Random thoughts that allow me to procrastinate
1. Corey's back in town for a little while
So the guy that was our charge last year is in town to open the show he designed before he got hired in Boston and a group of us went out to dinner last night. Seeing the school through his eyes was interesting. He said he was just getting over the bitterness and dislike of theatre when he got back and 3 days into being here is hating theatre again. Sad right? Well, yes and no. Sad because the place is definitely worse. Not because there is the possibility of making friends with theatre again. That's all about that (though I will admit to starting an awkward conversation with Sarah that the rest of the table kind of wanted to run from, more later).
2. The shooting at Northern Illinois
I heard about the shooting leaving school after a production meeting. So got home after the meeting and checked my phone to find my mom had left me a panic filled voicemail telling me she was really worried, sounded like she was crying, etc. Well, apparently they started covering the shooting in Texas about an hour after it happened but they were only saying that it was a large state school in Illinois and they didn't know what department was affected, but that a gunman had opened fire on a classroom. Well in the intervening 4 hours my mom had convinced herself that someone went nuts and shot the place up. Now, this is sad and my mom was a wreck, but I tell the story for this reason. She said that considering how many hours we worked and how low morale was it seemed perfectly plausible that someone in my department would shoot the place up. All I could think to say was that I am in the arts and none of us own guns. The rest seemed right, but theatre kids aren't exactly big NRA supporters.
3.Carmen
The director is still (7 weeks into the process not counting the 4 weeks of winter break) not available for meeting. I have not talked face-to-face with him about the show yet. I am having to design a 4 act, 4 location show through email. All I'm gonna say about that is that it's ridiculous.
4. Music Theatre
I wrote to all my painters from last year and none of them have responded. I sent the email out on Wednesday of last week and no one has written back yet. That was the reason for Sarah and my awkward conversation. Rather than just say she doesn't want to come back, she's playing this game where every time I ask she implies that she would come back if she made more money. This seems reasonable to me, however, she wants almost twice what she got paid last year and she wants a guarantee that she won't work more than 45 hours a week. I can't do that. Firstly, she'd make more money than I do right now. Secondly, there will be weeks we have to work more than 45 hours and there will be weeks we work less than 40. That is the reality of summer stock. Anyway, all of this was on my mind before we left for dinner last night as I have had a flurry of emails about the first show and plans for how it's going to be built, etc. I sent out the email Wednesday. No responses. You know. I just wanted to know what she would say. Everyone else was talking about summer stuff. It seemed right, she just got really defensive and said she wouldn't work there without the above mentioned things. And I said it wasn't possible. She got more defensive and I was like, you have to work your way up. You were there last summer. You did some good work, but it takes time to double what you make. I said she could ask for as much money as she wanted to, but there was no guarantee that they would accept. She also brought up how much she made last summer and I said they paid her less than I recommended and apologized, but said she should have asked for more. That's what you do. Anyway, it became super awkward and I didn't really expect the conversation to go like that, but it did and everyone else was ready to run away.
Well, that's all for now. I am going to do some work.
So the guy that was our charge last year is in town to open the show he designed before he got hired in Boston and a group of us went out to dinner last night. Seeing the school through his eyes was interesting. He said he was just getting over the bitterness and dislike of theatre when he got back and 3 days into being here is hating theatre again. Sad right? Well, yes and no. Sad because the place is definitely worse. Not because there is the possibility of making friends with theatre again. That's all about that (though I will admit to starting an awkward conversation with Sarah that the rest of the table kind of wanted to run from, more later).
2. The shooting at Northern Illinois
I heard about the shooting leaving school after a production meeting. So got home after the meeting and checked my phone to find my mom had left me a panic filled voicemail telling me she was really worried, sounded like she was crying, etc. Well, apparently they started covering the shooting in Texas about an hour after it happened but they were only saying that it was a large state school in Illinois and they didn't know what department was affected, but that a gunman had opened fire on a classroom. Well in the intervening 4 hours my mom had convinced herself that someone went nuts and shot the place up. Now, this is sad and my mom was a wreck, but I tell the story for this reason. She said that considering how many hours we worked and how low morale was it seemed perfectly plausible that someone in my department would shoot the place up. All I could think to say was that I am in the arts and none of us own guns. The rest seemed right, but theatre kids aren't exactly big NRA supporters.
3.Carmen
The director is still (7 weeks into the process not counting the 4 weeks of winter break) not available for meeting. I have not talked face-to-face with him about the show yet. I am having to design a 4 act, 4 location show through email. All I'm gonna say about that is that it's ridiculous.
4. Music Theatre
I wrote to all my painters from last year and none of them have responded. I sent the email out on Wednesday of last week and no one has written back yet. That was the reason for Sarah and my awkward conversation. Rather than just say she doesn't want to come back, she's playing this game where every time I ask she implies that she would come back if she made more money. This seems reasonable to me, however, she wants almost twice what she got paid last year and she wants a guarantee that she won't work more than 45 hours a week. I can't do that. Firstly, she'd make more money than I do right now. Secondly, there will be weeks we have to work more than 45 hours and there will be weeks we work less than 40. That is the reality of summer stock. Anyway, all of this was on my mind before we left for dinner last night as I have had a flurry of emails about the first show and plans for how it's going to be built, etc. I sent out the email Wednesday. No responses. You know. I just wanted to know what she would say. Everyone else was talking about summer stuff. It seemed right, she just got really defensive and said she wouldn't work there without the above mentioned things. And I said it wasn't possible. She got more defensive and I was like, you have to work your way up. You were there last summer. You did some good work, but it takes time to double what you make. I said she could ask for as much money as she wanted to, but there was no guarantee that they would accept. She also brought up how much she made last summer and I said they paid her less than I recommended and apologized, but said she should have asked for more. That's what you do. Anyway, it became super awkward and I didn't really expect the conversation to go like that, but it did and everyone else was ready to run away.
Well, that's all for now. I am going to do some work.