Fringe Theatre - in a flash!

A two week rehearsal I've not got a problem with, spending those two weeks with under half of the cast I have tremendous issues with.   

It's obvious why so many so called actors are 'blacklisted' because of their lack of reliability and as the years go by I am amazed at just how many unreliable people there actually are out there.  Personally, if I say I'm going to do something, I do it.  You probably think I have my priorities wrong but if I say I'll do a small fringe theatre production of Macbeth then that's what I'll do; not drop it like a stone for a one day advert in Costa Del Sol.  

I don't let people down and so with my high standards I set of for the first week of rehearsals.  Out of a cast of seventeen only four of us were there every day with the director, in the second week a few more popped up.  Actors dropped out of the production left, right and centre leaving us with little time for replacements. Believe it or believe it not I went on stage, on the opening night with actors I had never spoken to and whose names I was still unaware of.

Unfortunately it did lowered the standard of the production.  Aside from the fact that I as Lady Macduff had a plastic baby and was stabbed with a rubber knife, I actually think most nights saw a bunch of actors speaking there lines.  Harsh comment I know but I'm pretty sure we all could have done much better.  There was not much acting going on and I do include myself in that bracket.

When I was on stage as the Porter I was competing with the actors off stage who were messing about and laughing so loudly that even the audience looked to the wings to see what was going on.  Unprofessional and down right unfair.  You see the odd few that were doing 'ones' job properly and acting there socks off, didn't have the back up they needed.  There needs to be trust, respect and support from the cast; each of us should be able to rely upon the same cue lines, entrances and exits and maybe all of this would have happened if we had worked together for longer and had chance to 'bond'.

The positive?  I made exactly, three, very good friends that I hope to work with again some day.  Because they were the three that were reliable, the three that moved mountains to see out their commitment, that turned up every day and therefore the three that I 'bonded' with.