Let me preface this by saying: I love Break A Leg and everyone involved in it.
Having said that, let me say this: Yuri, you suck.
I'm kidding, of course, but one of the most difficult things about working with these guys is timing, i.e., aligning schedules so that we can all b e in the same place at the same time so that we can get some work done. It is a monumental task, I assure you. Solar eclipses happen more frequently. I have two examples to share with you today.
Number One: Earlier this summer, during the run of The Three Musketeers, some of the cast and crew had decided to go camping one weekend. We had been planning this for months. The plan was to do the show in Sebastopol on Friday night, then go out to Bodega afterwards, set up, and have fun, then do the show again on Saturday, go back out to Bodega, have more fun, break down camp on Sunday morning, and go do the show one more time. This was the ONE weekend all year that I had planned to go camping. For those of you who don't know: Bodega is about 2.5 hours from San Francisco. Two days before this whole plan was to be implemented, I get a call from Yuri asking if I was available that weekend to shoot something that was supposed to make fun of Twitter. The ONE weekend I planned to go camping, plus the fact that I had to do shows every night in Sebastopol, and he wants to know if I'm available.
No, I was not available.
Number Two: Being an actor means that I frequently am involved in acting-related activities. I know, it's crazy, but hear me out. I am currently in a production of Picasso at Lapin Agile at Napa Valley College. The show was written by Steve Martin in 1993 and is about a fictitious encounter between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in a bar in France in 1904. It's pretty funny. The show opened last Friday, which meant I was in tech rehearsal every evening, after having already worked for 8 hours every day at my regular job. Also, this past weekend, I had auditions for various shows around the North Bay. I was pretty booked. But on the whole, my schedule is usually a little more forgiving than that. So, it was, of course, on THIS weekend, when I had absolutely no time, that Yuri calls me and asks me if I'm available to do some voice over work. I have been begging Yuri to let me do some voice over work almost the entire time we've been working together, and he calls on one of the very few weekends where I couldn't possibly make it work.
It's not like I don't try to make time. In fact, a couple summers ago, I didn't audition for any shows and worked to leave my schedule open so that Yuri would be able to call on my at any time and I would show up wherever, ready to rock and/or roll. Months went by and I never got the call. Finally, a show comes along that I really want to do, so I got out for it and get cast. As soon as I do, what happens? I get a call asking if I'm available to shoot.
Why, fate? Why? Was it something I said? Do I have to do that weird beef-dairy thing on Fridays or whatever? Do I have to sacrifice a dozen virgin marmots? What? Help me out here! Gimme a hint! Throw me a bone! Gah!
Ok, rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled Jenday.