OK, summer 2010 is over and it's back to business. No more time for daydreaming about quaint village life in bucolic west-central Wisconsin. I've got classes to teach! Productions to direct! Life moves on...
One of the courses I teach each fall is a career preparation course--a "business of the business" course that is designed to help students learn the ropes of the world of professional theatre before entering the workforce. For the record, this kind of course did not exist back in my undergraduate days. So glad most institutions offer this now.
When planning this class, I set up several skype interviews with working professionals in Chicago, NYC, LA, and other cities. I decided to include a skype interview with Brenda and Jim DeVita of American Players Theatre this year. Brenda is Associate Artistic Director and Jim is a Core Company Actor. I'd done interviews with working couples before and the students always enjoyed and learned from them. Many of our students are beginning to grapple with the challenge of growing a healthy relationship while attempting to maintain a professional theatre career, so it makes sense to talk with a couple who seem to have struck that balance. Further, I wanted to take steps in growing a professional relationship with these people who were living the dream I'd experienced last summer on our visit.
Fast forward to our skype interview later last fall. We begin with Jim and Brenda telling their respective stories pre and since joining the APT team. My students throw some great questions at them. Jim and Brenda respond with in-depth, meaningful answers. My students feel empowered, challenged, and encouraged. As Brenda talks about the atmosphere at APT--one of integrity and excellence--and Jim talks about the kind of acting the company strives for--the best of quality text work coupled with the most truthful moment-to-moment behavior--the students get a glimpse of real professionalism; I was once again knocked over with the desire to be part of this community.
We wrap our conversation. The students applaud wildly. We hang up the skype call and proceed to talk for several minutes after class is done about how much the students appreciated hearing the straight goods about life--and family life--in the theatre from Brenda and Jim. I walk home and call Libby to tell her (no surprise to her) " I gotta work with these people!!!".
Life demands assert themselves as I direct our department's very successful production of SUBURBIA. Our students just hit it out of the park night after night. As the semester draws to a close and my life settles down for a moment, I stay up quite late drafting an e-mail to Brenda DeVita: a shameless request for consideration to be part of the APT community in whatever way I can. I hit send. There. I did it. It's "out there".
You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket.
In my next post: a surprising sea-change.
No comments:
Post a Comment