Signs It Is Time To Retire – Tuesdays in Paris

I am back at work full tilt in the last 30 days before my send off from USC. One shy of a score of years with the largest employer in Southern California, I have nothing but happy and grateful thoughts as I head out the door.

As I may have mentioned, I didn’t intend to retire until Spring of 2025. There was something nice about getting to twenty years in the job and that might have afforded a smoother succession plan in my area of Production Management at the School of Dramatic Arts.

One of the important people in my adult life, brother to my first stepmother, was a respected (even revered) faculty member at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. In the years after his retirement, I once asked him “How did you know it was time for you to retire?”

I was sitting in a faculty meeting one day and I had my notepad in front of me. I looked down and I’d written “Tuesday, fly to Paris.”

Don Freedheim, Sage

I remember laughing at the time – this was five plus years ago, and thinking I would never tire of the work that I do with young artists in the theatre. And to be clear, I haven’t tired of that work. To be in the creative trenches with young designers and stage managers and technical directors is a gift. My signs that it is time to retire are a little pedestrian but here are some of the most recent ones.

I worked on Easter Sunday (no, that’s not the sign – we theatre folx frequently work on holidays, and I’m a way-lapsed Presbyterian who equates Easter with egg hunts and chocolate). When I dressed for work, I donned a pretty new royal blue sweater over my jeans – going for the purple “Christ is Risen” subliminally, I guess. I went to my jewelry box, and fetched a broach that had belonged to my mom – about an inch in diameter, it was studded with four small saphire, the circle completed in tiny pearls. I associate that broach with Easter and a blue sheath dress that my always-fashionable mother wore. I clipped it onto the right side of my sweater, noting that the clasp was not the best. Over that I wore my REI jacket that was also blue. Blue earrings completed my attempt at festive tech dressing. Off I went to the campus.

Sunday was the last tech for our current production of Rent. Directed by Anita Dashiell-Sparks and Music Directed by Marty Lamar, the production has been joyous in it’s execution. My job on Sunday was to feed the sound team, as the hour-long break between tech periods was insufficient for them to unmic the large cast, battery up the mics and remic the cast for the evening run through. Typically, I’d ask them what they are hankering for, then pass my phone around so they can input their order at wherever we have decided. Then I go over to pick up the food to be back by 5pm.

I started this process at 1:00PM. They decided they wanted pasta from Il Giardino, a restaurant at the USC Village with somewhat glutinous options (per my taste) but they seemed excited. With the order in my phone, I returned to my seat in the house and waited until 3:15PM to press the execution of the order at which point, a horrifying message appeared.

We are not taking new orders at this time. Please try again later.

The order then disappeared. Egg on my face, I returned to the BFA senior sound designer, Renata, confessing my screwup. She was gracious and pointed us toward Subway and again, I passed my phone around to the seven sound team members and the lighting designer whom I’d been told wasn’t leaving the console EVER to order their meals. It was now 4:00PM, and so I walked over to the Subway near Figueroa and Jefferson, a decent walk from the Bing Theatre. When I got there, after a little confusion, I confirmed the order then walked to CVS to buy some candy for backstage at Rent. Who knew candy was so expensive? I’ve been a long time out of the Halloween host. It really made me appreciate the PSM supporting everyone’s sugar sustenance to that point.. With $38 worth of candy in a bag from CVS, I returned to Subway where my order was ready. The flimsy paper-handled bag they said would need to be supported underneath and it was this ridiculous structure that triggered my Tuesday-in-Paris moment. It was a beautiful day, and laden with my two subway bags and the approximately 2 lbs. of chocolate I trudged back to the Bing Theatre – approximately a half-mile walk, Subway under my arm, supporting as best I could. Puff Puff, adjust adjust.

It wasn’t that I was having imposter syndrome moment exactly (after all, I had exactly one critical task to complete that day – feeding the sound crew); it was the question I asked and kept asking myself as I trudged across campus with my goodies. “Is this how I want to spend my remaining days?” Fair question, I suppose and similar to the one that hooked Don Freedheim years ago in the faculty meeting. The sound team was so grateful for the food delivery and no one had any issues with their order. I was a sweaty mess. and I guess you probably can tell where this story is going.

When I removed my REI jacket and hat and sat in my chair in the Bing Auditorium, I didn’t realize it then, but my Mom’s saphire and pearl broach was no longer affixed to my beautiful Easter Blue sweater.

That was the second Tuesday-in-Paris sign. I remain open to others, but those were pretty clear to me.

Signs of Reasons NOT to retire are equally visible at this time.

SDA has been given a beautiful new Dramatic Arts Building, on 34th Street on the UPC campus. The ribbon-cutting was on Thursday, March 28th and was exciting and well-attended.

USC’s President Folt, our direct benefactor, spoke with a fragment of the USC Band behind her in their uniforms and anonymizing black sunglasses.

We are so fortunate to have this repurposed Methodist Church originally built in 1931 as our new home. The transformation is breath-taking. The ceremony was particularly moving with a blessing of the building by members of the Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians.

The newly revitalized building buzzes every day with excited and grateful students around the Stop Gap Theatre in the basement of the building, a cafe space right off the courtyard. There are many new spaces for Production in this building, a Design Lab, an Audio Lab, a new Sanctuary Theatre with Lort-level dressing rooms and staging space. The upper floors sport the Sparks Center for Equity Diversity and Inclusion, a beautiful lounge for students.

It is truly one of the most thrilling developments since I’ve been at USC and the result of so many donors and years of time and planning, all of which I’ve been privileged to be a part of. I’ve had many folx say, “Why are you leaving right when we got this beautiful new building?” Sometimes the signposts are clear. My five and a half month absence was such a signpost for me.

This week has been nuts, with the opening of Rent, the opening of our Second Stage production of Richard III featuring the BFA Y2 actors, and the tech rehearsals in the new sanctuary of Chavez Ravine. Days are long and event-filled. To add to my docket of functions, I agreed to host a Princeton ’82 Day yesterday with attendees watching Rent’s matinee. Had a lovely reunion with a classmate and his family who attended. His daughter, a High School Junior, interested in Costume Design was particularly enamored with the production. It’s pretty amazing – this musical is double cast, so today and Monday are the last days to catch this cast before the next cast jumps in next weekend. Get your tickets here.

Only four more shows to see their way to opening. One Day at A Time. A deeply appreciative shout out to Simon Chau, who has been my partner in PMing these UG shows since March 1st. And as always to Leia Crawford who is our Production glue. It was lovely to dine out on the patio with him the other day between appointments. Celebrating the new space with my colleagues has been a joy. Snacks during Tech are available in shiny, fun new vending machines in the DAB.

I got new glasses this week. One of my colleagues said, “That’s your thing, isn’t it?” Well, here’s a tip – if you are nearing your retirement, it’s time to empty your FSA before you lose it. That one I’ll give you for free!

Last confessions – I have serious senioritis. Hopefully my colleagues will bear with me on that.