Audrey A McGee

This tip has become an excuse for me to reflect on my entire career since moving to Seattle — long post incoming.

diversifying income

For the first year and a half of me working in the Seattle theatre scene, there was a go-to page for scrolling, either out of Zillow-esque casual interest or actual desire for opportunities.

Theatre Puget Sound, or TPS, has a jobs/auditions board for postings in the Greater Seattle Area. It made my life so much easier, and I highly recommend searching to find if your area has a similar jobs board. Sometimes, AI-driven LinkedIn suggestions really don’t cut it.

On their site, you can find postings for every kind of audition, from A-list professional theatres to student films to community productions. You can also find dozens of job listings, mostly for stage managers.

Psst: I swear, if you want to guarantee yourself work in the theatre for the rest of your life, learn how to stage manage. I could do an entire post about this, but here’s the short summary.

1) Everyone is always looking for good SMs. You will be sought for and paid well.

2) If you find a company that likes you, you will never have to leave.

3) If you tell people on your resume that you SM, you will be hired as an SM and an SM only. Make sure you have the skills, but be wary of how you advertise yourself, or else you may be stuck forever.

Naturally, when I was working my 10-hour-per-week internship, I was anxious to keep finding opportunities elsewhere in the area. TPS was the best way, bar word of mouth, to discover potential gigs. Here’s a few of the things I’ve applied for in the last 2 years, whether I found it on TPS or elsewhere:

• Costume Designer, Tartuffe (booked it!)
• Costume Designer, Eurydice (did not book it)
• Nominator for Gregory Awards (booked it!)
• Open call stage combat auditions, Enemy of the People (SO FUN, but did not book it)
• Importance of Being Earnest auditions (did not book it)
• Summer Shakespeare touring auditions (did not book it)
• Short play festival playwright (booked it!)
• Production Associate (did not book it)
• Teaching Artist at Dandylyon Drama (booked it — still there!)
• Directing/Artistic Apprentice (did not book it)
• Young Storytellers Fellowship (did not book it)

And a few things I applied for outside of theatre:

• Digital and Web Design Intern (did not book it)
• Coding Instructor for Kids (did not book it)
• Waitress (booked it! for about a year!)

Here’s a few of the things I could have pursued but chose not to:

• Set Construction (I actually went into the emergency room the day I was supposed to help with sets, and never rescheduled with them. Sad.)
• Costume Organization (the costume shop manager expressed a huge need for volunteer help. Costumes are fantastic, and I sympathize with the plight, but I couldn’t spare that much energy for something I wouldn’t get paid for)

Things I didn’t even apply for initially, I was just sought out (all of these were at Taproot or Dandylyon):

• Props creation
• On-book and line notes
• Educational Touring Understudy
• Stage Management
• Production Coordinator

And no, this isn’t everything I applied for, but it’s a really good portion. Let me tell you, for a theatre person (and for most professionals, who am I kidding), mine is an INSANELY small list of applications. So many of my good friends here literally live off of gig work, and they are auditioning with a consistency and steadfastness that is mind-boggling to me. (Gig work is exciting, but I’ve found that I’m not cut out for it long-term.)

One of the biggest things I learned: Word of mouth and personal friendships up your chances of getting the position enormously. Won’t guarantee it — I applied for several things at Taproot I didn’t book — but it just makes sense. If you know me and trust me, you want to work with me again.

exploring opportunities

Go see theatre!

The Gregory Awards at TPS was one of the best experiences in my first year here. One of my former Taproot mentors was closely connected to TPS and told me that they’re always looking for nominators for the local theatre awards, called the Gregories. The application is fairly simple, the main content questions being “Why do you want to be a Nominator” and “What qualifies you to assess a production”. (Go check it out if you’re in the area.)

Having a degree in theatre (during which I had to review 4 shows every semester), I was quite qualified enough, and I started receiving assignments. They sent me to theatres I’d never heard of, giving me reasons to go see shows I never would have thought to see, or had the budget to for some of them.

I saw the insanely high-tech Blithe Spirit, the charming community Treasure Island, the autobiographical one-man show Eulogy, or How to Plan Your Own Funeral and Have Fun Doing It, the space drama Jettison to Europa, the everlasting classic A Christmas Carol, and many more. I got to see good theatre, including my instant favorites, Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies and Cornelia’s Visitors by Julieta Vitullo.

This was the way for me to expand my theatrical horizons. Everyone in college always told me to go see theatre, but there were only a couple of theatres in town, making my experience rather one-note. Here, in Seattle, there’s at least three shows running on any given weekend, at theatres of every size and budget.

Unfortunately, I had to give up the Gregories last fall. Around the same time that I gave up NaNoWriMo, I was assigned to see 3 different shows in one weekend, and I was losing my mind. It became too much of a burden on my schedule. It could certainly be something I go back to in the future, but not until I get a firmer handle on my own schedule. It’s honestly really hard to go and see theatre when you make theatre yourself.

The Gregories was the absolute perfect way for me to make connections in town. Seeing an actor in a show, and then seeing them in a different context, makes an instant connection:

Backstage at Taproot: “Oh, my gosh! I saw you in Treasure Island!“

In the audience at Latitude: “Wait, weren’t you in Cornelia’s Visitors?”

Production meeting at Dandylyon: “We worked on Framing Device together!”

Getting to know names and faces, and simply connecting the dots, is how you network and build community. There are so many amazing people out there who do a lot of theatre, and it was such a fun season to be always making those connections, helping people know my face.

Now, does this one relate to all internships? Kind of! Whatever field you’re in, I bet that there’s something adjacent where you can go and meet people and notice the other companies that are in your field. Go to a convention, community events, job fairs. Say hi! Ask questions. Always make sure you’re making a friend and learning something new.

So, the whole point of this is to say that your internship is a time to explore. Go explore! Find an extra part-time or volunteer opportunity to round out your season of interning, in an adjacent role or something more out-of-the-box. While you’re learning and networking and meeting people, make the most out of it by doing it five other places as well. Those five other places will give you experience, connections, and potential job opportunities in the future, if you don’t get hired on full-time after your internship.

I didn’t stay at Taproot forever; I was a better fit for a full-time at Dandylyon. Good thing I went searching on TPS for all those opportunities, and took this lil one where I was teaching two afternoons a week! It became my first “big girl” job, one where I can truly invest and contribute while growing myself.

TPS is still one of my pinned links on my Google homepage, but now, I think I only look at it every couple of months. Mostly to find out what my friends are doing, and if there’s any good theatre coming up that I can go see. But you never know… something might come up!