Even though the weather wasn’t great it was still a lot of fun going on this scavenger hunt. One thing that surprised me doing this assignment was that even though I’ve taken a few classes that have do with theatre, I tend to think of theatre as pretty much only happening in times square proper. At most like up or down a street or two from 42nd Street, but reading the clues and running around (more than just 2 streets up) to try and find not only theaters but other kinds of places like shops, restaurants and statues really showed me that theatre history is bigger and deeper in New York than I thought before this class or this scavenger hunt.
My favorite find from the scavenger hunt was seeing Sardi’s Restaurant and Grill. Before this class I had never seen it in person even though I live in New York and am in the city often. It was my favorite because it felt really special to be there with all the caricatures that kind of serve as an unofficial hall of fame. Also you always hear stories about how people catch sightings of celebrities in there just a table over, and even though we didn’t go inside just being outside just held a kind of magic. Plus on a more personal note, it’s mentioned in The Producers which is one of my favorite musicals and how many times will I get to actually go to a place that is referenced in a work that I enjoy. Unlike a statue which is in memory of something, a representation. it was like looking back at little piece of history and tradition. Though I tend to be shy and didn’t want to have to ask strangers for directions and didn’t really know my classmates very well, I liked the whole experience of working with a team to get the right answers quickly and taking pictures with theatre landmarks was fun too, rainy or not, it beat just talking about all these places in the classroom for sure. I did wish we had a little more time to submit just because running down the blocks through tourists and umbrella’s took more time than I thought it would have. I wouldn’t have minded doing more than one scavenger hunt this semester but I’m glad we got to do this one.