Imagine being hired to do a job that sounds fantastic, but on day one, you realize that the person you are working for is a nightmare.
Would you stay at the job or quit?
In today’s story, a director decides not to quit.
Instead, feeding the writer/producer’s words back to her makes the whole ordeal worthwhile.
Let’s see how the story unfolds…
I work in technical theatre design, and I was approached by a writer/producer to direct her show after I had been recommended to her by a mutual friend (let’s call her Jane).
Jane had been working on this script for a couple years, and it was her baby.
The script was actually pretty good, and the cast she had already hired was awesome, so I agreed to do the job.
There’s a big problem.
The show had already began rehearsals before I was hired, as the previous director had suddenly quit.
After one rehearsal, I immediately realized why.
Jane was an absolute nightmare.
She had no idea what she was doing.
This wasn’t part of the job description.
She had never produced theatre and knew nothing about any aspect of live event productions (blocking, lighting design, etc).
However, she also wanted to control and micro manage everything.
A majority of my job ended up consisting of her freaking out about something I had done, then me spending 20 minutes explaining why it had to be done.
Jane was well connected.
The cast hated her, and she made every rehearsal miserable.
She wasn’t interested in watching the scenes to see how good the actors were.
She would spend every rehearsal buried in her script and getting upset each time an actor missed a word, or said them instead of they, or other minor easily fixable things.
The only reason the cast stuck around is because this woman did have some industry contacts, and she was inviting them all to the show.
She constantly bragged about it, and said she would share all her connections with the cast so they could benefit from the show.
OP stayed for the cast.
About two weeks before tech week, I realized she hadn’t hired a lighting designer, booth operator, stage manager, or anyone at all to run the show.
She had been expecting me to do it all once the time came.
I almost quit on the spot, but I ultimately stuck in because the cast was so great, and I knew the show would never happen if I left.
She’d never be able to do anything on her own.
The show actually went well.
I ended up calling in a couple favors, and someone we got everything done.
The show actually turned out great, and the audience loved it.
She had paid a guy to professionally film two performances, and she really got great stuff on tape.
Jane is a manipulative liar!
After the show ended, the cast asked for a list of emails/numbers of the industry that was in attendance so their agents could follow up.
Jane betrayed them and refused to share any info about her contacts.
She said she didn’t want them bothering people she knew.
I was furious, so I sent her an email saying “you need to share that list. It’s what you promised. You owe it to them.”
She replied “This is no longer any of your business. Your job is done. I don’t want you to do anything related to the project ever again.”
Jane wants to do the show again.
Cue malicious compliance.
One week later, she sent me an email.
Apparently she was trying to raise funding to do the show again, and had entered the video she had recorded into an prestigious online theatre festival.
The audio didn’t turn out great in the recording.
She realized that she didn’t have any of the sound effects, the marked production script, the Qlab show file, the projections, the blocking notes, nothing.
Jane needed her help.
I had done all the work, and had all the files. She had never even asked to see them before.
If she wanted to replicate the show, she’d need these things. Otherwise, she’d have to pay someone to start from scratch.
If she wanted to fix the audio, she’d need all the music and sound files.
She demanded that I send her these things immediately.
She repeated Jane’s words back to her.
I replied:
“Per your previous instructions, I am not to do any more work on this project. My job is done.”
Then I deleted everything.
She was royally pissed.
Her realizing she had nothing tangible to re-mount her show almost made it worth two months of painful rehearsals.
Wow. Who cares if Jane has industry connections.
If she treats everyone like she treated them on this show, nobody will want to work with her.
Let’s see how Reddit reacted…
A director weighs in…
This reader offers a suggestion.
I was thinking this too.
A production manager is proud.
I don’t think there will be another performance of that show.
Too bad for everyone else involved.
If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.
