Get Involved in the Future

Every year for the past 13 years I have been involved in a great organization. I am sure many of you are involved in it as well. It is the International Thespian Society. I have been a member since my freshman year in high school, and for the past 7 years I have taught at the Missouri Thespian Conference.

I started out teaching Stage Management, and then it grew to adding a “life in theatre” workshop and a producing workshop where students form groups and produce shows to see if they can recoup. I try and make sure I can attend every year for a couple of reasons. First, this is the organization that helped me fall in love with theatre and actually where I first met Peter Sargent from Webster University. So I like to give back and teach other students about the art that I love. Secondly, I get to see a lot of great people and make friends. The staff that puts this together is great about caring for the guest artists and making us feel at home. They take us to dinner the last night and we get to catch up with all of them, and I am happy to say I have made many great friends.

There are many reasons why I go, but the most important to me is to get a glimpse into the future of theatre. These students will take our place in college and in the profession, and it is neat to watch them grow. I get several students who come take my workshops every year, and most of them have gone on to college to study theatre. It is nice to see what they are up to, and every once in a while I get a note thanking me for my workshop. Almost every state has a Thespian Conference, and there is a National Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska every summer. If you are a theatre professional, I encourage you to reach out to a local group and get involved.

Catch Up WithThese People

Recently my favorite Director / Choreographer team joined up for a new production, Catch Me If You Can. It is a musical adaption of the movie that started Tom Hanks.

Who is that team? Jack O'Brien and Jerry Mitchell. I was thinking back to why they are my favorite, and when I first started to follow them. I actually learned about them from a report I had to write about them in college. Yes, it was just a one-page summary on each of them, but it made me learn who they are and taught me a lesson about how important it is to know people before you “know” them.


Peter Sargent made us write those one-page reports in Lighting Design class. We were assigned people in whom I assumed we might have interest one day. Well, I can’t tell you how many times Jack and Jerry (I say that like we are friends0 have come up in conversations over the years.


Knowing people in the business is so important. I always ask how many students know who Cameron Mackintosh is when I teach at the Missouri State Thespian Conference. I have learned to not be shocked when no one raises a hand.


I encourage you all to poke around the Internet Broadway Database and learn the names of the greats and see what they have worked on. It will make you a better student of our business.

Get Paid What You Are Worth

The other day I ran into someone who had been promoted in a job with a fairly large company. When I heard what she was making I about died. She was paid litterly double what the intern was making and yet she had the title Manager in her title. I won’t tell you what the rate was but is not livable in the DC area. I made me think back to some advice my good friend Jenni Bowman once gave.

“Ask for more money. Always. Unless you honestly feel excited about what they tell you they'll pay you. Make yourself a realistic budget and then do jobs that will pay you enough to live. If you do this you'll make more money faster.”

That was a quote she gave me to share with my Thespian Students at the MO State Thespian Conference. Jenni is so right. Make a reasonable budget for yourself and decide what you need to live. If you can’t make at least that much then you shouldn’t take the job unless you can find ways of other income while holding that job.

Ask if you are on the same playing field as people in other departments with the same type of job. That is a fair question and it is fair that you are within 2-5k of those people. We are work in theatre because we love it. But we already get paid below other industries so I encourage you to look hard at the salary and make sure you have enough to live.

Networking 2.1

It surprises me how many people build their networks, just to let them deteriorate. One of the keys to having a great network is following up and staying in touch.

My assistant makes fun of me the day after a networking event because I spend an hour that morning writing cards. Nothing major, just little notes to follow up on conversations I had with people. This is one of the ways following up makes a difference. Only about 1 out of 10 of those cards leads to a working relationship, but I still follow up because the numbers, however small, start to add up.

Another thing people forget to do is stay in touch. This means with past employers, former teachers, and classmates. I try to not let 6 months go by without talking to the key people in my network. This could be a dinner if we are in town or just an email to see what they are up too. And let’s not even get started on Christmas cards.

I am lucky enough to attend the Missouri State Thespian conference every year as a presenter. I always arrive 24 hours before the conference. Why? Because this is where I went to school and worked before moving out east. I start my day at the Fox Theatre where I see old friends and my former boss. Then I am off to Webster to see some of my former professors, and while I am there I stop by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis to see everyone. Then, in the evening, I catch up with other presenters at the conference. It is a very busy day, but it so valuable to me. It keeps me connected to several people from four different organizations. That is why I take an extra day off of work.

Passion

You knew it was coming. Passion! You hear it all the time in this business. When I was in the CTI 14-week program, it became a running joke because every week a new producer came in and almost always drifted toward the topic of “passion.” Well, guess what? They were right.

In this business, you can’t get rich quick. In fact, very few of us get rich in this business at all. We do it because we love it. If you don’t LOVE it, then you should save yourself a lot of time and energy and do something you do love. Yes, there are days when I wish I had a normal 9 to 5 job, but most days I am truly excited about coming to work and excited about what I do. When you are deciding what you really want to do (it could be which show you produce or what to study in school), follow your heart. If you really love it, then go for it, and don’t let anything or anyone hold you back. People told me I was not good enough to get into Webster and told me I shouldn’t move to D,C. Well, those have turned out to be two of the best decisions for my career.

Back in Missouri, there are several “mega churches” where I grew up. I always wondered how they became so successful. The answer is the leaders of those churches are passionate about what they do, and they get very passionate followers. They continue to grow and grow. Theatre, like religion, is full of very passionate people. Take the passion of the late Gilbert and Jaylee Mead.

“Gilbert and Jaylee are perhaps the single largest individual supporters of the performing arts in the greater D.C. region; privately and through their family foundation, they have given more than $50 million to theaters in the Washington region. The couple was awarded the ‘Patron of the Arts’ award from the Cultural Alliance, the Washington Post Award for distinguished community service in 1996, and the Mayor’s Arts Award for service to the arts in 1998. They were Washingtonians of the Year in 1999” (Source: Arena Stage website).