Turkeys and Yaks

Somehow amidst all the adventures, the holiday season snuck up on me. I flew back to Ohio for Thanksgiving, and had a wonderful time visiting my family. It was a short trip, but we packed in a lot of fun (like our annual "Flying Feather Four-Miler" run the morning of; the picture is of Rachel and I crossing the finish line together). Rachel regaled us all with stories from her Bhutan trip too (if you haven't checked it out already, take a look at her page on the Bisker wiki; the pictures are wild! And yes, our family does have a wiki. Top THAT!). She brought home some cool trinkets too; some families just have pumpkin pie at thanksgiving... we got prayer flags and yak-hair scarves!

Once I got back to New York, I only had two and a half weeks left at my Manhattan Theatre Club casting internship. After a lot of thought, I'd decided not to stay on with MTC for the entire theatrical season (Sept-May) as originally planned. It was a great experience, and I learned so much about the casting world, but the work hours to pay ratio was wearing me out. I also felt that it was simply too large of an organization for me in the long run. So, despite not having anything else lined up, I went ahead and told them I'd be leaving after the winter break. It was harder than I'd expected; MTC had been a sort of first home for me after landing in New York. But it was the right choice. Of course, right before I flew home for Christmas, I got one last great invite because of MTC (we got a lot of nice comp offers to various shows while I was there). This one was to a private pre-screening of the movie Nine (a film which was based on the Broadway musical Nine, which itself was based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½. Follow that?) at the Crosby Street Hotel Film Club. I found the movie enjoyable, despite its flaws, and was excited to listen to the talk back with director Rob Marshall, of musical-movie Chicago fame. I was even more excited when a surprise guest showed up to join the talk back: the star of the film, Mr. Daniel Day-Lewis himself. Hearing him talk about acting and art and the industry was exactly the send-off I needed. I left for home in high spirits, eager for the challenges 2010 would bring.