Skronk dot memories

I used to have a blog at skronk.net, but I gave the domain up over a decade ago. (Related: I am old) Anyway, it was fun for a while. I guess this is a "spiritual successor" to that blog, if I wanted to put it in video game marketing terms.

Back then I worked at The Market Theater. The Market was a cool little indie theater company and performance space in the former Pi Eta fraternity clubhouse in Harvard Square. Some day I'll post photos from that time.

Back then I knew so little about theater sound. And even less about video. Considering how much they paid me in salary, they got slightly more than they paid for. I do wonder what other people there were paid, because I made less than $30K in 2000. But I had no idea how that compared to anything because Emerson College didn't teach us about money at all. They were afraid to talk about what jobs paid or what your work was worth. It left many of us unprepared for the real world. That stuff has far-reaching effects, I can tell you...

But I digress...

The name of my old blog came from a show we did at The Market Theater called Shel's Shorts. It was two shows each made up of short plays by Shel Silverstein. Someone had found them in a shoe box or something and because of the Market's director's connections to Mamet and The Atlantic Theater in NYC, we at the Market got to do these newly-discovered plays by Shel Fucking Silverstein.

One of the five-minute plays was called No Skronking! and took place in a diner. The set by Caleb Wertenbaker was all white and was made up of three walls that scenery popped out of. So when nothing was happening it was just a set of white walls. For No Skronking! a diner counter slid out of one wall and the actors played it as a restaurant. A sign on the wall appears that says "No Skronking!" Theater ensues.

The Market Theater closed at the end of our first full season and a great thing was lost. We were just getting started, and even though I know now that I was ABSURDLY underpaid for the amount of work I did, I'd still do it all over again. Where else do you get to do that kind of crazy shit in your early twenties?