People had warned me that it was hot in New York. Of course, I scoffed and sassily rolled my eyes at the time. How? In New York? All the way at the top of the United States near Canada? Yeah, okay, I’m sure it’s just sweltering beyond comparison to the deep south that is Texas.
…so it turns out all of those people were exactly right, and I was left to eat my words on Thursday at Broadway in Bryant Park. While the show was great (cast members from Chicago and The Phantom of the Opera performed, no complaints here, about that), I had never felt so hot and uncomfortable in my life. Not when I was a camp counselor and spent hours baking in the Wimberley sun, not when I walked clear across campus on a roasting Austin afternoon, and not even when I would tan in my backyard amidst the humid Houston weather.
Alright, so I’m being a tad hyperbolic, but it was hot. So hot that last week was declared a “heat wave” and my building was forced to shut off the laundry machines and one elevator for eight hours out of the day to conserve energy. The kicker? It was only 90 degrees- practically Fall for Texas. The thing is, it didn’t exactly feel like 90 degrees. It sort of, kind of felt like nine hundred. So, as a self-proclaimed Texas girl who laughed off warnings of hot weather and complained about the constant rain throughout June…touché, New York City.
Aside from the unfortunate weather, another hot thing in the city is my internship (okay, okay, cliché, I know…). I can’t stress/exclaim/brag/squeal enough about how much I love Broadway.com, and it’s because they give me amazing opportunities like THIS. Last week I was tasked with going out in Times Square and shooting a “man on the street” poll- which essentially is when a reporter asks a bunch of random people a question and then edits all of the answers together. We decided to have some fun with it, so we asked pedestrians (and alleged Broadway fans), to fill in the blank of popular (or, as I realized, not so popular) show tunes. Filming a stand up, approaching tourists in Times Square and reporting in my own video for a website I constantly check and admire was dreamlike, and it was even more unbelievable to see it posted to the front page of the site. I absolutely love what I’ve been able to do here over the summer, and it’s incredible to see my hard work paying off as I continue to learn and create content. I think it’s safe to say I have the best internship ever (nope, don’t dispute, I’m right…).
The countdown of my time left in NYC continues, and with only two and a half more weeks it’s starting to feel surreal. As much as I miss home and am looking forward to (gasp) senior year of college, it feels like a few days ago I was walking away from my Broadway.com interview, nervous and excited and anxious about spending the summer in the city. But, before I get sappy and reflect on how unreal my summer has been (I’m saving that for my last post of the summer…get ready), I still have a lot to look forward to within these next few weeks. Of course I still have (at least) two Broadway shows on my bucket list; the new musical comedy First Date and the ever-popular and much-hyped Kinky Boots, and I’m hoping to squeeze Motown and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike in there somewhere.
Oh, and I’ve found a solution to the whole “I’m going to film a video blog every week…scratch that every few weeks…wait, no I’m so busy…why are there no videos?!?” situation. Look for a summer’s end recap of everything I’ve done on camera following my promised sappy end-of-summer post in a couple of weeks! I can feel your excitement.
-Wendi
You Know When It's Reel 