Monster
04-27-2003, 01:00 AM
Okay, time for a big long rant...if my memory holds up. :p
I am on run crew (the move-this-here guys) for a show called "Time Remembered." It's a thesis show for one of the graduate directors. I've worked with her now three times this year. She's a great director, lots of fun to work with, and very patient with idiots like myself.
Anyway, as the year has progressed, I have come to adopt a very professional attitude towards the theatre--indeed, I had a very professional attitude towards it in high school, expecting dedication from the other kids involved in the shows. And I got it from them.
There are three freshman Musical Theatre majors (MTs) on crew with me. M, D, and K. These three have almost single-handedly made my crew experience totally unpleasant when I am around them. But before I get to them, I'll just quickly recap the not-fun parts about crew that were not their fault.
Last Saturday we had an 8:00 a.m. call. It was only for two hours, but 8 a.m. is totally insane, especially considering we had only gotten out at 10:30 the night before (crew runs on weekdays from 6:30 to 10:30 for tech, and to 11:30 once the cast is brought in). Today (the 26th) was what's called a 10-of-12 day. We were on call for 12 hours, and working for 10 of them. Our call was from noon to midnight (we got out a bit early). Now we get to the three children from hell...
D is a diva--he calls himself a "div-o" however. D has been in theatre programs his entire life and as such is pretty much mute when you talk to him about anything other than theatre. He also feels somehow entitled to treat everybody else like **** because he is somehow better than the rest of us. On numerous occasions I have very nearly beaten the hell out of him, and I am not a violent person.
M is much more tolerable and is really not a diva. Unlike D, he is willing to do physical labor, wears clothes that he is not afraid to get dirty (i.e. paint, dirt, and just theatre work in general), he also does not talk about people behind their backs and is much more down to earth. 90% of the time, Michael is a good guy. Crew, however, seems to be the other 10%.
K was described by a sophomore when I mentioned her name as "the most annoying creature on Earth." This is pretty much true. K is 20 years old and a freshman because she was working in the "real" world for a couple of years. She is from New York, but for a time she lived in Burbank, CA while she worked as an actress on one of Nickelodeon's shows (don't ask me which, I don't remember, nor do I care). Like D, K has a holier-than-thou attitude towards anybody who doesn't act exactly like her.
Now onto the things they have done that make me pissed off. Imagine "Good Riddance" by Green Day playing in the background, or play it if you have it.
Of the three of them, there is not a one of them that has any respect for the show itself, the crew heads (all graduate students), the director, or the stage manager (the Assistant Stage Manager is treated the same about 50% of the time). All they do is complain, or do nothing at all. From day 1, I have seen K with her cell phone talking on it at every possible moment. This includes DURING SCENES, by the way. Whether she's text-messaging people, calling people, or playing games on her cell phone, it really doesn't matter. You are supposed to leave your cell phone in your bag from the start of crew to the end of crew except for break times. Standard etiquette and simply a show of respect. The fact that she has been in the working world and STILL doesn't know/care about this etiquette shows that she is, for lack of a courser term, a bi*ch. Other things she has done on her own mostly include repeats of that event, as well as going AWOL for lengthy times and not caring that she missed a call. By doing that, she basically treated all of us (the other six members of the crew) like sh*t and didn't care about it.
M hasn't done much in the way of huge things that piss me off, just little things repeatedly for the most part. However, after being specifically told "Do not sit on the set pieces" by the set designer, a graduate student named Zack (which is confusing as hell), I found him sitting on a set piece while the two of us were waiting for our entrance to change the set during a scene change. "We're not supposed to be sitting on the set pieces," I told him.
"Who said that?" He asked, starting to get up.
"Zack, grad-Zack," said I.
"Oh. Okay, nevermind then," he replied, settling back down and putting his foot up on another set piece! I was so tempted to throttle him that I had to walk away and cool off. I...I'm big on giving respect to those who have earned it, and Zack has earned it time after time in my eyes, and to see him so passively disrespect a person I consider a friend and a very good guy...well, I'm glad I don't have a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Anyway, that was the big thing that was only him that pissed me off. The rest of it, like I said, was little stuff and fits quite well into the 90% category b/c it really didn't piss me off.
Now on to D. D, aside from treating me like I'm a piece of sh*t, just rubs me the wrong way pretty much nonstop. Total diva, which I really don't mesh well with. In high school, back when I had power, I wouldn't take any crap from a diva, and anybody who tried to pull any of that crap on me found out just how bad an idea it was. "I can't work under these conditions," said one. "Fine," said I, "leave." But now those days are behind me and I am no higher up than he. Much as I would like to give him sh*t right back, I can't. I'm okay with that, for the most part. Give him enough rope to hang himself with, and all that. In the real world, he'll encounter people like me, and he'll get fired and I am content in that knowledge. But a lot of the things he does make me want to be very evil. Like "Se7en" style of evil. D...well, all he does really is complain and complain and complain. Out of all seven of the crewmembers he has the lightest job. He's not in costume (myself and four others are in costume, butler tuxes for the guys and maid outfits for the girls) and is never onstage. His jobs consist of moving curtains, dropping a stuffed bird, and throwing confetti at the end of the play. That's pretty much it. Earlier in the school year, D said, and I quote, "I'm here to study musical theatre, not to work on crew." God help him if he ever has to work in an actor's co-op. (slight irony: he was accepted as an actor, not an MT, he was able to switch over in the first week of classes, though) He sees anything that's not a starring role as below him. He goes AWOL all the time, and like K he doesn't seem to mind at all that he treats the rest of us like sh*t. Today, during crew, he was sitting backstage with his laptop browsing the internet and talking--not whispering, but talking in a full conversational voice--with other crewmembers (M and K). There is a set piece that is an obelisk. It is called "The Obelisk." When asked by our Stage Manager to move it, he said, "What's an obelisk?" It was funny at the time, but only for a few moments, then it was just sad. D is not unintelligent, for unintelligent still leaves room for the desire to know more. D is ignorant and it's by choice. Conscious decision to neglect academic pursuits.
(getting to the end now)
Yesterday (Friday) was the final Senior Cabaret of the year. The Senior Cabarets (Final Fridays, they're called, b/c they're held on the last friday of every month) are fundraisers that run from 11:00 p.m. to midnight. Now, as I said before (way back at the top), crew gets out at 11:30. The way people who actually care about the show and respect the theatre look at it, while working on crew, there is no outside world until the person in charge says so. The only thing that exists in your reality is the show. You do NOT concern yourself with other matters. Now, on Friday we were given a 20-minute break from 10:50 to 11:10 while a scene was being worked on. The three of them were determined to go see the Cabaret, no matter what, so they all took that break to go to the first 10 minutes of the Cabaret. Of the three, M said he would be back at 11:10 and indeed he was. The other two, however, remained AWOL until the Assistant Stage Manager went to go find them. While the rest of us were carefully doing our clean-up work, putting things away right and doing the job fully and with our full attention, the three of them did...not even a half-assed job, more like an eighth-assed job. The floor was swept so poorly that I almost wanted to stay after to do it right. Set pieces were put in the incorrect places, and when I said, "M, that doesn't go there." He replied with "I don't care, I just want to get out of here." Again, I wanted to hurt him. As soon as the Stage Manager gave the OK to leave, the three of them were gone before she finished her exhale. I, on the other hand, along with the rest of the crew, stayed after the OK was given to finish the job properly and then we left.
That brings us up to today, which was the 1st dress rehearsal we had. Today we were A) not supposed to be out in the audience, B) not supposed to be standing where we would be visible by the audince, C) were not supposed to leave the performance space. The three of them did all of these repeatedly throughout.
Okay, I'm done.
I am on run crew (the move-this-here guys) for a show called "Time Remembered." It's a thesis show for one of the graduate directors. I've worked with her now three times this year. She's a great director, lots of fun to work with, and very patient with idiots like myself.
Anyway, as the year has progressed, I have come to adopt a very professional attitude towards the theatre--indeed, I had a very professional attitude towards it in high school, expecting dedication from the other kids involved in the shows. And I got it from them.
There are three freshman Musical Theatre majors (MTs) on crew with me. M, D, and K. These three have almost single-handedly made my crew experience totally unpleasant when I am around them. But before I get to them, I'll just quickly recap the not-fun parts about crew that were not their fault.
Last Saturday we had an 8:00 a.m. call. It was only for two hours, but 8 a.m. is totally insane, especially considering we had only gotten out at 10:30 the night before (crew runs on weekdays from 6:30 to 10:30 for tech, and to 11:30 once the cast is brought in). Today (the 26th) was what's called a 10-of-12 day. We were on call for 12 hours, and working for 10 of them. Our call was from noon to midnight (we got out a bit early). Now we get to the three children from hell...
D is a diva--he calls himself a "div-o" however. D has been in theatre programs his entire life and as such is pretty much mute when you talk to him about anything other than theatre. He also feels somehow entitled to treat everybody else like **** because he is somehow better than the rest of us. On numerous occasions I have very nearly beaten the hell out of him, and I am not a violent person.
M is much more tolerable and is really not a diva. Unlike D, he is willing to do physical labor, wears clothes that he is not afraid to get dirty (i.e. paint, dirt, and just theatre work in general), he also does not talk about people behind their backs and is much more down to earth. 90% of the time, Michael is a good guy. Crew, however, seems to be the other 10%.
K was described by a sophomore when I mentioned her name as "the most annoying creature on Earth." This is pretty much true. K is 20 years old and a freshman because she was working in the "real" world for a couple of years. She is from New York, but for a time she lived in Burbank, CA while she worked as an actress on one of Nickelodeon's shows (don't ask me which, I don't remember, nor do I care). Like D, K has a holier-than-thou attitude towards anybody who doesn't act exactly like her.
Now onto the things they have done that make me pissed off. Imagine "Good Riddance" by Green Day playing in the background, or play it if you have it.
Of the three of them, there is not a one of them that has any respect for the show itself, the crew heads (all graduate students), the director, or the stage manager (the Assistant Stage Manager is treated the same about 50% of the time). All they do is complain, or do nothing at all. From day 1, I have seen K with her cell phone talking on it at every possible moment. This includes DURING SCENES, by the way. Whether she's text-messaging people, calling people, or playing games on her cell phone, it really doesn't matter. You are supposed to leave your cell phone in your bag from the start of crew to the end of crew except for break times. Standard etiquette and simply a show of respect. The fact that she has been in the working world and STILL doesn't know/care about this etiquette shows that she is, for lack of a courser term, a bi*ch. Other things she has done on her own mostly include repeats of that event, as well as going AWOL for lengthy times and not caring that she missed a call. By doing that, she basically treated all of us (the other six members of the crew) like sh*t and didn't care about it.
M hasn't done much in the way of huge things that piss me off, just little things repeatedly for the most part. However, after being specifically told "Do not sit on the set pieces" by the set designer, a graduate student named Zack (which is confusing as hell), I found him sitting on a set piece while the two of us were waiting for our entrance to change the set during a scene change. "We're not supposed to be sitting on the set pieces," I told him.
"Who said that?" He asked, starting to get up.
"Zack, grad-Zack," said I.
"Oh. Okay, nevermind then," he replied, settling back down and putting his foot up on another set piece! I was so tempted to throttle him that I had to walk away and cool off. I...I'm big on giving respect to those who have earned it, and Zack has earned it time after time in my eyes, and to see him so passively disrespect a person I consider a friend and a very good guy...well, I'm glad I don't have a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Anyway, that was the big thing that was only him that pissed me off. The rest of it, like I said, was little stuff and fits quite well into the 90% category b/c it really didn't piss me off.
Now on to D. D, aside from treating me like I'm a piece of sh*t, just rubs me the wrong way pretty much nonstop. Total diva, which I really don't mesh well with. In high school, back when I had power, I wouldn't take any crap from a diva, and anybody who tried to pull any of that crap on me found out just how bad an idea it was. "I can't work under these conditions," said one. "Fine," said I, "leave." But now those days are behind me and I am no higher up than he. Much as I would like to give him sh*t right back, I can't. I'm okay with that, for the most part. Give him enough rope to hang himself with, and all that. In the real world, he'll encounter people like me, and he'll get fired and I am content in that knowledge. But a lot of the things he does make me want to be very evil. Like "Se7en" style of evil. D...well, all he does really is complain and complain and complain. Out of all seven of the crewmembers he has the lightest job. He's not in costume (myself and four others are in costume, butler tuxes for the guys and maid outfits for the girls) and is never onstage. His jobs consist of moving curtains, dropping a stuffed bird, and throwing confetti at the end of the play. That's pretty much it. Earlier in the school year, D said, and I quote, "I'm here to study musical theatre, not to work on crew." God help him if he ever has to work in an actor's co-op. (slight irony: he was accepted as an actor, not an MT, he was able to switch over in the first week of classes, though) He sees anything that's not a starring role as below him. He goes AWOL all the time, and like K he doesn't seem to mind at all that he treats the rest of us like sh*t. Today, during crew, he was sitting backstage with his laptop browsing the internet and talking--not whispering, but talking in a full conversational voice--with other crewmembers (M and K). There is a set piece that is an obelisk. It is called "The Obelisk." When asked by our Stage Manager to move it, he said, "What's an obelisk?" It was funny at the time, but only for a few moments, then it was just sad. D is not unintelligent, for unintelligent still leaves room for the desire to know more. D is ignorant and it's by choice. Conscious decision to neglect academic pursuits.
(getting to the end now)
Yesterday (Friday) was the final Senior Cabaret of the year. The Senior Cabarets (Final Fridays, they're called, b/c they're held on the last friday of every month) are fundraisers that run from 11:00 p.m. to midnight. Now, as I said before (way back at the top), crew gets out at 11:30. The way people who actually care about the show and respect the theatre look at it, while working on crew, there is no outside world until the person in charge says so. The only thing that exists in your reality is the show. You do NOT concern yourself with other matters. Now, on Friday we were given a 20-minute break from 10:50 to 11:10 while a scene was being worked on. The three of them were determined to go see the Cabaret, no matter what, so they all took that break to go to the first 10 minutes of the Cabaret. Of the three, M said he would be back at 11:10 and indeed he was. The other two, however, remained AWOL until the Assistant Stage Manager went to go find them. While the rest of us were carefully doing our clean-up work, putting things away right and doing the job fully and with our full attention, the three of them did...not even a half-assed job, more like an eighth-assed job. The floor was swept so poorly that I almost wanted to stay after to do it right. Set pieces were put in the incorrect places, and when I said, "M, that doesn't go there." He replied with "I don't care, I just want to get out of here." Again, I wanted to hurt him. As soon as the Stage Manager gave the OK to leave, the three of them were gone before she finished her exhale. I, on the other hand, along with the rest of the crew, stayed after the OK was given to finish the job properly and then we left.
That brings us up to today, which was the 1st dress rehearsal we had. Today we were A) not supposed to be out in the audience, B) not supposed to be standing where we would be visible by the audince, C) were not supposed to leave the performance space. The three of them did all of these repeatedly throughout.
Okay, I'm done.