It's a Small World

This blog is a prime example of how I like to procrastinate... So to catch you up a bit on my life:
-I started the Conservatory at Second City a few weeks ago and it has been a lot of fun!!
-I am going to start the the program at iO (formerly Improv Olympic) next term (October 13th) which I am pretty excited about!
-We started our own improv troupe... we don't have a name yet but we have had 1 rehearsal and we are going to perform at BYOT (Bring Your Own Team tonight at the iO)
-On September 22nd I am going to audition for the coached ensembles at Second City, which means, if I get cast I will be in an ensemble with a few other people coached by one of the faculty members and then we would get a 3 show run in either November or December. I looking forward to those auditions quite a bit.
Alright, well I think that catches you up on at least the more interesting aspects of my life. WOHOO!

Moving on, 3 weeks ago I had a really cool opportunity to talk to Jayme, a Second City Touring Co. stage manager and watch her call Summer in the Second City.

First of all, the theatre world as we all know is pretty small. Jayme had David Grindle, the executive producer of USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technologies), as a professor in College, who also coincidentally enough visited NAU this last spring to have some seminars and workshops on stage management and just professional theatre in general. I was talking to David Grindle about my plans to move to Chicago and study improv but that I didn't want to stop stage managing and he told me to find Jayme and talk to her. I tried really hard to contact her but couldn't figure out how, and then magically an opportunity to meet and talk to her fell in my lap!

So with that crazy coincidence on my mind I met Jayme who was awesome, kind of quirky, really fun, big personality, really down to earth and willing to help me out. We met over coffee and talked for a little while before going up to the Up Comedy Club and getting everything set up for the show and then I got to sit in the booth with her while she "called" the show (I put called in quotations because she sat in the booth and completely ran the light board by herself and the musical director controls sound completely on their own without contact from the stage manager). She gave me her book to look at before the show and then said I could just follow along with the show if I wanted to. So I got watch the lights and effects of the show while getting to follow along with the cues in the script. I had an absolute blast, the show was a lot of fun, and sitting there in that booth I realized that I could do this job. I have the skills to do what they do.

View from the booth in the Up Comedy Club

Jayme said a lot of the same things that Kimberly said about working at Second City
Here are some things that seem to be a general consensus:
-You are kind of the mom for the show, you have to make sure that you get everyone where they need to be and when they need to be there
-Second City is an incredibly supportive community to work in
-The people (actors, staff, etc...) are really great
-Second City seems to hire based a lot on personality and ability to keep your cool, rather than your knowledge of technical aspects and ability to design lights or design props...

Jayme comes from an opera background and she said that she likes Second City because it is nice to work with a smaller company where you have more hands on responsibilities and technical responsibilities. She said that she likes have some control over the lighting and technical stuff. When on tour she is entirely responsible for those things and since often you just have to play with submasters for lighting she said that "she feels like a DJ" while controlling the show. It is definitely a job with a lot of responsibilities and stress (but what theatre job doesn't have stress) and Jayme says that it is so worth it in the end.

We had a little bit of time for her to look over my resume and give me a little bit of feedback on it. She was impressed with my resume but gave me a couple of tips to make it a little bit better.

I had a lot of fun talking to Jayme and getting to see the show with her.

BYOT tonight!!

And look for a post tomorrow about Shrek the Musical!!