Should I leave my career to attempt to go into theatre?
Hello r/techtheatre, I am doing research into moving out of my little podunk city in Upstate NY, and moving to a bigger city (current idea is Chicago)
I have worked in the culinary arts since graduating high school, but I have been working theatre as a side gig since starting high school (my high school has a theatre program that I did for 4 years and continue to help out with as an Alumni, so I’ve been working theatre for about 15 years now)
I have been contemplating leaving culinary arts for years now because it just doesn’t pay. My current job is the highest paying job I’ve ever held in culinary arts, and I’m only making $21/hr.
I know that Chicago is like the primordial ooze of Broadway, almost every major Broadway show has been workshopped in Chicago (Death Becomes Her, Betty Boop, American Idiot, just to name a few) and also Lollapalooza happens in Chicago as well, so I know the opportunities to make theatre a career are higher in Chicago then any other major city.
But two things make me hesitant to make the transition.
1.) I know no matter how extensive my resume is, I know that my first job(s) in professional theatre are going to be grunt work, meaning packing and unpacking trucks, setting up stages, rigging, etc…where I have so much training that I can be thrown on spotlight or light board, or asm and be fine. But I know that grunt work is the entry position and I can’t get out of that, no matter how much I want to, and I don’t think my body could handle going back to grunt work after also being in the culinary field for 12+ years and have already damaged my body.
2.) I have heard that theatre is a passion job. You do it because you can’t fathom working anything else, you don’t do it to be famous and make money. If you want to make money in theatre, you have to be willing to live out of a suitcase and not get too comfortable and make a home somewhere, and idk if I want to live like that. I’m not saying I want a 9-5 white collar job, but I just want predictable steady income so I can pay rent, and bills, and that’s not theatre, (from what I have been told by people in the performing arts field.)
So that’s why I’m asking you all here in r/techtheatre, is having a steady income and a reliable regular job possible in theatre to the point I could make a living in a place like Chicago? Or should I just stay in culinary arts if I want predictable, steady, reliable paychecks, and just keep doing what I do now, which is help in Community Theatres to scratch that itch I have to do theatre?