Maggie Yates has been many things — a dog trainer, a matchmaker, and a singing telegrammist — but it only took her one college semester to realize she preferred theater to all else. Our roving theater writer began her career as a spotlight operator for the Shotgun Players in Berkeley. As she earned a bachelor’s degree in theater and a master of fine arts in writing, she learned to ignore comments from people in cafés: “At least you have waitressing to fall back on.” She creates pieces with Out of the Box Productions, too, which fills her with boundless enthusiasm for Santa Barbara’s arts community.