I'm contemplating going to an audition for Theatre Company D tonight. I think it might be counter-productive, though: it's a four person play set in the south, and there's only one male in the cast. I'm totally not right for the role, but perhaps I might go there just to see how they treat me this time. Keep in mind that I have refused to go to Theatre Company D because of how badly they treated me the one time I auditioned there, but I am seeing that I should give them another chance (I'm seeing indications that the bad treatment was more the "director" than the "company").
In a few weeks, I'll be hearing from Theatre Company E because of their acting classes. Last fall I signed up for two of their acting classes, both on Monday nights. IF I sign up this time, I will only sign up for one of the acting classes. I didn't get a whole lot out of the other acting class, and honestly I felt a bit out of my league. Besides, taking two acting classes is expensive! Still, I'm considering not taking any acting classes this time. The problem is that I feel as though I need some practical experience. I feel like someone that has taken a bunch of computer programming classes but has never actually written a program. One can learn a lot from the classes, but one will eventually hit a wall until one actually programs! I feel like I am at that wall with acting. I need to actually use the things I am learning.
I'm going to have to disappoint Theatre Company B regarding "The Producers". For this show, they are setting up little animatronic pigeons, and want me to operate one of them. Okay: contact me for tech week. But, they also want me to be in the chorus for one scene. I love this bunch, but that suddenly means "time commitment" and I'd rather not put in that commitment for that one chorus scene.
One of the down-sides of Theatre Company B is that they charge, and sometimes they charge a lot. They're a theatre company constantly on the edge of financial disaster. It's not uncommon for community theatres to charge, but most of the time the amount is small. Theatre Company B used to charge $40 or $50 per show, which was expensive. The problem is that they would then expect fundraising. For "Godspell", we were all expected to come up with an extra $100 for fundraising, which would go to lighting. I was in the show with my ex-girlfriend. I did fundraising, she didn't, so we wound up paying $140 for her to be in this show! She was in "Hairspray" with my younger son, and for that fundraising with hundreds of dollars! Neither my ex-girlfriend nor my younger son did the fundraising, and in fact this was true of many in the cast. Because of this some corners needed to be cut in the staging. For "42nd Street", this got a bit insane. The fee was now $50, and I don't remember the exact fundraising number. I did fundraising, but neither of my kids did any. I was a bit annoyed that I did fundraising (and contributed a good bit of money myself) AND I wound up having to buy my own costume. The problem was that enough people didn't fundraise that we couldn't pay for the lighting. Performances were followed by pleas during the performance: could people donate money so we could keep the lighting? We managed, but I would wager the net result was the company didn't make a penny.
After that, Theatre Company B decided to not depend on fundraising. Instead, they would raise the fee to be in their show. It cost me $120 for my younger son to be in their last show, "Nutcracker Fusion"! And I will be putting out $70 for him to be in "The Producers"!
Now, Theatre Company B is going to put on "Vampe", a musical I co-wrote, in February. For this, we are renting out the theatre for Theatre Company H. We are telling people upfront: this is an original work, and we need everyone to supply their own costumes and put money in to pay for the theatre rental (we are estimating $60/person). I will be in this show, so that will be occupying my time and attention. In this case, I don't mind the fact that my part isn't huge (it's still interesting, however), and the fee is understandable (we need to fund this ourselves): I wrote this thing, damnit!
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