"One must choose in life between boredom and torment."
- Madame de Stael
The past couple days life has decided to torment, or challenge me. I am hoping it is nearing the end of a rocky week.
If you follow this blog you would know that I have a play on the waiting list for the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival. Well in the past week a whole lot has happened - most of it good.
Last Saturday I held auditions, and managed to get good actors - having only 3 people interested in the 2 male roles worried me.
The Friday before that I heard confirmation I was in the Edmonton Fringe, on the condition that my play had a 45 minute max run time.
Things were looking up, especially when, on Monday I got what looked like a great performance schedule (times of when the show would run). However, that changed fairly quickly.
Tuesday I got word that the venues and times of shows might change, and we'd hear back shortly.
Thursday, we got the new schedule, and although our venue didn't change, most of our times did. One performance contradicted a prior engagement by the stage manager. As producer I was willing to cancel that one show, since the Edmonton Fringe was not going to let me change it.
Thursday was also the start of noticing a series of miscommunications between myself (playwright, producer, director) and the stage manager. I can't pinpoint the exact start of the miscommunications, and where the challenges of the past few days started, but I do know when key observations took place.
First, at a meeting at Tim Hortons. Over all things seemed to be going well, however my stage manager passed to me a list of theatre job descriptions indicating to me the line, as they saw it, between director and stage manager. I believe this was brought up because when I emailed the cast about being involved I mentioned a first rehearsal this Sunday (tomorrow), and asking for their availability to help schedule rehearsals. I went one step further by creating a simple calendar indicating, based on their reply of availability, when they were busy. The stage manager indicated that scheduling rehearsals fell under their job description. (Honestly, I think it is a little more complex than that - obviously the director has to be available for the rehearsals... but that's was not an issue I was concerned with).
Second, I got a text from the stage manager reinforcing that they could not do the one show that conflicted with their schedule, and "the cast has to be at rehearsals set by u and the sm, not u and the sm adjusting to them."
My reply included that I am still learning, and will let them do the scheduling (besides it would be one less thing to worry about). I also asked if they could call me to discuss a couple things. They never have.
Related to this second point, the stage manager also sent out the details of the rehearsal on Sunday, and included in it a comment along the lines of rehearsal scheduling being their responsibility, and if it was up to the cast, they (the stage manager) would not be there.
Third, Friday morning I woke up to 2 emails from the stage manager, one to me one to the entire cast & crew. Both were essentially the same: regarding rehearsal scheduling. In the group one they mentioned how 2 specific days did not work for everyone, which were the perfect days for rehearsals - didn't say why. They also called the production a "so-so production"
I replied to everyone reinforcing the comment the stage manager made about how quickly the Edmonton Fringe is away, and having to put our work in. This however didn't stop one actor from resigning because he didn't want to be part of a "so-so production."
Luckily I was on the ball enough to divert that catastrophe - I simply stated to him that the stage manager's comment was probably intended to motivate to NOT have a "so-so production." That along with telling him, as director, that we'd work within his comfort level in terms of the gay interactions (he's straight), was what diverted that catastrophe.
Through out the day more of the cast replied to the stage manager's and my emails expressing confusion as to why those 2 days were a problem. No one expressed a direct problem with them, but were also curious as to why suddenly those days.
Fourth, before heading out to an opening at the Art Gallery, I tried to call the stage manager. I got their voice mail and left a message. Their outgoing message concerned me a little though, as it say "if you don't leave a message we will not call you back, and never call you."
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Short interjection here. During the auditions the stage manager and I were talking about a friend of theirs and how his relationship with a woman seemed suspicious - she had 2 jobs that didn't make sense to have (i.e. a doctor also working as a waitress to destress - this is a similar example). A few other things made them question this girl. I told the stage manager about the 2 times I was in relationships where the guy got arrested for fraud (after I was out of the picture, and both relationships were only a couple months each). So I now recognize some of the signs.
The past couple days, with the memories of what to watch for in a relationship, I couldn't help noticing one or two related to the stage manager. I took mental note, but continued working with them - had been working with them since January off and on on this production. Off and on because of me.
The outgoing voice message was another 'flag.'
Back to yesterday.
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While I was at the Art Gallery, I received an email that started to explain things. The 2 specific days for rehearsals was because they found a place where refreshments would be served, but only those days (I knew that was being looked into, but the email was the first time I heard confirmation).
There was a reiteration of not being able to stage manage the one performance, and that the cast was giving mixed messages about when they can do rehearsals. There was also a point about not having the cast help procure props, costume, or set - something I mentioned in one of my emails. Fringe theatre is amateur theatre, there usually isn't the man power to have separate people doing all those things, so my email was intended to imply asking for assistance - I can't do it alone (see http://quafaie.blogspot.ca/2012/05/i-cant-do-it-alone.html).
At the end of the email they say basically resign. Which in part is a disappointment, since the resources they claimed to have would have been nice. But on the other hand I'd rather this happen now then the day before the first performance.
That stage manager did help a lot, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be at a position to feel like I can handle it. They helped get a decent about of people in place (ok it was mostly my doing, but they were a motivating factor).
I didn't reply to their email until early this morning (time stamp about 4:50am I think). I was contemplating how to be diplomatic in my reply.
I pointed out:
1) not knowing about the one location for rehearsals.
2) the actors replies about being able to actually attend the days that were mentioned, and highlighting the only complaint about rehearsals was not enough
3) a brief reply about the cast's involvement in other activities (set building etc), from the point of view of having been involved in Fringe theatre a number of times. I didn't say the number, but this is technically my 4th, however I have socialized with a number of people involved, and they would all agree with my point, and I've been around the festival for over 20 years
4) I made a courteous farewell, and quoted part of their final comments: "find a stage manager" (their line was "I hope you can find a stage manager," mine was "I will do as you suggest and look for a new stage manager.")
There is my long post / rant about the past week.
In terms of a new stage manager, one of my housemates (who was around yesterday and I confided in), called a friend who has passed on the contact info for a possibly stage manager.
I now leave this post with the quote from the other day's daily inspiration - worth repeating:
"Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher."
- Oprah Winfrey
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