Hit by a Bus Rules: Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time

Alandra Hileman, time after time.

Theatre Rule of the Month: Early is On Time, On Time is Late*

*borrowed, quite rightly, from US Marine Corp.

I had great good intentions of writing this blog post a month ago. I thought I should get ahead, because I already knew that this blog would be due within the same 48-hour period as two full-length play drafts and a short writing assignment, as well as the high likelihood of getting scheduled to work. Predictably, it is currently 12:30am on my due date, and I am writing this blog having just gotten home from a work shift.

I’ve always struggled with time: being on time, accurately predicting travel time (or time travel), time management in general. It’s something that I became most aware of in the last few years as a young professional as I’ve had to try to convert my time into money. And sadly, like money, time is also finite, and I only have so much of it I can dedicate to various projects. Since I like to keep busy to distract myself from my crippling inadequacies, I also have a tendency to overcommit, as can again be evidenced by the fact that I’m writing a blog at…now, 1am. (I’m multitasking, obviously.)

Time is a big deal in theatre too, so there’s no escaping it. Whether it’s your call time, the “unity of time” rule, or just the bright and shining hope of finishing a 10-of-12 tech in only 9 hours, we spend a lot of our…wow, see, let me try that one again…we put as much effort into tracking and measuring time as we do crafting the artistic elements of shows. And since I often work in tech, time cards, timed breaks, and “is it go time yet?” are ever-present phrases in my life.

Speaking of which, attempting to talk about time without using time-worn phrases is in fact more time-consuming than I anticipated and to boot I think it’s time I get some sleep. (2am – whoot!). So if you’ve some thoughts on time, share them…if you can spare a minute.

You can follow Alandra’s crazy draft-writing marathon commentary on Twitter (@LadyBedivere) and find out what all the crazy is leading to at ajhileman.com.