The rest of my life.

Today I had lunch with my friend Mike. I hadn’t seen him in seven months or so, so it was nice to catch up. We did a cappella together at BU, and we basically reminisced about performing and the people in our group, etc.

I’ve been asked a lot recently what my plans are for the rest of my life, and answering that is always tough. Not because I don’t know what I want, but because life doesn’t always follow plans, and while I know what would be ideal, I also know that to get set on one track means setting myself up for disappointment when the unexpected inevitably happens. I’ve spent much of my life planning exactly how I want things to go, for a while at least I’ll content myself with trying hard and hoping for the best.

What I do know is that I eventually want to settle in New York, hopefully Brooklyn, when I save up enough money. I’d like some kind of writing job where my hours will be flexible, so that I can audition for things.

I was thinking about how competitive the performing arts industry is, and how a recession makes it that much more difficult to break into, when I realized something: It’s not for lack of interest, and often it’s not even for lack of expendable income that the industry suffers. I believe it’s become too centralized. People think of New York as the place to be for theatre, and at the moment it is. But the problem is that there are other markets for the arts in the U.S. that are not being exploited. The countless productions not only on Broadway, but everywhere in New York are competing mercilessly with one another for an audience, when if they were elsewhere they’d thrive.

It’s great that there’s such an interest level in staging productions, but the market needs to branch out. I bet that South Florida would embrace more year-round professional theatre. The fact is, how many shows can one tourist possibly take in on a trip to New York? The most enthused patrons and those with the deepest pockets can only see so much.