Dan Baker gives us an insight into Day Two in New York for the London team on the TS Eliot US/UK Exchange, as things step up a gear...

Another day in New York down, and we're now well and truly into the swing of things.

Firstly, I have to admit that I thought the Metro would be an easy system to navigate like the tube. I was wrong. Spending two hours trying to make a 45 minute journey to our first morning meeting proved that. Not the best start to the day, that.

Anyway, once I had finally negotiated the journey I arrived at the Vineyard Theatre for a panel discussion with the theatre staff - giving us a an insight into what they do and how they work. Interestingly, this was also the morning the Tony Award nominees were announced - which got lots of press coverage, unlike our Olivier Awards - and the Vineyard racked up twelve nominations. With a very excited panel to greet us, they gave us a full insight into the background of the company and exactly what it is they produce - as well as letting us know more about what the New York Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway scene is like.

Following this - and after refuelling on coffee - we returned to the Vineyard for a panel discussion featuring directors, literary managers, representatives of Equity and an entertainment laywer. The discussion was quite interesting, and became quite heated at times - with people being quite passionate, there was much heated debate and at times it became quite uncomfortable viewing. Definitely something we'll remember from the week!

The afternoon saw the producers and some of the directors and writers meet Erik at St Ann's Warehouse - a great versatile venue which presents a lot of UK work. Seeing the space - which is currently hosting Black Watch - was fascinating as it's so incredibly versatile, and represents a great venue to present work on a mid-scale level; with the likes of Frantic Assembly, Kneehigh and National Theatre of Scotland being regular visitors, it's definitely somewhere for British artists to aspire to perform at should they wish to work in the US. Following the meeting, the location presented a great opportunity to have a delicious ice cream underneath the Brooklyn Bridge - with the weather being quite nice, it was a real tourist moment for those of us there!

We then travelled back over to the Vineyard to take in the evening performance of Christopher Shinn's 'Picked' - a show that proved to be quite challenging, and which divided opinions within our group. Personally, I found it to be slightly underwhelming - but it's structure was interesting, and was definitely something London audiences wouldn't be familiar with. The writers in in the group in particular seemed to have strong opinions about what the piece was trying to achieve, and it was great to be able to discuss with them their thoughts - as well as providing more considerations about the piece, it also was nice to get to know the writers and their sensitivities a bit more.

The evening began to draw to a close, with people beginning to go their separate ways; the group I was with ended up in an Irish bar downtown, which was just the right level of tacky to help the evening draw to a close. Then came the journey home - which was a huge challenge as jetlag took over; another battle with the Metro system saw the day end as it began. At least what came between was worth the effort.