Curtain Call

When actors come out on stage after a show to take their bows it is called a curtain call.

Well…last Friday, September 14th I enjoyed my own curtain call at the Alliance Theatre. My Final Bow if you will. It was a very emotional experience on my last day at the theatre. And I must admit that it was more emotional for me than I had anticipated.

I knew I would be sad. But you never know sometimes how much something means to you until you have to say goodbye. I think there is more of this in my future so I guess I better brace up for it.

My farewell at the theatre was not just the normal goodbye party on Friday only to start a brand new job with better pay the following Monday morning. This was a real chapter of my life closing. For the last seven years, marketing the performing arts in Atlanta has been my life. And it is kinda hard to imagine my life without it to be totally honest with you. It was the perfect job for me. With my marketing background and my love for the arts I was able to find a job in marketing at Atlanta Ballet right after school. I don’t know how often people find their dream entry job right after school…I think it is pretty rare. But I did, and I loved it.

I was given an amazing opportunity to join the Alliance Theatre a year and a half out of school and for the last five and a half years I have not looked back. My time at the Alliance has made me into the professional that I am today. I was given amazing opportunities to grow professionally at the Alliance. One thing you don’t realize when you take a job in the arts is the fact that you meet so many different people. And during my time at the Alliance I was given the chance to present to executives on our board of directors that it would have taken me years to present to if I had taken the corporate path.

But the majority of the opportunities that I was blessed with at the Alliance were possible because of the support of my boss, Virginia Vann. God blessed me with the best boss in the world, someone who not only challenged me to grow professionally but someone who I am just plain proud to call my friend.

I made so many wonderful friendships at the Alliance and I will definitely miss my co-workers. The people you work alongside everyday make all the difference in the world.

Marketing the arts has been my dream job for a long time. It was all that I ever wanted to do. But since we can always see the past with 20/20 vision, I can now see that through all of my time in the Atlanta arts scene God was preparing me for a job that I NEVER dreamed of until about a year ago. A job of serving the abandoned, abused, forgotten, invisible, neglected children living in La Paz, Bolivia.

It’s funny how God works. Who knows? Maybe one day some kids and I in La Paz will put on a play. You never know.

But what I DO know is that I love my family at the Alliance Theatre and I will miss them more than they will ever know.

Goodbye ya’ll. Break a leg.