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I'm directing a short one-act play for a local theatre festival. The play is "Stool" and the festival is called New Works New Britain - http://www.nwnb.webs.com/ Check it out! :)
The play was cast before I was brought in as director, and the three actors included a woman I have acted with onstage but hadn't yet cast in a show, an actor that I've directed before, and another actor that I hadn't worked with before, but sorta knew socially. This third one is the drama queen. He is currently working on two shows, mine and "The Producers" at the Warner Theatre in Torrington. Obviously, "The Producers" has had precedence when it comes to rehearsals and etc. Oh, and he had choir practice one night a week, too. So we came to a compromise that seemed to work okay for everyone: we rehearsed from 5:00-6:00 twice a week. This allowed him time to get to his other rehearsals at 7:00, and allowed us to rehearse our show enough to satisfy me.
Last week, the playwright of "Stool," Jacques, wrote to me and said that he had entered the play into a festival in NY, and it was accepted there, too. He wanted to know if we could take it "on the road" and do it again in May. The festival runs May 4-11, and then the voted-on "audience favorites" play again over May 15-16. My first issue was whether I could even do it. I've been cast in another play ("What the Butler Saw" with the Suffield Players) which runs over the same time period as the NY festival. I've got a couple things in my favor here: the play I'm acting in will have already opened, so I won't have rehearsals other than one pick-up; and I'm the director of the other one, so my physical presence isn't strictly necessary to the performance. Okay, Jacques decides to try to work with my schedule and keep me on, so my next step is to bring it to the cast.
Two are in right away with no hesitation. The third - well, he's in a play that opens that weekend, but he wants to try to do both. To give him some credit, he actually went to the director of the other play he's going to be doing, and asked if they could get a sub for him for a night or two if needed. Of course, the other director said no. This is non-profit theatre, after all, and understudies are very rare. To add to the somewhat-confusion, the other theatre company is in danger of going under, and he's partly wondering whether his show will happen at all. So we had kind of left it at wait-and-see. I didn't want to make any waves while still trying to get this first festival accomplished.
Which brings me to today. I get an e-mail from Jacques asking for date preferences for NY from me and my cast. He's meeting with the New York people next week and wants to request a specific day. I send an e-mail out to my cast asking them. I address this one actor and his situation specifically. I agonize over the wording, so it doesn't sound like I'm trying to push off the "blame" onto Jacques, or that I'm trying to force out my actor, but still be firm that I need to have an answer. Finally I'm satisfied with it and I send it off.
Within two minutes I get a one-line reply: "Well is sounds like you have decided to proceed without my involvement so my date preferences don't matter"
**sigh**
After letting loose a couple of expletives, I have to figure out how to respond to this. I do NOT want to piss off an actor TOO much right before we open. I could ignore it, let it go, and just quietly re-cast the role. But I don't want tension and resentment simmering all through this week. I could plead for understanding and forgiveness, but that would not only be fake, it would declare me a doormat - not a good reputation as a director. In the end I decided there's really no option other than a cool-headed and honest approach: "That is not the case. I would like very much to have you there if you can be there. But if you can't, I have to find someone else. The playwright and the festival people are asking and it can't be up in the air much longer. I'm trying as much as I can to keep you in, but a definite answer is needed."
Luckily, this seemed to placate him enough that he sent me somewhat of a real answer. Now I can work with that, with what I hear from the other two, and with the playwright. Then the next decision will come from Jacques. Hopefully, I won't hear anything about our NY dates until next weekend.
And I'm not even getting paid for this.