It's part of the pride issue I mentioned to Ms. Catmull in the next post, something I struggle with. I have a very hard time asking professional folks to volunteer. I made Rule #8 of Cambiare “Let them say no, don't do it for them. Always ask.” specifically because I'm terrible at it.

I really should have listed “Ask for help” in my things we forgot this time post.

It's part of the pride issue I mentioned to Ms. Catmull in the next post, something I struggle with. I have a very hard time asking professional folks to volunteer. I made Rule #8 of Cambiare “Let them say no, don't do it for them. Always ask.” specifically because I'm terrible at it.

I really should have listed “Ask for help” in my things we forgot this time post.

I do have one concern, though –

We would have lost money on this show anyway because we’re soft and chose to pay our performers despite the budget cut at the beginning of the process

I know we've talked about this a little bit, but there's still something that I find troubling about identifying paying the actors as a -choice-, just because it's likely they'd have agreed to work for free if you'd told them there was no money to pay them. There's no talk of being a big softy by choosing to pay the venue instead of asking them to provide it for free, or deciding to pay the bill to Rock N Roll Rentals or Home Depot or wherever various technical equipment and hardware came from.

I'm glad the actors were paid – I thought the benefit night idea was a neat one, and from what I gather, it seemed to work out pretty well. So don't take this as, like, calling you out – I'm just conscious of the way creative types are often told that just the opportunity to do what they love ought to be reward enough, and I think it's important that people who don't share that idea work to make sure that it's not reinforced. I totally approve of the fact that your actions speak loudly on this front, though.

–d

We agreed with you in our real life postmortem and the line producer will be me from here on in. I will not be performing in any more Cambiare shows. At least not until the point where I've found (and can afford) someone I trust more than me to be the line producer.

It isn't the perfect solution because I'm sure I will have other tasks on the show, but I will have one True Job on any production and that should go a ways toward clearing up the waters a bit.

Clearly you were resource-poor on the production – and as I read through your report, it occurred to me that what was missing here was a general or line manager for the production. So my humble suggestion is that you consider appointing someone to this position next time. This third person, who should not be given any other tasks, takes the strain off the key partners in this duopoly model, and becomes responsible for managing the wider production resources (the budget, the personnel – including the AD and the Director – and generally being responsible for the health of the enterprise). We're all wise after the events I guess.

Thanks again. This is a courageous post and one to learn from.