Hello kittens! I do apologize for my absence from your life these past couple of weeks. I've been a bit drained from directing my first show and having some major issues with the boyfriend and basically have crashed in bed as much as I can.
"What's up with the boyfriend?" you ask. "You're directing a show?!" you say. "Do tell us all the scintillating details!" you demand. Okay, here goes.
Show first. I was called by my "friend" Kathy* to direct a show for Buckeye Youth Theater called "Maggie's Magic Teapot." I italicize the word friend because Kathy and I haven't been on the best of terms for quite some time and I should have listened to that little voice that kept telling me to say no. Instead, I let my desire and ambition guide me and I said yes. BIG. MISTAKE. HUGE. MASSIVE. RIDICULOUS. I should have known better. Being a first time director, I knew I would face some challenges I didn't plan on. I accepted that. What I didn't think about was having the artistic director of the theater company start coming to the last week of my rehearsals and try to take over. She was nowhere to be seen the first five weeks of rehearsal, then BOOM! she shows up and starts thinking she's the director. She started making changes to my blocking, telling my actors to do things differently, planning extra rehearsal's for my actors without my knowledge, she stopped rehearsal to implement her changes and tried to make the set in her image of it instead of mine.
Kathy fought me on the set design; mind you she had nothing to do with building it; she kept trying to add extra things that weren't necessary and added extra work for the set crew. Her crowning achievement though was telling me two days before opening that she didn't think the show was good enough and if the changes she wanted weren't implemented she would cancel the show. Bitch. Fucking Bitch.
Now let me tell you a bit about the space we are working with. It is in a large warehouse type building that has a large dance studio space, a smaller dance studio space, a green room and a back store room. The company rents the space from the building owners. Because of this rental situation when a show is being produced, you cannot build the set until tech week, you cannot brace anything because you are not allowed to secure anything to the walls or the floor, and you have to clean everything out between performance because someone else may want to rent the space. Stupid. For lighting, they use household flood lights set into coffee cans that have been painted black and use brown household extension cords for power. Lots of extension cords. So many that it's truly a fire hazard. Nothing is secured with safety cables, the lights are simply placed with hand clamps. Very dangerous. I don't understand how they haven't been shut down for a safety violation. Or had a fire. It's incredible.
So kittens, I did realize my dream of becoming a director, the show did go up, but the experience was far more stressful than it needed to be. Hopefully my next turn in the director's chair will go more smoothly. Since I won't be working with Kathy, it should be. Only time can tell. I do know that I'm very happy that I got to direct and can't wait for my next gig. So kittens, I'm off for now; I'll give you part two about the boyfriend issues tomorrow. TTFN!!
*Names have not been changed because I don't care to protect the innocent.
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