my Rothy’s. Perfect first preview lewk. I listened to the daily which was cray today but a great listen. Got nonstop compliments on the Rothy’s all day.
Started today off strong at the gastroenterologist, prepared to be diagnosed as lactose intolerant. THIS IS NOT THE CASE!! I can’t tell you how happy I am. Cottage cheese, I do not fear you. Let’s all go out for ice cream. He said it didn’t sound like any diet related things, and more like a bacteria in my stomach. Score. I breathed into a little bag and hopefully, they will be getting back to me with some antibiotics. In the meantime, I am focusing on fiber. But yeah, I’ll probably have another drink tonight after the show.
First preview! The big day! My team was very kind to me today and keeps asking how I’m doing. Shoutout to them. Maybe I seem a little sluggish because one suggested I take a nap. I keep chugging along with my little office tasks but honestly am not that excited to be up late at the theater again. I’m sure my spirits will turn when we actually get there and I hear an audience for the first time.
We ordered special buttons for first preview that I helped hand out before the show. One thing about me is that Imma turn it on in front of an audience. The show started and the audience laughed SO Much. It was like a sitcom. It reads much more like an epic drama on the page but I guess laughter is never bad? I’m very curious how the show will change over the course of previews and how Branden (playwright) feels about all the laughter. It does change the tone of some of the darker parts of the show.
I had my classic issue of not knowing where to be or how to help. I ended up watching the first act standing in the back of the mezzanine and sitting in the green room for the second act. First act I think is in really good shape but the second act can be much tighter and cleaner. We’ll get there!
After the show, we went to Sardi’s for a toast. There was some food being passed around, but my boss kept being really sus about it and telling me not to eat it. He thinks the food there is gross and dirty. But the drinks are good! I’ve had quite a few drinks so I went for a soda with bitters. We applauded Alana, who is the cast member making her Broadway debut. She is also my personal favorite part of the show and got applause as she walked off stage in the first act.
Somehow, the glass in the door onstage (as part of the set) totally shattered during the second act. It didn’t make a loud noise or anything so people probably didn’t notice. But it was kinda funny to me.
Big takeaways: I’ll probably never see a show during previews again. Everything is so fresh and new and I can imagine that this show will be wildly better in like as little as a week. Maybe it was just this director, but this process was very quiet and chill, not loud and yelly. That’s just what college kids do to feel something.
Last night I got to make my Playbill debut! I am listed in the staff page at the back :) Feeling grateful.
You’re awesome! Baby gabby would be sooooo proud