My story is a little different... I acted in one show in high school, then ran lighting for a second. Fast forward 12 years... the local community theatre was putting on
The Sound of Music. It's my mom's favorite musical, so we decided to audition together. We both made the show in chorus roles, and had a great time. I skipped a few shows, then auditioned for
Annie, and got another chorus role. Decided after that I didn't like the amount of rehearsal time I was having to put in just to be in the chorus. The theatre did
"Seven Brides...", and the stage manager was a 17 year old that I knew, and I ended up helpng out a little bit with building the set, and then watching her run things. I decided if she could do it, so could I. I spoke to the director about SMing for the next show (he changed SM's every show 'cause people just didn't want to keep doing it - something about the time commitment) and he said the job was mine. We are working on our 6th show together, and I love being an SM. I'm about 7 weeks away from getting married, and have a young one on the way, so I don't know that I will ever be able to puruse this as a career, but I do love working in our little theatre, and if that's all I ever do with it, I'm happy.