Work Hard - Play Hard

Even as I started to work on the set for my first play in college I was not yet sure if Theatre was going to be my career.

I knew I loved working on plays, building and painting sets, working on the lighting and sound, but I did not know if I had what it would take to become a professional.

I did not take long for me to realize that I was doing what I loved and I was working with other students who were just like me and that this is what I wanted to do.

I still had a lot to learn but it was challenging and fun at the same time.

After working on the first play I would work on three dance concerts in a row.

I would help hang and focus the lights as well as run the two-scene preset control board.

When I left for school at the end of the summer I had no idea what I was getting into, but just after a few months and several productions I was hooked.

I worked on many more productions then I was required to for class.

I often would return to the dorm late after rehearsals and performances and missed a few parties but there was still plenty of time to engage in what to many college students is the most important thing about college: Drinking.

I always had a core of non-theatre friends to hang and party with, but I soon spent more time working and partying with my fellow theatre students.

Back in 1974 the drinking age was still 18 and bars closed at 4am in Buffalo.

There was always time after a show to get a drink or two.

I enjoyed going to the student club because it had the one thing that college guys liked more than drinking: Girls.

I liked dancing in the club, but within a few years the music shifted from Doobie Brothers to Disco and I enjoyed it a bit less.

I do remember this one girl who lived near me in the dorm who I always liked to dance with.

I remember her for a number of things, she was nice, good looking and had two different color eyes; one green, one blue.

She would soon transfer to another school and I lost my favorite dance partner.

A year or so later while I was visiting my brother at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn this very same girls walked out of the dorm room next to his.

Small world.

I found early on that Theatre was a lot of hard work when done right, but also I found that everyone would party just as hard when the work was over.

Nothing tastes as good as that first beer after you have been working in the Theatre for twelve hours or more building, painting or running a show.