During a recent production of Peter Pan our Captain Hook dropped with a heart attack during dress rehearsal. One of the pirates stepped up to the plate and took over the role of Hook with less than 24 hours to learn the lines, blocking, and songs! The fallen actor was a men's medium in size -- his replacement was a size 54. He has a 17 3/4 inch neck, for heaven sake! The comstumer had to take off a day of work in order to "build" a new Hook, not to mention clothing the actor as Mr. Darling in evening clothes.

The question that arose is: since the costumer had to lose a day's pay, is she justified in asking for reimbursement? You can imagine that this has opened a can of worms.

Has this come up for any of you? How do you handle it?

Margaret     

Edited by Margaret

I agree with Gaafa.  You are not setting an undesirable precedent.  After all, it was an emergency.  If she had not agreed to do it, you would, probably, have had to hire someone else to do it.  That is a lot different than the volunteer work that many of us do. 

We have many volunteers who lose pay because they volunteer for us and we really appreciate it.  One is a local carpenter/handyman who can do anything and is the first one we call when something bad happens.  He always drops whatever he is doing and helps.  We would have trouble surviving without people like him.  This is his choice and part of what he gives to the theater.   He can (evidently) afford the lost pay.  We have other volunteers where I know it would cause an economic hardship for them to lose pay.  I don't call them but if I did, I would have to make it up to them somehow.

There are alternatives to money that might work to compensate your volunteer.  If she lost $100 for the days work, you could offer to pay her the $100 in a free membership and free tickets for future shows - but it would need to be her choice.  She may really need the money to make ends meet.

Our theater has a strict "no pay" policy - we do not pay anyone but I would not have a problem paying your costumer for her lost pay at work.

Hope this helps

Doug