Kim’s Domain

So since coming back from Cleveland, despite all my efforts to get employed right away, I have been jobless. I didn’t mind at first; I was pretty tired by the end of the season at Cleveland. It was nice to be able to sleep in and spend the first few days back reading the new Harry Potter. But now, it’s reaching a critical point. I’m not making money, so I’m hesitant to run out and go to museums and my favorite restaurants, bars and coffee shops every day. I watched the entire Season 7 of Buffy on DVD already. I interviewed for a Stage Management position for Noble Fool, a dog walker position for a pet-sitting company, dropped off countless applications at Starbucks across the city and sent my resume to countless theater companies. Nothing. I even offered to volunteer for a theater company in my community, but got no response.

What I have been doing is taking a self defense class, which I’ve always wanted to do, getting back in touch with friends I haven’t talked to in a while, seeing theater, and exercising regularly. And I finally have a job: I signed on to stage manage for Piven Theater, and I have an appointment to sign up with a Temp agency next week that sounds promising. I’ve also finally gotten in touch with Chicago Opera Theater, so I know I have that to look forward to.

Here’s the madness. A couple weeks ago I found myself thinking about the history of stage management. Specifically, I wondered what led to the emergence of the this position. The easy and obvious answer is that theatrical productions over time got more complicated and required someone separate from the director to organize the various departments and oversee the backstage running of the shows. But I’m curious to find out when this occurred, how early in the development of modern theater, and whether the stage manager emerged from an assistant director position, from being an actor, or as a separate person all together.

It’s one thing to just be curious and do research on this…it’s an entirely other thing to contemplate writing a book. Yes, I am contemplating writing a book. What if there are other dorks out there who care enough about their position in theater they want to know how the position came to exist in the first place? Like me, they have to go to many different sources to search out an answer. If a book existed, they’d only have to go to one place to at least get a good enough overview to satisfy their curiousity. Or maybe I’m the only person in the world remotely interested in this topic.

Okay, maybe not a book exactly. But I’m hoping to take down enough detailed notes and bibliographic information that one day I can jot out an essay or something. I may want to go to grad school one day.