Ask My Frends -Work / Life Balance

“Ask my friends” continues to be a huge success. Today we have Jennifer Foster who is the Audio / Video Engineer for the sound department at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Jenn is a good friend and a great sound engineer. We have worked together on several productions and I am always impressed with her professionalism and attitude. I throw lots of curve balls to her and she handles them all gracefully and always with a smile which goes along way with not only me but our clients. I asked Jen how working in theatre she balances a work / life balance and why it is important.

“The clock strikes midnight at Sidney Harman Hall. Another show done, and I’m heading home in hopes of engaging in sweet dreams about... that rental event that starts tomorrow at 8am?! And the five projectors that I have to hang from the ceiling in the Forum after that?! Am I going to make it to orchestra rehearsal on time? I don’t know who wants to start their event that early, or who wants projectors hung from the ceiling, but I do know that I continue to work quite a zany schedule while still being able to call that which I have outside the theatre a life all the while trying very hard to maintain my sanity! I’m sure all of us working in the theatre world can fully understand the state of a sleep-deprived prisoner, and while my own sanity comes and goes (as some of my fellow colleagues can confirm), I do somehow manage to keep my life away from the Shakespeare Theatre an actual life.

When I was considering joining the McLean Symphony Orchestra a while back, a fellow theatre friend of mine said to me, “Wow, you’re like a real person!" This made me laugh, of course, but strangely I knew what she meant. How do I do this, you say? How do I balance a crazy work schedule with my personal life without being the next to fly over the cuckoo’s nest? I do owe a lot of my ability to maintain my non-work activities to a great department at work. Without the mutual respect that the five of us in the sound department share, I might not be able to attend Alliance Française events, or run that 8k on St Patty’s Day, or film weddings on Saturdays. We all compromise a little bit to accommodate each others’ personal lives to a certain degree, and we have a boss who is more than happy to see that we are all getting enough time away from work to ensure a more productive group of sound folks. If I have a race I want to run, or a vacation I'd like to take, I can bring it to my boss and we work together to see who’s available to work in my place while I’m out. Similarly, if someone else in the sound department asks for time off, I will step up to take their place while they are out. We work as a team, and are therefore able to properly fulfill our own personal lives.

Now, this is not to say that I get to do everything I would like to do outside of work. There are times when the schedule gets quite hectic and I am not able to get a night off. There are times when events pop up, the schedule changes, and all of a sudden I’m canceling my own plans. It’s in these instances that I am ever grateful to have such considerate groups of individuals outside of my work environment. The people in my amazing young adult group at Messiah UMC are always understanding of group get-togethers or meetings that I have to miss. Likewise, the McLean Symphony conductor has always been accepting of times when I have either had to be late or miss a night of rehearsal. And so the story goes it’s a juggling act, in which I’ve had to become rather skillful.

But why do I do this, you say? Why do I continue such an outrageous balancing act? I suppose the short answer would be that I love it. Despite the craziness of my job, I love the variety of work that I do, the people with whom I work, the atmosphere of the theatre, and the challenge it all presents - hanging projectors and everything! I must admit that I am completely new to the theatre world in my career, and this is the first job that I’ve ever really enjoyed in my career, so I have been motivated to accept the responsibilities it has presented albeit I have to make sacrifices at times. As this is my first theatre job, I have tried hard to maintain my previously “normal” life by continuing the activities that I have enjoyed since the age before I started working crazy nights and early mornings. The good thing about this is that I don’t take my free time for granted. I try to make the most of it while I can. And so, life continues on... I can work in theatre and be a real person all at the same time!”

Results

I have talked about building your brand a lot and not enough about results. If you are going to make it in this business you have to have results. You have to work hard and do it well. You can have all the Facebook friends in the world, but if you are not good at what you do, it won’t matter.

You need to always be improving in your job and pushing for more and better results. That is what will get you truly noticed. Yes, you want to have a network to reach out to, but then you want key people in that network to be your champions. You want to be able to sell yourself, but how much better is it when people do that for you?

I am running into some huge challenges in my position. I have goals that are unreachable and not enough to split my focus as is required. I am currently looking at my time very carefully and making sure I am putting the time to best possible use and looking at my resources to see where I can pass some things off. I also am looking at my goals and trying to come up with out of the box ideas to help get me closer to the goals. It is kind of a running joke that my co-worker Gen and I are always think way out of the box. I have to say that some of those “way out of the box” ideas have really helped.

I am happy to be known as an out of the box thinker. (Don’t forget the monkeys.) I will keep pushing to build my network and expand this blog, but I know my real focus is results. That is what will make you stand out above the rest. Having a great network, personal brand, and, most importantly, getting results.

As I Travel

Today I am traveling so I will be catching up on my blog reading. My favorite blog is the Producers Perspective by Ken Davenport. I suggest you it add it to your favorites and stay up to date with Ken.

http://www.theproducersperspective.com/

Two Weeks Until We March

We are two weeks away from the National Equality March in Washington DC so I wanted to repost this and hope that you all come out for the March. If you can’t make it there are many things happening around the country.

March with Us Posting

I have been waiting for a while to write this post, wondering what the angle was to tie it to theatre. True, the producers of HAIR on Broadway are canceling shows so their cast can come down for the march, but that has been blogged about. Then on Twitter I saw a video Broadway star Sutton Foster had made and I thought, “Perfect.”

The March I am talking about is the National Equality March that will take place in Washington D.C. and all over the nation on October 10th and 11th. This is so important to me. Being a gay man and not having equal rights is more than frustrating. A little more than a year ago I was the best man at my brother's wedding. I was moved by the obvious love and commitment they had for each other. I was so jealous that he had found his soul mate and that they were making that commitment to each other. I don’t want to force anything on a religion, but if a church does (and many do) want to marry a gay or lesbian couple, it should be able to happen. I should have the same rights that my brother has; to marry the person I love no matter what sex they are. On October 11th we will stand and show the nation that we are just as equal. Many minorities have had to fight for their rights, and now it is our turn. I hope you will stand and join our fight for equality.

Enough rambling.

Please watch this 2 minute video.Sutton Foster Video

And if you are in town, there are a lot of great things happening besides the march. There is a great concert at my theatre on the eve of the march titled Music of Hope and Equality . There is also a reading of The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, an Epilogue at the Lincoln Theatre that is FREE presented by Arena Stage on the 12th.

Family

When I was going to high school and I was the stage manager for the first time, my mother wanted me to attend something the same night as I had rehearsal, and I told her I simply couldn’t. Theatre people, like many artists, are so passionate about their work, they often give up so much to make their art. As I went to college my mentor, Peter, always taught us about balance and how important family was. This is why I often talk about a work-life balance on this blog. I am still passionate and sacrifice time with my family and friends sometimes, but I now understand the importance of it.

Last night my grandfather past away. He lived a good life, and I will miss him. If you know you me, once I get past my initial shyness I have a weird but good sense of humor. I owe this to my father and grandfather. In August I saw him and remember laughing at a story he told about when he worked on a turkey farm. I actually recorded these stories the last time I was home and listened to them again last night.

The things I will always remember will be riding around in his pick-up and going to the bank to see my grandmother. She was a teller and would give my brother and me candy. I remember how he would never ride “The Ducks” in Branson because they reminded him of when he served in the military. I will remember that he loved the casinos as much as I did, and I will never forget his smile.