The Cozy Corner: God Bless Us, Every One!

If life is indeed cyclical and history does repeat itself then it seems fitting that the first show I worked on in college should also be the first show that I work on professionally!
For those of you who have no idea which show I am talking about here is a hint:

Do you get it?

And for those of you who are still struggling I will lay it out in black and white print for you: I got hired by The Goodman Theatre to replace the Young Performer Supervisor (YPS) for A Christmas Carol!

I applied for this job back in October but by the time I had my application in they had already hired someone else. However, the YPS they hired wasn't working out and they were out to find someone to jump into the production and finish up the last couple weeks of the run. Sharon, my theatre angel, had heard they were thinking about replacing the YPS and asked me if she could pass along my name and contact info to them (to which my response was "Of course! You can pass along my name and contact info to almost anybody!"). A couple days after that I got a call from the Assistant Producer at The Goodman and he asked me if I would be available to step in to finish up the run of the show (to which my response was "Of course!"). 4 days later I was running around backstage of The Goodman for my first ever professional show!

My day has been crazy! There is nothing like coming into a production after it has been open for 3 weeks and trying to pick up the rhythm of the show... but there is especially nothing like being thrown into a production that has been open for 3 weeks in which you are responsible for 6 rowdy 8-14 year olds. Needless to say I was glad that I am familiar with A Christmas Carol! My orientation and introduction into the job duties was less that 30 minutes at which point all 6 of the children were under my care and acting as crazy as ever!

SIDE NOTE: apparently these kids are so rowdy one of the Stage Managers had to have a "coming to Jesus moment" with them today when I arrived.

During the first show of the day one of the Stage Managers walked me through everything as it was happening backstage and showed/explained everything to me. Then for the night performance she hung back but was available if I had any questions or needed help. Tomorrow I will be more or less all on my own and I honestly couldn't be more excited!!

Here are some of the amazing, wonderful things about this job:

I am actually getting paid to do theatre!
I am working at an award winning regional theatre!
I have my foot in the door here in Chicago!
I am making connections and witnessing the inner workings of a professional theatre!

I am dying from excitement!

I am now done being a braggart.

The downside of this job: