Atlanta Georgia - Week Five

Everywhere you go, especially a new job, there is a history. That history has it's own life that you are not apart of, yet are subject to. It is difficult to try and navigate through a mine-field of bullshit that happened before you ever arrived. You can see it's influence, but reacting to it can be confusing and just plain hard.
This week has been all about past events coming to a boiling point. It starts with the old prejudice that wardrobe and hair aren't "crew". There are some stagehands who are so old or influenced by other old stagehands, who actually remember back to the 1950's when the wardrobe department on any show consisted of the wives of the stagehands. Add on to that the prejudices some stagehands have against gay men. Honestly, even if there are gay men in the carpentry department, they are viewed more as men then the men in wardrobe. I have seen this mostly on Broadway. Most of them will deny it, and it certainly isn't a blanket statment by any means, but wardrobe and hair isn't a part of the team to some of these people. We are the chicks and the fags.
I truly believe this is one of the underlying issues at work. I don't think anyone would agree with me, but they have all been in it for months and have no perspective. This past Tuesday our prop head, instead of setting up our Principal quick change booth on stage for a show THAT EVENING, decided to go deliver the company trunks to the hotel.
Now for one, I have never in my life had my trunk before Wednesday on any tour, and two, if your work is not done on deck -I am sorry, but you have no business leaving the theatre. period.
Anyway, we set it up ourselves, which was a passive aggressive wrong move, yet necessary for us to do our jobs. Kinda like adding Kerosine to a smolder when you are freezing to death. So things blew up, past grievances surfaced, meetings were held, and I was amazed at the disfunction of it all. What we all do out here isn't that hard (aside from load in at a new venue) in it's physical requirements, but the isolation of touring can really muck things up. Out here, this is your life, it's not just a job that you can leave when the show is done. I think you have to really concentrate on keeping your head or else it all swallows you up.
So what do you do with this situation?
Well, you have to find a level of acceptance. You can bitch and moan all you want, but if you know things are not going to change you have to make a choice. Either you accept it, try to work with it, and keep on your toes for the screw ups which inevitably will happen, or you make a stand that no one will listen to or care about and work yourself into a lather for nothing.
Well, you can quit too.
Things you could normally deal with and find a level of tolerance at a job become impossible because you have no sanctuary. No place to escape it.

But that's life on the road, yo.

So that is what has been going on this week. On a good note - I LOVE my hotel. I haven't done a damn thing all week because it inspires you to stay in. When I opened my door and walked in, I ooooed and ahhhed at it. Sure it's a small room, but the bed is ridiculous comfortable and it's this soothing blue and white. The bathroom is wicked small. You can brush your teeth and pee at the same time. But they loaded it up with Aveda products, which is fancy schmancy. Seriously, I haven't done a damn thing this week that couldn't happen in this room. I put up my photos and lit my candles and have been enjoying a glass of red wine when I come home. Lovely. Especially with all the drama going on at work.

The week is over and honestly, once the heat from Tuesday subsided, around Thursday, it actually turned out to be a good week. Our leading lady was pitching a fit all week about her quick change booth. We - props and wardrobe- moved the damn thing 3 times. She wouldn't come see it before the show started so we could make adjustments, and OF COURSE was never happy. Even with all the drama from the beginning of the week, all departments involved were able to work together and try to work out this issue. Stage management had a week of it with her too. Bless her. She is a tad deluded.

This is our stage management team right here! Ken, Francesca, and Jovan. They are doing shots from Sunday night's Shot Night. It was a hammerhead elxir called a Vanilla latte, which consisted of Petron Cafe (coffee flavored tequila) and Stoli Vanilla. Uh yeah, killer shot.
And these are the evil architects of said shot.
That's Cuz and Tony from the sound department and Ryan from the Carpentry Dept. We went and played pool after and I completely embarrassed myself with my poor playing. I hate that. As a girl they kinda of expect you to suck. So it bugs me when I can't pull out a decent game. grrrrrrrrr. It was fun though.

So I did nothing this week. I am doing my taxes on my day off. I have a very special and precise method of sorting my receipts. Which is, to shove them in a bag all year and dump the bag out one day in February, sort it all out, add up the totals and send them to my accountant. I know. VERY ADVANCED.

Love to all, hopefully I will get out a little and see some stuff this week.

Extra Pics:


This is my gurly table I set up in my room. All my framed photos, my Rock and Roll Hall of Fame candles, and this really groovy oil burner my friend Dana gave me. Thanks Dana!



At the hotel next door, they had this menu up. I think it is hiarlious that they wouldn't give us a rate so we could stay there, but they made this menu. That's funny.


This is a shot from stage left during Act 1. I like this picture.