Where do the scenic, lighting, sound and costume designers come from? How does someone decide to be a director or a producer, or a casting agent? What about a stunt person? How does one decide to become a fight choreographer? How about someone who specializes in marketing for film or the theater? Does someone wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll go into craft services.” (on set food catering)

I think it starts with seeing a play or movie that pulls at your heart and gets under your skin. Or maybe it starts when you’re a child and you perform a song or a dance or make up a play that gets a reaction that makes you feel good. Perhaps it starts when you and your friends decide to make a movie or your teacher casts you in a play or you become one of Mother Ginger‘s children in The Nutcracker. I do know that if the first embers take hold and are fanned until the fires of passion ignite there is no stopping. One door will lead to the next where another door will open and before you know it you have to be involved somehow somewhere in this great world of magical make believe. The more you stay involved the more you understand how important every piece, every nuance, weaves together to make whole cloth. Your passion finds its place where it can best shine…and sometimes it’s in the audience seat as a passionate viewer.