I had a few months to review my decision and while at first I felt that I had made the wrong decision, as time went by I felt that I had to at least give it a try. During the summer I started to tell friends, colleagues, and former co-workers of my decision to return to concert production and they all welcomed me back and offered encouragement and support.
4 comments:
The author recognizes one of the most crucial aspects to working in theatre; collaboration is an absolute necessity. Collaborating willingly, however, is something completely different, and is often a common element found in successful productions. While some may argue that due to the interlocking, inter-dependent nature of jobs in the performing arts, co-workers save each other to save themselves. I walked into Design and Production expecting it to be one of the most head-to-head competitive environments I had ever been in. The steady stream of creativity that was expected of us would leave anyone feeling vulnerable. Watching your work get quantified into grades at midsemester unleashes insecurity. And it is often those in states of extreme vulnerability and insecurity that feel compelled to "fight" or compete for their right to be in such a program. These are our proving grounds. Imagine my surprise when studio turned out to be one of the singularly most supportive places I have ever worked in. There is an element of collaboration and support unlike anything I have experienced prior. The author of this article really touches on that, even bolding the phrase. While you can't be an island when producing a performance, whether you are willing to act as a bridge or not dictates that success of that undertaking.
I love that this woman is sharing her experiences with the world loudly and proudly. It is interesting to see how being a woman has impacted her work and lifestyle as someone who works in concert production audio. While the number of women in fields such as audio and technical direction is slowly increasing, it is still a huge problem in our industry. Let me re-phrase... It CAN be a huge problem in our industry. This woman points out in the article that it is not just her who feels insecure, but the men around her have also expressed the same sentiment. This makes me wonder if there is a deeper problem in the audio world that stems out of a cut-throat, competitive environment. Reading this is so interesting to me, because I never viewed the audio world in such a way. Regardless, I appreciate this woman's transparency and willingness to share her thoughts and experiences with other women who may want to go down her same path, but would be too afraid to without the courage of those who come before them.
I might have had a different opinions on this but I don't see the reasons of why being a woman in sound world would be a problem. Like, why? This might be just because my lack of experience, but as of someone who at least used to spend a short amount of time working in sound department with all the audio engineers and technicians in theatre and live concert, being a woman actually brought me some benefits and actually all the guys treated me with fully respect (and never let me lift any heavy things) and they listen to what I said. I think as long as you have self confident and knows what you are doing, and being good at it, gender is not an issue. You might look at me as an ignorant but that has been my self experiences.
Yes, the hard part was when you have to take the first step in and proves everyone that you are capable to work and you are actually pretty awesome. But everyone does that, I have to prove myself too people as an SM too. I really appreciated that she is very honest about her feelings and I hope she will be able to build up her confident and get over all the fears and insecurity. No one born with 100% knowledge and confident, and even the most confident person in the world could feel down and insecure many times in her life, but it's human facts and that's why we have to keep moving on while building and shaping ourselves to the best version we can be.
This is a question that I am constantly asking myself on a daily basis. The conclusion that I have come to is yes. I chose to live my life to its fullest potential with no regrets. There are times when i look back and realize that I might not have made the best decision in hindsight it might not have been the greatest decision, but I believe that it was the best option at the time, and will stand my by choices.
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