Oedipus and Interviews

Yesterday was a busy and important day.

First, I was up at 4AM to take the Artist to the airport. She was off to South Carolina for a family wedding and rather than pay to park, asked for a ride. Since I'm often up that early (or nearly), I said yes.

Then it was back home to walk the dogs, sans one leash, and prep for my day. For me, it was an unusual prep because it included putting on a little make-up. I know! ME! But we had a guest artist coming to one of my classes who could potentially employ me as an actor some day . . . so one must look one's best!

We had BFA auditions starting at 9AM on campus and that ran until shortly after 11AM. Then I had a short break before I welcomed that guest artist from the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis. I actually know her from DC and we have one mutual friend who is dear to us both, so I was really looking forward to seeing her.

She arrived and we had a great 2-hour class visit. As I was escorting her out, she asked if I was planning on auditioning for their summer show. I said, "DEFINITELY" and we said good-bye. I am keeping my fingers crossed for that!

Then I met with a student. Though my full-time Alexander training has been put on hold, I have a few students I work with at school. It's important practice for me and I believe is doing good things for them, as well.

At 3PM the real fun began. As those who read this blog regularly know, I am once again conducting a job search. I have applied for the tenure track position I am covering for the year, but as nothing is guaranteed, I need to be pro-actively searching elsewhere. I am happy to say I made it to "semi-finalist" status here and yesterday I had my phone interview.

Yup. Phone interview. It's a weird thing being the internal candidate. Though I have a relationship with everybody interviewing me, they must follow the same procedure for hiring as they do for all candidates which includes a phone interview. What is especially weird is that they call me from the Dean's office just down a couple floors and must introduce themselves and ask questions as if they don't know me or my work. It's a NUTTY process. And though I understand why it must be done this way, I can't help but think it's a bit stupid. And uncomfortable. They, of course, asked why I was interested in the position and I didn't feel like I could say "because I like it here". I mean, I want them to know that, but how do I let them know that without being too informal??? Grrr. Dumb and dumb.

So I finish that stressful interview just in time to do a final prep for my first design/concept meeting for Oedipus! UGH. Frankly, I think this one had me a little more stressed than the job interview. Seriously. Oedipus is a HUGE play with an enormous history and here's little old me directing it. Plus, being the new kid in town, I felt the meeting was a proving ground of sorts for some of my design colleagues. I had to come in with strong, cohesive ideas and be prepared for a barrage of questions. It was shaking in my boots when we got started!

But I had done my prep work and felt it went well. Of course, what I felt may have been relief to have such a big day over and done! I'm just hoping the designers are excited and have enough information to do what they do best - take my little ideas and RUN with them.

So by 5:30PM I was toast. I just drove home, had a lame little dinner (I desperately need to go grocery shopping!) and sat in front of the TV. I started watching The Wizard of Oz, but have seen it so many times gave up and went to bed to read for a bit. I finally crashed . . . but woke up in the middle of the night having interview and Oedipus nightmares.

SIGH. I guess I can look forward to a lot of sleep deprivation: the interview process is on-going until I land a job and Oedipus doesn't open until April.

Maybe I'll get some sleep in May.