I think we all reach a point in our lives where we might feel a little lost on our path. All of us who are in the entertainment industry, know how lucky we are to have the opportunity to work in a creative field. The few of us who actually followed our dreams or perhaps just happened to stumble upon them.
I was flailing in a rehearsal studio in Boston. This was the choreography. But I wasn’t flailing correctly. I had just joined the national tour of Wicked – a true childhood dream! And per usual, my first week of rehearsal was spent terrified they had chosen the wrong person and I’d never get it right. It’s my extremely healthy process when joining shows.
I first started dancing when I was 15 years old. That age can be difficult for any young man, but was particularly a challenging moment in my family’s history. At the time, I was living in a homeless shelter with my mom and siblings. Yet amidst all of this I managed to set foot in a dance studio for the first time.
The last couple of weeks I have had some really good and interesting conversations with sound engineers, musicians, family & friends about waiting for the right moment. It seems that no matter what career path we have taken in life, we seem to have one thing in common.
In the 12 years that I have been coaching gymnastics, I have been lucky to experience some incredible moments. Like when one of our gymnasts hits a huge routine at Regionals and qualifies herself to nationals, causing everyone to erupt in celebration. In contrast to this, I have also experienced some truly awful moments of regret.
Dancers want to be successful in class. From a young age, dancers should embrace studio etiquette in order to have the best possible dance class experience. Here are a few tips to make sure you or your dancer is getting the most out of their sessions.
Up until recently, I got annoyed when someone described me as “lucky.” I would have said, that where I am in my career today has very little to do with the vagaries of fate, and everything do to with hard work.
But recently I was reminded of the well-known quote attributed to Seneca the Younger: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” And I realised, I am pretty lucky.
A lot of us event workers have ‘A Type’ personalities: driven, competitive, fast movers. I do fit this description for sure, but I probably inherited it from my father as opposed to absorbing it through the industry. I’m an event junkie, I live for the action of live events: planning as much as you can but getting really pumped up solving issues as they arise.
My first experience of a ceremony was in 2008 when I was an ASM for the London Handover in Beijing – (the big red bus with Leona Lewis singing and Beckham kicking a football from it!) Originally out in Beijing as Stage Manager for the National Youth Theatre (who were singing the UK National Anthem), I threw myself at the handover stage management team for the 10 days we were out there and offered myself up in any way that could make me even the tiniest bit useful.
I was recently offered a full-time position, and although I turned it down — it got me thinking: Freelance or Full-time? Which path should I pursue? Ever since I read the line in a cheesy Arthurian lore novel, I’ve been a huge fan of the idea that our best decisions are made when our head and our hearts agree. But what happens when there doesn’t seem to be a compromise?
Three years ago, something happened to me that could happen to any freelancer: I woke up one morning to an email from a production company terminating my freelance employment with them. In one click I lost a gig that brought in over half my monthly income at the time. Cue significant worry and mild panic!
For the last week I have stared at a computer screen with the lyrics “Who am I anyway, am I my resume” playing on repeat in my head. This iconic musical theatre song has always been a favorite of mine because it spoke so much truth and now it is ringing truer than ever. As […]
We’ve all seen that little boy walking on the tip of his toes or noticed a young girl who loves to pirouette with her arms above her head. Many kids show a strong interest in ballet at a very young age and want to go see the Nutcracker every holiday season and feel a true calling for this art form. No one dancer goes through the same path, but horseback riding is definitely not the most conventional prologue to a life of pirouettes and piqués!
Hello creative soul! At the Fourth Wall, we thought we’d bring you our tops tips for getting started as an actor. Are you looking to enter the industry? Firstly, ask yourself these questions:
Are you interested or committed?
So, the countdown has begun to the day my family packs the moving truck and heads from Atlanta to Kansas City. We have been planning this move for a year now but now that the date is rapidly approaching I am starting to feel the effects that this move makes on my career in the theatre business.
I’ve been stage managing professionally for nearly 25 years, teaching stage management for 7 years and producing the Broadway Stage Management Symposium for 4 years. There are some common themes I’ve seen about how our profession is viewed (both inside and outside the industry). Below are the four most common and biggest misconceptions about the profession of stage management that I’ve seen.
My journey began when I announced to my science class students that I was leaving in two weeks’ time to work as a senior sound and broadcast technician at a new opera house in Muscat, Oman. A sea of blank faces and open mouths stared at me.
Ever wondered what a hair and wig person actually gets up to when working on a long running West End show? I can’t even begin to count the times a colleague working in the same building as myself has asked me why are we in so early? Or, what do you do with the wigs everyday? So do you brush them and stuff? This then made me think that if even the people in the same building don’t know, what chance do the rest of you have? I thought I would give the world a little sneak peek in the secret world of a wiggy. (as we are often known as)
As a freelance stage manager living in New York, I have learned a few things in the past year. Here is my incomplete list of knowledge I have acquired in this time.
Many business owners in our industry experience the same growing pain: there’s a struggle between doing the work you love and the demands of a business growing larger than you can manage. There’s a learning curve to business, and if you’re not prepared, it’ll cost you work, relationships, and most importantly, money.
Freelancers and artists speak a language that can be considered speaking in code because most “normal” or conventional people wouldn’t get it. Why? Because those with a more conventional lifestyle rely on schedules, systems, regularity, and predictability. I very much believe that there is no right or wrong in living an unconventional or conventional lifestyle. The most important question to ask oneself would be “What works for me?”
Ever feel that things are unfair on your gig? Terrence Williams presents the Modern Laws of Fairness – the dynamics that make up this industry that we call home, and the secrets that govern your level of satisfaction on a project.
I recently spoke with someone who pipped my interest in a concept, mothers who work. It seems there is always someone with an opinion on this subject. However, it’s not something that is much discussed in the audio engineering world. There simply aren’t many of us.
In an industry that is evolving, competitive and demands so much of an individuals passion, creativity and attention, it can be near impossible to recognise that we lose sight of our personal needs, putting ourselves second, if not even in our top 5 priorities. Which industry am I talking about? Well, to be frank, all of them.
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