Before any of the sets or screen credits, there was a community theater in Texas with a leaky roof and a Technical Director who taught me more about storytelling than any classroom did. I think about that stage often.

Community theater doesn't get the glamour, but it's where most of us learn the actual job — building a set, running a light board, understudying three roles in one season because somebody had to. That behind-the-curtain grind is the training, not a detour from it.

If you're near Austin and haven't caught a show at one of the smaller houses lately, go. That's where the next generation of this craft is being built right now.