Advice for a recent grad

[lalibretti]

Hi, I recently graduated from my undergrad with a B.F.A. in lighting design. I worked as master electrician, stage manager, and production manager for tour while in school. Now that I've gradated I'm wondering how to get started in biz, I currently have a desk job to pay the bills, and I would like to be working production again.

Any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

A few questions to consider

1.What do you REALLY want to be doing?
2.Are you tied to a location?
3.How much money do you need to make in a month to get by?(student loans, car loans, etc)
4.Do you have any good contacts you can utilize from the tours you did?

You have a ton of options, you could start by picking up stage hand work on the weekends if you want to keep your current job, you could apply to cirque, a cruise ship or circus of theme park. You could find a local production company to get in with or you could scour the web for job listings or find out about gigs through your friends.

What do you want to do?

 

[lalibretti]

1. I want to be working for dance company, as a designer/stage manager
2. Only financially, my day job doesn't pay much. I also live in an area that doesn't have a very large scene here.
3. The more the better right?
4. My contacts have not been able to help me out.
I know that type of shows I want to work on aren't in my area. I live in Florida, the arts in high demand where I live.
Your questions are making me think about what it is that want, which is helping rule out a few things.

 

[JBrennan]

I was in your spot a couple of years ago and found my current job through the Arts Search web site. I think it cost 60 bucks a year to join, but it has the most comprehensive job listings in the business, and is a hell of a lot more focused than using Monster.com, Craigslist, etc. You can also go in on the cost with other graduates or friends and help bring the price down.

Theatre Communications Group - The New ARTSEARCH


Similarly the USITT website has job listings, though they tend to be looking for MFA holders or people with 5+ years working professionally to work in an academic institution.

Good luck.

 

[Footer]

I was in your spot a couple of years ago and found my current job through the Arts Search web site. I think it cost 60 bucks a year to join, but it has the most comprehensive job listings in the business, and is a hell of a lot more focused than using Monster.com, Craigslist, etc. You can also go in on the cost with other graduates or friends and help bring the price down.

Theatre Communications Group - The New ARTSEARCH



Similarly the USITT website has job listings, though they tend to be looking for MFA holders or people with 5+ years working professionally to work in an academic institution.

Good luck.

Many universities with any type of active arts program will have a membership for the university. I still use my universitys login to look and see what is out there. Call your career center at the university you left and see if they have a login. Jobs posted on artsearch tend to be more salaried/year around positions vs. backstagejobs.com.

Now, back to the OP.

If you like to stage manage and I assume lighting design(?) you are the right kind of person for 75% of dance companies out there. Most dance companies want someone who can come in, act as production manager/stage manager/lighting designer and essentially take care of all of the "tech stuff" for them. The smaller companies can not afford a full production team. Usually, its a 1 day rehearsal if your lucky, day of show programming, evening show type of situation. My wife and I have done this type of thing a few times if we are avaible. Sometime it involves doing a remount in another city which can just add to the fun. That being said... the pay is not all that great. However, it is a good way to get started and get your name out there. Fire your resume' and a link to your website/portfolio out to different dance companies in the area and see what happens. There is one issue with this type of work though.... you are probably going to have to be in a major city or near a major city such as Chicago, NYC, LA, Atlanta, Seattle, and San Francisco. Otherwise, keep your eye on artsearch. Know however that many places never request resume's for designers. Instead, just like actors they expect designers to come to them through either word or mouth or by cold calls.

 

[erichart]

Playbill.com also has job postings.
Summer theatres and festivals are great for technicians just starting out; most hire hordes of people still in school or recently graduated. You get a lot of experience in a short amount of time, and you build up quite a good network; I still keep in contact with a lot of the people I worked with at the Santa Fe Opera six years ago.
You have to be careful, as a great number of summer stock companies treat their technicians poorly; low pay, long hours and bad facilities can actually teach you poor working habits and leave you worse off than before. But if you ask around and do your research, you can find the good ones.
A lot are already posting their available positions online now. If you have a chance to go to SETC or USITT, you can sign up for their job fairs and possibly meet and be interviewed by a half a dozen or more companies in a single weekend.

 

[derekleffew]

1. I want to be working for dance company, as a designer/stage manager ...

Ask Grog12 and MNBallet how they got their jobs.

 

[MuseumGuy]

One of the best things that worked for me was to work at a rental/touring/production house in their shop. You get your hands on tons of gear you may not have ever seen before, you get to know how your particular market works, make tons of contacts (network network network!) and get to work in an area of production that a lot of people don't think of first when they look for jobs right out of school. If I remember right Production Resource Group (PRG) has an office in Orlando, as does a company called Frost Lighting. It can be very fast-paced work if you're a quick study and like to work.

The only advice I feel I'm qualified to give to new grads is to not limit yourselves to stage production. Broaden your job search a bit and you'll be suprised what you'll find!

 

[lalibretti]

This has been helpful and really made me think. Thanks for the responses. Right now I'm looking into applying for summer dance festivals as tech to get more experience, where I live there's not a lot of dance happening, (or anything else for that matter) fingers crossed for summer work!

 

[derekleffew]

Are Jacob's Pillow and the Spoleto Festival on your list? (Other online job listings are included at the end of the collaborative article Getting a Job in the Industry.)

As far as nothing happening where you live, get used to that. In this business you must be willing to travel to where the work is. Many professional actors/dancers/designers live in NYC, but are out on tour September through June, if not year-round.

 

[gafftaper]

The key point to consider is that you have to choose one of these options:
-Move to where the work is
-Get a job locally in the educational world (which may require further degrees)
-Not doing theater as your primary career

Your choice makes a big difference in how you attack the option. If I was your age I would throw myself at either a cruise ship or theme park and while I started applying to Cirque (not expecting to get hired for a few years). In the mean time, see the world while you build your resume! Switch it up now and then with work at a big summer festival. Diversify and build your hands on experience. Give it a few years and Cirque will start taking your applications a lot more seriously.