Thursday, April 28, 2005

The Pirate at a Crossroads, or, A Conclave of My Very Own

Well, campers, there's big news afoot. Feeling left out from the recent papal conclave? Fear not!

As many of the six of you who read this blog may know, I was offered a job from a certain unnamed alma mater and a certain unnamed theatre company in SW Detroit to organize and run a collaboration between the two. This proposed collaboration was contingent on their securing the funds needed - a task, I was informed yesterday, that remains unfulfilled, as the major grant application they had submitted was denied. An empty coffer precludes more than my being paid; that money would have covered transportation expenses for participants, materials, staff costs, etc.

With the end of my master's program coming at the end of July, this places yours truly at a strange point of decision making: what, gentle readers, am I going to do with myself? I'm way too stressed to think clearly about this, and yet the stress will also not allow me to leave off of thinking about it, despite my being knee deep in an horrendous three week death march of finals. So I'm asking for your advice, folks.

There is no "bad" choice among what I see as my available options: 1)to return to Michigan and take a job with the aforementioned unnamed theatre company, with whom I have an open (and funded) job offer; 2)to stay in NYC and continue to work as a scientist to pay rent, and use my free time to continue studying and working in theatre (there are fantastic opportunities here); 3) to do something else entirely (like trying to get a teaching artist job in another country, or something). And yes, I realize that there are people starving in the world and that I'm a whiny baby for even concerning myself with the difficulty of this decision.

I'm asking you to contact me, by whatever means, and let me know what you think. I'm asking because I want to know, so feel free to suggest whatever. You can e-mail me, call me, post here, or just come see me. Help me out!

[EDIT]: My brain feels like this!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, you want advice, here's my advice: I think you should stay in New York.

a) Based on many of your previous posts, it sounds like you absolutely love New York City.

b) If you were jobless and not likely to find another interesting job soon, it might make sense to head back to Detroit and take that theatre job. But since you can hold onto your current job (assuming you don't hate it), what's the rush?

c) It doesn't seem like you'll have a huge problem finding something theatre-related in NYC -- i mean it's New York -- and i would think that the NYU program will give you some good contacts for finding interesting programs, workshops, etc. around the city.

Just my opinion.

ATF

Anonymous said...

It's not a conundrum, stay in New York

Anonymous said...

no brainer--stay in NY

The once and future Dr. Science said...

Gah! Leave your name or something! "Anonymous" is too laden with suspense! Who are you(s)?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Aaaaaamen, ATF! I think he put it brilliantly. If the Detroit job is an open offer, then why wouldn't you stay to see what else might be in store for you in NYC for a little while longer? You'd need a little time to figure any new options out anyway, and you SO need to be there longer than like a month after I arrive. I'm guaranteed company for all your wacky exploits!

Also, call me, jackass.

Anonymous said...

I'm biased, because I'm here in NYC, but I think you should stay. There's a wealth of opportunity here, both personally and professionally. You've also got a decent job, great apartment, neighborhood, friends, and theater contacts already established.

When it's really time to move on, I think you'll know it plainly. If there's no "bad" choice, then why leave what you've established here and spend hundreds of dollars to move back to Detroit and find a new apartment (or live at home?) Why leave your friends behind?

It sounds like you're looking for a change, if you're talking about moving to Detroit or to another country. You're about to get one with school ending, and you have the opportunity to make it into whatever you want. Staying in NYC will allow you to expand upon what you've already built here and develop yourself personally, as opposed to having to rebuild everything in a new place. It looks like you've been elected to stay on the island...