Anne, TCG Staffer
I did a production in the New York Fringe Festival, when it still existed, my very first summer out of college. I was asked to stage manage, and I had met these people somewhat randomly and the director was a fellow recent grad from another school who I didn’t know. She was living in Chicago, and she hadn't moved to New York City yet so we had this entire pre-production process where we just never met in person. We developed this incredible collaborative relationship and friendship just over the phone for like this two month period leading up to this rehearsal process and... this story has a sad ending because we continued to be friends for a time, but in the next year or two I – unknowing what exactly my theater journey would be and following the stage management path for a little bit longer – got an Equity contract. And because the messaging that we had received in theater is just: “you have to give up everything in your life for theatre,” I ended up kind of blowing off another project that that director was writing, performing, and self producing herself. A project that I was really interested in, but it conflicted with my Equity contract rehearsals where I was making more money. I think at the time, I told myself I was doing it because I had to, but I think it was also – there is something about connections that are created with distance that almost feel safer to me. I'm sitting in that realization that it's a risky business of letting people in and getting close to them, but also how sustaining a career in theater has made that so challenging. I met her through theater and, ultimately, our friendship was lost because of theater and my own actions, but – because theater told me to.
