Do I have to perform or
Do I have to perform for money?

I don't know about the rest of you, but that's been one of my big questions since I equated money with the arts. Most of my life I've been performing. Usually not for money. It wasn't until I finally started trying to get work in the "legitimate" theater (theater produced by someone else besides me) that I've been "professional."

Don't underestimate professional. Professional can be a good thing to be. Professional means that you probably will have sufficient rehearsal time. You won't be spending time performing tasks that don't have anything to do with your performance. You don't have to pay for stuff and if you do it's a tax-deduction. You'll be working with people who are ususally at least as good as you. Professional also means you get paid for doing that thing you would've done for the love of it. Sometimes, the pay kills it.

I'm amazed at the attitudes of some of my co-professionals who treat their passion like a job. Not a profession or career: a job. Like, "ugh, I have to go to the theater tonight, put on a costume, act, sing and dance for people who are paying money to see me, hang out with people who have the same passion. And then do it all over again tomorrow." If that's how you feel, why not get a job that pays more money and doesn't send you to Anytown, Iowa? If that's not how you feel, then you need to give me another reading, because you're not communicating your actions clearly (as we say in the theater).

These questions come up whenever I end a show with no long-term theater work in sight. Now, what am I going to do to answer to these questions?