The director at the time (Ron Fassler) was completely unprofessional, proudly claimed that he didn’t have any notes in his script for the show, was very misogynistic towards all of the women in the cast and crew. He called me “darling” and told other women to “be a good girl”. I actually shared housing with this director and early on in the rehearsal process my glasses broke, so I was waiting to be picked up to go get them fixed, when I ran into the director I made small talk about the situation and how my vision isn’t great/I had to wear an eyepatch as a kid because of it and the director replied, “I always thought scars were sexy.”
Meanwhile, there were many safety issues that were not acknowledged and we were reprimanded for bringing up concerns—during our first rehearsal, a heavy metal bell flew off of the set after the door it was attached to closed. In the moment, our director made jokes about this and had a completely inappropriate attitude.
The flats that were onstage had no brakes, so actors would trip into them and have to stop them from rolling.
There was a lamppost that was onstage during most of our rehearsals that was very tall, heavy, and completely unstable. Every time an actor would step near it, it would wobble and the top/bulb portion appeared as if it could fall off at any given moment. As stage-manager, I asked for all of these things to be fixed (multiple times in person and in rehearsal reports) and was told they would fix it—but it never happened.
When all of these safety concerns (among many many others) came to a head, I was yelled at for advocating for the actors’ safety and I was told by the production manager that “~I~ work for ~him~” (subtext implying that therefore I should side with him and was betraying him by advocating for actors safety??), and that me and the cast were “breeding toxicity”.
I was told I would have an ASM and yet didn’t have one for the entire process up until tech week.
Our lighting designer failed to show up to cue-to-cue and so I had to come in and work on my day off, I was not compensated for this time. I was also asked to help make props (as a stage-manager, this does not fall under my work) and I asked another actor for their help, neither of us were compensated for this.
During cue-to-cue the lighting designer realized his fly was down and made a comment about it to which the production manager (Joshua Patino) made a joke about, asking “if I felt safe.”
As someone who has experienced SA from men in positions of power over me—I was extremely uncomfortable and triggered. I didn’t find it funny.
All of this to say, if you’re thinking of taking a job there or if you have been offered one—know that you deserve better. The only reason I got through that show is because my cast was WONDERFUL and proved to be an amazing support system. But the company, producers, and a lot of their staff are just downright abusive.
Misogynistic, unprofessional, and unsafe.
The director at the time (Ron Fassler) was completely unprofessional, proudly claimed that he didn’t have any notes in his script for the show, was very misogynistic towards all of the women in the cast and crew. He called me “darling” and told other women to “be a good girl”. I actually shared housing with this director and early on in the rehearsal process my glasses broke, so I was waiting to be picked up to go get them fixed, when I ran into the director I made small talk about the situation and how my vision isn’t great/I had to wear an eyepatch as a kid because of it and the director replied, “I always thought scars were sexy.”
Meanwhile, there were many safety issues that were not acknowledged and we were reprimanded for bringing up concerns—during our first rehearsal, a heavy metal bell flew off of the set after the door it was attached to closed. In the moment, our director made jokes about this and had a completely inappropriate attitude.
The flats that were onstage had no brakes, so actors would trip into them and have to stop them from rolling.
There was a lamppost that was onstage during most of our rehearsals that was very tall, heavy, and completely unstable. Every time an actor would step near it, it would wobble and the top/bulb portion appeared as if it could fall off at any given moment. As stage-manager, I asked for all of these things to be fixed (multiple times in person and in rehearsal reports) and was told they would fix it—but it never happened.
When all of these safety concerns (among many many others) came to a head, I was yelled at for advocating for the actors’ safety and I was told by the production manager that “~I~ work for ~him~” (subtext implying that therefore I should side with him and was betraying him by advocating for actors safety??), and that me and the cast were “breeding toxicity”.
I was told I would have an ASM and yet didn’t have one for the entire process up until tech week.
Our lighting designer failed to show up to cue-to-cue and so I had to come in and work on my day off, I was not compensated for this time. I was also asked to help make props (as a stage-manager, this does not fall under my work) and I asked another actor for their help, neither of us were compensated for this.
During cue-to-cue the lighting designer realized his fly was down and made a comment about it to which the production manager (Joshua Patino) made a joke about, asking “if I felt safe.”
As someone who has experienced SA from men in positions of power over me—I was extremely uncomfortable and triggered. I didn’t find it funny.
All of this to say, if you’re thinking of taking a job there or if you have been offered one—know that you deserve better. The only reason I got through that show is because my cast was WONDERFUL and proved to be an amazing support system. But the company, producers, and a lot of their staff are just downright abusive.