Board vs. director
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Category: Producing Theater
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4811
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Topic: Board vs. director
Posted By: June Bug
Subject: Board vs. director
Date Posted: 9/13/10 at 5:25pm
| Non-profit community theater is producing "Lost In Yonkers". Five board members and producer was at the auditions and disagree with the directors choice of cast. The subject has not been brought up as yet. Has anyone ever faced this situation? |
Replies:
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 9/13/10 at 8:54pm
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Never had that experience as a director or board member.
I can say that as a director my response would probably be something like: "Whatever you want is fine with me, but if I don't get to choose the cast one of you can direct the play." |
Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 9/13/10 at 11:32pm
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I agree with Jay I'd be advising them 'to drop on thier heads'!
To me 'auditions by commitee' are as usefull as 'boobs on a bull' & I have never seen any good outcomes that come from them.
Your the skipper the ultimate decission is yours to make, however be open to any input & take it on board, be it positive or negative. Remembering that in order to create a workable circuit, you can have as many positives as you like, but there must be at least one negative for it to work & turn the light on.
{[in actuality current flows from negative to positve, inverse to that of the normaly acepted convention of being from positive to negative] But as most techies will know it is actualy only a 'simulated manifestation Of Known Emf [volts]' (S.M.O.K.E)}  ------------- [western] Gondawandaland "Hear the light & see the sound! TOI TOI CHOOKAS {may you always play to a full house!} |
Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 9/15/10 at 1:36pm
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Unless you plan to replace the director, I would suggest letting the subject drop. Your posting sounds like the five board members and producer were at the auditions but not part of the casting decision. If that is the case their input as Joe so ellegently put it are "as usefull as 'boobs on a bull' ". The board needs to support the director and his/her choices and trust he/she has a plan. ------------- Patrick L. Davis Fort Findlay Playhouse |
Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 9/15/10 at 4:04pm
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I assume your group's board chose the director. Now the director gets to choose the cast. Unless you can find some inappropriate behavior on the part of the director, your board needs to "suck it up" and abide by their director's choices. I mean, there can only be one director, n'est-ce pas? Our group did "A Streetcar Named Desire" a few years ago. The director cast his girlfriend-of-the-moment as Blanche. Eyebrows were raised, but board members said nothing. Highly regarded local actresses were overlooked by this director. Ultimately, although the actress didn't "ruin" the production by her presence, the board felt that she did diminish the final result. Box office was fairly successful, so money wasn't an issue with the board. But we did decide that that would be the last show he would direct for our group - mainly because he was so obviously willing to put the welfare of the production second to his own (forgive the term) desires. While we didn't like what he did, we stood by his right to do it. We simply took steps afterward not to allow him to do it to us again. |
Posted By: vickifrank
Date Posted: 9/15/10 at 5:46pm
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It seems to me that what the board really disagrees with is the choice of the director as director. If you don't trust the guy why did the board choose him? So if the answer is that you do trust him, then support his choices. If you later hate the product of those casting choices, then don't pick him as director. If the answer is that you don't trust him...hmmm...too late now unless he casts strippers and forces the costume director to clothe them so or similar. ------------- _____________ http://www.studio-productions-inc.com 1-800-359-2964 The theater scrim people |
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 9/15/10 at 6:02pm
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And if you do keep the director and the cast he/she chose (which seems like the only realistic option) you need to do your best to keep the board's doubts from the cast because that could cause a real mess. |
Posted By: KEB54
Date Posted: 9/16/10 at 1:49am
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Why were there five board members and a producer at auditions anyway? ------------- KEB |
Posted By: June Bug
Date Posted: 9/16/10 at 4:28pm
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Thank you all for your input. I guess it is 'suck it up time' and hope for the best. |
Posted By: TZine
Date Posted: 9/20/10 at 9:15pm
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This could be an opportunity for your board to come up with some specific, in-writing guidelines about what kind of input they are allowed to have in the production of a show, and what is completely left to the director's discretion. Personally, I'd say the board members need to butt out. But others might disagree. It's important to lay out those things in writing, and make sure both the board and the director agree on it when the contracts are signed. That way, if there are any issues, there is already a method and process in place to deal with them quickly and cleanly. Things can go fine for a long time, but all it takes is a single tiny personality conflict to wreak havoc on a production, and harm your theatre's financial stability and reputation. ------------- TheatreZine:Theatre news for busy people. A free triweekly e-mail newsletter with the latest, most important theatre news. Subscribe. Stay in the loop. http://theatrezine. |
Posted By: Theatrepalooza
Date Posted: 3/30/12 at 3:58am
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I've had board members who happened to be at my auditions give me input immediately after all the actors had "left the building." I take a diplomatic approach and listen to what they have to say, thank them, and then I go home and make my decisions. Sometimes a board member may have valuable information, including details of past problems a certain actor may have caused the theater. Ultimately, I have been trusted to make my own decisions. As long as that remains the case, I will remain willing to listen to their "two cents" before I make my decisions.
------------- Jim http://www.zazzle.com/theatrepalooza?rf=238405855706136288 - Check Out THEATREPALOOZA, my online gift shop for theater people! |
Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 3/30/12 at 11:14am
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Theatrepalooza said roughly what I was going to say. In community theatre (and theatre in general) there is a lot of politics to deal with. As director you need to have the final decision as to what you need to present your vision for the show. This should apply to your choices for all of the departments. However, if you are new to that community, you may want to have a listen to what the board has to say. They may know things that you don't know about specific actors. On the other hand there may be things that you know based on experiences with various actors that they don't know. If there are artistic differences of opinion then the final decision should be yours. So listen to what they have to say. Tell them their input was very interesting, and tell them when you will deliver YOUR cast list. If that is unacceptable, perhaps they picked the wrong director. There are multiple ways to look at this. ------------- David M |