New Perspective from People-Watching

Recently, the Green Room Bloggers wrote about survival jobs… Let’s consider this a follow-up post!

A few days ago my family stopped to have dinner with me in Los Angeles as they were driving home from a road trip. I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like, and we enjoyed eating, laughing, and talking as we browsed one of my favorite malls in LA, The Grove. I love people watching wherever I go in LA, and I noticed two young women talking. On closer inspection I realized it was a job interview, similar to many that I’d endured. It was going as expected; the usual questions… “what does customer service mean to you? What is the hardest thing about team work?”. As I walked, I took a second look at the girl interviewing for the job. It made me stop in my tracks and turn for a 3rd take.

WAIT, I’M GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF! First, a different story.

Back in May I spent a week on set of a pilot episode for one of the new scripted dramas that Vh1 is premiering this fall. It came at a perfect time because I had just closed a 2 month run of a musical, and was waiting to hear about my next project. I worked as a featured extra, spending most of my days in skimpy workout clothing, watching some crazy talented dancers sweat it out on a gym floor. I wish I could tell you more, but the pilot doesn’t premier till the fall! For now, enjoy this picture of what I wore the first day on set:

So what does my family trip to the grove have to do with working on the tv set? The girl interviewing for the minimum wage retail job WAS THE SAME GIRL who starred in the Vh1 pilot episode. She was beautiful, sweet, and an incredibly talented lyric dancer. And here she was, sitting at a mall, hoping to get a job that will keep her afloat in this crazy city. It was SUCH a lightbulb moment for me. These fellow actors and dancers, who I watched, learned from, and emulated, go thru the same daily struggles of low finances and self-doubts. I thought, “surely if I could start booking things like this I wouldn’t have to worry so much about paying my bills.” And yet, here she was, interviewing for a starting position in who-knows-what retail store! I have high hopes for this girl that the pilot gets picked up for next season. There is some great talent, and I think the show has potential to film an entire season, if not multiple seasons. So to my “friend,” the star of the future Vh1 pilot episode, I wish you the best! Thank you for encouraging and inspiring me to keep struggling in this hard career we have chosen!