Producer's Notebook Third Entry Page 2

Erik Sherman

Complex ideas elegantly expressed

Producer’s Notebook

So now the question is where to look for that third group and then to see who might be available to act. I remember hearing about a playwright who learned that a submitted play, written for two men, was being performed by two women. Sudden “inspiration” by the director? Perhaps. Or maybe the producer didn’t want to say, “Well, one guy dropped out and then another disappeared after the first rehearsal and we had these two actresses willing to do it, so I’m putting a brave face on and hoping for the best.” Think hearing that the casting has been changed is bad? Try not being nervous about what sounds like a fiasco in the making. Yet that’s the world of theatre: people doing their best although they wonder why. Often those terrible slights are actually symptoms of people coping with circumstances beyond their control.

I know there will be a third play and someone performing it. (Even if it is I, the aforementioned quick change artist.) The show goes on because you’ve promised people that you’ll present something, even if one company after the next was busy. Even one person drops out of a show, then another, then another. (Try that in a three-person cast; we did last year.) This is showing up at the top of the Empire State Building for the sake of love, though you’re sure that you’ll be alone at the end of the night. But if you don’t go, you’ve put a stake through the heart of a dream, and that’s the worst crime of all.

The potential for disaster is never far..

Third Entry