This last week has been a crusher. It began with having to kick one of my dancers off the team. This guy is a good dancer, listens in class and is an all around good kid. However, after he missed three practices consecutively without calling, it was time to act on the expectations I'd set up from the start. But as I was putting that off, the team confronted me. He had missed his turn to help with a fundraiser and the rest of his fellow dancers felt he wasn't pulling his weight. They wanted him gone. A strong believer in face-to-face conversation, I set up a meeting and broke the bad news. He was obviously distressed, but responded with a lot of integrity, a lot of professionalism. I know it hurt, though, and it killed me. It also led to an uncomfortable conversation with his mother, but as distraught as she was, she also understood. I offered him a spot as an alternate. I have yet to call back and see what he says about that.
As to the play we're doing, it's obviously a huge time commitment, but it's more than that. There seems to be a lot of drama offstage. People taking their own responsibilities lightly, forgetting the show isn't their own personal hobby, to be dropped or neglected at their whim. I pulled a friend aside tonight, a friend with kids in the play, and asked for her feedback. She's a super awesome person, who is totally blunt but incredibly kind. Good mix there, and hard to find. She pulled from her experience as a mom and suggested I start guilting people.
"When my daughter was upset toward the beginning, she wanted to quit the play. So I sat her down and said, 'Look how many people are in this room. You will be letting down every single one of these people. Do you want to back out on them?'"
Apparently, that worked.
She also suggested I point out to the older kids how much the younger ones look up to them. Apparently the little girls just swoon over the pretty dresses the older girls get to wear and how very cool the older boys are.
So that's the plan. I'm floored that I'm having to bear so much weight and remind people of so many basic things. In all the shows I've done, I can't recall ever working with a cast so nonchalant about important things. I don't know where that comes from. I'm entirely willing to pull the show if we can't get it together, but man would that suck. I struggle with how much to teach how quickly. I think a lot of the issues we're having comes down to lack of experience. I mean, if you don't know, you don't know. But still, just being there when you're supposed to be seems pretty straightforward. And this really is charity-- the whole point is to create a program that allows the program to continue, to bring in kids who can't afford art classes and give them an outlet while raising funds to lower the prices of the other art classes.
I did get the chance to talk with my male lead tonight. Speaking of basics, it often escapes my notice that people need to be told what they do well. It's not just a given. So I pulled him aside, and let him know how impressed I was at his ability to fill out his character, to look natural onstage, be expressive, gesture, stand and simply be onstage. That's difficult stuff, and the Achilles Heel of every amateur. But he had it from the start. That's when he told me he has Aspergers. That was something of a huge surprise.
As to the play we're doing, it's obviously a huge time commitment, but it's more than that. There seems to be a lot of drama offstage. People taking their own responsibilities lightly, forgetting the show isn't their own personal hobby, to be dropped or neglected at their whim. I pulled a friend aside tonight, a friend with kids in the play, and asked for her feedback. She's a super awesome person, who is totally blunt but incredibly kind. Good mix there, and hard to find. She pulled from her experience as a mom and suggested I start guilting people.
"When my daughter was upset toward the beginning, she wanted to quit the play. So I sat her down and said, 'Look how many people are in this room. You will be letting down every single one of these people. Do you want to back out on them?'"
Apparently, that worked.
She also suggested I point out to the older kids how much the younger ones look up to them. Apparently the little girls just swoon over the pretty dresses the older girls get to wear and how very cool the older boys are.
So that's the plan. I'm floored that I'm having to bear so much weight and remind people of so many basic things. In all the shows I've done, I can't recall ever working with a cast so nonchalant about important things. I don't know where that comes from. I'm entirely willing to pull the show if we can't get it together, but man would that suck. I struggle with how much to teach how quickly. I think a lot of the issues we're having comes down to lack of experience. I mean, if you don't know, you don't know. But still, just being there when you're supposed to be seems pretty straightforward. And this really is charity-- the whole point is to create a program that allows the program to continue, to bring in kids who can't afford art classes and give them an outlet while raising funds to lower the prices of the other art classes.
I did get the chance to talk with my male lead tonight. Speaking of basics, it often escapes my notice that people need to be told what they do well. It's not just a given. So I pulled him aside, and let him know how impressed I was at his ability to fill out his character, to look natural onstage, be expressive, gesture, stand and simply be onstage. That's difficult stuff, and the Achilles Heel of every amateur. But he had it from the start. That's when he told me he has Aspergers. That was something of a huge surprise.
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