My mother used to always warn me that I had to make a choice when it came to working (I was very eager to join the workforce at fourteen, when many adults told me I should have fun being a kid). I could have either time or money, but never both. This of course is an adaptation of Ben Franklin's quote, "time is money" which surely was stolen from someone less charismatic than Mr. Franklin. It's a good rule of thumb. For most people. I'm sure there are a few people out there who are independently wealthy and do whatever they choose with their time. That's great. Good for them. I think that would drive me crazy.
Something I was never prepared for though, something that snuck up on me in the last month and a half while I've been attempting to stay out of the restaurant industry and do only things I love for money, something my mother neglected to warn me about (likely because it's fairly rare if you're following a "traditional" life style trajectory, though I consider myself lucky that it's taken this long to catch up with me...) is that there are times when I will possess neither time nor money. Which is my excuse for not updating the blog in over a month.
I did get a glimpse of this in college. When I got cast in a show that rehearsed four hours a night, while enrolled in 16-17 credits and working part time (for often times, very understanding employers). But college was different, or, I should say special. It was a different sort of busy. There was a fall-back net. People give you a certain amount of understanding, sympathy and respect when you're in college, (never mind the beauty of short-term emergency loans) which seems to deteriorate shortly after graduation.
The thing is this: I'm fairly proud of myself. Since loosing my job at the restaurant less than a year ago, I've managed to make my living off of teaching Shakespeare, performing, and a little off knitting, with only three months of unemployment thrown in there. Now, seeing as the touring production I love so well ended the first week in April, I needed something else theater oriented to occupy my time. I was offered the job as stage hand for Red Light Variety Show, which if you haven't heard of, you really should check out. They center largely around burlesque, but also include silk dancing, pole dancing, trapeze awesomeness, tight rope acts and some all around amazing, creative ways to show off their lovely, completely normal, gorgeous bodies. I had a blast. It was a really eye-opening experience, some really inspiring, beautiful, creative, unabashed and amazing acts.
Red Light only lasted for two short weekends, I could have done it for months, easily, even though I was clearly the most modest person in the green room. It was really wonderful to be surrounded by so many people who are so comfortable with being themselves. They were also generous enough to pay me for my time, which was wonderful.
It's not to say I haven't been for want of things lately. I'm barely scraping by. Nothing's been shut off, yet, but white rice has been making itself the daily meal lately. Laundry has been falling by the wayside, seeing as I have neither the time to stick around to do a load, nor the quarters to scrounge together to make it so my clothes aren't looking for a line to dry on (if we had a line, I'd use it, dryers kind of freak me out...). The apartment is a veritable pit, partly because the set designer for the latest project (ESMF) has had no where else to go to construct the set other than our 500 sq. ft. of awesome, and partly because we simply don't have time to tend to it. I don't think we've had toilet paper that wasn't stolen from a public facility in months (I already feel pretty bad about that, so please refrain from chastising me for theft).
The project I began in tandem was a play called Me and My Shadow. This project is a little tricky to explain, so we'll just call it experimental. It was put on with the Creative Improvised Music Festival, so the music/sound design was all played live and improvised. Yes. Super awesome. The space in which we performed was a venue typically associated with concerts, so the stage was relatively small (luckily most of us had performed in the space multiple times, so we were comfortable with the setting). Being in tandem with a music festival, we unfortunately had a condensed run- a mere two days, but we made them count and all had something to be proud of. Particularly the playwright, who is not only one of my dear friends, fellow graduate but now also colleague!
It may appear that I'm rambling and have no real point here, aside from sharing my last month and half with you. I suppose what I really want to share with you is this: this job is hard. It depends a lot on making your own work. From playwright to director to actor to designers (all of whom went into this process not expecting to be paid, only to find out by small miracle and little bit of luck we made our kickstarter goal) we all donated a significant amount of time. I'd also venture to say that 90% of people involved on this project were under 30 (okay, I'm cheating a little and counting the ESMF, but in spirit he really is twenty-two, or younger) and it was, all and all a success. We are all in the midst of paving our own way to make our own work in a town that has a hard time supporting all of the artists it produces. And I am so proud. So proud of my friends, my co-workers, my fellow artists, my now-colleagues. Particularly the playwright, whom I have watched grow, change and completely kick-ass both personally and professionally over the past seven years. This year, like me, she will officially be making her living from doing only things she loves to do: writing and workshoping plays.
And she's not the only one. So will I, so will the ESMF, so will the rest of my tour-mates. And rather randomly, I ran into an old friend that I was in Les Mis with nearly ten years ago at Me and My Shadow. Admit-ably, I've been blog stalking her for a while, but she's now going on to graduate school for acting, which is arguably harder than making your own work (you can blog-stalk her too, if you like: here). All of this in a dwindling economy, which is when most people assume that the arts are falling to shit.
So, how on earth, while lacking all of these things am I finally finding time to update you on my life? Well, through Wednesday, I'm spending time with my fathers side of the family in lovely Cleveland, OH. Some much need catch up time with this side of the family, whom I haven't seen in upwards of ten years. It has been... So relaxing. I get up, knit with my Grandmother for several hours, we go to lunch, I read some Shakespeare, we knit some more. We watch Law and Order, we knit some more. So much awesome.
Although, I will say I was in such a hurry to pack for this flight (I left after closing of Me and My Shadow, meaning I got roughly 3 hours of sleep/packing time) and so between about not wanting to check a bag and being so paranoid about getting stopped at security, I left behind all toiletries. I'm a bit stinky.
And a lot happy.
