This show is now over, so I'm sort of looking for more of, "how would you have handled it," rather than, "what should I do?"
My Christmas show was six-seven shows a week, Tuesday through Sundays, including Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve and New Years Day. It was a three actor/bazillion character show, with lots of props and costumes, and a lengthy, involved re-set every night. We were also in rep with a kids show!
The theatre I was working for (and work for frequently) doesn't hire backstage crew, or even employ volunteers. They have an acting and playwriting apprenticeship program, and to pay for their apprenticeship, the apprentices are assigned to work a number of shows and strikes as crew. The apprentices are
assigned, they don't get to choose their shows. And I don't get to choose my crew, either. They're assigned to me, and I'm stuck with them for the duration, no swapsies.
One of my apprentices just did not want to be there. She was a lady in her fifties, who was just doing the apprenticeship for fun, and working backstage was not fun. She wined. She complained about every little additional thing she was asked to do. She was insubordinate, permanently modifying a costume piece after I had specifically told her not to (this is not the issue, I
dealt with that.) She kept reminding me that she wasn't really my crew, she was an
apprentice, and so she didn't have to do this that and the other, because it wasn't an apprentice's job.
I tried logic. I tried duty. I tried, "for the good of the show." I tried, "you're taking care of the actors." Finally, I just began ignoring her whinging, but it never did stop.
I think that part of the problem was that, in the beginning, I was helping with a lot of the preset and tear down. On top of eveything else, she didn't have a very steep learning curve, so if I wanted things done, it frequently meant doing them myself, at least the first few times. And the fact that later on, to her eyes, at least, I wasn't doing anything while she was "slaving away" with a broom, I believe, added to her persecution complex.
So, my questions are two-fold:
1) How would you deal with a reluctant crew member that you don't have the power to replace, and you
need?
2) With a non-professional crew, how much do you help with preset and tear down? I like to help when and where I can. But I'm starting to think that, later, when I'm dealing with an emergency and not helping, my crew resents me for "being lazy," because it looks like I'm just gabbing with the house manager or goofing off on my computer, when I'm actually doing important work. Is it better to just not help at all?