Summary: “I’m gonna just fake that I know what I’m doing and this is going to go well” Reed Sigmund and Autumn Ness talk about the lack of a dividing line between their work as Company Members at the Children's Theatre Company and the job as parents. Autumn talks about performing at CTC as a child and Reed talks about taking on the role of Johnny Appleseed in his first play in 4th grade. They talk about the struggles young actors face as they build a career and about the excitement and education gained from a CTC theater apprenticeship. “The idea of me being a professional baseball player was about as realistic as me being a professional actor” Autumn and Reed talk about how large a role the CTC and the show calendar played in their deciding when to have a baby. They talk about how balancing parenting and theater work has been modeled by actors and artists they work with. And about how immersed in the world of the theater their son has been since he was born. “I thought, I wouldn’t mind if it was a little messier around here and a little nosier” Autumn talks about how becoming a mother has made her better able to relate to and connect with the Childrens’ Theatre Company audience. And how varying ages of kids in audiences give her glimpses of where her son is likely headed developmentally. Reed talks about how becoming a dad redefined his perspective on what it means to be a good parent. And about not realizing how many chance to feel fear come with being a parent. “We’ll do studies on him when he’s grown to see if this is a healthy choice we’ve made or if his sense of reality is totally blown, since mom and dad are always in costumes run off to things”
