Off to the first preview of my show tonight. First time with an audience (although you kind of always have an audience when you're rehearsing in the middle of a big public park). First time through wearing costumes. And first time running the show with one actor missing.

Yes, we'll be one actor short this evening. He got a film gig (2 days) way back in May, and it was supposed to shoot in June, and they did one day in June, and then put the other day off, until about three days ago they decided it should be today. And they couldn't promise that he would be wrapped in time to do the show tonight. Yesterday they confirmed that he was expected on set until sometime around 10:00pm. So, we spent this afternoon rehearsing in a stand-in. A guy that's going to play the part tonight with a script in his hand.

Sheesh.

This is what bugs me about the movie business. Don't get me wrong. I love watching movies. And many of my friends make their livings doing films. And I wouldn't turn up an offer to work on one myself, for both the experience and the big old pay cheque.

But I've had too many nasty experiences with this type of thing to know that they care less what other kinds of committments you have in your life. Especially if you're a local actor with two days of shooting. They tend to think that the whole world revolves around their schedule and their needs. And fuck you if you don't fit in. They'll just find someone else.

This isn't the first time I've had to bend over backwards (and take it up the "you know what") when some actor has taken a film gig while they have a theatre gig, with many promises from the actor, and their agent, and the film people, that it wouldn't be a problem. And then, low and behold, it's suddenly a problem. And they can't understand why any actor would care about some little local theatre committment. I mean, come on. This is the movies, man. It's HOLLYWOOD, come to little old cowtown.

So, no big deal. We'll do our show tonight, minus one actor. One actor who's extremely stressed, and will never get hired by the Artstic Director of this company again (not me). I wish all actors could learn that you can't trust film people when they promise that it will be okay, that they'll work around you.

Anyhow, enough of that bitching. It's off to the park, to hopefully not get rained on.

And on the bright side, it's my anniversary today, and T and I are going to go out for a late night Greek meal after the show, so no matter how it goes, I'm going to go to sleep tonight with my belly happily full of yummy Greek goodness.