That Good Ole Ragtime!

Wow...what a day!! I'm not even sure where to begin telling you guys about the most wonderful day that I have experienced so far here in New York. Well, why not the beginning?

Woke up pretty early this morning, at about 8ish I want to say. Took a shower, always a wonderful part of the morning, packed up my things (we were moving to a new apartment that afternoon for a week), and had some pop tarts. We left the apartment around 11:45 and met Dr. Professor Bartling at her apartment to head on over to "Ragtime" for the lottery for tickets, which your name had to be submitted for by 12:30pm. This is where the whirlwind of an adventure filled afternoon began.

We got to the Christopher Street Subway station only to learn that that the 1 train was not running. So, we had to "fast walk" our way to the next station, the 14th street one. Just our luck, when we got there, the train had just left. We waited on the platform for about five or so minutes for the next one. At this point it was past twelve and doubt of making it in time to submit our names began to creep the mind.

When the train did finally arrive, we boarded and waited for our stop on 50th street. The thing is, the train seemed to be going extra slow this afternoon, so when we did finally arrive at our stop, we had about five minutes to make it from the station on 50th to the theater on 52nd. We literally sprinted from the subway to theater making it with a minute to spare, no exaggeration.

The eight of us all put our names into the drawing, unfortunately out of the ten or so names drawn, the ones from USF were not, which was actually okay. We still got a discount ticket even though it it WAS the very last row in the theater, but they were actually decent seats.

The show was breathtaking. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me envious, it made me incredibly happy. "Ragtime" was my very first Broadway musical and it did not disappoint in anyway. The singing was phenomenal, the acting made me actually care what happened to these characters and the set and prop usage was spectacular. Oh, and the orchestra and lighting was just amazing. I was literally shaking during the curtain call, once again confirming to myself that this will be what I do with my life. There is nothing else that gives me this feeling and I never want it to leave.

After the show, Mike McGowan, a South Dakota native that Kim knows, took us on a backstage tour. It was so awesome. I was literally speechless. I had so many questions but couldn't find the words to ask them. I was surprised how small the wings were; smaller than the ones at USF for sure. Every big prop item is flown in and out in the wings during the show, so interesting. Mike also introduced us to the leading man, Quentin Earl Darrington. His voice was superb and i felt so honored just to shake the mans hand and to get a photo with him. He is going to win a Tony someday for sure! Also right before we left, we got a photo with Mamie Parris, the lady who played Mother that night. She was so amazing and so petite!

Well, after we got back to our new apartment (which is quite splendid) I just crashed and literally slept for about 12 hours, so I better be caught up on sleep now!!

New York, day 4...wow!!

'Til Tomorrow,

Jordan N.