#wardrobe tech

Where you’re not sure if you’re going to quit your current job, but you’re updating the heck out of your LinkedIn acct and doing a lot of networking “Just to see what’s out there”.

My wonderful and amazing boss, who has worked for the company for 5 years, has finally put in her notice and will be leaving at the end of the month. There is a strong rumor that her replacement will be woman who has worked here for 3 years but has no other theater experience (and has a propensity for talking a lot of smack). This is not a situation I want to be in. I’d gladly follow my boss to a 12 seat black box theater in a seedy neighborhood, but she’s not going to a new company, she’s doing freelance work for a while.

My relationship with most of my co-workers could be described best as “subsisting entirely on good-natured ribbing and sarcasm” as would most theater tech relationships I believe. There is one woman I work with who is significantly older than the rest of us and occasionally she shakes her head at me and says “I don’t know what to do with you...”

To which I always reply “It’s because I’m too adorable, isn’t it?”

She looks at me, rolls her eyes and says “Yes that MUST be it.”

This happens at least once a day.

Yesterday we welcomed a new person into our wardrobe team and as she was introducing him to everyone she got to me and said very non-nonchalantly:

“This is Shannon, and she is adorable, if you ever forget that part she will be happy to remind you.”

I just bought $30 worth of books on costume design and sewing techniques because even though I already have a job in the field, I don’t feel like I belong there, because I only know what I’ve had to learn on the job. There are holes in my sewing experience. Surprisingly large holes considering I’ve been doing this for over 15 years now.

But that’s the cool thing about costuming, you can just keep learning and growing your knowledge base, and your hands on experiences add to it every time you start a new project.

Still, filling in the basic gaps is a solid thing I need to do. There are things that I am embarrassed not to know this many years in, but feel foolish asking for assistance with from my employer, or (heaven forbid) my co-workers.