JJ's Rant on Local Theater

I woke up this morning to a huge number of facebook messages concerning another production of Avenue Q that was supposed to go up in January but unfortunately was cancelled. I feel I have to address this issue as well as some other issues that have been on my mind for a long time.

Last night I received a text about the Avenue Q production being cancelled; most people in my position would have been overjoyed. I have to say I really wasn’t. I want this to be known and I hope that every actor in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and Troy read this because I do not like when I hear about a show being cancelled. I don’t know the reasons it was cancelled and quite frankly I don’t care. I feel awful for all involved to lose the opportunity to be in such a great show. Some people have said to me “now you have the regional premiere,” that’s all good and such (and believe me in the beginning I was mad that I wasn’t) but what people seem to not understand is all the hard work put in by the theater company, cast and crew is now gone. That makes me sad. When I lost my job a while back I had to cancel my production of “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and I was depressed and sad. Regardless of the reasons I felt I let a lot of people down. Everyone rallied around me and gave me support but it still hurt. So, my heart goes out to both the cast and crew of the cancelled production, I know how it feels and I’m sorry you are feeling this way.

That was my first point. Now, here is my second point.

Every couple months there seems to be an argument on Facebook about local community theater. I love and hate these discussions. Yes, there are a lot of valid points made by everyone involved in these discussions. As a theater owner I look at all these points and most of the time I just shrug them off because the points made are unfixable unless we go back ten years. What I mean by this statement is if you look back ten years can you name the theaters that were doing shows? When I think back ten years the theater I remember are: SLOC, Schenectady Civic, Albany Civic, Park Playhouse, Family Players, HMT, Schuylerville Community Theater and Glens Falls Community Theater. Those are the ones I remember and if there are more I apologize but I’m trying to make a point. When I went to see shows at these theaters I saw the same people in leading roles. I never thought anything bad about that. It seemed that each theater had their “set of players” that were the “workhorses” for that company. Again, something I never thought anything bad about. I used-to go to theater auditions and I would see a filled audition room with the ability to cast the shows three different ways. I go now and that doesn’t happen anymore. Is it sad? Yes. Is there anything that could be done? Yes and no. Yes we can all say “there are too many shows going on and the talent is spread thin.” I have to say I’m so sick of hearing that, it’s called variety. It’s like walking down the street in Saratoga or Albany and complaining that there are too many places to eat. I do find that most people that complain about too many shows are the people who would never take anything less than a leading role. When I was younger I would go see a show at theater “A” with actor “A” playing the lead and then go to theater “B” and see that actor in the ensemble. That doesn’t happen a lot now-a-days. I know most people are going to be angered by that statement but it is true. If you take offense to that ask yourself the question if a theater is doing “Oklahoma” and you really want Laurie and you don’t get cast would you be in the ensemble if offered? So unless you are willing to step back from the spotlight a couple times a year then the world of local theater will never be free of Facebook rants. I know you all are thinking “But JJ you cast yourself in all your shows at your theater company and you play leads too. You cast all your friends and no one can ever get into one of your shows because you pre-cast all of your shows.” Which brings me to my final point of the day.

Hell yes I do all those things. If you ask me or anyone that has ever worked with me you will know my response is. “I started my theater company so me and my friends could do shows that we wanted to.” Plain and simple. Is that wrong? I don’t think so and for a long time it was accepted. I never had any backlash. I pre-casted my shows and life was good. When I couldn’t cast someone I knew in a role that I had available people would recommend other actors and I used them. They then became a friend and I used them again. If you truly look at my casts there are new comers to my company all the time. Those new comers come from recommendations. I always say to people “if you want to come be in a show with The Local Actors Guild, just ask me. It’s that simple.” Whenever I put up a notice on facebook that I’m looking for actors for a show I get a good response and 9 times out of 10 I get an actor or actress that I will always use again. My choice to audition Avenue Q came from drum-roll please…the actors. It was expressed to me that pre-casting this show in particular was un-fair. I couldn’t agree them more and even before they said it I was already going to hold auditions. I do on occasion hold auditions to bring in new actors. I do generally get new actors by other actors recommending people and it works out beautifully. In my last production I used a new actor on a recommendation and wouldn’t think twice about casting that person again.

I really want to make other actors feel like they have a chance to work with The Local Actors Guild. There are certain shows that I do for certain people. I could hold auditions for those shows to make it look like I didn’t pre-cast a part but I don’t believe in hiding pre-casting by holding auditions. So, I’m putting this out there right now. If you want to be a part of my company talk to me, come audition for Avenue Q, if I don’t cast you in that show there is a big chance that you will get a message offering you a role in another show. It might have been my mistake for not making this clearer in the past but now it’s all out there and I’m happy I will never have to make this point again.

I hope this makes people feel better about approaching me about future productions, I realize this will also make some people mad but you know what they say about opinions.

Let’s make the theater in this area thrive. Let’s all remember why we do theater in the first place.