Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Drama in the Workhouse

I called Nursey P yesterday to let her know that my period promptly arrived on Sunday morning, and dutifully made my appointment for my "FET talk" for tomorrow, Wednesday, at 2:30 pm with Dr. Vest (aptly monikered because of the cool black leather vest he wears under his white doctor's coat.....although in 90+ degree heat in July, I'm not sure he'll be wearing it tomorrow). I'll get my protocol, which is pretty simple since there's no shots involved, and my prescriptions for the doxycycline and the Medrol. I hate antibiotics-I get so gassy (sorry if TMI for you)-at least I won't get sick around the time of the show dates.....

Speaking of "Oliver", we've been having a bit of "drama" at rehearsals lately, with our Nancy. She's a bit of a diva personality, and is the type of person who has to drop names and let everyone know how much she's done, how she is so busy modeling, getting her Actor's Equity card in September (??), blah blah blah.......you know the type. Well, the director that we have is a bit.....uh......unorganized about the whole rehearsal process. There have been times that I've sat around for about two hours doing nothing, and she never gets to anything I'm in, after specifically telling me to show up at a certain time. I wouldn't care if I was getting a paycheck, but since I'm not, I could have been doing other things (those other things might have been scratching my coochie, eating Triscuits in bed, or playing hide-the-salami with the hubby, but you get the point). And, this same thing has happened to other cast members-one guy in particular has an hour and a half drive home and he sat around for two hours. Mis-managed, but there's not much you can do.

Well, this girl (I'll call her Di-VA) is a bit rough around the edges-loud, sort of obnoxious, but moderately talented (except that her accent isn't consistent, still isn't off book 10 days before opening night and she slides into the notes that are obviously at the edge of her vocal range, but who's noticing?). She got pissed off at rehearsal Friday night because she had to sit around (like who didn't?) so she went up to the director and basically told her that if she was going to end up sitting around at Monday night's rehearsal, she wasn't going to come at all. Not good.

A bunch of us went out on Friday night after rehearsal, including the MD (who is dating a cast member) and Di-VA went off on the MD about how unorganized the director is, how the show is going to suck, blah blah blah. The poor MD just wanted to go and have some munchies and a few beers, not deal with this shit, so I felt really horrible for him. He was trying to stay out of it. I piped up that yes, we have all sat around and it's frustrating, but that it will pull together. She kept going on and on about it while sitting there with her not-very-good-looking significantly older boyfriend, who met us there, and smoking cigars with him at the table. Shit.

The director got wind of her Friday night tirade, and got seriously pissed off (understandibly). Then, Di-VA showed up two hours late for rehearsal last night-and didn't call to let someone know. They made two or three calls out to her, and when they finally got hold of her, she said that she'd be there at 8pm, but didn't stroll in until after 9pm (probably to prove a point, but she had some dramatic excuse). Luckily she was off book for her stuff, because the shit really would've hit the fan. The director doesn't want to throw her out (even though she wants to) because we're about to open, but she doesn't want to put up with bullshit. And, it's gotten to the point that most people find her annoying and rude. To the point where some people are starting to literally speak their minds, loud enough for her to hear.

I'm waiting to see what's going to happen tonight. Maybe I should bring popcorn. It'll be like watching the those professional wrestling shows, where they talk smack about each other all the time.

The morale of this story? Community theater can sometimes SUCK. But it's good entertainment, if you can find the humor in it.

1 comment:

Shelli said...

Next time "ms. Thing" acts up and gets all diva-ish PLEASE remind her that she's playing Oliver in a HIGHSCHOOL CAFETERIA.

That'll shut her up.


love ya hon, and PLEASE keep sharing the goods - I'd LOVE to see the drama - and um, PRACTICE on the sly with the MD ALL of Nancy's parts, tehen come up to the director, and say - um, I'm off book for Nancy, wannna give me a try?

ALL as you bat your eyelashes...

xoxox,
S