The Congressional Black Caucus
As many of you know, Catalogue of Ships is not my full time job (even though those of you CLICKING ON OUR ADS are helping tremendously cover some of my expenses in putting this together every week...). I make money by doing various things involving audio. Primarily I work in theatre as a composer and sound designer. Currently, I am at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington D.C. working on the premier of a revised version of Bridget Carpenter's play The Faculty Room.
Woolly has a relatively new theatre, which is beautiful, (though acoustically nightmarish). But one cool thing about being a beautiful space in Washington D.C. is that big important people come to it sometimes. Last night was the designer run of the show. For those of you not in theatre, this is a full run of the play where the four major design areas (set, lights, costumes, and sound) attend to see what the actors and director have been doing so that we can adjust our various designs accordingly to satisfy any new aesthetic or practical considerations before we begin to add the design to the production.
Anyway, while we were in the rehearsal room, right outside the Congressional Black Caucaus was having an event. Forty Three influential members of congress (including maybe even Illinois' own Barak Obama? and they told me the Mayor was there too!) were right outside! I thought it was really cool and exciting, but everyone else was completely blah about the whole thing.
I bike to the theatre, and when I was leaving, I was really worried about walking my bike through this prestigious event, so I plotted a route of the theatre that would be as unobtrusive as possible. I checked with my friend thehouse manager audience services manager (since I now know you read this, I guess I should get your title correct) to make sure it was ok, and she looked at me like I was crazy. As far as she was concerned, I probably could have been wearing nothing but spandex shorts and held the bike over my head as I walked right by the buffet.
Sure I grew up in the D.C. area, and even went to a prep school with all sorts of political luminary's children, but I still get excited by stuff like this, and I'm shocked and, I guess, impressed, at how cool other people can be about being around these guys. But I guess running into congressmen is probably a pretty typical experience for people who work in a theatre less than a mile from Capital HIll.
Woolly has a relatively new theatre, which is beautiful, (though acoustically nightmarish). But one cool thing about being a beautiful space in Washington D.C. is that big important people come to it sometimes. Last night was the designer run of the show. For those of you not in theatre, this is a full run of the play where the four major design areas (set, lights, costumes, and sound) attend to see what the actors and director have been doing so that we can adjust our various designs accordingly to satisfy any new aesthetic or practical considerations before we begin to add the design to the production.
Anyway, while we were in the rehearsal room, right outside the Congressional Black Caucaus was having an event. Forty Three influential members of congress (including maybe even Illinois' own Barak Obama? and they told me the Mayor was there too!) were right outside! I thought it was really cool and exciting, but everyone else was completely blah about the whole thing.
I bike to the theatre, and when I was leaving, I was really worried about walking my bike through this prestigious event, so I plotted a route of the theatre that would be as unobtrusive as possible. I checked with my friend the
Sure I grew up in the D.C. area, and even went to a prep school with all sorts of political luminary's children, but I still get excited by stuff like this, and I'm shocked and, I guess, impressed, at how cool other people can be about being around these guys. But I guess running into congressmen is probably a pretty typical experience for people who work in a theatre less than a mile from Capital HIll.
7 Comments:
I was waiting outside for Michael in my car at the time and I probably almost ran over the mayor or some other luminary while trying to flip a bitch and grab a great parking space.
Moral of the story: I care about influential politicians, but not as much as finding a parking space when I've been circling 7th and D for 45 minutes.
Addendum: Obama, really? Wow.
As the Audience Services Manager (and friend), I'm intrigued to hear that when Michael thinks of me, I'm apparently picturing him in spandex shorts.
Hm... I said you wouldn't CARE if I were in spandex shorts. You're going to get me in trouble with Gibson
:)
I'm sorry, I was distracted at the first mention of "spandex shorts"...
I'm sure Gibson will second me that none of us want to see you running around the building in nothing but spandex shorts. :)
hm... I'll keep that in mind.
DC, huh? Welcome!
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