Finally Fantastic Fleeting Friday Five

Here we are, once again …

1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not?
I work for the Seattle Children’s Theatre, an organization I just can NOT say enough about. Yes, there are problems (as there are with any arts organization) but they do so much of it right. We recently had a design presentation for what’s going to happen here next season, and the sheer brilliance of some of it just astonished me. It’s a good place to work, the people are laid-back but passionnate, I feel at home here. Of course, my job is a mishmash of two jobs (and at the moment, three jobs) and essentially I’m someone’s go-to-guy all day … I obviously don’t want to stay in my current position forever. I promised to stay in this job for at least 12-18 months, at which point I would start considering the possibility of moving to a different department, but I wouldn’t want to leave the theatre. It is exactly what I chose to do … in March of 2001, I left my job at the architect consulting firm. The people there were nice, but I really wanted to be doing something that I cared about in an industry that I wanted to STAY in. I quit so I could start temping and looking for something permanent… and apparently, I quit during the month that Seattle’s “recession” began. I temped for ten months and went on probably thirty interviews (and spent at least a solid month out of work completely) before I was finally offered the job here. I decided that I wasn’t going to settle for a job that was only partially right, and I made myself very broke in the process, but I think it was worth it. On a larger scale, this is not my ideal job, no. But it’s closer than anything I’ve had yet, and I’m trying to appreciate the baby steps.

2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be?
Easy. I want to have Dona Werner Freeman ’s job - my college acting teacher and mentor. She teaches acting to college kids during the day, and occasionally directs a mainstage or blackbox show. At night, she acts professionally in Minneapolis. It would be the perfect dichotomy for me - I could still perform and keep that side of me alive, but I would also have a “paying the bills” kind of job that I loved. Also, that kind of work is fulfilling in a way that nothing else is for me. Here’s an example - I TA’d a semester of Acting for Non-Majors, taught by Dona. One of the students in our class was a girl named Kelli Hulshof, who had so much natural talent and was willing to work so hard. I spent a lot of time working with her, and eventually coached her and her partner through a scene from Extremities, which had been the first scene I’d done in my first acting class as well. Being able to connect with her at that level - and seeing her progress right in front of my eyes - was a really rewarding experience. That’s Kelli in the picture at the far bottom. She’s come a long way. I want to be able to do that for the rest of my life.

3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices?
My father has been a clarinet professor and erstwhile band director at Eastern Illinois University for … a very long time. My mother was a grade school teacher for a long time, and currently teaches preschool at my family’s home. (Top half of house = house, bottom half of house = preschool.) My parents are both teachers, and one of them is a musician. It’s no big surprise to me that I grow up doing something arty and wanting to teach. Maybe it’s genetic.

4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family?
The week before I graduated, Dona took me and her other TA (good old Sarah Truesdale) out to lunch. She warned me not to let my career become my life… and she cautioned me against making some of the mistakes that she’d made. She stressed over and over again how important family and friends are, and how easy it is to forget about that when all you’re concerned with is your next audition. She said that she was glad B— and I had each other, and that we were so good for each other, and that she was thrilled with the idea of us someday having children, and what wonderful creations they would be. She told me to keep in touch and to keep my wits about me out in the world and to remember what was really important. I have never personally had to choose between career and family. However, someone dear to me had to make that choice - and family lost.

5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why?
This is so relative. Teaching is the hardest, most important job in the world. It’s also often the easiest, because teachers (at least, the good ones) are more passionnate and motivated to do their work than most people out slogging through jobs that they don’t care about. Real, dyed-in-the-wool teachers love what they do, and to some extent the buoyancy of knowing that you’re making a difference can make it seem not so hard. Of course, I’m sure you could say the same about anything. Acting is hard. You’re poor all the time, you flit from place to place, you get no respect, you have no insurance, you live off stipends and yet are expected to always be beautiful. At the same time, in the middle of a really amazing performance you are the happiest person in the world, and everything flows from a place in you that is very easy and natural and honest. So, the answer is I Don’t Know. Easy and Hard is what you make it.