What's it like working in the theater...

I found this picture on the web (clearly a joke) but with a few minor adjustments it seems works better;

There are advantages to working in theater;

Flexible hours (although there are many more hours than in most jobs)

Usually awesome people, plus if you don't like who you are working with they go away in about 6 weeks until the next time.

No cubicles ever! 

Constant creativity; always learning new (often useless) information, solving weird problems, creating new things, and re-creating old things.  There is lots of research and drawing to be done.

You get to work with your hands a lot... so much the occasional hand massage is needed.

You get to work the night shift (which I LOVE) and do your grocery shopping while all the 9 to 5's are working. 

Yes, there are really good reasons that I like my work (most of the time). But as a career, sometimes it feels futile. The money doesn't get much better as you move up. Theater companies sometimes have a modest amount to pay/budget, and other times the same company will give you two cents to pull a miracle from the air.

 Sometimes all jobs seem to dry up as theaters try to "tighten their belts".

Heavy lifting? Why yes, heavy lifting, not just for carpenters, but for us all. Costumers haul costumes from rentals to and from the shop, the theaters, stock rooms, dry cleaners, outsourced places... Props people haul furniture and whatnot around similar routes... and actors have to often move said furniture on stage while singing and dancing.

It's often great work, but a hard life.  Advancement comes in the form of working at bigger theaters, usually no benefits, and if you actually were to calculate what we make hourly it would make you cry.  

In conclusion kids, if you think you want to do theater for a living, think hard, and think about what kind of lifestyle you would like to live (not just what kind of work you want to do).