Life Goals And Other Random Musings

My apartment is a cave. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing tends to shift from moment to moment. It's mostly ok except when I am working on a number of projects at once, especially scene design*, and the work spreads out everywhere.

What would help to even that out would be to have studio space that was somewhere else. I have been looking into that possibility, but I am somewhat nervous about having enough work to pay for that. I could certainly make enough money if I worked more over hire, but that would eat up the time I could be working in the studio.

The other aspect of the cave that is somewhat troublesome is how unwelcoming it might seem to someone else. I like to cook for people, but I am too self- conscious about the toilet you have to jiggle in just the right way to make it work, etc, to invite someone to dinner. I could move, but I love the neighborhood I live in and could never afford to live here if I were not paying the below market rent my father is charging me. I don't drive, so living out in the boonies to get the sort of rent I could currently afford is not really an option.

The conclusion would seem to be that I need to make more money. Over the past few years, the amount of design work I have had has been on a steady decline. Interestingly, I am in general making more per show as time goes by, so other than this calendar year my income from designing has held fairly steady**.

I have no hard explanations for why the decline in design gigs has happened, but I have some theories.

First, I joined the Union. While this was a logical step for me to take, it made me more expensive for some employers. I know of one theatre in particular that fell under the Bay Area contract and the minimum put me out of their price range. It was not that I did not know this was going to happen when I joined but it did have an effect.

Another contributing factor has been people with whom I had long standing relationships moved from their positions. This has been especially true for theatres out of town.

The economy went down the toilet. Theatres cut back on their programming, or worse yet closed their doors. They also got more conservative in their choices, not just in terms of material but also in terms of who they hired. They became less willing to work with new people.

There is more high quality competition in town than there really was even three years ago.

A couple of years ago I drew a line for myself that I would not work for less than a certain dollar amount. There have been one or two exceptions because it was a project I really wanted to work on, but in general that minimum has meant there are some theatres are not going to hire me.

So what do I do about this trend of decline? I am not entirely sure. I have never been very good at promoting myself. I think maybe I am getting better at it, and hopefully having an agent now will help to get me out of this slump.

On a more cheerful note, I am starting to get really excited about the 2012/ 13 season. I suppose the newest update is I am designing scenery and lighting for American Utopias at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in March. It will be challenging because the schedule for load- in and tech is very tight, but from the conversations we have had so far I think the show will be awesome.

There are thoughts about family life, dating, starting a Not For Profit and beginning to think about the time when I might retire, but they will have to wait for another post.

Peace in yer crease.

* There is a huge amount of space required in Scene Design, especially when you start working on the scale model. Even though I draft on the computer, I still begin the design process with pencil and paper and lots of visual research to look at all at once.

** Though the dollar amount of my income has been fairly consistent over the past several years, it has in no way kept pace with inflation. So I am actually making less than I was three years ago.