Kind of strange... I was a shy little kid, but enjoyed drama in middle school and moved up to a small traveling deaf drama missionary group in high school, but was too shy to try out at my high school drama group. I did try out for "Romeo and Juliet" in college but was rudely rejected by a director who made her entire basis of decision based on the clothes I happened to be wearing and did not watch my performance at ALL (I sign, so in order to "listen," she would have had to actually look at me, which she didn't).
After that I sort of gave up and just focused on school, when my friend decided she needed me as her assistant stage manager, as she had tried out for a role and didn't make it, so the director gave her a stage managing role instead, but since she was new she didn't really know what to do. I really wasn't interested, it didn't sound that interesting, but it was for "only 3 or 4 weeks" so I decided to give it a try.
My responsibilities were mostly centered around the props and cueing the actors backstage (boy did we have a lot of food props for the poor actors to suffer eating every night!!) The play was "Beast on the Moon," and we went to Canada to perform during spring break.
I enjoyed it but was surprised that my hard work got me a job not as a stage manager (for school credit), but a paying job as an.... electrician??? I learned my way around a few lights and color gels (my seniors really liked to put me to work sorting all those color gels!!) but I quit after a few months since I was not learning anything and I was not happy with all the bickering and squabbling between the master electrician and the technical director (who nobody likes).
Later I got an email from the same director I worked with before and he requested that I be his stage manager for "Shape of Things." From that point on, I was hooked, and even started asking different directors if I could stage manager their shows. It eventually got to the point where I was being pulled out of other shows where I was one of two assistant stage managers for the big theatre to go be the stage manager for a smaller play in the lab theatre that lost their stage manager (or in one case, fired).
While I was stage managing (for the first time) "Shape of Things," the co-director asked me if I would go intern for him as a stage manager at Gallaudet University after I graduated. I said yes, but I didn't graduate for 3 more years. Every year, he would come back and ask me when I was going to graduate. Finally, I said, I graduate this year, can I come intern for you?
And that is where I am now.
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Just curious, what are your opinions of the new Mac Air? It looks so thin! I'd love to be able to carry around something that light, but then I worry that it would break if I dropped it (not that other laptops wouldn't also break), or even bumped it. Might be good for simple things (like organization and notes during rehearsal) but not graphic/memory-intensive programs, or that is the impression I get.
