Things I Learned from Jobs Where I Was Wildly Underpaid

In the arts, we talk a lot about how miserable the pay is out here but often justify it with following our dreams, how expensive it is to make art so of course there’s not much left for salaries, how difficult fund raising is… etc., etc., etc. The vast majority of time I’m on the side of “pshhhht, this is bs.” If you can’t properly fund a project, don’t try to hire professionals to work it. However. There have been a few times over the years where I worked very low paying jobs and sometimes I actually took away a few life lessons from them. Into the Woods, JR I worked a summer for a regional conservatory and stage managed their summer camp production. The most important thing I learned is I hate working with kids. Like… you really could never pay me enough to do a theater camp with kids again. And sometimes learning what you hate to do is actually worth something. Because there are plenty of summer jobs out there working kids programs and some of them actually pay well. Now I know I want literally nothing to do with any of them. Oddly enough, while learning that I hate working with kids, I learned I kind of love mentoring. My ASM was a college kid going into her senior year and I really enjoyed getting to know her, teaching her how to make scene shift plots and talking about stage management and her goals with her. The Midnight Frolic I learned I can do more than just stage managing during this job. I was hired on as PSM, but the job description was very vague and by the end I felt like I had taken on a massive pile of tasks I never would’ve thought I could do under other circumstances including dance captain and music director (not remotely as well as someone trained properly could’ve done them), as well as overhauling some of the spending on the show. I also gained a greater appreciation for times where I do have a full team. Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical

The only time I’ve worked an Equity-esque show was this strange little Equity Guest Contract, and it was with a performer who very much insisted on the Equity way of things. So I wound up learning a lot in a crash course during that little two week show.

I got to work in Hilton Head - which I'd heard about but never been to. I’ve also gotten a lot of other job offers from the director. Unfortunately, they’re all in a similar pay range of Tenderly. This show was such a travesty, there are no pictures.

Beat the Drum for Haiti

I learned some shows can’t be saved.

The King’s Players

The very first company I worked for was a tiny little theater company that toured around doing “don’t do drugs” skits and went to churches on Sundays to do a play about family communication to raise money for our company.

It was my first taste of touring at all and I learned I loved the challenges of trying to figure out each venue and seeing how the show would need to be tweaked in each new city to fit the new space. I learned I was fascinated in the spots you don’t usually get to go to – like prisons and juvenile detention facilities. I learned I could tolerate long stretches of time in a van.

Have you ever taken a gig that didn’t pay nearly enough? Did it at least have some other type of pay off for you?