I made my broadway debut today ; )
And I'm not making this up. I, Ashley Graham, having no distinguishable performing talent, was a character in a tony-award winning show.
Ok. So it wasn't THAT big of a deal. But, it was exciting, at least for me.... HERE'S THE STORY...
So Lara and I decide that we're going to see Wicked before we leave. And since we're poor, we decide we're going to achieve this goal via the lottery system. And for those of you not familiar with broadway shows, Wicked is one of the harder ones to get. So we brave the cold for a Saturday matinee. We get there, and there are like 300 other people there. We didn't win. We were disappointed, however we knew we had 2 more months worth of weekends to try. So The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is right beside Wicked. So we decide to do the lottery there. We won that lottery (everyone who showed up did). Now, I didn't know anything about this show (except tammy saw it... but that was it). When we go in, they are asking for "Good Spellers" who want to be in the show. Now.... anyone who knows me knows that I'm a TERRIBLE speller. However, I interview with the guy anyways (I think I told him I was an average speller... which is a lie). They take four people and about 50 or so interviewed for the part. Well... I got it. He said I had a "fun" personality (whatever that means). ANYWAYS, we have a brief orientation and we're told to go back to our seats. They would call us up after the first number. So I sit down, obviously very nervous. And about 7 minutes in, they call us up. I'm sitting in the very front of everything, between two cast members (I should look their names up... but anyone who reads this... all two of you... won't know who they were anyways) And they're really good about grabbing your arms and directing you where to go and getting you involved. I did the cheesy little dances and the pledge of allegiance and whatnot. And then... the spelling bee began. The first three spellers were cast members, so it was nice to see the format. We were told before that we had 2 LINES... First ask for the definition and then ask for a sentence. And don't mix the two up... Anyways, next was the first volunteer. She had the word "jihad" which she spelled like geehod. And I'm thinking "Oh! I know that one! Maybe I won't make a fool of myself!" So I'm next. I go up there, and they tell fake biographical information, which cracked me up. So they give me my word "indigent." So.... I do my first line... which I asked for the sentence... darn it. But they're good and I'm sure I'm not the first person to screw up. Oh well. Laugh that one off. But I was feeling fairly confident of the spelling... so here I go.... I-N-D-I-G-N-A-N-T. Wrong... I correctly spelled A word, just not the correct word. Oh well.. back down to my seat..... Which, works out ok because the other two remaining people had to do this ridiculous dance number.... so yeah. Life is good.
Anyways, thats my broadway debut... go me!!
Ok. So it wasn't THAT big of a deal. But, it was exciting, at least for me.... HERE'S THE STORY...
So Lara and I decide that we're going to see Wicked before we leave. And since we're poor, we decide we're going to achieve this goal via the lottery system. And for those of you not familiar with broadway shows, Wicked is one of the harder ones to get. So we brave the cold for a Saturday matinee. We get there, and there are like 300 other people there. We didn't win. We were disappointed, however we knew we had 2 more months worth of weekends to try. So The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is right beside Wicked. So we decide to do the lottery there. We won that lottery (everyone who showed up did). Now, I didn't know anything about this show (except tammy saw it... but that was it). When we go in, they are asking for "Good Spellers" who want to be in the show. Now.... anyone who knows me knows that I'm a TERRIBLE speller. However, I interview with the guy anyways (I think I told him I was an average speller... which is a lie). They take four people and about 50 or so interviewed for the part. Well... I got it. He said I had a "fun" personality (whatever that means). ANYWAYS, we have a brief orientation and we're told to go back to our seats. They would call us up after the first number. So I sit down, obviously very nervous. And about 7 minutes in, they call us up. I'm sitting in the very front of everything, between two cast members (I should look their names up... but anyone who reads this... all two of you... won't know who they were anyways) And they're really good about grabbing your arms and directing you where to go and getting you involved. I did the cheesy little dances and the pledge of allegiance and whatnot. And then... the spelling bee began. The first three spellers were cast members, so it was nice to see the format. We were told before that we had 2 LINES... First ask for the definition and then ask for a sentence. And don't mix the two up... Anyways, next was the first volunteer. She had the word "jihad" which she spelled like geehod. And I'm thinking "Oh! I know that one! Maybe I won't make a fool of myself!" So I'm next. I go up there, and they tell fake biographical information, which cracked me up. So they give me my word "indigent." So.... I do my first line... which I asked for the sentence... darn it. But they're good and I'm sure I'm not the first person to screw up. Oh well. Laugh that one off. But I was feeling fairly confident of the spelling... so here I go.... I-N-D-I-G-N-A-N-T. Wrong... I correctly spelled A word, just not the correct word. Oh well.. back down to my seat..... Which, works out ok because the other two remaining people had to do this ridiculous dance number.... so yeah. Life is good.
Anyways, thats my broadway debut... go me!!