Theatre and Me

One of the projects I’ve been working on in the new house is framing all of my theatre posters and hanging them. I’ve been collecting posters from shows I’ve done for the past 8 years or so. Some of them were hung up at one time or other, but most of them just sat in drawers, waiting to be looked at again someday.

All of them are now in frames, and pretty soon, they’ll be on the wall over the desk in my studio/office/workspace. It’s been really interesting to look at all of them and reminisce about the shows I’ve done in the last several years.

Some of the shows, I directed. Some of them, I music directed. Some, I did both. I was actually IN two of the shows, and I’m really bummed that I don’t have a poster for the most recent show I was in, Seussical.

Some of the posters are from shows that I LOVED working on, and I hated the actual poster design/graphics. But I want to keep the posters anyway, because they’re reminders of shows that meant so much to me. Some of them are posters that I love for shows that I loved. Some of the shows I HATED, but I want to remember those shows as well. I learned things from even the worst shows.

Looking at all of the posters has really gotten my nostalgic juices flowing, and I’ve been really pondering my relationship with theatre.

I still love theatre. I really do.

But sometimes, I just get a little…sick of it.

In 2010, I got really tired of theatre. I had some miserable experiences. I was majorly screwed over by some fellow theatre people. I lost my job teaching theatre. The bad definitely outweighed the good. I even blogged about it.

At the end of 2010, I felt like I would be truly happy if I never did another show. And then Seussical came along. It was an incredible experience. And yet, when it was over, I felt fulfilled – which usually doesn’t happen after even the best show.

Then I went down to work on Anthem with Rachel, and while the experience of it wasn’t the absolute greatest, I LOVED working with amazing, talented, professional actors. It was thrilling. And yet, I still felt fulfilled. I wasn’t dying to do any theatre.

Before long, Little Women came along, and I wanted to do it, but I went into it with the attitude that if it wasn’t an amazing experience, I was officially done with theatre. Luckily, Little Women turned into one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

Since it ended, I’ve been craving theatre again. It stinks. It’s like a former girlfriend that you just can’t get over, no matter how hard you try. This time, I’m wanting to be on stage again. I want to go back to how things were about 10 years ago, when I traded off acting and music directing. Only, if I’m going to music direct, it has to be for amazing directors, like Dave Tinney and Chris Clark. Trouble is, in order to feel like it’s worth my time to be doing theatre, I need to be making money. Especially when the local theatres here are bad, so I have to go to at least Orem to find good theatre. For good or bad, my curse has been lifted, and I’m getting asked to work again. So far, I’ve turned down one acting offer, and I’ve decided not to audition for a couple shows that I had considered.

I think it’s best for my sanity to not be working on a show over the holidays, so it’s good. I’m also STILL slowly putting my house together. (After the posters, I just have that blasted vanity/medicine cabinet to put up.)

In the meantime, I get somewhat of a theatre fill by working on musicals all day at work. It’s kind of cool to have direct communication with some of the big wigs in New York and being able to ask for things from them and usually getting it. And they know now that I’m also a director/music director, so that’s cool. And next month, I get to go to a theatre conference in Arizona and meet with more people from all over the country.

I also have next summer to look forward to. Just this week I was asked to direct a show in the summer, but the details aren’t set in stone yet. I haven’t officially said yes, either. If it doesn’t feel absolutely right, I can’t devote my life to it.

I really don’t know what the point of this post was. Mostly just to record my own thought process. And also because I’m SICK of not blogging. I need to get back into a habit, and unfortunately, that means some dumb posts are coming.