I just have to vent. I was originally Stage Manager for our adaptation of Great Expectations. I didn’t want to, cause I’m not good at that kind of responsibility. I have no doubt that I could do it, but I didn’t really want to.
It turns out that in a play with a 11m/9f cast, about 20 girls auditioned and 6 guys. “Oh, shit.” He recruits me to audition, and tries to get others to. I get cast, and I’m no longer SM.
Today, the cast lists goes up. All teh guys who auditioned, and about three who DIDN’T, made it. Meanwhile, three great girls were overlooked. I understand that he needs to bring in more freshmen, but ione of these girls won “Best Actress in a Play” last year in our theater awards. Of course, the costumer’s sucky daughter made it.
On the other hand, I realize that our Theater guy takes this damn seriously, and he really does a good job; we routinely amaze audiences.
I may also be biased cuz the aforementioned three girls are gorgeous, but still, this sucks, don’t it?
{Shameless plug: Anyone in SF Nov. 11-13, 18-20, 7:30 PM? Ten dollar tix, I’d love to have you!)
Can’t help with the politics problem, but I thought you might be comforted by another hard-luck casting story:
In college, I belonged an enthusiastic but outrageously incompetent Shakespeare society. Their first full-length production was a trans-gendered version of As You Like It; it wasn’t very good, but at least we managed to find actors (16 women, 4 men) for all the roles. Next semester we decided to do a much more traditional production of the Scotch play. You guessed it, the same four guys auditioned, and it was painfully obvious that none of them were capable of playing Macbeth.
We called an emergency meeting, trying to figure out some way to salvage the play. The suggestions ranged from potentially interesting (set the whole thing in a she-world of early Celtic amazons) to out-and-out loopy (have Lady M. carry around a hand puppet, address it as her husband, and speak all of his lines as well as her own). Alas, the director didn’t care for any of these bright ideas, so we had to cancel the whole thing. Ah well, at least we tried …
J.J. –
I know this kind of stuff really seems to matter to you when it is actually happening. And though I want to empathize, it is tough once you’re divorced from the the high school experience by nearly 20 years.
I’ve always been a “Ah, fuck it” kinda guy. If stuff goes my way I’m pleasantly pleased. When stuff works the way it is supposed to work, I’m ecstatic. When it gets done right, they way I want it to, I’m downright orgasmic.
Take on the good stuff, let the other shit roll off your back. It really won’t matter all that much in a couple of years.
If that doesn’t help, then throw rotten vegetables at the performance!
Yeah, don’t worry, I’m not trippin about this, it had just happened when I posted, and it was pissing me off, mostly cuz I really wanted to be in another play w/Christine. Fucking gorgeous, great to talk to, too.
I’m over it, it looks like it’ll work out.
Tracer: hey, I got it, I was making a bad joke, meself. I thought it was funny, I was just adding, thereby ruining a good joke. Plus, I like typing “Pthbbbt.”