Help and Advice

apollo66

Member
Hi Everybody,
First off. This forum has always been a big help whenever I've needed advice. So thanks. Now, I'd like to tap the well of knowledge once again as I have an issue that is probably pretty common.

My wife and I are American citizens living overseas. I graduated with an Middle School Education degree (to pay the bills) and a theatre minor (its my passion). She graduated with a full Bachelor's in theatre and we've been happily married for 2 years now (life-story 'nuff said). We're looking to move back to the states. We're both 25 and have been working in non-theatrical jobs (her retail, me teaching) since we got married. We want to make some sort of theatre work (theme park, scenic work, lighting or even general stagehands) our life careers. I have some experience in lighting with addressing and programming basic Par Cans using a DMX software called Venuemagic. I used it after setting our local church up with a basic lighting system. We both worked backstage in college as well.

So here's the thing. We've been on backstagejobs.com for the last year applying and applying with very little results. We've tried just getting internships to get the experience first but we can't even get that! There are no local theatres to volunteer for down here (church is the closest thing) where we live and we don't have the time with the fulltime jobs that we have.

Does anybody have any advice or know of any leads that might help us out? Also, I'm attaching a link to my digital resume in case you might be able to forward it on or give some feedback.

Thanks Again!

apollo66

Nathan Terra Online Resume - Lighting and Scenic Design
 
Nathan,

Sorry to hear you are struggling with finding work! Since you are already a teacher, have you considered asking the high-schools/middle schools in your area what they do as far as lighting for their shows? In my community that is a very large, and fairly competitive, business. Of course, it wouldn't provide much money, but if you just need more to put under your belt, and it might make you a few extra bucks! Around here, it's not uncommon to find a school that is unhappy with the mediocre lighting it has (assuming they have theater departments), might be your chance to save the day and get a reference.

Good luck!
 
I would consider looking for work at the high school level. With your education degree and tech experience, you may be a great candidate as an auditorium manager. It really takes some looking to find, but the positions are out there. Another thought is to look into cruise ships. I have several friends that work tech for shows on ships and love it. Also, they have opportunities for advancement since they have a large turn-over in employees. Just my $0.02
 

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