Author Topic: PRODUCING: Recourse when actor leaves show?  (Read 4874 times)

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jxilgenfritz

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PRODUCING: Recourse when actor leaves show?
« on: May 12, 2012, 05:51 am »
Hi.

I'm part of a nonprofit start-up that (we hope) is going to be a pretty big deal.

We're in the middle of the run of our first show. This first show is not only important in regard to the publicity it gives us (we've received huge support from local television, radio, and print media) but also in regard to revenue (the money made from this first show was projected to provide the budget for the next 2-3).

Like I said, there's been huge publicity and with word-of-mouth from last weekends opening shows this weekend was likely going to be even better for us.

Tonight our lead walked out and took another actor with him.

With no understudy and a demoralized cast, the show was cancelled.

We had a show Thurs that was basically a publicity push for this weekend. That means we lost tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Sat - our final show).

It makes us look incompetent right at the beginning where we need to look professional.

And it leaves us basically back at square one regarding funding after the cost of theatre rental, licensing, etc.

MY QUESTION'S THIS: I know it's a little outside of the realm of a stage manager but I thought I might be able to get some advice from fellow professionals who might have encountered this (I never have - it just hasn't come up) -- can an actor who abandons a performance this way, preventing the performance, be sued for lost earnings? Is there anything we can do?

I appreciate your help. I have a big stake in this working.

-Jason
« Last Edit: May 12, 2012, 01:35 pm by Rebbe »

Rebbe

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Re: Recourse when actor leaves show?
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2012, 10:40 am »
Sounds like you are really invested in the success of the company and it's important to you that it succeed. My first question is why did the actor leave? I think figuring that out is important in deciding what to do next.  You need happy, committed actors to have a strong company,and need to uncover the barriers to that before putting a lot of energy into retaliation.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2012, 01:18 pm by Rebbe »
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MatthewShiner

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Re: Recourse when actor leaves show?
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2012, 11:03 am »
Well, this proves the importance of understudies.

It all depends on the contract the actor has.  When an actor walks, the issue at hand is breach of contract.  What are the terms for giving notice?  I doubt without a contract, any lawsuit can be filed.  (Can you sue a volunteer because she didn't bake a cake for the back sale like she promised?)

Like Rebbe said, you need to figure out WHY the actor left.   Is there a way to get him back?  What do you need to do to make it better to bring these people back . . . this seems to be where you need to be sinking all your efforts into right now.  Was this an artistic issue?  A safety issue?  Are they upset at the production company?

As far as going forward with a lawsuit, be careful . . . it maybe harder to get actors in the future if you go about suing people.

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planetmike

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Re: PRODUCING: Recourse when actor leaves show?
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2012, 07:04 pm »
And of course, legal advice online is worth what you paid for it. Definitely talk with a lawyer in your state. I'd guess you'd be better off leaving bad enough alone, rather than becoming fodder for theatre jokes over the next couple years as your case works its way through the courts.

PSMKay

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Re: PRODUCING: Recourse when actor leaves show?
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2012, 10:59 pm »
Hi Jason. I found your company's website and some of the promotional press for your show. I won't link to it, but I needed some background.

I do not recommend doing anything further with legal departments, lawsuits or lawyers.

If a building burns down and the inhabitants lose all of their stuff, there's a lot of folks who will help them out with donations, but the landlord will shake their head and say "Tsk, too bad they didn't have insurance." Your understudies are your insurance. By not having them you were not looking out for the best interests of your own business, and you risked a lot by making certain people essentially irreplaceable. Stage managers spend their lives planning for worst case scenarios like this, and you'll see in many discussions here how we've devised clever workarounds when no understudies are available. Mostly though, it comes down to us shaking our heads and saying about the company, "Tsk, too bad they don't have insurance."  Any judge will most likely say the same thing.

If you can prove that the actor who quit is saying false things about the company you might have a defamation suit on your hands, and if the actor walked on the contract you might have a breach of contract situation, but I think the better route here is as Mike suggested. Theatre people talk. You have the publicity campaign working in your favor, while you have their attention make sure that they know why you're dark tonight - without embellishment - and use that to garner sympathy in the community.

On_Headset

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Re: PRODUCING: Recourse when actor leaves show?
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2012, 10:37 pm »
PSMKay's advice is perfect, but I would like to tack on one additional thing.

Theatre (even volunteer-level community theatre) is a heavily reputation-driven profession. People who are impossible to work with (for whatever reason: flakiness, rudeness, creating drama, refusing to work with directors, substance abuse, whatever) are punished in various ways: they develop a stinky reputation, they start off on the wrong foot with directors, they find much less support in times of unemployment and personal crisis, they lose out on parts ("I like them both, but I've heard horrible things about Janice..." is a perfectly valid reason for giving the role to the other person, and happens more often than you many people realize), they aren't invited to audition in the first place, they aren't asked to join standing companies, they aren't brought in when new companies launch, and, ultimately, their careers end that much sooner.

It can be very tempting to be vengeful with people who have wronged you, and under the circumstances you've described, you have a right to be upset, but involving yourself further in this situation is going to be expensive, time-consuming and probably fruitless, and this will frequently be the case. However, the actors will not escape from this situation with untarnished reputations, and in many respects this is even more damaging than anything you could actively do to them.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2012, 10:44 pm by On_Headset »