I

ECONOMY

MAGNUM OPUS

Tony Targan, in the
black turtleneck,
playing gay assis-
tant "Carmen Ghia"
in the Farmington
Players production
of Mel Brooks' musi-
..;i cal The Producers.

Spotlight Summons Attorney to the Stage

"Late-bloomer" catches acting bug, blossoms with Farmington Players.

By Pamela A. Zinkosky

musical comedy by Mel Brooks,
T'onyTargan may be a late-
and won the part of Carmen
bloomer, but he's made up
Ghia. The role forced him to
for lost time. Last year, he
learn quickly not only how to
debuted his latent acting and
memorize lines, take stage cues
singing talents in the Farmington
and transform himself into a
Players production of The Produc-
flamboyantly gay man, but also
ers. Since then, he's added two
to sing and dance.
new acting gigs and an "assistant
"If you really enjoy something,
director"title to his repertoire.
you tend to throw yourself into
Targan, a 50-year-old commer-
it;'Targan says.
cial lawyer and former criminal in- Tony Targa n
Targan typically jumps in with
vestigator who lives with his wife
both feet. Ten years ago, he laced up his
in West Bloomfield, was born in New York
running shoes for the first time. Now he's an
to a writer and an artist. He acted in high
accomplished runner and running columnist
school productions and hammed up count-
with 11 marathons under his belt. Running,
less Monty Python skits with his brother,
he says, has helped him stretch his boundar-
but he put theater on the backburner while
ies in all areas of life.
attending law school and raising his two
With acting, Targan has experienced a
daughters.
euphoria like no other, he says. Opening
When he saw a Get a Clue Mystery Theater
night of The Producers was like runner's high
production at a local restaurant, his passion
on steroids."I thought,'I've run the Boston
for theater resurfaced. "It whet my appetite
Marathon before, but this is really some-
to get back into it. I thought, 'I could do
thing."
that;" he says.
It's not just the applause that thrills him,
After landing parts in Get a Clue shows,
Targan says."I like to think it's more than
Targan set his sights on the Farmington Play-
that. It's the accomplishment. It's the sense
ers community theater, which boasts more
of creating something with other people
than 50 years of productions at the Barn
and having it all come together!'
Theater in Farmington Hills.
Fresh off his debut, Targan settled into
"I'd been told,'You'll never get into the
the assistant director's chair, working with
Farmington Players;"Targan says.
Michael Schacherbauer, who'd helped him
Targan built his skills — and confidence
hone his stage presence as assistant director
— with a practice audition. The pressure was
for The Producers. Schacherbauer chose Tar-
off because he knew his schedule couldn't
gan to assist in directing a 26-member cast
accommodate the Farmington Players run
in To Kill a Mockingbird, which opened this
he was reading for.
year's Farmington Players season.
Then he went all out for The Producers, a

"Tony may be a bit'green;
but he totally commits to his
character and seems willing
to stretch and reach to new
heights," Schacherbauer says.
"It was a pleasure to have him
[as my assistant director] to
bounce ideas off of or to get
his opinion."
Targan went back on the
Farmington Players' playbill
in December for A Christmas
Carol, a unique take on the
classic Charles Dickens tale,
in which Dickens directs his
Christmas Eve guests to act
out his Christmas story. The
result is a cast of 10 playing
40 different characters.
Targan's multiple characters, combined
with the play's lack of curtained scene
breaks, changing time settings, old-
fashioned language and English accent,
kept him on his toes. Portraying Clarkson
Stanfield, Dickens' painter friend, Targan also
played Bob Cratchit, the Ghost of Christmas
Past, Topper, the Thin Man and the Under-
taker.
"I like the challenge of playing different
roles,"Targan says. For example, Targan's
Christmas Carol wife, Amy Lauter, played his
daughter in a different scene, and his love
interest in another, so he had to get into a
new mindset each time he took the stage.
"The hardest part is becoming the charac-
ter,"Targan says."It's important that you have
the lines ingrained so you're thinking about

how your character feels and how you relate
to the characters around you.The body
language is really important!'
Targan's theater work is far from over, he
says. This February, he graces the Farming-
ton Players stage once again, this time as
Wilson in the comedy Whose Wives Are They
Anyway?.
And no one's ruling out directing in the
future. "I believe he has the potential of
directing a play on his own," says Schach-
erbauer.
Targan isn't quitting his day job anytime
soon, but he does love the stage, he says.
"I'm a very creative person. When I tap
into my creative side, I get a lot of joy. I like
taking something, whether it's a piece of
paper or lines in a play, and turning it into
something I can appreciate and others can
enjoy, too."17. -f, - -

MORE THAN MY CV

Is Free Agency For You?

It's a major trend, and one way or another,
it may affect your career.

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12 January 2012 I

RED THRUM

By Allan Nahajewski

he work world is changing. If you're
working, you probably already know
_ that. However, an ongoing study by
Kelly Services has brought to light the
speed and significance of that change.
Especially in the last three years, the
trend has been toward free agents — those
independents, freelancers, contract em-
ployees, entrepreneurs and workers who
move from project to project or from loca-
tion to location. The days of the traditional
9-to-5, full-time, often-lifelong employees
are dwindling.
The Kelly Services study found a 70
percent jump in the number of free agents
from 2008 to 2011. The percentage of work-
ers who classify themselves as free agents
rose from 26 percent to 44 percent.
And while baby boomers are driving this
trend, the increase is consistent across all
generations. According to the study, 49
percent of boomers and 25 percent of Gen
Y are free agents.
As a job seeker, there are two things you
may want to keep in mind concerning this
trend.
1. If you're seeking a full-time position
with benefits, know that there are others
out there offering to do the same job on a
freelance basis. They can offer some tanta-
lizing advantages to the employer: savings
on office space and on health-care benefits
and other insurance costs. If it's a full-time,
on-site salaried position you're seeking, you
may need to sell your potential employer
on the value of having a dedicated staffer
on hand.
2. On the other hand, maybe you, too,
want to consider the free-agent route.
"To many young people, free agency is a
foreign concept. They may not be aware of
the various ways that work is getting done
in today's business world;' says Jocelyn

Lincoln, vice president, recruitment opera-
tions, Americas region, for Kelly Services,
and co-author of the research report"The
New Workforce: Insights into the Free Agent
Workstyle."
According to the Kelly Services study,
the trend toward free agency is in part
driven by corporate downsizing. However,
it's interesting to note that overall job
satisfaction is higher among free agents
than among traditional workers. The study
showed that 73 percent of all free agents
choose their own lifestyle, and that 38
percent believe economic conditions have
enhanced their opportunities to work as a
free agent.
When asked why they chose the free
agent lifestyle, only 25 percent said eco-
nomic necessity; 58 percent cited freedom,
flexibility and opportunities — the freedom
to choose interesting or rewarding work,
the flexibility to work your own hours at a
location of your choosing, and the oppor-
tunity to be your own boss, to set your own
pace, to chart your own course.
What can a young person do to become
a free agent?
"It's typically easier for an older worker to
tap a career full of contacts to ease into free
agency, but younger workers can lever-
age their social media skills to build their
network of contacts;' says Lincoln.
"Also, it can be a wise strategy to accept
lateral moves to broaden your base of
knowledge. We're starting to see a trend of
more young people pursuing entrepreneur-
ial paths!'

For more insights into this different way of approaching

a career, Lincoln suggests two books by Dan Pink: Free

Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind. Also, the Kelly

Services research on free agency is available through

www.kellyservices.com .

www.redthreadmagazine.com