An eleven day trip to the Big Apple.

As much as I talk about hating New York City, I always end up back there. I have to go every August for the theater I work at, as we have a Short Play Festival that’s pretty popular—popular as in we can decently fill our house of forty-something seats.

Anyways, this time I planned on going for a shorter time than usual because I moan about how much I hate the city and have nothing to do except eat, but I ended up booking eleven days in search of something to fill the time when I had to work with my internship. I work at the Smithsonian Enterprises’ publications department for two full days a week 9-5, so I knew I was going to be missing time in the city and booked a longer stay.

When I was with my friend in Times Square after seeing Rocky aur Rani, she said that this must basically be a second home for me at this point. It didn’t click with me at that point, but she was right. I get around New York without a map and am more familiar with it than the streets of Baltimore, whose suburbs I grew up in.

I might hate New York and its prices, but after spending college there and coming up for work so often, it’s become a second home of sorts for me. If you want to read more about my escapades in the city and elsewhere, I have a travel section on this blog.

Anyways, enough with the sappiness. Let’s get into what I did during this trip!

Lots of Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway Shows

Because I end up in New York so often, one of the biggest ways I fill my time in the city is going to shows. I work at a theater during production, so I end up seeing six short plays (thirty minute each) as the base of what I’m going to do throughout the week.

This time I booked five shows in advance, and ended up volunteer ushering at another and getting the chance to see it for free. Here’s the rundown of what I saw! All the full reviews are up on the blog as well.

Sweeney Todd. I saw this second to last row and paid about $100 for my seat. I wouldn’t pay more for it, I thought the view was perfect from second to last row balcony. I was dead center and didn’t miss a thing. Annaleigh Ashford was worth the price of the ticket, but I thought this production was a little overhyped.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I saw this with my sister, and we both agreed overpriced and overhyped. We had last row seats in the dead center and these, too, were good seats for the price. The show was just okay, though.
The Doctor at Park Avenue Armory. I’m an Icke fangirl of sorts at this point, so got tickets through TDF. I had amazing seats because of it, but I thought the play was provocative, but not my favorite.
Flex at Lincoln Center Theatre. I had the code for $30 tickets and saw the show on WNBA night. I thought the play was well done, although it leaned into specific archetypes a little too much for my taste. Definitely recommend this one if it ever plays at a regional theater again!
Shucked. This was my TDF purchase that was completely unplanned, but I needed something to laugh at. It was definitely the dumbest show I’ve ever seen, but it was a good time. TDF gave me a partial view seat, though.
The Cottage. I ushered at the Hayes before, so I was able to usher and see this show. I thought this was one of my favorite shows this trip, if we’re going to be honest. It’s raunchy, it’s funny, and while it’s not the most thought provoking piece of theater, I definitely enjoyed it. Great acting from everyone.

Getting to My Favorite Art Museums

I always try to hit up the museums when I go to New York. I ended up skipping the MET this trip, although I had planned to go, because I knew I was going to be back in the city in September for the New York Film Festival. But my sister was coming up for the weekend when I was there, so I wanted to show her two of my favorite museums: the Rubin Museum and the MoMA.

We first went to the Rubin, which I used my Smithsonian work connection to get us both in for free. The Rubin isn’t the biggest museum, but it’s plenty of fun. The first few flews explain how to read Buddhist and Himlayan art, specifically the thangkas, and the symbolism behind a lot of the art.

We took our time going up the spiral and seeing what was there, and had a lot of fun playing with the gongs in the Mandala Lab. The highlight of this trip to the Rubin though was the “Death is not the End” exhibit.

I had missed it the last time I was in New York, as it had not opened yet, but it was a blend of Christian and Buddhist thought on what the afterlife was like. It was interesting to compare and contrast the works of art, and there was a section where you could write the name of something you wanted to let go in sand and then let it disappear with a rake.

After the Rubin, we took an uptown train to the MoMA. On a Saturday in August, it was really crowded. I have a MoMA membership, so we got right in, but the galleries were packed. It was the closing week of the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit on some of her early works, so we made sure to hit that up, then I gave my sister a tour of the highlights of the MoMA. She preferred the Rubin, but she also doesn’t like modern art.

There was a day I stopped quickly at the Brooklyn Museum as well, since I always stay near there. I ended up stopping mainly for the Picasso is problematic exhibit, which I was delighted at. Seeing the Guerrilla Girls and feminist work is straight up my alley. I then headed up to the Islamic Art section, which I had never seen before at the BM. I took pictures and examined the Iranian art, then headed to work that day.

Catching Up with Old & New Friends & Some Shopping

Some of my most beloved friends are in New York, so I always try to carve out some time for them. With my friend Sarah, we ended up meeting a total of three times across the week. The highlight for me was when she gave me a small tour of Long Island City in Queens; we ended up getting dinner at Sami’s, dessert at Mango Mango, and then hung around the Piers for a bit before parting ways.

We had started the day at the new Qahwah House location in the Village, which was a perfect way to begin. Another big moment for our time together this trip was when we ended up seeing the movie Rocky aur Rani at the Times Square AMC.

I got to see my other beloved friend in Queens when I took my sister to Flushing. We chatted over tea and coffee, got our fuchkas, then parted ways for the day. It was nice seeing her briefly, although I couldn’t spend a ton of time with her this trip. I was just so busy!

Besides that, I did some minor damage. At the Community Bookstore in Park Slope I stopped by one day and purchased copies of Kim Hye-soon and Sally Wen Mao’s newest poetry collections.

On my last day I ran to the Drama Bookshop and ended up purchasing three plays, which set me back another $40. I saw they had Sanaz Toosi’s work fresh in from the printers so I knew I had to pick those up while I was there. I always try to support the Drama Bookshop.

Exploring Queens: Flushing, LIC, Jackson Heights

Queens is my favorite borough, and I love to share it with people. With my one friend, she showed me LIC, which was a completely new area for me. The piers were absolutely gorgeous to look at in the middle of the night, and I’m so glad she showed me this neighborhood during this trip. Astoria is definitely next on my bucket list, as there are a ton of Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants I want to go to.

My sister loves Asian food, so I planned an adventure where we trekked out to Flushing on her last day. It’s an hour and a half from where I stay in Brooklyn, but we made the trek on a weekend.

The seven train is packed on those days, and when we stepped out of the subway and onto the Main Street, my sister declared that it seemed just like Asia. We did a food crawl (I’ll have a separate post shortly on the food I ate during my time in New York), and hung around the area.

After that, we headed into Jackson Heights. I wanted to show her how multicultural Queens is, and Jackson Heights is one of my favorite neighborhoods to be in. I specifically wanted her to try the Bangladeshi food trucks that serve fuchka, so with my friend we sat, talked, and ate an entire container of fuchka in one go. Her verdict? She’d definitely go back to Queens.

And, of course, work.

I work in theater, so there were some long days when I was just in the office getting work done. Besides that, I was working remotely at the Smithsonian, so I was staying in Brooklyn and going out during the evenings.

But we work hard and play hard in these parts, as I was also interviewing directors for my freelance writing position as a critic over at MovieWeb. I have to have the money to eat at all these nice places, am I right?

Until next time, New York! Until then, you can follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads to keep track of my adventures.