Tag: Theatre

  • Interviewing

    I have been on a handful of interviews this week and last. (Waiting to hear back. No offers yet.) I have written before that I am very anxious about finding work, at least to just help contribute to the family’s finances. I don’t like feeling useless, like I’m not helping out.

    I don’t think I am good at interviewing to begin with. It reminds me so much of auditioning which, out of all the steps in a theatre production, was my least favorite. I remember a professor in college telling me that I need to find a way to love all the steps in the process, to be a well-rounded and to keep my sanity, as it is a tough business.

    On all the interviews I have been on, everyone has been really nice, and no one is pulling any “gotcha” questions to trip me up. I dare even say that they are trying to make me feel as comfortable as possible.

    The issues are all on my end. I need a job and I don’t want to fuck it up.

    Also, talking about myself feels very weird.

    I feel like as a child I was told so many times to be humble, and not conceded, so when I am put in situations where it is expected of me to speak about myself, I find myself clamming up.

    I have been pushing myself to talk more in these situations.

    Trying to think of it as another opportunity to grow and break out of old bad habits.

    Hopefully, it will lead to a job.

  • Power of Rehearsal

    It’s been little over a year since the last time I was in rehearsal for a show. Currently, I am working on a puppet show which I had worked on four years ago. It’s getting remounted and we are taking it on the road for a week. The last two nights in rehearsal, we had the original choreographer with us, and he and the director decided that the puppets needed a new dance, and it’s great. But it was demanding,  hard work. (The puppets are ¾ life size, it takes three people to work one of them, and we have a new person on our team, who is great, but it still takes a little time to get into a rhythm together.) And we have more of it tonight… And I can’t wait.

    This is the stuff that I really love to do, so there really is no surprise that I am excited about it. What does help is that my job recently has become so unenjoyable, that anything that is enjoyable, thusly becomes magnified by infinity! I can’t help but compare the two, for I have to sit through one to get to the other.

    A few points have been hammered home to me this week. One, don’t get good at something you don’t like doing, and that would be my current job. A professor of mine from college said that to me right before I graduated. I keep forgetting this advice, but he has been right every time I take a job to get ahead. Second, since I am over 40 and a pessimist, I had this weird feeling that there could be a chance that this might be my last puppet show. This presumably negative thought has given me a wonderful feeling of being at peace in the rehearsal process, and also made me very grateful for the people I am working with. Third, I remembered the importance of looking forward to something, or as my Grandmother would say, having a goal. Getting up with a purpose in the morning has been wonderful, and I think has made me into a happier person. I want to get at the day.

    It has been a great two weeks, and I only have a week and a half left. I at least know that you should appreciate when you are in a place that gives you unabashed happiness.