My experience has shown me that a career can take you to unknown places. Mine started in New York where I saw my first travelling theatre company while I was still in high school. As I was helping to bring in some scenery, I thought, "I could do this. This is cool." Flash forward several decades and I still feel the same way.

Being in the right place, at the right time helps. But I was born in New York, so I was in THE place for theatre, dance and TV. And the route to take in the New York theatre world was a direct line from Showcases to Off Broadway and then, if you are very lucky, Broadway.

And while many people focus on a single area of theatre; production, design, acting or management; my interests took me into multiple disciplines. But my first love has always been lighting design. And to become a good designer I had to be a good electrician. When you are working with high powered equipment you need to know the details of how it all goes together properly.

On one of my first job interviews as a lighting designer, I was asked by the director if I could stage manage as well as design the lights for his show. I told him I could do that. I then left that interview and ran home to look through my college books to see what a stage manager actually did. Yes. That is how I became a stage manager, and years later, one of the founding members of the Stage Managers' Association.

The knowledge I gained over the years made it possible for me to tour many shows and dance companies as a production manager, stage manager or designer and upon occasion, a combination of all those jobs. Touring took me all across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, into Cairo, Egypt and eventually lead me to Brazil.