Rock it

I am finishing my doctorate in piano. Which should, one would hope, make me a pretty good one. Now, I would love to be a music director on Broadway, which include directing and possibly arranging, along with playing the piano. All of which I can manage since most musicals are written as classical music, on good old paper. I also love pop and rock music, which I don't even dare to wish ever play for, as it involves skills it seems most human beings get that classically trained musicians don't: playing by ear and making one's own part.
I've always figured that a good way into it for me would be to take piano jazz lessons, as I would have to make up my own parts. but at least I would get charts to give me somewhat of a base. My boyfriend is a jazz composer so he tried to get me to read some charts from the real book, which got me pretty discouraged pretty fast. I can plunk my way through a song, but I am good enough a musician to know what it is supposed to sound like, and that Mozart style in not the answer.
A doctorate keeps one fairly busy so I keep on procrastinating and not take piano jazz lessons (which actually was one of the reasons I moved to Boston in the first place, not so much for my doctorate in BU, but for possible private lessons with teaches from Berklee).
I got this job in the theatre where I am now, playing musical theatre, which should have been like the rest of what I do, until the first rehearsal happened.
Turned out that the whole show was based on songs by Buddy Holly, and that the music director can't read music and couldn't write charts, and did everything by ear. He played us the first tune, fully anticipating all of us musicians to pick it up, which made all of us professionals pretty mad, but it's not something you can ever mention in a professional situation, so everybody tried to make it work. We spent much more time on every song than we would have had he been prepared, and it took a few days to realize that I was doing fine, and now, five weeks in with one week left of this seven-performance-a-week show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsieRQ9NZN4) , I can proudly say that I rock!
I can read charts much better that I could, and even better, I now know that Real Book charts are actually much harder that a lot of charts I will ever encounter. I now know that I can absolutely pick up a lot of pop and rock songs by ear, thanks to my classical background in music forms and theory, and know my way around the piano enough to know what options are available to me.
Pat of me was afraid that even if I played the right notes in the right style, classical music would have molded me so much that I couldn't possibly be taken seriously playing pop and rock, and that audiences would realize that I was an impostor. Turns out that I can dance with my shoulders when I play, connect with the audience, sit on a high tool, and play standing up during solos. Who knew?
I am glad I finally do!

(Photo from http://www.vinmag.com/online/media/gbu0/prodlg/AP665-buddy-holly--rock-n-roll-concert-poster-1950s.jpg)