So it’s past midnight – but I had to strike a show today, and I forgot my computer. So, in lieu of a story, I thought I’d do some musing.
Theatre is a profession filled with boredom. When running a show; you are literally doing the same thing every day, or even twice a day. The only time it gets mildly different is if someone massively fucks up, or someone is out for the day and an understudy goes on. Most of the time you have to work very hard to keep yourself from going mad.
Theatre is a profession filled with disappointments. There will always be people younger, more talented, who work harder, are prettier, and better kiss-asses. It’s damned difficult to get a job – and when you do, the pay sucks. Although for the few areas where the pay doesn’t suck – you end up dealing with a lot of perverted grumpy old men – and if you’re a woman, most of the guys don’t really believe you can do the same job, though you may be ten times smarter and can lift more.
Theatre is a profession of long hours and low respect. If you aren’t onstage, you are completely invisible. And everybody is only there on some producer’s whim. Everyone is replaceable. And you never get to have a normal working schedule. Ever. In part because you have to work multiple jobs to keep afloat.
Theatre is a profession of crazy people. Seriously. No one who ever does theatre is sane. Just not possible. A teacher of mine once said that if you could do ANYTHING beside theatre, you should. It’s only the people who can’t do anything else do it for a living.
But for all of that it has its moments. When you get on a show that blows your mind, when the cast is filled with the mostly good kind of crazy, when the shit hits the fan and everyone has to find a way to fix it without the audience realizing it, when everything happens exactly the way it’s supposed to and the moment becomes true art, when a story that will become legend happens: that is when theatre is the best job in the world.
Hi ho the glamorous life.
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