Gretchen Adickes

My aunt told me one day, “Great things come in small packages: diamonds and dynamite. Which one are you?” That was one of the best things anybody could have ever told me before going into a daunting gig. Consequently, it’s also something I’ve taken with me ever since. Generally speaking, I’m the smallest one on crew and I end up being the only girl; initially I tend to get overlooked. You’ll look at my resume next and notice it has what you’d expect to see: lots of gigs and the gigs are getting bigger. I’m making progress and am dedicated to creatively reaching my career goals. But there are a few things my resume won’t tell you. • I’m stronger than I look. I’m all of 5’6”, weigh almost 130lbs and can push a full stack of Meyer PA across an arena completely by myself. Repeatedly. I’m at a job site to work – if I can’t keep up physically I shouldn’t be in this industry. • I’m a geek. As gear advances, my knowledge base will too. I take time to research new gear in order to effectively and efficiently deploy it in a rig. My favourite elements of production include festival light programming and RF. • I regularly dance behind my console. I love my job and wouldn’t change it or the people for the world. We tour together and see each other on local gigs all the time; these people very quickly become family. That moment behind my desk turns into a little victory dance – our team does incredible things! • I value loyalty. How you act when nobody is around is just as important as how you carry yourself when people are. The company I represent and its crew deserve respect- they’ve chosen to make me a part of their team and that’s a big deal. • It’s worth my time to invest in others. If I’m doing my job well I will never lose work; if I take time to invest in someone else it means we all get better as a team and there will be more work for the company. That little action establishes a culture of inquisitive, positive people who desire to be the best at what they do; I want to be a part of that. • I work well with other departments. Just because I’m on “Team X” today, doesn’t mean I can’t play nice with “Team Y”. Each department is part of the overall team – it’s worth taking a second to talk with your counterpart to make sure load in and load out are organized and everybody’s best interest is kept in mind. • I grew up in China! Every once in a while there’s a culture gap as I try to figure out why people like sweet tea or why people talk funny here in the US. It makes for some absolutely comical conversations, but it also means on international gigs I can relate to the local crew and talk with them at a different level. My aunt posed a difficult question: diamonds or dynamite? Why can’t I be both?