How I Decided To Become A Theatre Techie

You may have noticed my adventures have been scarce recently, that’s mostly because my days and nights for the next few months have been claimed by work and theatre. While work will always be work, it’s been a real challenge to fit stage managing into my life. The daily commute from Arlington to Kensington has been especially tough, I’m not the kind of worker that is strictly 9-5 but I when you factor in traffic, I have a really tight window to get from my office to rehearsals on-time (which for a stage manager should be before the rest of the cast.)

My roommates don’t see me back at the house until 11 PM at night. I check some e-mail, try and get some personal work done but I’m usually exhausted and in bed around midnight. I get up the next morning the and the entire cycle repeats. The days are starting to blur together and it’s tough to realize that we’re already a month into rehearsals. However this is the life I chose to pursue when I decided to get back into theatre, and it’s been a long an weird journey ever since the day I was recruited by TAP to do something I’ve never done before: stage manage.

The Theatre Guild at Chelmsford High had a big following who’s membership included many of my friends. I was already busy being a geek in the TV Club, taping football games and news segments for the student-run news show. The idea of working in theatre didn’t enter my mind until I was in the hall with my friends, all of them signing up for production roles in the CHS Fall Play.

My friend Jimmy was getting audition information and noticed that nobody signed up to be the show’s producer, and urged me to sign up. We thought it would be neat to work on a show together and next thing I know I was thrusted into the job without any clue of what a producer does. If you ask me now I may have half a clue what a producer really does.

However like most things in my life, I took to the job with the enthusiasm and excitement that locked me into the job for the final two years of my high school career. The Theatre Guild has led to many friendships and memories and is arguably the defining experience of my high school life. When I got to Fitchburg State, I tried to get into the theatre scene- but I never felt as comfortable there as I did at CHS. It’s weird to think that something about high school could be the most enjoyable part of my life.

Theatre eventually fell out of my life when my I moved down to DC and three years later I got an e-mail looking for a theatre company looking for not a Producer, but an Assistant Stage Manager. Much like that day in high school, I didn’t have the slightest clue how to stage manage, but the opportunity to get back behind the stage tempted me into trying something new. So I apprenticed on TAP’s production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, excited to be back around the stage.

After Cat I caught the eye of another theatre and was asked to be the Production Stage Manager on what is now, the show that shall not be named. Going from Assistant Stage Manager to full fledged stage manager was a really exciting yet nerve wracking- I now had an idea of what I was supposed to do but like a first-round college Quarterback, I haven’t played in the real game yet. My experience on the show that shall not be name ended up to be a red-shirted season after the show was suddenly canceled.

However I quickly was asked to do another show, and now I’m working on Rocky Horror Show for Kensington Arts Theatre. I’m not into musicals but I heard nothing but great things about the theatre: a place everyone wants to work with in the DC area. So I committed the rest of my summer and fall and belted myself in for weeks of hour long commutes. So far I haven’t been disappointed.

The production is bigger than what I would usually be comfortable working on- bigger casts, bigger numbers, and a really intense rehearsal schedule. However I got an e-mail during work one day from a cast member, subject line: “Drinks Tonight?” I think I made the right decision.

Related posts:

1. What Does It Mean To Be A Professional
2. Extending My Gap Years
3. Why Gen-Y Needs To Learn To Fail (And Why It’s Ok)
4. Off The Tin Roof, Into The Rabbit Hole
5. Cats And Cars