Making the Swap

Why did I walk offstage and stay there? I hear you asking. Okay well I don’t but I have been asking myself lately.

I started performing at age 6 and it was my life for 10 years before I even thought about the people behind the scenes that make it all possible. Even then I didn’t think anything of it; I wanted to perform and teach and that’s all I knew. But then I worked on a professional pantomime and it changed my life! So why did I decide this was the career for me?

I could do it. Sounds simple but stage management came naturally to me. It used my organisational and communicative skills I already possessed. I also knew how a production ran from the actor’s point of view so all I had to do was swap that round to make it run smoothly for the actors.

I can’t sing. I can’t – not well anyway. At this point in my life all I wanted to do was perform in musicals – plays didn’t interest me that much. And I can’t sing well in public and I wasn’t that strong of a performer, so when I found that I could be part of a production without having to perform and I could do it well – well I was sold!

I didn’t want to teach. I did for a long time but at this point I realised that actually couldn’t be a teacher. I love kids but I don’t think I have the right personality to teach – especially drama. I will probably end up teaching stage management but that would be after years of experience and to people who really want to learn about it.

I still get an adrenaline rush. Even now, every time a show goes well I get the most amazing adrenaline rush. A lot of the time it beats the one I got while performing because I wasn’t worried about my personal performance just how we had all worked together. Especially when working with the junior group I felt proud of what they had achieved and how much they had improved from the beginning and that is the best feeling in the world.

These all sound like stupid reasons but basically I found my passion, the thing I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I’m glad I did spend a good portion of my life performing but I’m also glad I swapped. Who else made the swap and what made you do it?