A couple days ago while my boyfriend was kitesurfing, I sat on a beautiful beach in Kauai and read all 10 parts of Angela Liddon’s Blog on my phone and wept. It’s time to share my story.

We’ll start about 20 years ago…
When I was about 12 or 13 I was involved in a children’s theatre and was helping the director set props for the play. I turned to him and said, “you know what I want to be when I grow up? A secretary of the stage!” I loved all things having to do with organization and loved being a part of theatre but acting wasn’t what I was born to do.

At the children's theatre in Denver

I went to a great high school that had an amazing fine arts program. I still keep in touch with my high school theatre teacher, Michele Busti. We weren’t allowed to call her Ms. Busti – we had to call her Michele. My first memory of her my freshman year of high school was as she took role she explained that we had to tell her if we wanted to be called by another name. I’m Amanda in the books but go by Mandy. When I told her this her response was “If I ever had a dog I would name it Mandy!!” Excellent. High School is going to rock.

Me with Michele, my high school theatre teacher

I auditioned for the plays in high school but quickly learned that I did NOT have the talent OR desire to be on stage and quickly found myself as a “techie” backstage. I love working in the props department, moving the scenery around, working all night to get a show up and running, the friendships, the inside jokes… it was amazing. Michele suggested that I be a stage manager for the shows and I began doing that as well and really loved it and could see myself making that a career. It was something I was good at.

I did my research on schools I wanted to go to and found Webster University in St. Louis, MO. It has an awesome Stage Management program and worked hand in hand with St. Louis Repertory Theatre. It was the only school I applied to and it only accepts 8 freshman a year into that particular program. I knew what I wanted.

College was great. I loved my dean, Peter Sargent, but we just called him Peter. I learned a ton but was a bit nervous of getting bored in the real world of stage management. Calling the same ques, hearing the same show, checking on the same things – seemed to be a lot of the same over and over again. I remember sitting with my Peter in an empty theatre crying because I was worried I made the wrong decision on what I wanted to do with my career.

I felt there was MORE TO LIFE and I wanted to experience it. I wanted to travel. I never wanted to be stuck or bored. I wanted to study abroad. Being in a conservatory ALL of our classes were theatre based and I wanted to learn about genetics and German, but I didn’t have time to take those classes when I had to learn about playwrights and lighting, which I never cared for much anyway. Do I leave? Do I stay? How do I find that balance?

Did you change your major? Did you finish school? Did you make the right choice?

Read Part 2