Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Day Two-Hundred Nineteen: Where I Came From (Prologue)

Time for a retrospective.

I've been thinking a lot lately about where I've been and how it's made me what I am today. I'm speaking artistically at the moment. More specifically, I'm thinking in terms of theatre. My journey to twenty-seven-year-old professional actor/director/playwright for Young Audiences has been crazy and awesome. I look back at the hundreds of different actors, directors, and techies I've met at every level--volunteer, educational, professional--and I realize I wouldn't have traded this journey for anything. Not the people, not the places, not the shows. Not even the lousy ones. And there have been some lousy ones.

I want to write all this out. I want to be forced to remember people and anecdotes and rehearsals and audiences. (Holy crap, I'm getting excited about this project just thinking about it!!!) I want to trace my career from the bratty Thor Waldgrave in Wellington Community Theater's The Nerd in 1992 to the guy who wrote and directed Hero Squad last February. How did that happen? How am I so blessed that, seventeen years after a hyper, attention-seeking kid got bitten by the bug (not TaDaa, I'm pretty sure TaDaa wasn't around then), I'm still doing this every day. Over one hundred productions later, it's still magic.

Basically, how on earth did I get here???

And I know and have learned that life's seasons change. There's a good chance I won't be doing this for the rest of my life. And that's scary/heartbreaking to think about. But I'm here now.

And I'm going to reach back and remember as many of the steps that brought me here as I possibly can.