San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘We need to make the best of it’
Brandon Boomizad knows things haven’t been easy for many in the arts world. Careers were upended and wages were lost — all cloaked in uncertainty. But he’s grateful. “In some weird way,” he said, “and I feel bad for feeling this, I kind of feel a lot better about myself as a result of all this. With a lot of time in my hands, I got to know myself a lot better. I got to know my girlfriend a lot better, and that we’re a really good match. I spend more time with my roommates.”
Don’t get him wrong, though. He still has a lot of concerns: With the $600 weekly unemployment benefit from the federal government gone, things will be tighter on unemployment. Because he’s 26 now, he no longer has health insurance through his parents. And, he wonders, will he ever be able to return to his job as part of the house crew at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, where he also served an apprenticeship for two years before becoming an audio assistant a year and a half ago?
“When it first happened, I
wasn’t really concerned much about it, so I didn’t acknowledge that it could be this long,” the Oceanside resident said, recalling when the center shut down in midmarch. “We were two minutes from clocking in when our boss walked in and said the show was canceled. I just thought it was just going to be this one show because everyone was really scared. In my head I was OK, but as the weeks progressed, some stress started to kick in.”
Luckily, he said, the additional $600 unemployment benefit, which ended in late July, helped him save some money.
“I feel blessed that they gave it to us for as long as they did,” he said. “I’m sorry it’s gone, but it was nice to have it when we did.”
He’s grateful, too, for the staff at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, especially technical director Robert Collier: “They have been the best during all this — patient and communicating with us.”
The California Center for the Arts occasionally called in its staff for maintenance chores — a day here and there — in anticipation of things coming back. But that all ended when San Diego shut down again in mid-july as coronavirus numbers surged.
For the most part, Boomizad has been unemployed, and he’s chosen to use the downtime to do a pandemic pivot.
“I’m hopeful that our jobs will be there when this is all over,” said Boomizad, a member of Local 122 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. “But let’s face it, it may not, or if it does, it may not be the same. Our culture is going to change about how it deals with events and large gatherings. So that made me think
I maybe need to rethink my career choice.
“When this all started, I got into cooking a lot more,” he said. “I started exercising more when I got bored or played video games. Then the stress kicked in. I knew I need to find something if my job doesn’t return. So I just started researching and learning things on my own, and I found a lot of communities that can help me figure it all out.”
He would still like to remain in a line of work that involves sound or sound design — perhaps for video games and movies. He worked in audio-visual for hotels for eight years, so sound work has always been an interest.
Even though things have not been easy — a relative passed away recently, and his grandfather had a stroke and tested positive for the coronavirus — he chooses to remain hopeful.
“I would like to see performances come back,” he said. “We just have to think of new and creative ways to bring them back in a way that’s safe for everybody and fits the guidelines. But I am in the camp that there is a possibility that the way it was may not be how it comes back, and we will have to adapt to it. I hope that we as a society won’t have too much of an attachment to how things were and be open to what it could be.
“I feel like if this is how life is, we need to make the best of it.”
“I’m hopeful that our jobs will be there when this is all over. But let’s face it, it may not, or if it does, it may not be the same.”