I’ve been doing community theater for a few years now, mostly musicals and a scattering of other random performances. I once did a brief internet commercial thingy for $50, but that’s the extent of any compensated work I’ve done. Well, I can now proudly say that I’ve landed my first professional gig, a small one but important nonetheless. One small step for penguins, one giant leap for penguins in theater. From March 26 to April 10, I will be an extra – a water person, more specifically, although I’m still not totally clear on what that means beyond being interactive scenery – in “How I Became a Pirate,” a children’s musical playing on the mainstage at the Walnut Street Theatre! I believe the Walnut is the oldest theater in the country, and it’s certainly the largest and most prestigious in this region.

One of the complexities of trying to get more serious in theater (while you’re trying to live your other life) is that professional theaters rehearse during the day, when you would otherwise be at work or school. I’m extremely fortunate to be in graduate school with a professor (Paul Yushkevich, who teaches Image Analysis, which is possibly the most awesome and most useful class I’ve taken since college) and mentors (Anjan Chatterjee and Jim Gee) who are supportive of my creative pursuits. So next week, I will experience for the first time the workings of a professional production. I can’t wait!!!

I bet all the engineering for the technical stuff will be waaaayyyy cool. I vaguely remember all the coordination that went into putting on Fantasmic! at the Studios, involving dancing water effects, pyrotechnics, you name it. Although I don’t think this show will involve quite as much, I will see its preparation with a much different perspective and appreciation for the end goal of not just having cool stuff to wow the audience, but to communicate our story and invite them into our world onstage.