Ya gotta get a gimmick...

Hello everyone! I totally did not expect to leave you all hanging for three months! HAPPY NEW YEAR! The last several weeks have been nothing short of an adventure. From being laid off one job, finding ways to survive in the most expensive city in the world without full time employment, taking new steps as a performer, lots of auditions, and starting a new job… I’ve had my share of insanity. Life since my last entry in November has been an absolute rollercoaster and I cannot wait to share these experiences with you all. 

As many of you know, at the time of my last entry I was employed as a box office treasurer at the Westside Theatre in Hells Kitchen. This job was such a wonderful learning experience and a great introduction to the New York theatre scene. Unfortunately one of the shows closed early and unexpectedly caused my position to no longer exist. There I was, laid off, just a few weeks into a new job. Obviously this is just part of the industry. Jobs come and go so quickly. Well, I refused to go back to serving cheesecakes at Juniors (seriously, I just couldn’t). I honestly had no idea what I was going to do. I'm a very optimistic person, but when thrown into an uncertain situation such as this, I tend to panic and stress eat. Not a great combination. 

This is where my short career as a temp began. I was lucky enough to be hired through a temp agency based out of NYC that has an extensive client list. The agency sends their employees to various offices and businesses (based on their skill-set) to perform whatever tasks the client needed. Though this is definitely not a path I saw myself going down, I knew it would pay the bills and keep me employed so I jumped in and got to work. I mostly worked reception jobs at offices around the city such as Venmo, Tommy Hilfiger, L’Oreal, Equinox Corporate, and Meetup. Some jobs lasted a day, some an entire week. I also worked a booth at Chelsea market, packed boxes for Dolce and Gabbana, and a coat check or two. I got myself into so many ridiculous situations. I literally never knew what kind of environment I would be in until I got to the business. Though I was fortunate enough to have a job, the work was not always consistent and there were several days in a row where I wouldn’t work at all. For a young actor living in New York, this was absolutely terrifying. I’m not going to lie, this was incredibly difficult. Not only was I not at home for the holidays, I never knew when I was going to work next or if I would. Though this seemed like an ideal situation at first (many actors work as temps in between jobs) I knew this was not working for me and quickly started applying for anything and everything I was qualified for.

Luckily, I FOUND ONE! I was recently hired as an editor for BroadwayWorld, one of the major online theatre news sites! I will mostly be covering stories involving film/tv/music that relate to theatre. I work completely from my laptop, which is incredible. I can take work to a coffee shop, café, the park, or never leave my bed! Everyone I work with is great and I am so excited to jump in. I just finished training this week so I will no longer be temping (WOO!) and will be working as a theatre news editor full time! I am so thankful for this opportunity and cannot wait to combine all of the skills I’ve learned over the years for this position. I’ll be sharing some articles on social media soon so be on the lookout! I'm also working part time (mostly evenings and weekends) on the studio staff at TheatreWorks USA/Chelsea Studios! It's just a few hours a week and a great way to make some extra cash.

I’ve been so lucky to have some of my very best friends (Madison, Daniel, Brianna), and my Mom, come to visit throughout the holiday season! I was only able to go home for three days so it was wonderful to have so many loved ones keep me company during this freezing New York winter!  (Though it’s been just as cold at home!) Also, one of my very best friends (Evan) recently moved to the city so I’ve been helping him get adjusted as much as I can (not that he’s needed it- he’s a pro!) It’s so wonderful to have another friend from home living in the Big Apple! He, Rebekah Wall, and I spent several years performing in community theatre productions together and I am so glad we have all made it to NYC! It was also so great to see some more CharACTers friends in NYC last week! Thank you Emmalie, Ramsey, Sunshine, Ensley, and Laurellei for the fun dinners and hugs! It was so great to spend some time with you all! It’s always so very special to have friends from home to keep you grounded and lift you up when you’re down… especially in a city like New York.

Since many of you may not be aware, audition season begins shortly after the New Year! Audition season is a magical time when theatre companies, cruise ships, talent agencies, and theme park representatives all travel to NYC to hold auditions for performance opportunities around the world. Musical theatre performers are in demand all over the place, not just New York. There is SO much more to the performance world than Broadway. Regional theatres across the country contract actors from out of town to perform for their year-round seasons, summer stock shows, and cabarets. There are jobs all over! The plus side to living in New York is that so many of these companies are looking to hire actors from their auditions held in NYC so actors here have a major advantage. Not to mention lots of NYC based companies also hold auditions during this time. It’s the craziest time of year for an aspiring actor. You’ve got to stay in good health and always be ready to audition. I carry my audition book along with extra headshots in my bag at all times! You never know when an audition will open up or who you’ll run into on the train! Many Broadway auditions are difficult to get into unless you’re a member of Actors Equity so many young actors rely on regional gigs to get them their equity cards, or the contacts to land them their next job. An actor never stops thinking about what is next. (Kind of like my life when I was working as a temp.) Audition season has really started to pick up the past few weeks. Recently I’ve auditioned for big shot jobs such as The Book of Mormon on Broadway and small cabaret shows downtown. No matter the size of the audition or for what job it is, almost every audition experience is the same. There are always people annoyingly warming up in the hall, fidgeting nervously, belting in the holding room, it’s all very old hat at this point. I do enjoy learning something new each time and pushing myself to be better with each audition. If you can’t push yourself to be better and break down boundaries, no one else will.

There are two quick audition stories I want to share:

I recently had an audition for a Singers Showcase cabaret.  A small production company is producing the cabaret and at a famous downtown cabaret spot and I’m always looking for a performance opportunity. The audition went very well, the producer was wonderfully kind, and I am so excited to say that I BOOKED IT! I’m thrilled! I’ll be singing two really great musical theatre numbers this coming Wednesday evening at “Singers Showcase” presented by PLP Productions at the Duplex in the West Village. (Barbra Streisand once performed there… though it was way before she was famous, it’s still a big deal to me!) A few talent agency representatives will be there so I’m super excited to take the stage and enjoy every second of my first performance opportunity in the city!

I also recently auditioned for a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which is a show I would be absolutely perfect for. Long story short, the show features 6 hilarious kids (played by adults) who are participating in a spelling bee and throughout the show, the audience learns about their interesting home lives, personalities, and spelling techniques. It’s a hoot of a show written by William Finn (one of my favorite musical theatre composers) so I submitted for the audition and luckily got an audition appointment. The show is being produced by 5th Floor Theatre company downtown so it would also be a performance opportunity in the city! I auditioned this past Tuesday evening and gave it my absolute best. I got an email the next morning saying I have been called back to read and sing from the show, which thrilled me! I had the callback on Thursday evening and it could not have gone better. I sang it well, acted the heck out of the scene, and really gave it my all. I left feeling super confident and proud of myself for not holding back. The next day, I got the dreaded “We’re sorry, unfortunately we will not be casting you…” email. TALK ABOUT AN UPSET. I obviously had to pout for a bit, but I was so proud of myself for the work that I did. Sometimes your best is just not what they’re looking for. This is the absolute hardest part of the business. You can sing it the best, you can give your all in the scene and really connect with your scene partner, you can fit the part both physically and emotionally, and still not be what they were looking for. I don’t think anyone who isn’t in this industry truly understands how difficult the constant rejection can be. However the most exciting part about rejection is knowing that the biggest adventure of your life can be waiting for you around the corner! So ya gotta keep going am I right!? Who knows what is waiting for you behind the door? You have to accept the closing of one door and kick open the next. That’s the actor life y’all... this is the path we’ve chosen. But you have to truly love it to stay with it and I know that this work will pay off one day. Just give me some time… you’ll see.

As for the next few weeks, I'm going to buckle down and put a lot of work into this new job. It's already a great fit into my life and my schedule so I want to be as good at it as I can. I'm going to continue to audition and work on my craft, maybe even start developing my own cabaret show! I have a lot of really interesting ideas I'd love to play with and put in front of an audience so that could be a potential endeavor. I definitely want to begin blogging more because it's very therapeutic to get all of this out! Even if my mom is the only one who reads this! (If you read this, feel free to annoy me until I post again!) I'm so excited for my Mom to come back in two weeks, we're seeing Hello Dolly with Bernadette Peters AND Hamilton so definitely expect a post about those two shows because I will most definitely have a lot to say! I'm not sure when I'll be coming back home but it may be within the next month or two so I will definitely plan it out and make sure I can see as many of you as possible. I miss everyone so so much! How has it already been 6 months?! I swear it feels like 6 minutes but also 6 centuries... I'll definitely be writing more in the upcoming weeks! I hope everyone's New Year is off to a grand start! As always, feel free to reach out if you want me to elaborate on any of these crazy adventures or if you just wanna say hey! My inbox is always open! Much love! 

-Macon