My Life in Theatre

I'm a stage manager. I work almost every day, but I don't exactly have a "job," per se. I sub on a few shows, on Broadway and Off-, and I'm often doing other events or short shows like workshops and such. I much prefer going to the same place every day and having some kind of consistent experience, but as long as I make a living I guess it's OK. It just leads to a really long answer when people say, "So what are you working on?"

I generally don't know what I'm doing two days from now. I don't even attempt to remember, because it's never a predictable schedule. My Treo 650 runs my entire life. I honestly wouldn't know where to go tomorrow. That's why multiple backups are important. A lot of times I don't know where I'm going to be in two days because I actually don't have anything booked. Sometimes my schedule fills up really fast and I have to turn stuff down, and other times I'll find myself sitting at home for days on end, or getting a call at 10AM to come in at 12:30 for a matinée. I get frustrated when I go more than a few weeks without a day off, but then when I have them I tend to think of them as "days I am lacking employment" rather than something earned. This is another reason I like having a steady show that pays me a living wage -- I get one day off a week, and I don't have to feel guilty if I don't book other work on that day.

Last fall I worked in an office for the first time in my life, as the production coordinator for the musical Bingo in Ft. Lauderdale. It was fun at first having a desk and my own phone extension and stuff, but the whole office existence is not really for me -- especially the getting up at 8AM every day! I worked in the general management office, where my job was really more like long-distance stage management, except without the fun parts of actually doing the show, or getting to go to Florida. I fell in love with the show while doing the Off-Broadway production, and it was great to see it expanding across the country, and to work with many of the same people again. I recently did a little bit of part-time work on the Chicago production, which is currently in previews at the Apollo Theatre.

I have a number of things in the works for the next few months, so many in fact that I'm not really sure which will end up working out, but it should result in a few "real" jobs, which will be nice.