Where It All Started

Today as I sat in my office, I thought back to when I got my start and though my first paying gig was when I was sixteen as an Assistant Director/Technical Director/Instructor for a Children's Theater Workshop that does not tell the real story.

I was six when I got my first taste, as I was asked to play the school principle as a kid for his retirement presentation; I turned that opportunity down, but then partook in a traveling production with a group from Melodyland which used to be across the street from Disneyland.  I enjoyed helping setup at the parks they took that little children's play, and dealt with being in the cast as a sheep trying to get into the fold the wrong way.  Maybe it also had to do with what I was lead to believe early on that my mom wanted to become an actress and could not do it with four children.  Well whatever it was, the seed had been planted and even though at times I have stepped away from full time employment in the entertainment world I always came back and would take the load out or load in calls when I could and would help a local church with their production needs.

During my ventures into other avenues of earning my keep pay for my work in the entertainment world was not my priority, but now as I have grown a bit seasoned not just in my work but also in my outlook I realized that this is a skilled trade in which I work and I am not in the business of giving out entitlements.  Recently, as I sat and talked with another long timer who had his start of getting paid about the same time, I began to calculate not by years but by productions worked on and the number of individual performances worked.  Productions worked on are into the thousands and individual performances is closing on ten thousand, if it has not surpassed that number already.  Starting my own production company became the most logical choice when I am treated like a beginner  and other companies do not want to pay decent compensation for my knowledge.  What is even funnier in my mind is that what I would really love to do now is teach and every school now requires a degree so they tend to hire children just starting out and sacrifice the life experience of a professional who has worked in the trenches and knows the business in and out.

I can only shake my head now when I hear the horror stories like what recently happened in Canada, and having seen some of the rigs put up by low cost companies run solely for a profit I can only cringe and say a prayer of thanks when I realize that more rigs do not hurt people.  Well enough musings for now as I have to put some thought into the light rig I will be using for the Coasters, Platters and Drifters this week up at Deepwater Amphitheater.