Julian Leiserson has been one of our stellar house managers since 2008. She’s an opera veteran, a pro barista, and she specializes in giving our lounge patrons just the right “mood enhancers.” Wait…what? Read more to find out what she means!

How long have you been at the Magic?

Since Evie’s Waltz, November 2008. It was odd–the whole economy tanked overnight, yet I found a GREAT job in no time!

How did you get your job here?

Craigslist post like so many work-seeking San Franciscans; the other half is the then-Patron Services Coordinator was my best friend from college, and here I was coming down from 4 years as a stage manager + 2 years production manager (yes, concurrently) with a local opera company.

.

Working to be invisible.

What do you do? Describe a typical day.

I wake up, eat bacon, walk in the park… Somewhere along the way I land at the Magic wherein I either work to be invisible (if you have to find the house manager, they haven’t done their job) or make coffee, serve cookies, listen to theatre-goers talk about their day, and share behind-the-scenes trade “secrets” about why we are currently selling Twinkies. [Note: I bet we'd sell the other half of the Luis Alfaro one-man show (the handle of tequila) faster than we sell the Twinkies.]

What’s your favorite part of the job?

Being near theatre! I left my opera company for many reasons, but I love theatre and creativity beyond reason! I hope to return to stage managing but in the meantime I still get my backstage/behind-the-scenes fix!

Can you give us any trade secrets or Front of House Trivia?

Rumor has it I make the best/strongest Peet’s coffee. We do not serve hot chocolate, but any rainy day will have at least 3 requests for it. Patrons may not notice, but great pains are taken to thematically honor the show both in and out of the theatre itself: the art, the walls, even the music playing in the lounge before the show are tailored for each performance. “Mood enhancers” if you will.

Give us your funniest/best patron story. Who are the most interesting people you’ve met here?

Many memorable patron stories are often the unpleasant ones, but not always: One of my favorite moments was having my old supervisor from the bank show up one evening as an usher, reversing our authority roles. The most interesting people are the actors and techs, in my humble opinion. (I’m biased, obviously.) They have stories to melt your face with joy! Plus they love my coffee.

Favorite Magic show?

Tie between Evie’s Waltz and American Hwangap–how to choose between a powerful social commentary pertinent to young life in the US (there have been three shootings at my old high school in 10 years) or a personally moving story?
Oh hell, and Mauritus! What a fantastic show filled with amazing people and stellar dialogue!! I guess that’s the sign of a truly great company: so many good shows I can’t decide!

What advice do you have for people trying to get a job in theatre?

Just go and do it! Like all jobs, you have to start at the bottom, learn and observe, and work your way up. All theatres need ushers and volunteers. Oh, and networking! You can’t go wrong with too many theatre connections.

If you weren’t working at the theatre, what would you be doing?

But I AM working at the theatre! That’s a silly question! In fact, I am taking a hiatus from Responsible Adult Life by leaving for Europe for 7 weeks to visit 20 cities across 12 countries. Life Knowledge is worth more than any wages could earn you…except to buy your ticket to other places.

Since I left the opera and began working at the Magic, my day jobs have been a retail salesperson for a craft/scrapbooking store, an independent computer contractor for tax season, and a customer service representative for the homeowners association remittance department of a bank sending people to collections while repossessing their homes from a computer. I currently have no day job (until I return from Europe, that is). Welcome to the world of theatre!! In the words of my Facebook group: “I majored in something I enjoy and now I live in a cardboard box.”

Any funny stories about your boss, Patron Services Manager Baruch Porras-Hernandez?

Baruch is a saint! The full stacks of cups in inventory are like pillars of worship for this man in our temple of coffee and cream! He sits to count our till with us after each show because he knows we can’t do basic math some days, and yet he still loves us anyway!  <3

Jane Ann Crum: When did you become interested in the story of Oedipus?

Luis Alfaro: You kind of go through all the myths in grade school, don’t you? Then, when you get to junior high or middle school, the more complicated ones get introduced, right? [Laughter] Then, ten years ago, I was in Arizona on a residency and I went into a bookstore and the Greeks were on sale. They were selling ten plays for ten dollars, and I thought, “OMG, a Greek play a dollar!” [More laughter] The first one I read was Electra. I was working on this piece about a young girl who had murdered her mother in Tucson and it was amazing that these stories mirrored each other. That became my play, Electricidad. Ever since the Greeks entered my life ten years ago, finding the connections between the Greeks and now has become something of an obsession with me. Generally I write an adaptation followed by an original play and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last five or six years. I use the adaptation as a way of trying to become a better writer. The thing about the Greeks is that they’re so brilliantly written. In 90 minutes such extraordinary things happen–the whole cycle of life and death.

So you read Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and loved its structure and techniques. Are there visual things–images, for instance–that come to you when you’re writing?

For me, all writing is imagistic. When I first started to write [Luis studied playwriting with Cuban-American playwright, Maria Irene Fornes] one of the things Irene used to do was make us draw. I still draw; I storyboard my plays. And I believe that the theatre is one of those sacred places where you don’t have to travel in real time and you don’t have to ground a play in naturalism. My play Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner has a 750 lb woman who flies. I just wrote a play called Hero in which the bedroom walls of a young man who has come back from the Iraq war allow the war into his bedroom. I’m always dealing with imagistic, fantastical ideas that the Greek plays lend themselves to–that your nightmares can become prophecies.

Yet your plays are written to be very simply staged.

That comes from being raised in the teatro campesino tradition–poor man’s theatre, inventing stuff from the earth. My plays tend to be suggestive and sometimes they get in trouble when they land on a realistic set. I’m always excited when a director sees a play as an imagistic thing more than just a language thing.

The first reading of the first draft of Oedipus el Rey was held at the Getty Villa in Malibu. How did that come about and how did you and Loretta get together?

The Getty Villa has a Greek amphitheater in their outdoor space and one of their initiatives is to invite artists to re-imagine Greek plays. They asked, among others, Anne Bogart to do one; also Joanne Akalaitis and Stephen Wadsworth.

Those are directors, not writers.

Well, my residency was split with Ellen McLaughlin, who was writing Penelope. I thought connecting a prison world with a classical space seemed really fun so that’s how it started. Then we coupled a Greek scholar, Mary Hart, with a gang scholar, Father Greg Boyle, who heads an organization called Homeboy Industries. So we had a contemporary specialist and a specialist in the classics. It was a hard process because I had no material other than my research. I started writing scenes during the 10 rehearsal days so whatever I ended up with was what I ended up with, which was (I think) about 45–50 minutes of material. If you were an audience member on the night of the first reading, you’d hear scene 4 read aloud, and then someone would announce “Scene 5 to be written.”

But audiences love that!

I have to say they did and the conversations afterward were amazing. Anyway, Loretta heard about it, and even though I never send out unfinished material, when she said “Really, just let me see the unfinished draft,” I thought, “She’s a good friend” so I let her read it.

And you hooked up. She was interested in producing Oedipus el Rey, so she went down to L.A. and the two of you did some interviews…

Those interviews were part of a larger research push. I drove up Highway 99 three or four times. I went to Delano and stayed there for a little bit. I started reading up on the prison system and the California prison system in particular.

You’ve worked in prisons before and you’ve worked with prisoners…

Yeah, but part of your job as an artist in the prison system is to subvert. You get 30 prisoners who are supposed to do a poetry workshop and none of them can write, so you’re always subverting the system. It’s different when you read about the prison system and its formalities, the way the prison system is set up and how many we have. The building of prisons right now, the overcrowding and this injunction we just got–it’s all about money. All information about prisons fascinates me.

The high recidivism rate you were talking about…

More than half of all men released go back immediately, within hours. You get out and if you don’t have a support system you’re going straight into an SRO hotel/motel in downtown L.A. on skid row. Already the vices are calling you back.

The environment may not be a prison, but the situation hasn’t really changed.

In downtown Los Angeles, skid row accounts for a third of all the drugs that go through the city. When people get out of jail and prison, they make that their first stop because they need a cheap place to stay overnight.

How did you find the former prisoners you and Loretta interviewed?

Father Boyle’s organization, Homeboy Industries helps gang members get out of gangs. It’s about tattoo removal, but it’s also about mental health. They offer services like social workers and mental health technicians. So we met a counselor first, an older woman, who actually picked the guys for us to interview. We were looking for someone who had recently gotten out and someone who had been in prison a long, long time. We couldn’t ask what their crime was, but we could ask anything else. And that was interesting to hear–to really let people talk about what that life is and how they got into that life. You know–the generational histories of lawlessness [Chuckle]. The challenge was to locate the play somewhere very specific. To look at Los Angeles as a site.

Because Pico/Union [a neighborhood in East L.A.] is your home.

I wanted to locate it in places I knew I could write honestly and freely about. That pharmacy near the Million Dollar store? [In Oedipus el Rey, the Farmacia where the Esphinge (the Sphinx) lives] I really knew that place.

You showed the cast pictures of your family home and that’s the home we’ve chosen for Jocasta and Laius.

I’m not sure I’ll ever do that again! [Laughter] But I think it’s a good thing to locate a play in a place you know. I keep finding that as you grow as a writer, you’re dying to bust out of the same old thing. But for Oedipus, because the emotional qualities of the play are so intense, I knew I had to locate everything else in a familiar place.

So you didn’t write the play chronologically?

I always write out of order.

Would you mind sharing what scene you wrote first?

The first scene I wrote was the meeting of Oedipus and Jocasta–him coming out of prison, going to his friend’s house and meeting this woman, this widow in grief–him needing to be healed and her needing to be healed, these two lost souls in the world who find each other and connect. They fit.

And it’s like lightning between them.

If you can locate the emotional center of a play you can build out from there. It’s always harder structurally if you don’t have an emotional center somewhere. I tend to write the scene before or the scene after the most dramatic scene, just to locate where the most dramatic scene IS. For me, that seems like the right way to work.

What about the chorus? It’s such a standard of Greek plays, and so many of us have suffered through so many (how shall I put it?) unfortunate choruses. What’s your connection to what is called in your play, the Coro?

We have a choral tradition in the Chicano culture called “Coro,” where you tell stories and it’s very intricate work–many different voices overlapping and finishing each others’ sentences. It’s musical and it shares a history with folkloric dancing. In the seventies, lots of teatros did Coro work and you’d go see it because it was sort of like watching ballet–beautiful, highly technical and hard to do. Thirty-something years ago, after the riots in East L.A, this word “Chicano” (that really expresses a politicized Mexican-American) started to take shape and “Chicano pride” became a huge part of what we were. So it feels like, in some ways, the chorus represents Chicanos, because it represents
that pride, that community. Regardless of whether it’s educated or not, it’s a voice. I love that in the Greeks, the chorus might be the puppet-masters, too. Do you know what I’m saying?

That’s what Nietzsche said, that the audience dreams the chorus and the chorus dreams the actors.

That makes a lot of sense to me.

Greek drama began with the chorus–everything was choral, just like in your tradition of Coro. Choruses of fifty men or boys sang dithyrambs, hymns to Lord Dionysius, moving in time with the rhythms of the poetry, and then, gradually, over time, the actors stepped out of the chorus to become the personifications of individual characters.

There are so many connections between my culture and the Greeks, and I love how we’re able to make this contemporary for our people. By our people, I mean whoever the audience is that night. That’s who we’re making it for. It seems like the right thing to do at this moment in time, as technology advances. I have this theory, “The more we have the less we get.”

You mean the more information that’s out there, the less intelligent we become?

That we’re actually shrinking our intellect, shrinking our imagination. So this seems the right time to go back to something primal, something indigenous, something original, as a way of discovering who we are today. My plays are simple that way. I’d rather have the creativity happening in the audience’s head. I write simply. I want to think that I’m complicated, but I’m not.

You’re a poet. In the rehearsal room you’re always talking about poetry. You’ll say: “This is a song. This is a poem.”

I feel that a play is a long-form poem. It doesn’t seem so far away from when I was writing traditional poetry. The minute voices started happening, metaphor started freeing me, there were rhythms, and my writing became so much more interesting. Maybe I’d trapped myself as a poet into a certain way of thinking. The theatre released all that. You
know. The empty space…

Well, you fill it. That’s for certain.

(Click any of the pictures to make them bigger)

Jackie, Alex, Alexae, and Letty, hard at work	Alex's owl masks for the Oracle
Another of Alex's gorgeous masks	Costume Designer Alex and a giant snake
Abbey Simon builds a prop for the marketplace scene	Letty Samonte builds a chicken prop for the marketplace
Jackie Scott paints tattoos on Joshua's arm	Eric Aviles (El Coro) and his fake tattoo

So here you go: A day in the life of an assistant director. Take it away, Sonia!

9:45 am Arrive at the Magic. I see Jake (Sound Designer) driving up as I make my way across the parking lot through the rain.

9:50 am Chat with Cari about doing a blog post of my day. [Ed note: How meta!]

9:55 am A view out the back door of the theater (we may use this door in the show!). It’s a gloomy, rainy day at Fort Mason.

10:00 am Production meeting. Nobody wants their picture taken. Sara [Huddleston, Production Manager] finally agrees but it turns out kinda blurry. Sara is enjoying the breakfast spread before the meeting.

10:10 am Each designer discusses logistical questions or issues (i.e., how are the projections going to work, what do the owl masks look like, how are we going to do the blood at the end).

11:00 am Rehearsal begins, as each rehearsal does, with a pronunciation warm-up. We have a lot of Spanish in the play and we want to make sure everyone’s pronouncing those words the same way. We start with character names like Tiresias (pronounced “Tee resyas”), Creon (“Crey ohn”) and the harder ones like the Aztec Goddess Coatlicue (“Kwat lee kwe”) or her daughter Coyolxauhqui (“Co yo sha kee”).

11:15 am Loretta gives notes on yesterday’s run. Biggest take-away: We may completely change the beginning. I tried to take a picture but it came out really blurry.

1:00 pm Design run. I sat on the right side of the house seats (which are now squared, btw). It looks pretty cool from the sides. Yay thrust stage!

3:00 pm Run is over, actors are on break. Loretta talks to Dave, the fight choreographer. They discuss the last few fight scenes.

3:34 pm Armando (Creon) takes a picture of me running lines with Carlos (Sobador) an Eric (Laius). Everyone else is in the theater playing with blood, fake blood. Unfortunately, I can’t take a picture of that. We can’t ruin the illusion.

4:00 pm Rehearsal is over.

4:20 pm I get Armando to take a picture of me with my favorite dramaturg, Jane Ann Crum.

4:45 pm Let the light hanging begin! Tirza (in purple) directs a bunch of other cool ladder people.

5:00 pm Just checked email and we got a new scene 12 from Luis [Alfaro, the playwright]! He’ll be back in town bright and early tomorrow.

5:20 pm Sara graciously drives us (Loretta, Jane and I) to Brazen Head. It’s raining and she’s nice.

6:30 pm Working dinner at Brazen Head.

7:00 pm We walk over to Jane’s hotel and continue working.

8:20 pm Going home. It’s not raining anymore!

Jackie Scott, Magic propmaster extraordinaire, knows how to make an entrance. When I met Jackie at the Goldfish premiere, she was rollerskating through the lounge with the playwright, John Kolvenbach. I was told that was about par for the course. And it seems to be true–there’s never a dull moment with Jackie. At our first readthrough for Oedipus el Rey, Jackie revealed her new special skills:

Jackie, introducing herself to the group: “Hi, I’m Jackie. I’m the propmaster for Oedipus.”

Loretta: “And…?”

Jackie: “Oh! And I do blood and tattoos.”

Get to know our colorful propmaster in her Q&A below!

How did you get started at the Magic?
I’ve  been here since the beginning of the 2007-2008 season. I actually started out as a production intern, doing everything from painting the entire stage blue, to changing light bulbs, to assisting our awesome scenic artist Letty, and eventually to working on props.

What do you do now?
Well, I do a lot of pillaging junk yards, garage sales, and vintage stores–which is super fun. Then I do a lot of hauling things to the theatre in my soccer mom car. Then I do a lot of crazy nitpicking with set dressing–it lets me act out my insane perfectionism. And then of course, I end with a scotch.

I also still try to help out Sara [Huddleston, our Production Manager] with basic production needs as much as possible. So I also do a lot of paint touch ups, fixing house seats, getting over my fear of heights by running cables really high in the air.  I end that all with a scotch as well, naturally.

.

The ever-serious Ms. Scott.

What’s your favorite part of the job?
The people!  Magic in particular has the smartest, zaniest, most dedicated, and yes I’ll say it, sexiest people in town. That includes fellow co-workers, designers, directors, playwrights and actors. It’s amazing working with brilliant and spirited people.

Can you give us any trade secrets or interesting Magic trivia?
Oops, I think I gave away our secret in the previous answer.

What’s with the roller-skating tradition? How did that start?
Oh my. Those made their first appearance during opening night of Evie’s Waltz last season. I found those lying around the theatre and decided what better way to celebrate opening night than to don skates and glide around the northside stage like it was my own personal roller rink! Now they come out every opening, and I’ve persuaded other people to join in with me. Loretta gets a kick out of it–it’s the only reason she keeps me around, I’m convinced.

What’s the best combination of props you ever had to buy at one time?
Monkey Room was the first show I worked on as Magic’s propmaster. One night there were two simple prop notes that came out of rehearsal: “we need condoms and syringes.”  So, sure enough, I went into Walgreens and picked up a packet of condoms and a packet of syringes. The cashier was silent the entire time he rung me up, and then as I was walking out, he cocked his head to the side and said: “have a nice night?” My car is routinely filled with samurai swords, mannequin legs, tree limbs sticking out my windows, and 3 pounds of bird feathers. I tend to get a lot of puzzled looks from other drivers.

What advice do you have for people trying to get a job in theatre?
Do what I did! Start as an intern or volunteer, get your foot in the door, make some good connections, and then implant yourself and refuse to leave. Works every time.

If you weren’t doing theatre, what would you be doing?
Living on a farm. In Scotland. With sheep.

As you know by now, our upcoming production of Oedipus el Rey is a Chicano adaptation by Luis Alfaro, and that means there’s a fair amount of Spanish in the show. While everyone in our diverse and talented cast speaks at least some Spanish, not everyone understood all of Luis’, er, “colorful” slang. Enter Assistant Director Sonia Fernandez, who put together this quick-and-dirty (emphasis on the dirty) glossary for some of the more interesting Spanish words in the script.

I bribed Sonia to let me take a peek at her list, and she’s graciously allowed me to share it with you. Warning: If there are little children reading over your shoulder, this might be a good time to turn on some Dora the Explorer.

an alleluia

Religious, born again Christian

baboso

stupid, a slobbering idiot

barrio

neighborhood, ‘hood, ghetto

cabrón

bastard, son of a bitch (also a Billy goat)

chamaco

kid (male)

chaparrito

shorty (chaparro is short, so this is a diminutive of short)

chi-chi

breast

chingao

a variation of chingado, meaning fucked up

chismoso

a gossip

cholo

A cholo is a Chicano male who typically dresses in chinos, a wife-beater sleeveless t-shirt or a flannel shirt with only the top buttoned, a hairnet, or with a bandana around the forehead, usually halfway down over the eyes. Cholos often have black ink tattoos, commonly involving Catholic imagery, or calligraphy messages or family names. The U.S. context of the word Cholo/Chola originated in Los Angeles and refers to a chicano gangster.

ese

what you call your close friend, something like dude or homeboy (used mostly by Chicanos in Southern California)

loteria

Mexican bingo that uses cards with images instead of numbers

el mero, mero

the top, the leader, the Man

mocoso

snot-nosed kid (masculine)

mierda

shit

oye

Hey! literally it means ‘listen’ or ‘to hear’

pinché

fucking (as an adjective curse, not as in sex) also worthless

pendejo

idiot, dumb ass

puta

whore

rabia

rage

(Click on any of the images below to open the full-size version.)

The cast and crew's coffee mugs (it was early)	Colorful Mexican banners to get us in the spirit
Luis Alfaro in our first rehearsal!	Erin Gilley chats with Luis
Some costume concepts	Assistant Director Sonia lights a candle for good luck
Set Designer Eric Flatmo hangs concept art	Eric's scenic model
Propmaster Jackie Scott shows us tattoo concepts...	...which she demonstrated on herself!
Old friends Loretta and Luis discuss the script	The man of the hour, Luis Alfaro

Baruch Porras-Hernandez is our Patron Services Manager. You’ve probably met him: He’s the friendly, super tall guy who makes sure every performance goes smoothly. He might have helped you find your seat or sold you your ticket, and I bet he made you feel as welcome as if this was your own home. How nice is Baruch? He literally just walked in this second with a box of donuts for everyone. I love this guy!

What you might not know about Baruch is that he’s also an incredibly gifted artist whose talents range from performance art to poetry to painting. What other secrets does Baruch hold? Keep reading to find out!

.

Baruch Porras-Hernandez, your Patron Services Manager.

How did you get your job here?

I started working here as an intern back in 2004 after I graduated from college. I studied acting at Sonoma State University and took a class with Stephanie Hunt; she was a member of Word for Word which regularly performed at the Magic. After I graduated, I asked her what should be the first step–aside from auditioning–to getting involved in the theatre. In addition to wanting to be an actor, I also wanted to become a part of a theater company, so she recommended me for the internship program at the Magic.

What do you do?

I’m the Patron Services Manager, which means I’m in charge of Front of House Operations during the shows. This includes managing the box office during the show and supervising the house managers and Lounge and Concessions Associates (“lounge folks” for short). I regularly do the curtain speech, keep the office stocked with supplies, oversee special events in the lobby (mostly docent talks), and make sure we have the best stuff possible at the concessions lounge.

A typical show day includes keeping track of the cash sales from the night before; making sure the lounge, lobby, and theatre are clean; answering phones at the box office; putting away supplies; making change at the bank in case the box office or lounge need it…the list goes on. I make sure all operations run smoothly and that we have everything ready before we open the lobby and box office an hour before curtain. I make sure that the house manager gets everyone in on time and coordinates with the stage manager about what time to start or if we have to hold.

What’s your favorite part of the job?

I love my coworkers, especially my Patron Services staff. Together, we’re kind off the face of the Magic Theatre and I make sure that everyone I’ve hired is professional, friendly, and most importantly happy that the audience is here. My staff reminds the the audience that they’re here to do something pretty awesome: see a great play, probably one that’s never been done before. Nothing compares to watching a large group of people walk out of the theatre, artistically and emotionally quenched. Sometimes they’re quiet, sometimes they’re crying, most of the time they’re joyous, but it makes me love my job when I know I helped them get there by making sure my staff and I welcomed them to this great experience. I know I’ve done my job when a patron says “That was one of the best plays I’ve ever seen in my life, and your staff was so amazing, I can’t wait to come back.” [Ed note: People really say this to him all the time. I've heard it!]

What have you  learned from your job?

In all honesty, I’ve been working in customer service for ten years and I’ve learned that the customer is not always right. But whether they’re right or not, a customer should always be cherished and thanked for choosing us for their arts and theatre entertainment. If you treat your customers like intelligent folks, they will remember that they are intelligent folks and act accordingly, but if you baby them, they will act like babies. And we’re not babysitters at Magic theatre–we just make new plays.

Also, there is no bad seat in the house. Really! I’ve sat in all of them and there is no bad seat.

What’s your favorite patron story?

A couple came to see Goldfish on their anniversary. They told me they had been at Magic Theatre on their first date back in 1977, and that it had a special place in their hearts ever since. Even though they had moved away, they flew back to San Francisco on their anniversary to relive their first date. They said they just had to see a show at Magic Theatre where they first started falling in love.

You’re also a performer. What kind of performances do you do?

I used to act regularly all over the Bay Area. I’ve even acted in small projects produced by Magic Theatre, through Launch Pad and Young California Writers Project. As an actor I’ve performed with Word for Word, Aurora Theatre Company, Impact Theatre, CalShakes, Shotgun Players, FoolsFURY, TheatreFIRST, Elastic Future, and understudied at Berkeley Rep. I’m also the lead singer of a Spanish-speaking rock band called Pomelo which performs in the Bay Area every couple of months. We’re coming out with our second CD real soon.

Two years ago I decided to take a break from acting to pursue performance poetry. I’ve been getting gigs all over the place, which I am very grateful for. As a performance poet, I’ve been featured at The Berkeley Poetry Slam, The San Francisco Queer Open Mic, Brainwash Open Mic in SoMa, SMACKDAB in the Castro, The Garage Art Space, Busboys and Poetry in D.C., and Pace University’s Annual Poetry Slam. I’m also the talent organizer and co-host for the San Francisco Queer Open Mic which happens once a month at Modern Times Bookstore in the Mission.

.

"Oakland," by Baruch Porras-Hernandez (acrylic, 2006)

What advice do you have for people trying to get a job in theatre?

Start with volunteer work. Nothing says dedication more than free labor, and theatre companies love it. Just make sure you know how much you want to give and what your boundaries are, and also what you can bring to the company. Internships and volunteer work are excellent ways to get to know a company. Eventually, if you like them and they like you, you might be able to work for them full time.

If you weren’t doing theatre, what would you be doing?

Most of my life I’ve been an artist. I didn’t get into performance until high school, but every now and then I work on a collection of paintings and sell them at cafes. One day I hope to take a year off from performance and concentrate on my work as a visual artist and explore how far that can go.

As a day job I guess I would be a translator or a teacher.

Ryan Purcell is the Artistic Director’s Apprentice, which we think means he follows Artistic Director Loretta Greco around all day. We’re not really sure what he actually does, because he answered all our questions in a typically less-than-serious fashion (longtime readers might remember his infamous Magic Theatre/How Stella Got Her Groove Back comparison). Whatever his actual responsibilities, Ryan is a breath of fresh air in the office and a joy to have around.

But we’ll let him tell you that himself. Take it away, Ryan!

How long have you been at the Magic?

Since September. I’m new in town.

How did you get your job here?

The old fashioned way. My parents are extremely wealthy.

What do you do? Describe a typical day.

I do a little of everything on the artistic side: assistant direct, line produce, read plays, talk about plays. And then I also answer phones and e-mail sometimes.

I don’t really have a typical day since it always depends on what’s going on with the theatre. Usually I eat my lunch looking at the Golden Gate Bridge, which is nice.

What’s your favorite part of the job?

Three way tie:

Ryan is a beloved figure around the office.

Can you give us any trade secrets or interesting Magic trivia?

Magic spelled backwards is “Cigam.” Think about it.

www.ryanpurcell.net: Your alter ego?

GOD I love a good singer/songwriter. I wish it were.

What was it like being the assistant director for Goldfish? How did you prepare?

Usually assistant directing involves a lot of sitting, so I did a lot of that. Sitting in cars, sitting on buses, sitting on couches. I did research and read the play a bunch of times, but mainly i just sat on different surfaces so that I would be prepared for anything.

What advice do you have for people trying to get a job in theatre?

Demand six figures. If they offer you anything less, it’s an insult and you should say that. Actually, I’d probably say make sure you’re not doing it to be celebrated and adored.

If you weren’t doing theatre, what would you be doing?

Doing something else involved with magic. I actually didn’t even know this was a theatre when I started here. I just really like magic. So, I’d either be a magician, a magical creature (like a unicorn or elf), or play point guard for the Orlando Magic.