You Know You're Hopelessly In Love with New York When...

You can't help but smile as you pass by fashionistas and Wall Street bankers and watch their eyebrows disappear into their intricately constructed hairlines as a young man does vocal warm ups - loudly - while walking down 6th Avenue toward Chelsea Studios.

There truly is no other place like this on Earth. Nor is there any better realm in which to reinvent yourself, again and again and again. In the interest of constant progress, I have started this blog to keep track of my crazy experiences as I bust my not inconsiderable bum to get into a Broadway Show.

The Year 2010 was filled with momentous occasions in the life of this Broadway Baby... 

I graduated from a fantastic college that taught me the most lovely, inspirational things about books, music, history, science, and people .... but somehow managed to do almost nothing to prepare my classmates and me for "real life."

I went rogue and decided - after one Acting the Song class - that no career in restaurant management or teaching could compare to the consuming thrill of dancing and performing... at least not yet.

I met some of the best people I know at an intimate NYU summer program called CAP21, and rediscovered how much I love to dance.

I served champagne to Richard Gere, Alec Baldwin - along with most of the cast of Gossip Girl and Sabrina the Teenage Witch - all night long at an Art Auction for the Coalition for the Homeless.

A dancer broke three of my toes right before my final callback to Disney Cruise Lines ... after I had all but accepted the role of swing/singer/dancer ... on a contract in the Mediterranean ::: sigh :::

I served lunch to Wynton Marsalis, drinks to Vanessa Williams, and turned away Tony Bennett at a tiny Upper West Side haven of a restaurant that has changed me for the better, forever.

...

Now that it's 2011, I've resolved to get myself into a show, no ifs and or buts about it. After taking two months off to rest from a significant back and hip injury, I am officially back with a vengeance.

Hopefully my insights and experiences will be of use to any person who finds themselves scrambling for work study positions, worrying about rent money, scampering between Ripley Grier and Pearl Studios on a frigid New York Winter morning, wondering where their character tap shoes have run off to, leafing through Backstage every Thursday (... or wondering what in heaven "Backstage" is), and just generally trying to make it as they work toward one of the loftiest goals out there.

Here's to all of you. This is the most important struggle you will wage your entire lives. Don't give up until you get what you want, and best of all, until you realize that you actually want what you get.

Sending out a lot of love and good karmic vibes,

A Broadway Baby