My Comfy Job

Before working at Microsoft I was a:

Bus boy

Bartender

Unskilled labor guy

Surgical orderly

Salon Manager

High School Drama Teacher

Airport Limo Driver

King County Land Plat Office Word Perfect Wiz

Receptionist, Communications Assistant, Promotions Producer, video editor and Producer - all at KCTS.

And in-between all of the above were countless acting and directing jobs. I've been a singing and dancing salt shaker. For the love of God, I did MIME!!!!

KCTS was the first gig that became something like a career and the first that offered reasonably good health care. A quote in Playwrights' Nurturing is the Focus of Study (New York Times, January 15, 2010), there's a quote about bad teeth that hit home. My teeth are something like 50% fillings. I learned a lot at KCTS, like the almost inevitable dysfunctions that come with being a not-for-profit organization.

My current job is not all that "comfy" (Mullin's word, not mine). I like it, but it can be brutal. I work with super smart people. Smart people can be fun, but they're also a constant reminder that I have a BFA in acting. I like that I make decent money. Growing up, we had no money. Poverty sucks. I like that I can support child development programs in my old neighborhood.

Ten years in a for-profit corporation has taught me that the world is full of smart, ambitious, creative, inventive people who dream up crazy things, make them a reality, sell them and make money. I swear, the only difference between entrepreneurs and most of the theater people I know is that the entrepreneurs have better imaginations.

We are living in a time when great stories are being told - stories that are thematically driven, explore universal themes, have broad appeal and exert an influence on our culture. The vast majority are being told in the vital forms of our time, TV and film. Our theater is a future footnote. That footnote will describe how the film industry extended the brand of their most successful properties by turning them into Broadway musicals.

If you want theater to be relevant, figure out a way to make it necessary to a large and diverse audience. If you want to ensure its continued decline, keep doing what you're doing.