So it's been another while... but in my defense I have been WAY busy.
Things have been really great! I've been temping and working at "Rock of Ages". I started working for a company called Stage Door Promotions. I met Damien (who owns the company) at Zhivago back in Sydney. Kate and I basically met him while I was talking to someone else. We kinda hit it off and found out we lived right down the road from each other in Melbourne. I had no idea what he did, but he gave me his number and we decided to meet up when we got back. Well come to find out, Damien did the European tour of Grease with Roy Chicas, who I worked with back in NY! Talk about a small freakin world. Damien's business brings schools into shows and events. He's worked on Hairspray, Xanadu, Fame, etc. and right now we're working on Walking with Dinosaurs and King Tut. Damien's GREAT and wonderful to work for!
The other HUGE news is that I actually had a meeting with John Frost! I emailed him and never heard back, about 3 weeks later, I sent a short follow up and his assistant emailed me back and asked if I'd be able to meet with him while he was in Melbourne for the Zhivago opening before he flew out to Adelaide for Wicked. SURE! Let me just move around my conference call with Obama and meeting with the Queen about why I didn't receive her personal invite for the wedding.
Anyway, the night before Damien helped prep me and I spent hours prepping myself. So I met with him and another member from his team at 2pm on Wednesday at Her Majesty's Theatre cafe. It could not have gone better! John's one of those people that you can't say "yes sir...". With people of that caliber they want to hear you speak your mind... what you can contribute, how you can make his business better. Gotta be ballsy... which can be a bit intimidating at times. So between the 4 cups of coffee and my nervousness at having to show him why he should hire me I was shaking like a mad woman! Luckily I was able to calm myself down a bit before they walked in. So they walked in with this guy Jay... who I actually met through Damien. Jay is Damien's best friend who works VERY closely with John doing work for him. He helped John build his business for nearly 25 years. Anyway, Jay walks right over to me and gives me a kiss and says "I'll see you tomorrow gorgeous". (In regards to the opening of Zhivago) So John says "O you both know each other?" Jay says "O yea... it's a long story" before heading off. So then John, his business colleague, and I sit down. We talk for quite for some time about things I have done, things I can do, and where I want to go with my career. John looks at the woman and says "I can't think of anything I have at the moment for her" then turns to me and says "but that's TODAY... and as you know, in this business we don't know what tomorrow will bring". He said to stay on top of him because he does have some shows in the work coming up next year and will be looking for Assistant Company Managers... which is EXACTLY what I would DREAM of! Your Assistant and Company Managers oversee the show and report everything back to the producers... basically being the go between between the two. From there the line of command upwards is the Executive Producer and then Producer (John). All Executive Producers must first pay their dues as Company Managers... so for me to walk into an Assistant Company Manager for a show like Legally Blonde or Shrek would be UNREAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! An absolute dream job and it's RIGHT up my ally! John said for now, he wants me to talk to Jay because he's very close with Caryn who owns ACMN which does ALL the marketing for nearly every show in Australia. John said they are always on the look out for people and I should get in with them for immediate work. He also suggested I call Rodney Rigby who is another big producer here (Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages). He then made mention again to stay on his about anything that is coming up because he wants to keep me in mind.
So in a nutshell... things could be BOOMING big time for me soon! I just can't believe how well the meeting went! Forget the fact he actually took the time to meet with ME!!!!! lol. Unreal! He's recommending me to people AND wants me to stay in touch for when stuff down the road starts to open up. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good stuff, good stuff! I think this Dorothy does belong in OZ ;)
