"As you dream you shall become"

In the seven years I have known Michael McFadden, I realized how fortunate I am to have him most recently as my neighbor. He is a wonderful man who loves his wife and two sons, talking about and participating in fantasy football, and digging into the occasional bushel of crabs. Over the years I realized I share one specific thing in particular with Michael, which is we both have a strong passion for the theater. Not only do I love it enough to pursue a career in that field, but I cannot help asking question after question about the role he plays in his very own international theatrical company, Phoenix Productions, which I truly admire. When I called him up asking to come over and interview him I could feel his eyes rolling in his head, but I can’t help but want to know more about him and everything he does. As I ran across the wet front yard in my sweatpants, I realized how crazy most people thought I would be. No teenager would want to interview somebody for school, especially on a dreary, rainy day like that one. None except me, of course. I rang the doorbell and Michael promptly opened the door and led me into his dining room with a friendly smile and a bit of small talk about the weather. Offering the chair at the head of the table to me, he sat to my right. Wearing a casual navy tee and jeans, he took a whiff of the food his wife, LeAnne, was cooking in the next room and rubbed his beer belly in anticipation. I tried to interview him as quickly as possible for his benefit. As I looked around at his beautiful home and the pictures that surrounded me of his happy family, I realized the one thing Michael kept telling me throughout the interview must really be true: “Always do what you love and the money will follow.” Holding a glass of white wine he crossed his leg and asked me what my first question was.
My first question was what his actual job title is, and I asked him to describe in detail what he does. He sat up and raised his eyebrows. “Gee,” he chuckled, “so much! I guess running a company entails a lot of different things.” Michael’s official title in the business is Artistic Director, but he does a little bit of everything when it comes to staging a performance. He is the mastermind who conceives the idea of the project to pursue, and meets with the authors of the shows to get the rights for it. He hires the staff for the production, as well as does some directing of the show hands-on. Because Michael is always competing with bigger companies, he reminds me that being nice to everybody is one of the best tricks in show biz.
When I asked him when he knew he wanted to get involved in theater he scratched his head. “Everyone always asks me this and I never know quite what to say.” He smirks and then said that the main reason was how fascinated he was by how a show is put together when he was in about 6th or 7th grade. Nobody in his family was in the business, but they were all extremely supportive of him and this is the first time he mentioned to me what his father told him as a boy, “Always do what you love and the money will follow.” I smiled, knowing that I had to keep my faith in that phrase if I wanted my dream job of a stage manager. Money is not there right away. In fact, Michael told me that he did not start making a decent living until his mid thirties. He did, however, get involved at a very young age.
When he was 17, Michael got together two other friends, one musically oriented and one acting oriented, and with himself as a director he started his first theater company in Redbank, NJ. The money began to follow him rather early in his career when a very special person, to Michael's advantage, attended one of his productions: Olympia Dukakis. Mrs. Dukakis is an Emmy Award Winner who just so happened to own a regional theater in New Jersey near where Michael lived. She loved his directing and approached him afterward. From then on and all throughout college he made about $10,000 profit. He attended grad school at NYU for a bit and then graduated from Montclair State University where he earned a full scholarship.
Because Michael does what he truly loves, the changes that have occurred in the industry over time have made his job more of a struggle for him. “People used to be in theater because of the passion they had for the craft,” Michael explained to me. “Now most people I work with, especially the actors, seem more devoted to the fame and popularity aspect.” He explained to me that the performing arts have been American Idol-ized, and Facebook-ized, making people less committed, and projects more public before they are even decided. Michael used to be able to hide away in a rehearsal room and work on a production without many people finding out, but now social networking allows the public to know before the idea is even finalized.
Michael McFadden never had a plan for what he wanted his career to be. He just had a passion which he really wanted to pursue and put himself out there, knocking on doors of theaters asking for work. Getting involved is the best way, he told me, for a young person to become part of the theater industry. Being prepared not to get paid at the beginning is important, but as long as you do what you love the money will follow. Michael is a perfect example of how true that phrase really is.