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Employment / Warnings about interviews

« on: Feb 22, 2007, 03:58 pm »

I worked for a small company in NYC.  They produce a show a year (that is the goal anyway - this is show #5 or 6 for them, I think).  They have produced under an NYC-LOA contract.  Our current show closes on Saturday.  By this point in the process the director has made the environment so toxic, no one wants to come to work.  Which is too bad, because this is the best cast and crew I have worked with in a long time.  Everyone backstage gets along and is really very good at their job.  Our universal problem is the way we have been treated by the director and his wife.  We have spoken to the union several times but there is only so much they can do.  They can't really force them to have decency.  We have four shows left and he is still trying to make major changes to the show without any rehearsal.  He repeatedly talks to the actors about reviewers (has even tried to get a message to them at intermission to perk up the show because the drama desk people where there) and reduced an actress to tears because she wasn't living up to his direction when the Times was there.  Paychecks have been late about half of the time with numerous calls in to the union to get them fixed.  He tried to ban the crew from backstage because he felt we were poisoning the cast against him.  He has tried to call numerous note sessions without adequate notice.  Our stage manager has repeatedly been told to shut up when quoting the rulebook.  We had a show cancelled due to weather and didn't find out about it until after half hour - because they tried to call the stage manager an hour and a half earlier but had to leave a message (she was on the subway) and she didn't receive the message until later.  We found out because one of the crew got an email on his cell phone.  There is so much more that I just can't go into.  No one is quitting, my stage manager and I (ASM) are now just trying to ride this out.  But I wanted to put out a warning that this company is a lot of heart ache for not a lot of money.  If you do work for him, prepare to be severely undervalued and humiliated.  None of your hard work will be recognized and often you will be scorned for trying to do your job or he will simply try to prevent you from doing your job completely.  If you can, it would be wise to avoid this company entirely.

(Edited by moderator to remove identifying information. Members can PM this poster to request additional information. 2-28-7, LJH)