My Kinda Town.

I took an absolutely soul warming seminar about "the Biz" in this town. Yeah. You read that right. Soul Warming.
I had a lot of angst/worry/secondguessing/etc. about not picking up and moving to New York or LA after grad school. The school was on the east coast, so the "natural" move was to the Big Apple, or LA, since "you gotta do it before you're old and ugly". Or something.
But I didn't chose either. I decided to come back to here to work in the theatre market that I know and love. Of course there are amazing houses around the entire country and I want to work at all of them. But this is my home base. Everything happens here, and I don't need to be a celebrity to get noticed. If I want an acting gig in New York, I'm in competition with Puff Daddy (Yes. Really. He was in Raisin in the Sun) because he gets butts in the seats.
Anyway.
This workshop was exactly what I needed. A semi-toughlovebutmostlypeoplereallyexcitedabouttheirtownandbusiness day talking to everyone from casting directors to agents to people on the business side of the unions and how all that works and blah blah blah stuffishouldalearnedinschoolbutwasn'tpartofwhattheythoughtwasimportant type stuff.
The chinese pole act in the show is going really well and I'm suprised and thrilled that it's come together as well as it did.
This town is about working actors. I'm not going to be put into a box unless I put me there. I can wear a lot of different hats, and I'm expected to. You have no idea how fantastic it was to hear that. Especially after hearing, in similar Q&A sessions in LA showcases, that "theatre and training is a waste of time, will never make me money, or happy, so I might as well move to LA while I'm young." Yeah. Fuck you lady in LA who said that to my class. I'm doing this my way.