kaydeefalls: theater as viewed from the wings (i live on the stage)
[personal profile] kaydeefalls
I have to watch Sleepy Hollow because of my stupid recaps for the RL blog, but man, I really don't want to. Tumblr already spoiled me for last night's ep. DO NOT WANT. :(

Also, why oh why did I volunteer to pinch hit for Secret Mutant? I have five days to come up with some kind of fic and my brain is totally blank. All I want is to keep ripping apart my Steve/Bucky fic and then actually finish the damn thing. UGH WRITING. Anyway, have a meme.


[personal profile] theladyscribe asked: How did you get into the theatre business and if you do decide on a career change, what sort of change are you thinking?

Theater...just kind of happened? I mean, obviously I made a conscious decision at some point to do this weird thing with my life, but I'm not sure exactly when that happened. I've always loved seeing theatre, and my parents started taking me to Broadway shows when I was seven or eight. I always loved acting in school plays in elementary school, and then I started performing with a children's theater company in middle and high school. (The same one I recently ended my employment with, actually.) But by high school, I was smart enough to know that while acting was fun, I wasn't good enough at it to pursue it as a career. Still wound up majoring in Theater & Performance Studies in college, though, where I focused on directing, and I got internships at various theaters around Chicago every summer. My first professional credit was as assistant to the director on a production of Oklahoma! at a musical theater company in Chicago. And my second gig, also as AD, was at a much smaller theater...which needed a stage manager. The director asked if I could do that. I lied and said yes. "Fake it 'till you make it": words to live by.

So somehow stage management has wound up being the only thing I do. I like it a lot, most of the time! Running shows makes me really happy. But it's not the world's most stable profession, to put it mildly, and I'm almost thirty, and I'm starting to want slightly more reliable employment. And maybe weekends off.

I don't know yet what sort of career to shift into. Definitely would prefer to remain in the theater industry, though I'm not sure how how happy I'd be just doing arts admin. Normal office jobs tend to destroy my soul after a couple of months. This is the plus side of an irregular job -- the shows change up every few months and there's always something new to keep me interested. I get bored too easily when the job stays the same. (Which is a big part of why I have zero interest in working on Broadway, but that's a rant for another time.) Ideally, I guess, I'd transition into arts education somehow -- not as a teacher, but in the education department of a performing arts organization. I do love working with kids, and wouldn't mind bringing theater into classrooms, but I don't want to be a school teacher. So. I don't know, it's a super shitty time to be looking for work in the arts, and I haven't had any luck finding a job that isn't as a stage manager, so who knows. Unemployment is super depressing, guys. :/

Date: 2014-12-03 02:06 am (UTC)
theladyscribe: Silhouette of raised hands and text "rock and roll can save the world" (rock and roll can save the world)
From: [personal profile] theladyscribe
Oh very cool. My little brother is in theater and has been touring with NTC for the last year and a half (with a separate summer gig). He wants to go into directing, with the eventual goal of being a college professor/director. He's been involved in shows since like age twelve, but he frets that he doesn't have enough professional experience to get into an MFA program (he probably has more than enough, but y'know).

The education department of a performing arts organization would probably be a great compromise between desk job and irregular job! Are you set on theater education or would you go for something with visual arts too?

Date: 2014-12-03 08:18 am (UTC)
secondsilk: Scott from Strictly Ballroom, caught at the end of the turn, arms raised. (Default)
From: [personal profile] secondsilk
A friend of my mum's was SM of Australian Ballet for years and left because of the touring. She went into OH&S management for the company. It suited her management and particularity and knowing everything and getting to be bossy without taking her on tour. But she was older than you are when she switch focus.

Date: 2014-12-03 10:55 pm (UTC)
dhampyresa: (Default)
From: [personal profile] dhampyresa
Good luck with finding a new job in the theater industry!

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