Pay Back: My first "independent contractor" job

Roy (SM from New Jerusalem) recommended me as a light board op. for the next show he was SMing at Theater J. Delia, the PM, contact me and offered me a programming/board op. job for Something You Did, which is currently running at the J.

I guess they decided to find a job they could pay me to do since I volunteered on New Jerusalem. I should mention that Delia asked me to make an invoice of about $100 in travel expenses for the show and reimbursed me for that. Jeremy also paid for all my meals and drinks when I was his assistant so it's not COMPLETELY unpaid to assist if you're assisting good people.

Programming (hitting the buttons the LD tells you to) on the light board pays $17/hr and Theater J has the same light board as Theatre II did. I was rusty, which was frustrating, but Jason Arnold, the LD, was patient. I am currently running the board for the show (pushing Go..) and being paid $35/performance which isn't bad since the performances are at night so I can still maintain my day job.

There's all kind of pay back you get (from the cosmos or directly from people) for working for free in this business. At least there has been for me because I've been lucky enough to work for good people.

I need to write a post later about how to deal with the taxes part of being an independent contractor.