wrinkled tenacity

te·na·cious
adj.
1. Holding or tending to hold persistently to something, such as a point of view.
2. Holding together firmly; cohesive: a tenacious material.
3. Clinging to another object or surface; adhesive: tenacious lint.
4. Tending to retain; retentive: a tenacious memory.

I have been dubbed tenacious on multiple occasions during my lifetime. Sometimes I find it to be a hex and a weighty hindrance. The production of my current play is certainly no exception.

Let's re-cap:

My efforts to find a stage manager who was not also a convicted rapist brought me to a first-timer whose main qualifications were that she is the President of the Board for the Theatre, so therefore full of vigor, love for our theatre, and dependable. Having to train someone to do something that Google really does go on and on about is one thing, but then to have them commit themselves to a supporting cast member role in the current play whose schedule and run was sure to conflict aplenty. I convinced her to drop-out, but it wasn't the last time I heard of her attempting to divert attention from the show. On the days she's there, though she is in her late-forties, she can often come off as a teenager with ADD. The cast doesn't much like having her around. Maybe they can tell she was vying for one of their parts for which she is exceedingly over-aged.

The casting process took not only three sessions of miserable auditions, but a forthright smattering of hunting behind the woodwork with just the right tone of begging to assemble the first four for the ensemble. The fact that one of them dropped out early in the process was only compounded by the fact that the first half of the month of August took skill, tact, and extra special ideas for what the word rehearsal could mean with half of my cast on some semblance of vacation. Fortunately my efforts to re-cast were greeted with a strong replacement, for was a hard sell, but a workable choice.

As if this wasn't enough, the newly crowned Promotions Director of the Theatre was making underhanded efforts to have my show pulled from the season. My stage manager via President of the Board decided it appropriate to announce these shadow dealings in the presence of my cast and sexy understudy at the second ever rehearsal. It tainted and toned many of the subsequent ones, and has been one of the hardest things to unfetter ourselves from, as pot-shots from the sidelines do not always bring confidence from the populace. Just when I thought that this whole matter was done, I got the first direct e-mail from the guy a few days back with rambling, generic promotional ideas that I am privy to given my previous experience. He also thought it necessary to make extensive jabs at my production, my poster, my uphill battle, and put our shows in direct competition with one another - numbers-wise.

Then there's the new transitional Board of the Theatre, who were once four or five people who wore what seemed to be fancy titles but did very little. Now they have fancy titles and (in some cases) the egos to match. None of the key members have ever actually directed a show at this small, underfunded theatre, yet they have come up with rules and by-laws, and who-ha to abide by that in a few cases is a welcome change but primarily comes at a cost - quite literally. For one, they would prefer we assemble backdrops instead of painting the walls and assemble flooring instead of painting the floor. There has been a long history of painting the damn space. It's cheap enough to keep it in budget and to ensure we non-professionals can actually get the job done. It doesn't end there, but that one segues all pretty to my next part.

I had a brilliant set designer on my last show, who I was able to have commit to working on this one. Her excitement and interest level were high a month and a half ago, and then even a month ago. I had no idea at the time that this would be the last time I would hear back from her. I sent periodic update emails as the rehearsal process evolved our conversations about the set, and I shared suggestions as to when we could meet to chat these things up on a more one-on-one level. I got zero response. I tried multiple e-mails, Facebook, texting, and even phone calling to a full voice mailbox. I know she's alive. Facebook assures me she's actively in town. My poster artist used her as the model on the poster for my play for God's sake! This is what we call dropping the ball and then kicking it in my face.

We are twenty-two days out from show. I have no set designer. I have a slight construction team at the ready, but no captain. Producing and directing the show are quite enough without having to take the reins on this duty as well. If it ended there, we might be able to wrap up this pretty package, but at present we will have naked actors on the stage. I had a talented clothing designer on-board for a short while, but since she backed out I have only had one other person issue interest - albeit with the caveat they have someone else as partner. Whatever it was before, at this point it can't be the most challenging position on the team. Nothing can be. When things get to this point it's more about pragmatism than ideal vision, which is one of many concessions I make since the reliability on others is mostly unavailable and my expectation to have many beyond myself pre-plan has been thwarted.

The counterbalance to all of this is a brilliant play on the page and an even better one with our execution, a cast who have begun to find some cohesion and connection, a perfect promotional poster and a core team of folks willing to walk the streets, an energized and dependable F/X make-up guru, and my girlfriend who has understudied, filled in for, and otherwise contributed to so many facets I can't even come up with an official playbill title for her.

Cheers to not being driven to drink heavily throughout all of this!

[clink]