One Big Thorn

I had a great time in Connecticut in the summer of 1994.

I was proud of the work that my staff and I did and enjoyed meeting an interesting mix of people.

Because the actors and tech staff lived together in the dorm we talked and joked in our free time and told a few “War Stories” about our experiences working in Theatre.

From the director of the first play I learned a few things about how Soap Operas are filmed.

She told me that each day of the week had its own director who filmed only the scenes to be shown on that day, so a party scene that goes on for three or four shows is filmed each day by a different director and not all at once.

One of the actresses in Don’t Dress for Dinner, Melissa Hurst, had a recent baby and her husband, Richard Council, was staying at the school to care for the baby and his was seen walking all over the campus with the baby in a stroller.

On occasion the two would stop by the shop for a visit and see what we were doing.

A few months later while watching The Cosby Mysteries I realized that one of the actors on the show was indeed Richard Council.

The company producer had a Fourth of July pool party at his house and from time-to-time there would be special dinners served outside on the Veranda hosted by the company chef.

It was an almost perfect summer except for one thing or should I say one person.

There was one woman working at the Festival that I did not get along with or should I say she did not get along with me.

I will not mention her name or the job she did but will call her Jane as in Jane Doe.

I will note that from what I saw Jane did her job very well.

Our work schedules only overlapped a little bit but from the first day she made it clear that she felt that my crew and I were in her way.

My guys were working with the Genie lift and Jane walks in and said that she needed it now; I told her she could have it as soon as they were finished with the job.

When I left to work in Connecticut I told myself that I was going to have a good time and not let little things bother me so as Jane continued with her curt and rude remarks I just let them go.

I remember my crew telling me; “hey she was just really rude to you” and I just smiled and said yes she was.

Jane would often come into work just as we were finishing up our workday in the shop and I would always ask she needed us to help her with anything before we left.

She would always bark back: “No I don’t need any help!” and I would smile and say goodnight.

One day when Jane was working earlier than normal and as we all went to lunch I asked her if she was coming too and she just barked something I did not understand and walked away.

A few days later she did show up for lunch and I said without really thinking: “Hey just because I invited you to lunch didn’t mean you could come”.

Of course she exploded and went on and on about not needing my permission to eat and all of us just laughed at her.

I did make an effort to figure out what was going on tried to stop it.

I went to two women in the company who knew what was going on to ask them what I was doing wrong and what I could do about it but both said I was doing nothing wrong and that she was just a bitch.

I think it pissed her off that I just responded to her rudeness with “Have a nice day” and smiles.

Near the end of the summer I did lose my cool and yelled back at her.

We were working with a guest dance company and trying to set up the theatre when Jane starting yelling at me from across the theatre about who knows what.

I told her to stop talking and that I had taken enough of her shit and it was unacceptable for her to talk that way in front of our guests and she needed to apologize to them.

I wish the producer had done something to stop her rude conduct but that never happened.

In the months of returning to Brockport one of my former students, and I have them working everywhere, told a story of working at Jane’s home theatre and how she was rude to people there too.

Another former student working at a theatre that was doing a joint production with Jane’s home theatre told of receiving an overly packed package of what most would consider as consumable items marked with the message: “These items are the property of so-in-so Theatre and are expected to be returned in good condition blah, blah, blah”.

As I said earlier, I thought she was good at her job but had some problem that I could not solve.

If I had found the big thorn in her paw I would have gladly pulled it out.

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