Bad Behavior?

[Jill Woodward]

I've been having some difficulty with a particular actor during the show I'm working on at the moment. He's always been difficult to work with - arguing, whining, tardiness, etc. However, recently it was discovered that he's been bullying a fellow cast member while in scene (They quietly converse among themselves while dialogue goes on elsewhere.). His tardies are becoming increasingly frequent as are his minor tantrums; the tantrums are also progressing in scale. The other day, when given a ten until places call, he gestured for me to "suck it."

When the bullying was discovered, I went to a faculty member to figure out how to handle it. He handled it himself and the bullying has stopped as far as I know.

However, I'm not sure how to deal with an actor who is continually mocking policy and myself. The crude gesture blew my mind and I'm not entirely sure how to handle it.

I'm considering letting the faculty know that if given the option, I would rather not work with this particular student again, though I know that ultimately at the end of the day I have no say. Would this be a major overstepping of boundaries?

HELP!

[babens]

As you are in an educational setting I would advise making sure you document everything and keep the faculty informed of what is going on.  I may not go so far as laying down an ultimatum to the faculty (such as "I will never work with this person again") but be sure that they know about the type of behavior he is displaying.

[MatthewShiner]

In reality, if you are in and educational setting or not, the answer is pretty much the same.

1) Document, document, document - document everything.  Make sure who ever is the next step up on the management is in the loop.  At some point, if this was professional, management might want to include the actor's agent.

2) Try to figure out what is really going on here - lateness, in my opinion, is more about not making the show a priority - I mean, other actors can get there on time.  It's a long, hard path to make an actor make a show a priority.  This is a huge part of managing creative people - and one of the big challenges of being a younger stage manager without years of experience and tricks.  Ultimately you need to figure out who, within your management style, you can get better behavior out the actor.   And, you may just get a little improvement - some people are just jerks (and in this business, we have a lot of jerks.) 

3) Never give up on making it a better environment for everyone.  I know that I have been in situations where the show has been hi-jacked by one actor, and the producers sort of turned their back and left me to hang . . . I tried in small ways to better thier behavior, and nothing.  But, what I did do, was it make it better for people who had to work this actor. 

Good luck.

[late_stranger]

Oh, that's awful, Jill.

I would definitely write it down in any sort of reporting or recording that you have to do or turn in. I would also find out if there's a precedent to work off of - maybe an older student or a trusted faculty member will know. Ultimately, I don't know how much power or influence you have as stage manager, but if his behavior is impacting the show, you'll probably be able to do something. At least I hope so.

Good luck!

[Bwoodbury]

Just wanted to point out that technically, him or her telling you to suck it is sexual harassment. It's up to you whether you frame it as such (especially since you have a better idea of the intent than any of us can), but I wanted to throw it out there to encourage you to pass it along to your superiors (even if you don't want to bring it up as harassment). Odds are, if he's willing to do it to you, he may be making comments/gestures like that to other people who might not be nearly so able to deal with it.

[Jill Woodward]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I guess I'm fairly lucky in that I keep a log, so everything is already documented.

I appreciate all the support and intend to mention it to my faculty adviser later this week. Hopefully, all will be resolved with the least amount of trouble and hassle.

[On_Headset]

Even if his behaviour does not escalate further, this is something you should at the very least address to the show's faculty advisors. They might not be aware that it's going on, or they might not realize how serious it is. Write them (the faculty advisor) a letter, include references to specific events and instances, and--if possible--get multiple people to sign it. (Don't pass it around at rehearsal or anything like that, but if he's also being an ass to the PM, his dressers have witnessed him being an ass to other actors, etc. then they're the sorts of people who can corroborate your allegations.) Meetings and conversations are one thing, but your advisor will almost certainly need on-paper documentation of the situation before they can act on anything, so save yourself the trouble and get it done before you sit down with them. The process of writing it up will also allow you to consider what you want to say, how you want to frame it, and so on, which will make a difficult conversation much easier.

[MatthewShiner]

I would think twice about getting multiple people to sign off on something.

Just imagine, you approach someone to sign the document, but even with his bad behavior, that person aligns with misbehaving actor . . . it can lead to a very awkward situation.

If you want collaboration, have a meeting with the faculty member and everyone else involved sans that actor in question to discuss the issue, and then allow the faculty member to make a decision on what to do next.  This way, the issues are brought out as a group all at once.

[sfleming]

yes be carefull about making a deal out of the documentation by having lots of people sign off on it.  The log should be your own, if other people are having issues and come to you about it then perhaps you could document that they came to you, but you do not need to seek out support.  You could end up making the issue bigger and that could mess with any positive relationships and trust you have with the cast and crew.  For example if actor/crew person A is giving you the trouble and you go and talk to person B and C about it to see if they would support what you see; I would arguee that person B and C may feel less trust for you because they may think that you could do the same about them.  Now of course that may not happen and its just my off hand thought.  Each situtation is unique and you must treat it as such.

[Balletdork]

If you are all students you must go directly to your faculty advisors~ You are paying quite a lot of money for an educational experience and you should be protected as a student; just as professional AEA members are protected by the union. Your faculty should be as effective as the producers we work with professionally.

That being said; these things happen- and the silver lining is that it's happening to you in college, so you'll know how to and how not to deal with this in the future.