Messages

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Employment / Re: The importance of on line presence

« on: Mar 12, 2016, 02:18 pm »

I actually have a question related to all this:

So my first + last name combo is literally (and I mean literally) the most generic female name on the planet. It's basically the feminine equivalent of "John Smith," and my middle initial/name is just a continuation of the generic Anglo-ness of it all. So no help there.

As a result, when you search my name, absolutely nothing related to me shows up, because there are 10,000,000 of me out there. So, in terms of making my linkedin/website/general internet presence as memorable and striking as possible... what should I do? Honestly, no one really calls me by my full first name, so should I just use my nickname? It's nothing immature or wacky, just a shortened version of my name, but it feels so... casual... to use my nickname with potential employers and other people I don't know. But I can't deny that I'm so much more searchable that way - I even had to change my facebook name to it because my friends couldn't find me! Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

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Employment / Re: Guaranteed Summer Stock vs. Potential Internships

« on: Mar 12, 2016, 02:03 pm »

Wow thank you guys so much for your speedy replies! I really appreciate it.

KMC, your thought about managing people in an intimate setting is so spot-on. I hadn't thought about it that way, probably since my first ASM gig was me getting thrown in as a last-minute addition to the SM team of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. I think that established "flashy musical with guns and blood FX and intricate fly system work" as my baseline for the type of shows I should be seeking out, and you're so right about developing my skill set on a smaller, lower-stakes scale.

SMAshlee, it is a space I've ASMed in before - the theatre festival actually takes place at my university's theater - and that's actually part of my trepidation in taking the gig. But you're definitely right about about checking in with the scene shop to see if they could use some help - I know the scene shop hours skew toward the morning whereas rehearsal hours are more afternoon/evening, so maybe it could work out. That's the one part of SMing that scares me a bit - I'm enamored with paperwork, hyper-organized, and really good with people, but my shop skills are completely nonexistent. I can sew on a button and mend a seam rip, but if a light breaks, I'm completely useless.

All in all, I think I'm going to take the job. My production management professor thinks I should hold out for the internships, but if I did this show, I could take a media studies class at my university during the first month of the summer before the gig. I'm applying to an interdisciplinary major program in Arts Administration next fall, and need to bulk up the media studies part of my transcript, so I think that would be a great opportunity to do it. And it would be nice to have some paid summer work now so that when I really try to get an internship next summer, I can worry a little less about paid vs. unpaid.

Again, thanks so much for your responses. I'm still very new to all of this, so whenever I see posts like "yeah I casually interned at Arena and Second Stage and Wicked and MTC" from undergrads/grads, I freak out a little bit and feel like I'm way too behind to ever "catch up," so to speak.

3

Employment / Guaranteed Summer Stock vs. Potential Internships

« on: Mar 12, 2016, 01:27 am »

Hello all! I'm in a majorly stressful, time-sensitive bind, and could really use some advice.

So I'm a sophomore in college who just got into stage management this year (but I've always been in love with theatre + planned on working in the theatre industry in some capacity, so I've got a solid knowledge base). I need something to do this summer to build my SM résumé, since it's currently pretty slim.

Here's my problem: I've been spending my entire spring break writing cover letters for internships this summer - some of them definite reaches, and some that my production management professor thinks I have a decent shot at getting. BUT I just got offered an ASM gig for a small regional theatre festival. It's a month of work, $300/week plus overtime, and housing is included. Which is all unquestionably awesome, but I worry that I won't learn very much, since the show is so small (cast of two people) and it would only occupy a month of my entire summer. And while I absolutely welcome every learning opportunity that comes my way, I can't help but wonder if I should be doing better. I have to take the job or decline it by Monday.

Now, I haven't applied for any of the internships yet, since they all have application deadlines in the coming weeks. I really don't know what my chances are like for getting any of them (plus many are unpaid with no housing), so I'm tempted to take the safe bet I currently have, take another academic year to build my overall theatre management/arts administration résumé, and then be really competitive for internships next summer (summer before senior year). But I don't want to miss out on the internship scene if that's something I *should* be doing right now. I don't know exactly what I want to do postgrad, but it will be something in the realm of arts admin, if that helps.

Wow that was a huge amount of context, but I guess my core question is: is it okay to take on some solid, but unprestigious paid work the summer before junior year OR should I really be trying to snag an awesome internship?

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Introductions / *Insert Terrible Adele Pun Here*

« on: Mar 12, 2016, 01:02 am »

Hey guys! I'm a longtime lurker of this board (if a year can be counted as a long time), and I figured it was time to bite the bullet and make myself known.

I'm a sophomore at a large, southern university and I'm pretty new to stage management - I'm a drama major, and when I took my college's production management course last semester, I was absolutely hooked. I've ASMed two shows and one pretty huge event so far, and I haven't set anything on fire yet, so you could say it's going well.

As for introductory trivia, the *gibberish* that seems to make up a lot of the lyrics to Rhianna's new single "Work" isn't gibberish at all - it's actually Jamaican Patois