I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love theater. Like most people involved in theater, I started as a performer and have always been involved in any school activity remotely related to drama. In middle school and high school, my closest friends were my friends from the musicals or choir. I always felt happiest when working on a show, rehearsing or performing.
I attended Duke University and began as a Pre-Med student. I wanted to be a doctor for a long time and although my parents supported my love of theater, they always insisted it was a hobby. That didn’t stop me from getting involved in theater at Duke and soon after arriving, I auditioned for Hoof ‘n’ Horn, Duke’s completely student run musical theater organization. It was very exciting to get back into the theater scene and I quickly found my true friends among their ranks. As soon as I joined Hoof ‘n’ Horn, my happiness with Duke increased dramatically (no pun intended) and I knew I would invest a lot of time in the organization.
The spring show that year was Guys and Dolls, which I had already performed in at Pennridge. As fun as the show is, I wasn’t looking forward to wearing an ugly dress and singing “Follow the Fold” for the rest of the semester, so I volunteered to be the Props Mistress for the show. It was a very difficult and thankless job, but it was the first real exposure I had to working behind the scenes and I liked it better than I thought I would. I was just focused on my part of the production running smoothly and fastidiously checked the prop table before each performance.
Although I do not aspire to a life in props, this job is an important part of my story because it was the first time I realized I was good at work behind the curtain. I also learned to appreciate all of the designers, run crew, stage managers and everyone else that contributed to the production. Well eventually I left Pre-Med and wandered around through my Spanish and Women’s Studies classes for a couple more years, never really feeling at home or spurred to start my career in any specific field.
Fall semester of senior year, several things happened at once. First, I was in a musical theater class. The professor (whom I developed a wonderful relationship with) assigned the class to create a musical revue of the history of musical theater, rather than having a final exam. Although my fellow students were not performers and we had limited time for rehearsals, I dove right into the project and contributed more hours than anyone else in my class. Working on the revue never felt like work. I found myself putting off my other class work just to make schedules and coordinate between producers, writers, accompanists and performers. It never felt like work and I could spend hours on it without even realizing time had passed. The second thing was planning my following semester. I was planning to audition for a show, costume design the Hoof ‘n’ Horn spring show and direct a cabaret for Hoof ‘n’ Horn. I realized all of my time was going to be spent working on shows and it excited me and sort of confused me. I still wasn’t planning to work in theater and yet I would be spending all my time there? The third thing happened to me while I was home on Thanksgiving break. I saw I Love My Wife at Montgomery Theater and decided during intermission that I wanted my career to be in theater (basically aspiring to be Tom Quinn, watch out TQ!) and I would love to be involved in a theater like this one.
Well, six months later I was graduated, jobless, relatively unconcerned about it and my dad and I had lunch with Tom Quinn to discuss how he got to be the Artistic Director of Montgomery Theater. At lunch, Tom mentioned they would be having a job opening as Production Associate/Box Office Manager. Well that sounded pretty great to me since I was spending every minute looking for unpaid internships in New York. So I applied and the rest is history. Here I am, Production Associate/Box Office Manager and loving every minute!
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