Originally posted by Wuo duh ma Originally posted by B-M-D   I do not agree however as eveharrington states, "if we put out crap that our community views and enjoys, then we were successful as a COMMUNITY theater."   I'm sorry but I don't view that as successfull just because the community is willing to settle for less.  It seems to play to the lowest common denominator.       I think I disagree with this because at the end of the day, our job is to make money to keep the theatre going.  If the audience loves your shows, they come and you get to stay open.  That makes you sucessful.  Is it less than you want, artistically?  Perhaps, but remember, for every Mamet play you do, you have to do a Simon.

I have been following this dialog for some time and this morning, if one particular actor is late again, he is through.

We live in a senior community where people don't generally work, but they manage to keep very busy. Auditions for this play were done in March of 2006 and the rehearsal schedule was given in April. They had to sign that they had no other committments (cruises etc), but from the very first day of rehearsal (blocking act 1 scene 1) he didn't make it. He had something else to do. In the three weeks since we started rehearsing, he has been up to 1 hour late or just doesn't come for at least one of the three rehearsals each week. He has other meetings (he is a Lion and just got elected as vice president of his church) which he feels are more important. Last night he told me he would be late this morning because he had to attend a breakfast meeting with the pastor and president, but I happen to know that he was told he didn't have to attend the meeting. The president knew of the rehearsal schedule and told him not to bother with the meeting. He likes to play Mr. Important so playing the role of Vice President in the church is better that playing a character with only 40 lines. He has the smallest part in the play and our sound effects guy who has filled in each time he was either late or not there, will get the part. I figure that if they have the schedule so far in advance, there is no excuse for making other appointments at rehearsal time.

We audition and give them books in the spring because many of our residents go north for the summer and don't return until after Christmas. I figure that when rehearsals start in January, I should have their undivided attention.

Congratulations on sticking to your guns, and good luck with the production!

Ok, I've looked back over this post and I have come to the conclusion that I got randomly offended by an offhand comment and completely lost the focus of my argument. In other words I stopped making sense about three posts ago. Now that I've taken a more rational look at it, I'm not sure why I started arguing about it in the first place, since I'm in basic agreement that the audience deserves a certain level of commitment and it is irritating when someone doesn't recognize that. My only reasoning can be that I have been desperately trying to schedule the show I'm currently directing around the casts other commitments and it ain't going too well, so sorry everyone.

Originally posted by eveharrington My only reasoning can be that I have been desperately trying to schedule the show I'm currently directing around the casts other commitments and it ain't going too well, so sorry everyone.