Topics

1

Employment / Post-graduation time off?

« on: Mar 24, 2009, 11:50 pm »

I am about to graduate college and am currently looking for work in theater (and completely freaking out about this fact).  But, I'm also looking at alternative options, such as teaching abroad for the next year or so.

Would it be harder for me to get jobs if I don't immediately jump into the professional theater world right out of college?  Or would most employers understand a gap in my resume, especially considering the current economic situation? (Let's play the sweeping generalizations game!)

2

College and Graduate Studies / Class SM Problems

« on: Feb 26, 2007, 01:42 pm »

This semester I'm taking a class that's a new experiment being done by one of the theater professors and a foreign language professor.  As a class, we are to put on a production of Bertolt Brecht's "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" that incorporates some sections in German, as well as incorporating 16 high school students into both tech and performance aspects.  The class meets twice a week, from 9:30-10:45, and we're supposed to be ready to perform at local high schools by April 3.  However, the whole thing has been nothing but problems.

The high school we are supposed to be working with has been mostly cut out of the loop by the professors, and is ready to drop out entirely.  (The HS actors were also promised major acting roles and to work with the theater professor -- instead they were all assigned bit parts, most of them without any lines at all, and the professor has not been back since auditions.) We were supposed to go as a class to the HS for a couple of rehearsals, but the professors did not leave any time for that in the schedule until the week before we perform.  I was assigned the role of stage manager, but as it is a class I have no idea how much room I have to act -- can I tell the professors that they need to stop chit-chatting and start rehearsal?  can I ask the actors to get together outside of class?  do I get to give tasks to my ASMs, or is that up to the professors?  do I have to get all outside rehearsals approved by the professor, or can we hold one under the assistant directors?  And instead of answering me, they've been giving me the run-around.

Obviously, I'm partly posting this to just vent my frustrations.  But I'm also wondering if anyone else has encountered a class with a similar structure, with the purpose of co-operating with an outside group to put on performances for the community?  If any of you do, have you got any advice for me?  Right now I'm just trying to bolster communication, which has been a serious problem thusfar, and keep my ASM from breaking down.  (She's been the main go-between for the HS and our class, and has somehow become the whipping girl for the theater professor to focus on.)  Any advice would be EXTREMELY welcome.