Lasts and Firsts Coming Together

One thing I’ve learned in my time working in the NYC theatre world as an early career artist, is that when one job ends, you need to already have your next one lined up. Fortunately for me, I’m pretty good at finding work exactly when I need to start something new. The thing that made this time so different for me, is that there was an hour’s difference between the last thing I completed and the next thing I started.

I’ve held down a Literary Internship at a pretty good Off-Off Broadway Theatre for the past couple of months, which I just ended. Considering how it’s the first stable paying position I’ve ever had in the theatre world, it is sad that it’s come to an end. After all, aside from how much I truly loved what I was doing, but I learned how important reading and evaluating scripts are in this field. Granted, I knew that before, but I realize now that every theatre artist should do literary work at some point. No one in theatre can properly do their job and come up with the creativity in a production if they can’t analyze a script. Directors can’t come up with a vision, Actors can’t make choices, Designers can’t design, etc. It’s one of the most important aspects of being in the world of theatre (if not the most important), and I hope I can one day do more literary work.

Plus, before I left they gave me a card that everyone in the office had signed, along with a bunch of delicious (and expensive) cupcakes. It’s hard to want to leave after that.

Then an hour after leaving the office, I had a first rehearsal for a new play staged reading that I’m stage managing. It’s Off-Broadway, paid, and everyone apart of it is absolutely delightful. It certainly made leaving one loving theatre environment much easier, since I was able to feel that I head entered another one. Also, the director had asked me to read the stage directions, so it’ll be my first time performing on an Off-Broadway stage as well! (Does stage directions count as performing? I really don’t know).

Along with being back in rehearsals and not just reading and evaluating scripts in an office, I’ll also be starting my next internship this month as well. I get to assist a teaching artist in a Jr. High School. I don’t know the full details as of yet, but I do know that I’m looking forward to the teaching experience I’ll gain from this opportunity (even working with pre-teens, since that’s a thought that is still kind of scary to me). Things really do end and begin one on top of another in this field when you are good at what you do (or when you are fortunate enough to be able to get the opportunities).

Sometimes it’s really hard for me to be done working on a show or at a theatre, since I tend to get very emotionally invested into every project and job I do. However, the best thing about working in the theatre is that when one show closes, you can dive into rehearsals right afterwards for your next one opening.