5, 6, 7, 8...

...and curtain! Lights up on Boone, North Carolina, where a small-town girl with big city dreams sits in front of a computer screen. Her fingers hover over the keyboard, her mind spinning like a carousel at the fair with ideas on how to start her first post. Suddenly, a lightbulb turns on in her head. 'Start at the very beginning, that's a very good place to start,' she remembers. She sits up straight, and begins to type.

Let me back up a little bit. My name is Chloe Lang, a junior Public Relations major with a minor in Theatre at Appalachian State University. It has been quite a rollercoaster to get to this point, but I'm just going to say that I'm very excited to learn even more about my future career.

Ever since I was little, I loved the arts. I was always putting on puppet shows for anyone who would watch, creating stop-motion videos with my American Girl dolls, singing in church musicals, painting, writing, reading, and attending music festivals ever since I can remember. As I got older, music and theatre became the mediums I was most passionate about. My sister and I started a bluegrass band, The Lang Sisters, and we have performed across the East Coast for the past seven years. Through promoting the band, selling CDs, working with bookers and venues, I got more and more interested in music and arts management.

Meanwhile at school, I got heavily involved in the theatre program, auditioning for every musical and play, and finding my true passion. The art form helped a shy, self-conscious teenage girl blossom and find her place. I felt most alive while on stage, watching shows, analyzing plays, and researching the newest Broadway trends. There was something about the humanity of the work, the dedicated individuals who spent tireless hours in a dark theatre to perform for little to no return, and the creative expression that allowed me to be someone else on stage while also learning about myself the whole time.

A couple of years later, my passion for the stage and interest in management found each other. After a whirlwind first trip to New York City last December, where I found my dream jobs (American Theatre Wing & Theatrical Rights Worldwide... cough cough), I truly discovered my calling. I had never felt more secure and hopeful.

This newfound fire inside of me landed me in two internships this past summer, one with the marketing department at the world-class Durham Performing Arts Center, and one in the development department for the non-profit North Carolina Theatre. I will discuss these in more detail in a later post, but those just made me more excited to dive into my classes for the next two years in order to be as prepared as possible to hustle my way to NYC after graduation.

Basically, for those who aren't familiar, I want to be an arts manager. What this entails is everything behind the scenes of a performing arts center/organization. Of course, I am open to everything--Broadway press rep, arts journalist, artistic director--the list goes on and on. However, for this blog, I will be focusing on arts management and the business side of the theatre. This also lines up perfectly with the Arts Management class I'm taking this semester. I've never felt more motivated or inspired. The whole world is a stage; all the men and women merely players. I am not throwing away my shot!

She sighs, then smiles. Her fingers lift from the keyboard.

Fadeout. Curtain Call.