Hi Everyone,
I have been reading this topic (and the similar one) for some time now and am starting to worry that I am in the minority of stage managers. What I mean is...
I have been stage managing for awhile, I like to think I'm pretty good at it, I'm AEA and haven't been out of work since I left college. I have done theatre, opera, dance, and corporates. But I am a stage manager from the time I enter the the theatre to the time I leave (that isn't to say I don't work at home, like we all have to, it's a metaphorical statement). I have never had trouble with directions, lingo, or procedure in the real world vs. the theatre, and I make it a point not to "stage manage" anything I don't need to.
Stage Management gives you many valuable skills, I just never really use them outside the theatre. In a theatre, I can bulid and repair scenery, at home I can barely put my new DVD shelf together. At Work I can hem pants in an emergency, at home I've discolored more then one t-shirt in the laundry. I can work with and track complicated budgets really well, I'm not even sure where my home check book is. And I'm really ok with all this.
We have a hard, sometimes frustrating and nerve-racking job. Though it can be amazingly rewarding, I don't need constant reminders of it, the 3-4 resumes a week I send out usually are enough to do that. The SMNetwork and the trade magazines is about as work related on my off time as I get.
But that's just me, anybody else?