Good Advice from Direct Experience

I turned 50 not long ago, so I feel I am old enough to share a few general life lessons.

This won’t take long.

• Own your life.
  • Do your own thinking.
  • Take responsibility for your feelings.
  • Your circumstances can be an explanation, but not an excuse.
    • My nearsightedness is more of a day-to-day problem for me than my autism, by a good margin. No one fundraises for my nearsightedness. Just saying.
  • Trust your stuff (whatever that stuff happens to be).
    • It is your job to figure out what your stuff is.

If you don’t know, choose the option that leaves the most other options open.

• Sometimes that means stalling, and that’s OK. I mean, it’s like deliberately fouling to stop the clock, but that’s a legitimate tactic.
• If you know – then do it. Nike is right about that.
• Define yourself as broadly as possible. When you say stuff like “as an [x] I believe….” you are artificially narrowing your perspective, and thereby leaving out options to no gain.
  • I am a discrete entity within the time-space continuum, with a definable vector through space time and a known mass.
    • That may be carrying it a little far.

 

I have become fond of the Four Agreements of Toltec Wisdom:

• Keep your word.
• Take nothing personally.
• Avoid Assumptions.
• Do Your Best.

 

General Work advice:

• You can get a job by knowing what you’re doing. You make a career by taking responsibility for getting it done.
• Getting yourself into position to do the work well is never a waste of time.
  • Seriously: measure twice – cut once.
  • Just wear or use the fucking PPE.
  • Absolutely double-check that you have everything before you crawl/climb into the confined space/stupid high place.
• Building relationships is never a waste of time.
  • Decisions aren’t made in meetings. They are made in the hallway conversation afterwards.

 

Specific to stagecraft:

The four Ks:

• KNOW the system you are working with.
• KEEP it in good working order.
• KNOW what you’re doing
  • And make certain everyone else involved knows the plan as well.
• KEEP your concentration.

 

The Three A’s

• ATTITUDE
• ABILITY
• AVAILABILITY

These are all equally important in who gets scheduled.

 

Traits of a good stagehand (in order of priority):

• Show up sober.
• Be able to follow verbal instructions
• Get along with strangers (because you will do this every day)
  • Don’t panic
  • Don’t be a dick.
• Pay attention
  • This is the number one factor in sfaety
  • Also, you can learn things.
• Remain flexible
• Take the craft seriously.

 

With the exception of life and safety, nothing important actually happens backstage.

 

Writing Advice:

• Show don’t tell.
• Death to cliches.
• Keep your ass in the chair.
  • Anyhting you write down is more productive than an empty page.
• It is your job to figure it out.

 

Also, I dreaded writing this thing for about a week, but the answer turned out to be just sit down and write it.

 

Now you know.