Hey Pal,

I know you're thinking about quitting. You probably hear that voice in your head telling you that you'll never make any money. That you won't get a job. That there is no way you will ever succeed in theatre. That you'll need for or five jobs just to support yourself, and you won't have any time for theatre. And to top it all off, that voice probably belongs to your mom, or dad, or both.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure you have great parents, but they're wrong. Odds are that they don't know what it takes to be a theatre major. They don't see you pull two all-nighters in a row because you're entering tech week of a show and literally have no time for the three papers and 2 projects you have due, all for different classes I might add. They don't see you killing yourself to get everything in if not on time, at least as close to on time as you can get it. They don't see you going to that 8 a.m. class that you hate, but you need to graduate, and then lugging everything you own in your backpack across campus to get to your Center of the Arts building.

After you get to what you consider your building, because lets face it you practically live there, you're there for most likely the next 12 hours, 10 if you're lucky. You go to classes, work on your homework in the half hour break you have between 2 out of the 4 classes in your major, maybe take a nap on one of the couches in the Green Room. You finish up your classes, and then go grab something to eat, again most likely in the same building, and then you have maybe two hours of down time before you need to be at rehearsal. Maybe you watch a show on Netflix, or maybe you keep working on the paper that's kicking your ass because honestly how much new information can you really find on Inn-Yard Theatres? And then before you know it, it's time for rehearsal.

If you're a Stage Manager, or an Assistant Stage Manager, or an Assistant Director, you grab a seat at one of the tech tables out in the house (the audience), and you settle in for the next 4-5 hours. If you're an actor you grab your script and a pencil and run your track (your part).

You look at your script and make notes and try not to go cross-eyed. When you're done for the night you're far from going home. You know that you won't get anything done at home, or you dorm, or wherever it is you live, so you find an empty table somewhere in a little nook or cranny where no one will disturb you. And no one will disturb you because you know the theatre so well that only your close friends will be able to find you, so it's just you and the ghosts. Not kidding about the last part either, if your theatre is anything like mine, it's haunted. When you're finally done it's close to 4 or 5 am and you're trying to sneak out of the building so the janitors don't catch you. After you make it out of the building having avoided all of the janitors, you're praying that the CO's didn't give you a parking ticket. Even though you probably have gotten at least 3 this past semester because the parking lot closes at 2 a.m.

Then you go home, collapse in your bed, or the couch depending on how far you get. Sleep for maybe 2 or 3 hours, and get up and do it all over again.

All of this is enough to make anyone want to quit. Even more so if all you hear at night when you're trying to sleep is that you're not good enough, you won't make it, you'll never be successful. But you need to push past all of the nonsense, you need to chase that voice out of your head and replace it with mine. You can do this. You will make it in the theatre world. There are so many jobs out there, and so many amazing people that remember what it was like coming up in the industry, and are more than willing to help you.

So, please, please, don't quit. We need you. We need whatever magic you bring to the table. So keep taking strides to reach your dream, and if you need someone to believe in you, in your dream, then you have me. A Stage Management major from Wisconsin who until recently didn't have a lot people who actually believed I could do this.

Sometimes the strangest things get you through, even if it's a stranger believing that you are so capable of this, it's crazy. So keep dreaming, keeping doing theatre, because if you're anything like me, it's saved you one or twice.