The community I’m referring to hear is not the GLBT community. It’s the theater community. Specifically, the community theater community.
Okay, so in just a few days we open Into the Woods at the SCERA playhouse. Yay. Last night was our first rehearsal with lighting, costumes, and makeup. Yay. Oh, and before I go on, here’s a $3 coupon:
I don’t know that I’ve ever felt so stressed out about a show. And interestingly enough, I’m not stressed about the performances. I think this will be a fantastic show. I’m getting stressed about the production elements, none of which are complete, and most of which were introduced just days before opening. Listen to the tomes of experience: TECH MUST BEGIN AT LEAST 1 WEEK BEFORE OPENING. Not 3 days.
So, while last night was not a disaster necessarily, there are some frustrations going on. Mine had to do with the fact that my first pair of shoes were too small by about two sizes, so I asked for bigger shoes. When I saw new shoes I was really happy until I tried them on and they were about two sizes too large. Other people had concerns with their costumes as well. And when theater people have concerns, they talk about them. At the end of the night, I caught the tail end of what might have been a confrontation where one of the costumer’s husbands was telling an actor that his wife had been up until midnight several times working on these costumes and that not only has made her angry, but as a result has made him angry and he didn’t like the way we were talking about the costumes. Seriously.
So in addition to everybody being stressed out, or perhaps as a result of it, now there have been words, and because this is community, and people do this kind of thing because they like it, there may be resentments that compromise the integrity of the production. Bleck.
I think Laura put it best when she made the point that while we aren’t being paid to be here, the costumers are. And you know, if the costumes aren’t ready until three days before, fine. But they should be ready. Another point for avoiding community theater again, and another point for never doing a show at SCERA again. It’s just too much stress to deal with.
On the other hand, after they told me I could nix the wig, I actually started having a good time. That was a part of the process I had been missing. We were so busy working on getting the words right and the blocking right that I realized that I hadn’t been enjoying the music to one of my favorite shows. I hope it continues to get more and more enjoyable from here on out.
The problem with the community theater is that if something goes wrong, nobody loses their job or gets their pay docked, so nobody tries extra hard. It just seems like it’s all done at their convenience – even the actors – because it’s not lucrative enough to motivate. They do it because they want to, not because they have to. So nobody is at their best because it’s more like a hobby than a job. Even though it is a job for most of the production elements.
Whatever. It will be good in the end, but again, I’m going to say don’t come opening night because the show can’t be ready when we’ve never done it as a complete production before opening night.