A Year Filled With Accidents

     

      I currently intern for Crossroads Theatre Company in downtown New Brunswick. I have been there for two semesters and have encountered a lot of people who do not understand why I am there. I have had the ability to meet many influential theatre folk who have no problem giving out advice that nobody truly wants. 

      The hardest part is when they ask you what your major is at Rutgers.  As they go down the line of immaculate dressed interns, all reply with the same answer, a Theatre Major. When they have exhausted all of the theatre majors they slowly approach the one intern who knows everybody's name and location, who looks like she knows what she is doing. They never bother with the major question when they approach me. Instead they jump right into talking about what their college years where like, which classes I should take and which professors I should avoid. This literally happens to me at LEAST 6 times a week. And as they not so quickly wrap up their life story and college experience, they ask about what plans I have for my future.(Just to clue you guys in, apparently as a Theatre Major, you have to make and present a 10 year plan for a mandatory class you take).

        At first, it was difficult to find words to explain that this is not at all what I saw my future looking like. As the seconds ticked one, their eyes began to fill with questioning and as I finally shattered the silence with my "I want to go to medical school," they faces jump up in surprise. Eyebrows almost touching their hairline, mouth looking like it just ate something sour. And finally they ask me, what my major is.

        I respond with Biology, it always freaks them out when I do. HEHE. I continue on with my accident story. How I accidentally got thrown into Theatre Appreciation because the class I was in before got canceled. How it just so happened that my professor Marshall Jones was offering internships to his students and I randomly decided to get up and go for it. And how I was invited back for a second semester and got accidentally assigned to work as a Productions Assistant because ours quick one day before the show. My favorite part is the look of horror on their faces as I explain my situation. It's the same face everybody I have met at Crossroads looks at me when I maticualsy tell the story. 


        Sometimes though it get better, because said person will stand their and argue that nothing about Theatre is accidental. But rest assured, I am.