So I have been in the process of starting a doctoral program, working a freelance corporate events job online, and sorting a move across an ocean for several weeks now and a last minute delay with one of my visa items has left me in the United States for a few extra weeks.

Like any sane doctoral student I thought, what I need to do is more. Clearly I should try to stage manage something before I leave. The logistics of this get quite squicky once I move to the new country on a student visa..

But I’m not completely out of my mind. I was only looking for something small. There are plenty of short gigs in the stage management world, especially if you don’t mind a pay cut (speaking of, you can read my thoughts about gigs where I was wildly underpaid or my thoughts about working for free by clicking those links). So I was looking for something like that when a really unexpected gig turned up right before my eyes in one of the bazillion stage management Facebook groups I belong to.

• 7 days.
• In a local New Jersey theatre 10 minutes from my house.
• Decent pay for the show days (4 of the 7 days listed). Terrible pay for rehearsal hours.

Remounting an existing show with all the same performers but a new director and new stage management team seemed like it shouldn’t be the worst. The show run time was 90 minute which included a 15 minute intermission.

Again… not bad.

So I decided to apply. And I got the gig.

And the first thing that was added was a request by the producer to meet her at the venue for brunch (they have an attached restaurant) to chat about the show.

Sure, why not? She was buying. I wasn’t doing anything else.

As we’re sitting there, she tells me, we should plan to reschedule the Zoom read through this week because one of the performers can’t make it. So we need a new time.

“The what?” I ask. As no one had told me anything about a Zoom read through.

And this largely set the tone for the next three weeks of my life.

It turns out that not a single cast member chose to return. So the show was completely recast.

We did do a Zoom rehearsal. At the end of it, the director says, “See you guys in the city next weekend.”

And I go, “What?”

This is also after I’ve sent the producer and the director a full production schedule based on the info I had and they approved it.

Knowing what I know now… I don’t actually think either of them opened that attachment and read it, but… early days, I assumed they had. They emailed me back saying the schedule was fine. Silly me.

So a full weekend of rehearsals, at minimum wage, was added to our schedule with the added expense of going into NYC, which any NJ based stage manager knows is a pain in the butt.

And all of this caught me fairly off-guard but I did happen to be free in all of these instances, so…

If that weekend in NYC had been on the schedule when I saw the job listing, there was a real chance that I wouldn’t have applied considering the cost of NJ Transit and $13/hour is… not a lot of money.

But in for a penny, in for a pound at this point.

UNTIL

My actors did not get off-book… at any point really. Two did. One somewhat was. Two absolutely were not.

And the two not off-book also couldn’t remember their blocking.

As we finished up the full on debacle of a last dress rehearsal before opening, the director was in a state. He told me were going to have to have an extra day of rehearsal the next day.

Which I had quadruple checked with the producer was not the case when she hired me and then booked both days at my corporate job.

Increasingly aware that… this could possibly be a lie (what stage manager wouldn’t look at everything happening related to this show so far and not think… this may not pan out as you’re hoping, producer).

But also, I’ve got bills to pay. Tuition is no joke.

So I told the director that I wouldn’t be able to be there and I couldn’t make any guarantees for the cast, technicians or ASM (who was lurking and told me she was particularly stressed about this possibility because she was a college student and couldn’t miss class on Thursday – which I mention as a reminder to PSMs that you’re not just always advocating for yourself when you stand up to last minute demands).

And I found myself in sort of a mental quandary. Like – I want to do the best I can for your show but also… it is not my fault when your show cuts every corner in the book and does not turn out it’s best.

• If your rehearsal schedule is really short, that has consequences.
• If you pay minimum wage, the quality of people working for you will reflect that.
• If you hire not professional actors, they may not be so good at last minute memorizing an entire script.

Anyway. The director was not pleased.

Miracle of miracles, opening night was not a disaster. The two characters who didn’t know their lines still didn’t but got something that was enough of a gist everyone else could follow. Even more importantly, they didn’t just freeze when they went up on their lines or start swearing up a storm like they did in rehearsals. The audience had no idea.

The two who did have their lines fully memorized carried the entire show like total frickin’ rockstars the whole week. They just dragged the show back on course when the other three would go too far off the rails.

Guessing where cues should go each night was a delight.

But not additional extra calls were added to the schedule and the audience actually seemed to like it.

Have you ever worked on a show where the schedule had lots of changes? Did you just roll with the punches or speak up? Do you think stage managers should just always be available during a run? Do you think a certain pay point equates being available all the time?