People are inherently stupid...
I sincerely believe that. You either rise above it or you are doomed to wallow in it. After years and years of working in community theatre, I think this sinks in more and more every day. I mean, who the heck thinks it is a good idea to bring three of the brattiest kids (though I am sure lack of parental discipline is to blame and not the kids) to rehearsal? Directors just don't think. Friday night I stepped into the theatre to paint the mural on the back wall. Luckily that's all I had to do this show. The theatre was utter chaos. The set was ugly, the lights we not done and nothing was painted like it should have been. On top of all that, three actors (one being the director) were trying in vain to rehearse while three little kids ran around making so much noise it was unbelievable. I quickly found the Tech Director to assess the situation. That's the theatre manager in me. Anyway, he was tossing wood around because he was so angry he couldn't do anything else.
The littlest kid had no shoes on and she was running around back stage. Now the rehearsal had been going on for a while now, all day I was told, so it apparently never occurred to anyone she could step on a nail or something. There's that inherently stupid part again. So after like the 10th time, I finally managed to talk the little girl into putting her shoes on, echoed by everyone else. Amazing. The kids were running around giving each others wedgies. The Artistic Director bowed out gracefully and took an hour and a half to get black paint. We all knew he was avoiding the situation because he was mad that they changed his set, and rightly so.
After finally getting the place cleared we painted, the lights were hung, everything seemed good at one in the morning. Fast forward to the next day. From noon to 10 was spent on the show just teching the lights. She brought her kids again and they terrorized the Artistic Director's dog so much he climbed on the seats in an attempt to get to the booth. They broke a light.
And now I found out during rehearsal in TECH WEEK (week before they open) they are trying to fix issues and not even running with lights. Um...as a stage manager, these problems would have been worked out well in advance. Again her destructive kids
managed to bring rehearsal to a halt due to climbing on the dimer pack and turning off the breakers, blacking out the stage.
Ok...now seriously...who does this? Who directs a show and brings their three kids (all under the age of 5-6), to a sit there and expect them to behave? They don't listen to her, they do whatever they want and walk all over her. Why on earth anyone thought this would work is beyond me. That's just a lesson in stupidity there. I mean I truly understand sometimes you have to bring them and usually they have someone else there to help watch them, but really?
Ok, this is an indulgent rant just because Evan, Scott and I were so angry over everything being so messed up. But hey, the mural is fabulous! So glad I was not stage managing this show. Here's looking to Weird Romance.
The littlest kid had no shoes on and she was running around back stage. Now the rehearsal had been going on for a while now, all day I was told, so it apparently never occurred to anyone she could step on a nail or something. There's that inherently stupid part again. So after like the 10th time, I finally managed to talk the little girl into putting her shoes on, echoed by everyone else. Amazing. The kids were running around giving each others wedgies. The Artistic Director bowed out gracefully and took an hour and a half to get black paint. We all knew he was avoiding the situation because he was mad that they changed his set, and rightly so.
After finally getting the place cleared we painted, the lights were hung, everything seemed good at one in the morning. Fast forward to the next day. From noon to 10 was spent on the show just teching the lights. She brought her kids again and they terrorized the Artistic Director's dog so much he climbed on the seats in an attempt to get to the booth. They broke a light.
And now I found out during rehearsal in TECH WEEK (week before they open) they are trying to fix issues and not even running with lights. Um...as a stage manager, these problems would have been worked out well in advance. Again her destructive kids
managed to bring rehearsal to a halt due to climbing on the dimer pack and turning off the breakers, blacking out the stage.
Ok...now seriously...who does this? Who directs a show and brings their three kids (all under the age of 5-6), to a sit there and expect them to behave? They don't listen to her, they do whatever they want and walk all over her. Why on earth anyone thought this would work is beyond me. That's just a lesson in stupidity there. I mean I truly understand sometimes you have to bring them and usually they have someone else there to help watch them, but really?
Ok, this is an indulgent rant just because Evan, Scott and I were so angry over everything being so messed up. But hey, the mural is fabulous! So glad I was not stage managing this show. Here's looking to Weird Romance.