The Management Whines…
Last night was the Madfest, and we pulled it off again - all it took was 9 hours straight of scrambling to pull together music, light cues, props, stage directions, and then the house was open and then it was full and then we were off and then it was done.
Except for one performer, whose bio simply read “NYC”. His light cues were a fraction of a second late, as he’d given some ambiguous directions (”this one goes after the scissor catch when I balance the pink ring on my head”). Well, he did the scissor catch, but I was waiting for the pink ring to go up, and apparently he was at the same time waiting for the music to start, because he shifted attention offstage and shot me (at the stage manager’s table) a “look”.
That’s not so bad. What was annoying was that after his act, he stormed off to his dressing room and (after I’d retrieved a ball that he’d left outside the curtain) then slammed the door in my face.
And that’s what this whine is about. The light & sound cues, such as they were, never had a chance to be rehearsed. We just had time to talk about them. From my point of view, this negates any expectation of “perfection” and puts it into the realm of “pretty close is good.” And the fact is, no one noticed the delay except the two of us. The audience still loved his act.
But more than that: a temper tantrum, especially one during a show directed at the tech director/stage manager, is never professional. It adds stress to an already stressful evening, and to be blunt, he ain’t all that. The final act, The Passing Zone, was much better, and one could not imagine them ever throwing a tantrum like that.
Just disappointing, a minor blip in an otherwise fantastic show. But performers? Please remember that we are all adults and act that way. OK?
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POSTED IN: Life in the Performing Arts
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