Theatre de la Jeune Lune announced yesterday that it is closing. 11 years ago, or so, I got asked to come in there and do a seating move. (the crappiest job ever) I ended up working there for a little over a year, or maybe it was two, I can't remember exactly. When I started, there was a guy from New Zealand, an actor, who was in the current show as an intern (read: unpaid whore) who worked in the shop with us to make a little money. I can't remember his real name because he always referred to himself as "Gorgeous Cindy." He is one of those first memories of what made me love that place so much.
When I first left college to make a living in the theatre, I really wasn't sure what I was doing, I just wanted to have enough money to get my own pager. Butch ruined that part for me, but I did figure out my path a little and the many theatres on that path all pale in comparison to TJL. The sense of collaboration and friendship in that place was greater than anyplace I have ever worked, in or out of the theatre. I remember the entire tech staff and artistic company, including the two men who would later be knighted by the French government, yelling my name in unison to wake me up at the end of lunch break. (I worked nights too and often fell asleep over lunch) I remember Dan (the Technical Director) coming into the kitchen one day and asking who knew how to break the steering lock on a car. I allowed as I may have misspent my youth a little and we succeeded in pushing a car into the theatre from the street to turn into a set piece for the next show. (We got to make it look like it had been in a bad car accident. Theatre rules.) I built a pool there, I helped fly people there, I threw fake birdshit at the waggled ass of the dark haired girl from the background of the adrenaline-needle scene in Pulp Fiction there. I hope that in my career as a teacher, I can give some of the joy and love of theatre that that place gave me to my students.
I'm getting a little nostalgic and weepy, I know, but if you ever saw a production at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, then you understand a small part of what fun I had there. As if to prove to me that I would never find a better place to work, the reason I left was because of a call I got from the Guthrie. It kind of felt like getting called up to the majors, but I didn't want to go. I went to Dan (Lori, the TD again) to ask his advice. He told me to get the Guthrie on my resume. I could always go back to TJL. While he was absolutley right and that one piece of advice got me where I am today, I hated every minute of working at the Guthrie. It showed me the other side of theatre, where you just punched a clock and picked up your tools like everyone else. Even now, the worst of my days remind me of one theatre, and the best remind me of the other.
I hope that whatever is reborn from the ashes of that place gives us all the opportunity to go have a little more fun.
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