Day 11: It’s My Life . . . line

So today was my first day as an intern at Lifeline Theatre.  First thing after I arrived, I was escorted into the theatre to enjoy a matinee performance of “How to Survive a Fairytale”.  It’s a show for children about a boy named Jack who is the son of a princess and the Frog Prince.  In spite of his parent’s identities, Jack has grown up never having heard a fairytale (because his parents are afraid that the scary creatures in them will scare him).  Jack finds a book of fairytales, and gets lost in the Enchanted Forest.  Along the way, he falls into all of these fairytales and uses the book to help solve the problems within them.  It was such a cute story, and all the kids really loved it.  Then the kids had the chance to ask the actors questions about the show.  It was such a great way to start the day!

After that, we had lunch.  Because it was my first day, they ordered Jimmy John’s (whihc was super nice) and those of us who were there all ate together.  I ate with the Administrative Director (Allison), the Operations Manager (Erica), the Artistic Director (Dorothy), one of the actors from the matinee production, and two other interns.  It was nice to sit and chat with them for a while.  Sadly Nathan, one of the interns, is leaving next week.  But I still will work with Georgia (who is really outgoing and awesome) and an intern from Germany named Roman, who I haven’t met yet.

The rest of my afternoon was spent having meetings with Allison, Erica, Dorothy, and Lea (the Education Director).  They talked to me about what they do and about some of the opportunities that I’ll have when working with them.  Already, I have a few weekends that I know I will be working during shows.  In fact, the weekend that the Chicago Semester students are coming to Lifeline to see the show “Hunger” I will be house managing!  I will be working on Sunday, and I’m not sure if the students will be there that night or on Saturday, but it would be fun to look all professional and make the pre-show announcement when they are there!  Haha.

Tomorrow I’ll be sitting in on a staff meeting with the entire Lifeline staff and some of the board members.  That will take all morning, and I’ll just be observing of course, but it will be fun to see what goes on there.  Allison says I couldn’t have come at a better time because they will be discussing their plan for the next 10 years.  That will be fun to see!  Then I’ll spend the afternoon meeting with a few other staff members.  Most of that time I will be with the technical director.  Tech is what I know the least about (besides business) so I am a little nervous about that, but it’s all a part of the learning experience!

I know that I will be working at least one day on most weekends.  That’s theatre though.  We work during the week to prepare for the weekend, and that’s when we need the most help.  This will limit some of my social opportunities, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make up for that.  And some of the weekend gigs will be for benefits, or to preview the shows for the press and things like that.  I will get to go to the “after parties” in the theatre and have wine and cheese with press and theatre supporters.  That will be really fun!  And the more that I work during the evenings, the later that I have to come in to work during the day.  There are going to be days where I need to work into the evening, so I don’t need to come into work until like 4 in the afternoon, so that will be cool. 

All of us girls seemed to have good days at work.  Sadly, Kailee saw someone get mugged when she was on her way home, which was a little scary.  Luckily no one was hurt, but we are all a little nervous about being trapped on the trains during rush hour.  We’re trying to think of ways to hide our money in our coats and things.  Lol.

We plan on spending the rest of the night just hanging around the apartment and recovering from our busy days.  Cara is cooking us dinner right now—some curry dish that smells really yummy!  Tomorrow is another full day for all of us, and then we hope to go out for a drink or two to celebrate!  So far, we are all off to a great start and looking forward to the next three months at our internship sites.  God is good.

I miss you.  I love you.  Always. 

~ Julie ~