BackStage Utah

So......if you have already committed to a show, do you stick with it? What are some circumstances in which you will quit a show? Or that you morally feel ok telling a director, thanks for the couple of rehearsals....ummm....but no thanks?

I am having a very very hard time sticking with a show I was cast in, but I was also taught that if you accept a role it is like signing a contract. I really really want to do this show, but I just don't know if I can keep up the facade of being ok with things.

So, when can you quit a show? And would you ever quit a show?

This of course is excluding deaths, marriages, and births of your own kids.

Oh, and I think that new jobs that prevent you from attending rehearsals and/or performances are valid reasons for dropping out of a show.  Since your actual question was what we thought were valid reasons, not what we think you should do.

As a director and producer (Producing Director?), I'm often expecting someone to quit the show. My usual rule is, if you're quitting, you find your replacement for me. Overall, please tell me you're quitting.

Are there valid reasons to quit? Of course. You might lose your job if you don't quit, because they changed your hours and aren't sympathetic to your situation. Your spouse is threatening to leave you because of the show (happened on a show I was working on... I got his part. It was great). Your health is in decline because you're burning the candle at both ends. You have a family emergency that will take you out of the state.

Not valid reasons to quit a show:

You're not happy with the production team/cast/etc. Talk to the director, privately about your concerns. Often these are things that can be fixed. Also, happiness (i.e.: fun) is a state of mind, so suck it up and remember, the performance is the fun part.

You suddenly find out you're going to miss a rehearsal or a performance night. Don't quit! Talk to the director or producer and see what you can work out. We had an actress quit on us 2 weeks before opening, because she was going to miss one night's performance. Evidently she never heard of understudies or even considered we could go dark for that one night.

I'm sure I could think of more, but those seem to hit the two sides. everything else is often a shade of grey to me, like getting cast in another show in a bigger and better role. This seems like a cut and dried, "you accepted this part, so you stick with it," but as an actor I can understand that opportunities don't always knock on your door like that, and if you can find me a replacement, please, go forth and do what you need to do. That is, unless we have you under contract. If that's the case, not a good idea to quit.

I pretty much agree with Swami. I admire your professionalism in being so concerned about this.

A big question for me would be, what exactly are the consequences of you sating with the show? Is it just a bad experience (lack of professionalism of the production, cast, director, etc), or is there a more serious problem?

I quit the Dicken's Festival once.� The first rehearsal was clearly a reunion of regulars and their extremely rowdy children.� The acting exercises consisted of lying on the gym floor of a church and doing some kind of... weird role playing that did not have to do with the show.� When I and a couple of others were reticent to participate we were reprimanded publicly for our attitude.�

While I don't deny the charges, I wasn't rolling my eyes, or throwing a tantrum. I was simply minimizing my participation and sitting to the side.� I was an adult wearing nice clothes, and it felt much more like amateur acting class than a production.� I'm not exactly proud of leaving, but I don't beat myself up over it either.� I just realized I should have done my homework before auditioning, and I'm very glad not to have wasted my holiday season doing that show.