Nice work if you can get it

It’s October 1, which means it’s time to start sending out resumes for summer work. Sounds crazy, I know, but most summer companies hire during November and December. Last year I had to take my name out of the running for one job because they weren’t making decisions until after January 1. So now is the time to troll the websites of summer companies, polish up the old resume, and wrack my brain for which names to drop in my cover letters.

It’s difficult to find exactly the right summer situation. The past two years I have been amazingly lucky to be able to be at Wolf Trap, and if it were only up to me I would spend all my summers there until the end of time. I don’t want to go to a company just to assistant direct, because that’s what I do all year long. Ideally, there should be a combination of assisting and directing small projects, although I would be more than willing to forego assisting altogether in favor of directing all summer. Already one place I would have loved to go is being crossed off my list because they no longer have a scenes program directed by the assistants. And so it begins. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that my career is a neverending job search and probably will be until I’m in my dotage. Every year it gets a little easier as I meet more people in the business who give me advice and support. Just yesterday I got a voicemail from a director I had worked with at HGO, asking if I could do a job she wasn’t available for (I can’t, unfortunately). I’m hoping those opportunities will happen for me more and more.

I am (finally) at liberty to talk about one incredible opportunity I’ve had, now that I have a contract (signed by Anthony Freud, no less). In May, I will be directing The Refuge at Miller Outdoor Theatre. It’s a really exciting, somewhat indefinable project, and I can’t wait to get started on it. The icing on the cake is that I get to assist my good friend (let’s call her The New Oregonian) on the premiere in November.

Tonight I’m making fancy mac & cheese for dinner. Nothing like comfort food with a gourmet twist to make a job search go better.

Oh, and 10 days until my birthday.