Struggles with the theater crowd
So I have just received e-mail from our director, who has criticised the Stage Manager (abbrev SM and it's more appropriate than you know if you have not done theater) for taking the cast to task for the following things: not knowing our lines; showing up late to rehearsal; griping and complaining about things behind her back while not letting her, the set designer, or any other techie know directly what was wrong so it could be dealt with; and wearing inappropriate shoes to a full tech rehearsal. We (the cast as a whole) are guilty of all these things and they are all quite properly her job to deal with and to call us on, especially now that we are in full tech. Our director, IMHO, was out of line to send a mass e-mail to the cast saying that her comments were "unsoliicited, unwarranted, and unduly critical."
So I sent the SM a supportive e-mail, thanking her for her work (which has been amazing) and trying to be the pro I should have been last night--except I was in serious pain and nothing was working on it, and so I was one of the gripers. (At one point I apologized to the set designer for it, because it came partly out of so many years of Community Theater where, if you are someone who thinks, you have to think for everyone, because not everyone thinks...) And she was absolutely right about the shoes some of the young folks wore: flipflops for tech creates safety issues when you have to move set pieces on a wet stage and across a wet and narrow bridge...so (unless they are your costume shoes) you don't wear crap like that for tech... which we all should have known
I try to recognize that everyone has his/her own way of seeing the world; I have recently learned some things about a buddy of mine, for example, that enlightened me about the workings of his not inconsiderable intellect and will change what kind of books I recommend to him. So while I gripe about the director's apparent lack of focus and lack of respect for his actors' time and lives, and his apparent inability to see any of the above as relating back to him and his choices, it's his show and I chose to work in it. As one of my very experienced, wise, and insightful colleagues said to me when I griped at him last night, "Yes, I'm wise and experienced, but in this show I'm just an actor." He's right; much of the crap, which he and I both have the experience and talent and perspicaciy to solve/resolve, is not our job on this gig. We are just actors, and the sooner we get through tech the sooner we can do what we signed on to do.
And our SM rocks.
So I sent the SM a supportive e-mail, thanking her for her work (which has been amazing) and trying to be the pro I should have been last night--except I was in serious pain and nothing was working on it, and so I was one of the gripers. (At one point I apologized to the set designer for it, because it came partly out of so many years of Community Theater where, if you are someone who thinks, you have to think for everyone, because not everyone thinks...) And she was absolutely right about the shoes some of the young folks wore: flipflops for tech creates safety issues when you have to move set pieces on a wet stage and across a wet and narrow bridge...so (unless they are your costume shoes) you don't wear crap like that for tech... which we all should have known
I try to recognize that everyone has his/her own way of seeing the world; I have recently learned some things about a buddy of mine, for example, that enlightened me about the workings of his not inconsiderable intellect and will change what kind of books I recommend to him. So while I gripe about the director's apparent lack of focus and lack of respect for his actors' time and lives, and his apparent inability to see any of the above as relating back to him and his choices, it's his show and I chose to work in it. As one of my very experienced, wise, and insightful colleagues said to me when I griped at him last night, "Yes, I'm wise and experienced, but in this show I'm just an actor." He's right; much of the crap, which he and I both have the experience and talent and perspicaciy to solve/resolve, is not our job on this gig. We are just actors, and the sooner we get through tech the sooner we can do what we signed on to do.
And our SM rocks.