Filed by Bil at 7:05 pm under Fightin' Words, Shameless Plugs, The Arts, The Media

The amazingest news of the week is that Dream Theatre won both Best Off-Loop Theatre Company and Best New Play (for the Agon Trilogy) from the Chicago Reader! The second part is especially amazing since “Orestes,” the third play in the trilogy, hasn’t even opened yet.

And speaking of “Orestes,” it occurs to me that June has flown by and we open in a few short weeks now. I am going to have to memorize my lines at some point.

Anyway. New topic. There are two things that I feel I must do as soon as possible: firstly, I must prepare for my pending interview at work. Having abandoned my chance to move to the Santa Monica office as a professional blogger, I have gone and put my hat in the ring for the “senior” position on my current team. I’m not super-eager for that sort of promotion, nor am I giving up on reaching Santa Monica at some point, but I figure any kind of pay raise ought to keep me happy for a while longer. So I’m going to put together a book or brochure or something to help sell myself to my supervisors. A good brochure goes a long way.

What’s really got me rethinking my thinking lately is just how excited I got when I thought I might actually move out to California again, even though it would have been to work a 9-5 office job with (undoubtedly) a significant commute. I’ve been telling myself for so long now that when I move back to my home state, it will not be for an office job. No, not at all, I’d go and try to make it as an actor and a writer only. But the job that came across my eyes was as a writer. A web writer and SEO analyst. Part blogger, part marketeer, part scientist. And I have to admit - that’s a job that really appeals to me. The reason I ultimately chose not to pursue that gig was that I couldn’t justify the expense of relocating to L.A. on what their budget was able to pay.

I guess what I have to admit to myself is that maybe there isn’t something wrong with making a living working at a corporate office, as long as I get to be creative in my daily activities. Also, the SEO analysis part would certainly satisfy my mathematical mind. I’ve been going with the mentality that if I’m tied to some job, then I’ve failed in life. This is not necessarily true.

And besides – I’m already tied to some job, and I’ve been working pretty constantly as an actor with a theatre company that just won Best Off-Loop Theatre Company of 2010 from a highly-respected and widely-published newspaper. They’ve produced several of my plays. And Tip Your Waiter Productions is always working on something (including Hatemail), so really, I’m never at a loss for creative projects here in Chicago. I just wish I could cut out the day job.

But in the meantime, I’ll take that promotion if I can get it, so I must prepare…and prepare creatively.

The second thing I must do ASAP is finish editing & revising this novel I have on my hands so I can move on to my next writing project, a play called “The Mimes.” I gotta get to this as soon as possible, because the play has a disco motif, and I’ve just discovered a world of awesome disco music videos on YouTube…