Into the Woods, Then Out of the Woods

Once upon a time...

My roommate and I decided early last week that we wanted to get tickets to Shakespeare in the Park. I did research on how to go about getting tickets, and we decided to go at 9:00 on Tuesday morning to stand in line for the 1:00 distribution. Little did we know that "Into the Woods" and stars like Amy Adams and Donna Murphy draw a rather large crowd, and by the time we arrived, the line was far too long for us to be sure we would get tickets. We didn't want to wait without that assurance, so we went home and decided to try for a date later in the week. Friday was that day.

The night before, we discussed our plan of attack, much like post-Thanksgiving mommies plan how to get Xboxes and iPods on Black Friday. We planned to leave long before sunrise, and my mother worried from 2,000 miles away that I would be murdered on the streets of New York City while I tried to get tickets for a silly play. It turns out, though, that most people who ride the subway at 5:00am are headed to work, and they all looked about as sleepy as I felt. I didn't get pictures of our preliminary line, but you can rest assured that we weren't the only crazy ones who decided to line up on Central Park West before the park even opened. At 6:00, the Shakespeare-line-security-man led us inside, and he designated the queue for all of us stalwart theatre patrons. Simini and I got a cozy place on the dirt, where we would spend the next seven hours waiting for tickets. Yes, I said seven.

At first, time moved rather slowly, and I was glad to catch about a 45 minute nap as I got used to the uncomfortable ground. I nibbled on my snacks and talked with my roommate, and we befriended the group of girls waiting in line behind us. It turns out that you can become pretty good friends with someone when you're forced to spend an entire morning together. By 11:00, we felt pretty good about the task, and I counted down the minutes until we'd have our tickets in hand.

Then, it started raining.

At first, we thought we would get away with just a couple scattered showers. I didn't mind them, because they kept the temperature reasonable. At about 11:30 (mind you, 90 minutes before ticket time), the rain picked up, and in a little under fifteen minutes, I was soaking wet. I neglected to mention that my preparations for the day included anything necessary for spiking my blood sugar, but nothing for keeping me dry. I huddled under my sheet and prayed that the rain would end to no avail. Soaking wet doesn't really describe it accurately. You must remember that I was sitting on the dirt - now mud - and that my sole mission in enjoying/enduring the rain was to keep my purse/phone/book dry. I huddled over the poor thing, wringing out my sheet and trying to brush the mounting dirt-mud off my hands. By the time we were ready to pick up and move toward the box office, I looked like I had just rolled around in the mud. Really pretty.

But, we got the tickets! We ran back to the subway and took the non-air conditioned car back to 125th. I didn't even mind the heat of the underground, because I was so rain-chilled. I even took a hot shower for the first time since arriving here!

For the play, Simini and I met up with our other roommate Molly and my friend Patricia. We had decent seats, and the security lady came and told me that I couldn't take pictures of the set. Boo. It was gorgeous, though, and everything about the evening made up for the less-than-desirable morning. Amy Adams (Baker's wife) was awesome. Donna Murphy (witch), fantastic. The little boy (narrator) was adorable, and Glen Close as the Giant was crazy. We even got to meet up with some of the cast after the show, and Amy Adams was nice enough to take a picture with us! I had such a good time, and I'm glad that everything came together so that I could have an awesome story surrounding my Into the Woods experience. With all the mud and rain, I might as well have traveled into the woods. I'm just glad I didn't meet any wolves. 

The end.