THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Another dream with Trump in it. Aside from the obvious reason that he is the so-called leader of the quarantined world, I think he was in my dream because in some ways he reminds me of my stepfather. In the dream, I was working at a summer theatre school, a place that did both full shows, but also taught classes to young people. It was all at a campus of some junior college, and we were getting ready for our first show. I was directing, and Trump was in the show. And he was not doing a good job. He kept showing up late, forgetting lines, and harassing the other actors, telling them they weren't any good, giving them notes on their performances, and so on. This kind of thing can happen at a theatre camp, so it wasn't too surprising. What was a drag was that I was told that I couldn't replace him, which is the normal thing to do once you have tried all other options with an actor. In the dream, if he left the show, something terrible would happen. It wasn't said what that would be, but we all knew it would be horrific and a large scale. So we were all at the mercy of this bad actor with an attitude problem. We were rehearsing a scene, and Trump kept breaking character to complain about things: the script; the other actors; the set. Blame was something he handed out like candy to everyone but himself. Over a three hour rehearsal, we didn't get further than two pages of script because of him. And the worst part was that, when he would yell out "cut" or "hold", we would all have to sit there and act like what he was doing and saying was perfectly appropriate and helpful, as opposed to a waste of time that was hurting the show. This is where he reminded me of life with my stepfather, who had a big drinking problem. When you are the child of an alcoholic, you learn quickly how to read a persons mood, to watch every facial expression, hang on every word. I have heard many times that people who grew up in alcoholic households, as well as theatre people, are the best natural lie detectors, because in both instances you are a keen observer of human behavior. So I'm a double threat in that department. Anyway, Trump was going on about how he was a great actor but the script was making him look bad, how the other actors were terrible, and how he refused to wear his costume because it made him look fat. And then rehearsal was over. A lot of the cast went to get a bite to eat and talk about the show. I joined them. And that's when one of the young ladies on the stage crew told me that Trump had tried to force himself on her. And I realized that I was working with not just an egotist man-child, but a socio-path. There was no way to continue, and we would all have to suffer some terrible fate because of this guy.

What are we going to do now? We are all doing the best we can to create happy lives, meaningful experiences to fill our hearts and souls with joy, and along comes this gigantic, planet sized threat, and we are stuck with a weak-willed bad actor who can't memorize his lines, blames everyone else for his short comings, and insults the people who are trying to make things work, making their jobs more difficult. And it feels like we are only at the start of rehearsals, that point where nobody is quite sure if this was the right show to do, if the casting makes any sense, or if the director is sane. But we have all signed our contracts, and all the other shows in town have been cast and crewed, so we are stuck and will have to muddle through somehow.

The good thing about being in a show that is rough, is that it can make for some of the strongest friendships you will ever have. When you are in a show, you depend one hundred percent on every person you are working with, from front of house to make up to lights to costumes to props to stage crew to creative team to playwright to actor. Even if you can't stand a person, when you are on stage, you have to work together, or go down in flames. And I think we are going through something akin to that now. We are all trying to work together while facing the impossible. And this time will bond us as we move forward. I can see a time when those of us alive now will sit around family meals and start to talk about the days of the Corona Virus, and the young will roll their eyes and think "here they go again".

Well, time to lower the curtain on today's entry, as I have classes to teach, a long walk to take, and a script to work on.

Here's a song. It is, of course, Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers.