I’m glad she’s going to go for make-up, I think it is one of the most fun tech jobs.
I’ve always loved theater and have worked on probably 30 shows - yet I have only been onstage once. (It wasn’t my fault; my boyfriend was the lead and the director cast me in a group scene and made up a line for me.) I love tech - the “power behind the throne” so to speak. A stage manager I trained under was fond of telling actors who got uppity with her “don’t piss me off. If I don’t do my job nobody will see or hear you do yours”.
And let me just add that it’s not your place to be their “agent” or to dispute the director’s or coach’s or whoever’s decision. Your job is to encourage your child to continue pursuing his/her goals and improving their craft if that is what they really want.
She did make-up (actually mainly the wigs) for one play last year where they built a huge nose on one guy. At one performance I happened to be sitting next to that actor’s folks who said every night their kid complained about that blasted nose, how ugly it made him look, etc. We laughed when I told them that every night my kid came home and said how much fun they had putting this ridiculous nose on this one guy, making him look so ugly, etc…
And thanks, msmith. I don’t think we are the type of parents who dispute directors’/coachs’/teachers’ calls. And believe me, when our kids are being “little bitches” we have no qualms about telling them as much in so many words. “Suck it up” is a phrase they are quite familiar with, along with “Life’s not fair” or my youngest’s favorite, “Rub some dirt in it!”
I started doing tech for our theatre company in high school too. If you work hard, and stick around to help out when needed the teacher/director will take notice. I ended up getting some smaller roles in later productions, because I did all the other little things that needed to be done.
I played Spearchucker Jones (even though I’m white) in a production of MASH, Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing, and even though I sing worse than William Hung I got the largest non-singing role in The Sound of Music as the butler Franz. I still did tech for a number of other shows including designing the lighting and running the lighting board for the battle of the bands.
