I believe is hard work. I do. I believe that hard work should be rewarded.
When we are younger, when we are in school, we are told that we should work hard. It was a lesson that was ingrained in me especially hard because, as a very young age, I was informed by my mother that I could do theatre so long as my grades stayed at a certain level. Something about my Scottish blood took that as a challenge, which led to one memorable day where I was up at 6:00 to be a school by 7:15 to take that quarter's AP English writing test (this after staying up to proofread the paper we had to turn in as well), followed by a full day of classes (including a meeting of the yearbook team), followed by rehearsal until 6:00 for the high school show followed by rehearsal at 7:00 for the local community theatre show.
Yeah, I was nuts.
But I believed in working hard. I believed that if you worked hard, then you would be rewarded. If you got good grades, then colleges would like you, and, maybe, even give you a little money.
In high school, it paid off. I graduated 36 in a class of 536, and got into Loyola with a Scholarship.
Yay hard work!
At Loyola at the first meeting of the Theatre School, we were basically told that 55% of our time would be spent on Theatre, and 55% of our time would be spent on Academics. It took us all a second to do the math, and to make sure they weren't joking, and they weren't. The Theatre Department expected you to show up. They expected that, even if you were on the performance track, you would serve as House Crew, Costume Crew, Set Crew, Light Crew...you get the idea.
So I worked hard. I ended up increasing my Academic Scholarship amount, and scoring a Theatre Scholarship by the end of my first year.
Long story short, I ended up going into the "real" world with the expectation that my work ethic would yield rewards...
It took nigh on 9 years for that illusion to be shattered. Yeah, I am a slow learner...
In the real world, hard work SHOULD get you further, and I am sure it does... in most places.
I am not afraid to say that 5 years with a company that I gave just about every summer to did not end well. Blood, sweat, tears, gas money, and when there started to be talk about taking the company Equity and using union actors, no consideration was made to those who had spent even longer than I had with the company when it came to making sure we would still be included in the shows. Even if they had had the courtesy to say that they would have ensured us getting our points, I would have stuck around.
Instead, we were basically told that all our hard work meant nothing.
It took me much longer to learn this lesson professionally than it did artistically. Nine years, in fact. Nine years of showing up and taking on not only my own duties, but others as well. Staying late, coming in early, and working like a dog lead to no vacation days, no sick days, no benefits, and mu hours being cut to three days a week. Not that I blame them: the economy was in the junk heap at the that point, and I was just grateful to have any job.
However, when the opportunity came to leave both of these situations behind, both artistically and professionally, I am not afraid to say I ran.
A theatre company that offers me membership after all I do is work box office and then show up at strike (because that's what I was taught you did at Loyola)? Where do I sign?
An up-and-coming Chicago start-up that wants to offer me benefits, stock options, a 401K, and HOW many vacation days? Done!
Since then, I won't say things have been perfect, but when is life ever? There have been heartbreaks and tears, late nights and lots of wine...and beer...and cider...but there have been lessons learned and triumphs.
It is a hard lesson to learn, when you enter real life: sometimes, hard work DOES NOT get you ahead. You have to know the difference between being patient, and being complacent and comfortable. You have to know when you have given enough, and there has been no reward, no matter how small, that is time to move on.
But I still believe that for every new venture, you SHOW UP. You work your butt off. When I was cast as an understudy for a production, the only time I didn't show up was when I was so sick I couldn't see straight.
I figured, as an understudy, if was my job to cover for other actors when they got sick, not make other actors suffer from the plague I was carrying...
But you work. Every new show, every new job, every new opportunity is a chance for you to make your mark. It is a chance to find a new home.
Long story short (TOO LATE!) we come to the moral of my story, and the good news, and the connection to the show I am working on now...
Fight rehearsals for MacSith are, for the most part, optional. But, as I have become something of the social media maven, and fight rehearsals are usually when you get the best shots of lightsaber fights, I have been showing up.
This past Thursday, it was apparently discussed that the actress playing Lady M would not be able to make it to ChiFi, a convention occurring at the Palmer House Hilton in March where we will be doing two performances of MacSith. The current Witch 1 played the Lady last year, so she will be stepping into those shoes. That means they needed someone to play Witch Primus...
Ladies and Gents, I will see you all on March 19th-20th.
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