S + M = Director?

Mood: Drowsy
Song: Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
Units of Caffeine: Just a few sips of my first cup o' Joe
Days Until Vacation: 2

Well, it looks again as if the events in my life are keeping me from writing as much as I would like to. Thankfully, my demands at work have decreased significantly; but the demands of school have taken its place. I've been busy getting some last-minute details in order for my vacation. And then there's that other task I added to my plate: stage managing. Not only stage managing, but stage managing for a theatre organization that is still figuring out what a stage manager actually does. I mean, there's the handful of relatively unseasoned actors that still don't really know what a stage manager does, and I understand that... but the directors seem to still be on a learning curve.

Last night's rehearsal was not only a good example of this, but pretty damn funny. Early in the production process, I did my stage manager duties by sorting out the cast: i.e., who is in what scene playing what part. Since there are several members of the chorus playing multiple roles, rehearsal planning and actor calls would be a major headache if this organization wasn't complete. So, I met with the director early on and got all the information I needed. I wrote it all out and BINGO: we have a rehearsal schedule! So, last night we were working on a particular scene and the director keeps asking me, "Where is such-and-such?" and "Why isn't so-and-so here?" Each time, I respond with, "so-and-so/such-and-such is not in this scene." Then the music director comes up to the director and says to him, "I thought you had more people in this scene," to which Director responds with a somewhat boyish tone in his voice: "Well, Dr. Dexter told me that this is all the people he put in this scene."

Excuse me? Since when did I become the director and plan these scenes out? I casually reminded Director that I merely took the information he gave me and made the scene calls accordingly. He told that he specifically remembers putting more actors within the scene. But, of course, when I asked him who he would like to add to the scene, he said, "Oh, never mind. This looks good."

I sometimes forget that S+M = Production bitch.