In which I sound like a total idiot.

Bruised Orange's production of 'DeTermination' began last week, and I house managed the preview. I had intended to blog about that, and a half dozen other things, but I then went away to the forest to meditate and get my head straight.

I don't know if it worked. I still want to do arts administration.

The title of this blog is really stupid and pretentious. It was done without thinking, and was more a reaction to the blogs that want to show you 'behind the scenes' of whatever group the poster is part of. The show itself is dramatic and glamorous, but whatever's going on behind the scenes is always so much more amazing and awesome somehow. Maybe it's the hint of exclusivity. What do the pretty people get up to?

None of these blogs talk about the room.

There's always a room. The room can be a series of cubicles inside a theatre complex. It can be a trailer at a faire. In my case, it's a laptop wherever I can find a quiet place.

This room is full of telephone numbers, charts, graphs, to-do lists, and piles of emails. It's the fifth element of theatre. Audience,Actor,Stagecraft,Author,Room.

The room at times feels like the antithesis of theatre. No one goes into theatre to manage receipts, or calculate unemployment insurance, or present a foundation the demographic breakdown of audience members for financing that targets projects that will attract millenials...

Because of that, the work becomes the unpleasant chore for one or more members of the company. Watching an actor working two jobs to fulfill their dream of playing Macbeth spend their few spare hours negotiating a grant application is not a pretty sight. Everyone knows they need the room, and someone to be in it...They just don't want to be the ones inside the room.

My degree, and the work I'm doing, puts me square in the room. And I have to ask myself why I'm here. Being in the room means putting together a receipt and accounting system before wednesday. It means looking up the board's emails and phone#'s so they can get access to a database. It's finding a way to tell a large theatre that the reason your company is so successful with a target demographic is because of all the awesome things you do...And make sure the theatre doesn't realize the answer is 'they're the only ones who show up'.

It's puffing yourself up to bigger companies so you can swipe their lists.
It's turning your crazy drinking buddy who works at CNA into an excited board member.
It's making audience members excited that the pocket change they gave you goes to the light bulbs and space rental.
It's demographic breakdowns
It's applications
It's meetings
It's meetings
It's meetings

And the thing is, when I talk about it with others, I get so excited. I mean seriously excited. I can't stop talking about it. You want to hear about a large database training session I had with the League and Chicago Shakespeare? ASK ME! Holy shit, I will make your soul bleed with talk of netflix-style ordering of lists, and demographic breakdowns by religious affiliation and zip code. I can talk for hours with powerpoint slides about the utility of audience members visualizing where their contribution goes, down to the light bulbs ($16.53, but for only $510, you can get us an 8-piece set with 2 dimmers, clamps, cables and scaffolding! I'm sure you could afford $65.95 for four lamps! At that price there's no difference between buying a lamp or a bulb!).

I love this, and it's more than a little crazy. But it does something for me. Doing this, and loving this makes more theatre happen. It gives everyone else the breathing space to be their best. And that not only makes more theatre, but better theatre.

I live in the room. If I have my way, that room will -be- a room someday. With a window. Looking over backstage.

Step by step. Right now, I have to make a box office slip by Wednesday.