Tuesday, December 04, 2012

high occupancy vehicles

Uh oh.  One of the things I have liked most about my Drama rats for the past three seasons is that they have been pretty much drama-free as far as personal dramas go.  They don't date each other, they don't fight with each other, they don't play diva.

But yesterday we started reading through the potential choice for the spring play, and suddenly I sense danger.  One of the stage managers came after the readthrough to tell me that several students have mentioned they do not want to work with a specific student director.  Shortly after that, that student director came to tell me that he is upset because he knows that someone else is going to audition for the part he wants and he feels that other student has already had too many lead roles.  On my way out the door after that, two girls told me what parts they want and mentioned that no one else had better audition for those parts, as though they intend to intidate anyone who might consider it.  And then in the evening I got two emails from a crazy mom who first wanted to offer me advice on how to run my program (it involved combining the choir with the theatre program so that I could teach sixty kids instead of thirty-five.... bloody brilliant) and then wanted to tell me how her daughter deserves a big part in this play because it's her senior year (though it's senior year for about 3/4 of them).

Suddenly the pressure is high and I have no idea why.  I'm scared!  This is my least favourite part of working in theatre, the part where I have to disappoint people and assign parts.  The personal drama part.  It may all still be fine, but my spider senses are definitely a-tingle.


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I finished The Year of the Flood last night and was unable to start a new book because Shawn had done something strange to the wireless internet and was out playing hockey and therefore could not be called upon to fix it.  I think I have become dependent on this Kindle, which means I may need to learn how to do things to fix the router.  I might even have to learn what this router thing actually is, and where it is located.  Being bookless for the evening was strange.  I used my phone to look at book lists and dream of the book I would select if I could.  (This is very nerdlike, I know.)  I think normal people would have used this time to watch tv or pornography, but normal isn't my best strength.



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On Sunday when we went grocery shopping, we stopped at the coffee shop for a pound of coffee, and somehow when we unloaded the groceries we left the coffee behind in the car.  This morning we ran out of coffee, prompting Shawn to go searching for the coffee we bought on the weekend.  And he found it in my car under my seat.  How on earth could I have been driving around with a pound of coffee under my car seat and not have smelled it?  I think my senses are fading.  For awhile now I've been convinced I'm going deaf, and now I think I'm losing my olfactory senses too.



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4 comments:

heartinsanfrancisco said...

I don't envy you the drama of casting high school students with mothers and attitude and entitlement complexes. All you can do is choose the best ones because some of them will be unhappy anyway.

Could I please borrow Shawn? My TV, which is pretty new, is exhibiting a message which says it is not yet equipped for the new digital whatever. I have no idea what it means because Flip kept our life running. I only watch a handful of shows anyway, but I will miss them.

If the coffee is packed in an airtight container, you can't smell it. I have the sense of smell of a tracking animal but the coffee shop where I buy my coffee beans scoops and seals it and try as I will, I can smell nothing until I open it.

Secret Agent Woman said...

Wait, how is reading on your Kindle dependent on the internet? Do you have to be on-line to read, or do you mean you only buy one book at a time? I have several loaded on mine (iPad), because I want to always have a book available.

mischief said...

I decided to scrap the play they were fighting about and am now in the process of looking for one that has more equal roles so things don't need to be quite so competitive. I just don't want the aggravation of working with 35 teenagers if only 3 of them are happy and the rest are in a snit. It's hard enough when they're all happy! You are certainly welcome to borrow Shawn... he gets loaned out quite frequently, actually, and enjoys saving the day. I hope your explanation for my lack of sense of smell is what's going on... otherwise it's weird.

My Kindle is only dependent on the internet when I want to download a book, which I did. I usually only pick and choose one at a time because I change my mind a lot, which is why I haven't got several in there at one time.

Secret Agent Woman said...

Ah, I see. Me, I want options!