Theatre design tech gets back at producer who "betrayed" actors, ruining her chances of getting into festival: 'My work is done... I deleted everything'

Theatre is a place for drama, both on-stage and during the entire lead-up to the play.

From middle school plays to college shows to community theatre, I can't imagine there's ever been a single play produced that didn't have tons of drama going on behind the scenes. There are many reasons for this. You have lots of big egos gathering together every day for weeks if not months, and they're almost all quite talented. Cliques form, alliances arise, group chats go off the rails… the drama starts and then truly never ends. No matter how many plays you've been in, you'll find this to be true. And then on the final night of the play, after all the bows have been taken and the spotlights turned off, during the wrap party, everyone will gush over what a wonderful time they had.

Of course, just because you can look back on the difficulties of production through your rose-tinted glasses doesn't mean that everyone walks away on equal footing. Just take this person, for example. They did not have a very good time during their tenure as the design tech for a particular play. They explained, as you can read about it in more detail below, that "Jane" was a writer/producer who'd been working on this play for years. It was near and dear to her heart, which this person found out the hard way. They shared that by the time they joined the play, rehearsals were already ongoing, because a director had already started working on that play… and then quit. Yikes! Directing a play is a huge deal, so you can only imagine what kind of nightmare scenario would lead to one walking away from a play that has already begun rehearsals. That's what happens to micromanagers, though. If you don't give the professionals the breathing room to actually do their jobs, you're going to create an oxygen-less environment, and these creatives would rather abandon the project than suffocate under one person's thumb. I mean, just think about how many people work on even the smallest play — 40, 80, 100? A play is never, ever a 1-person deal, and yet those with giant egos will try to convince us all otherwise.

In an additionally frightful twist to this story, this person revealed that they "almost quit on the spot" after finding out that the director expected them to play role of not just designer, but also lighting designer, stage manager, and booth operator, somehow doing all of these things at the same time. I wonder if this person knows better now that when you're asked to do the impossible, you'll only be able to achieve it under the most grueling circumstances. You can put yourself through that, and some might argue it's even a rite of passage, but you can also choose to dive off that sinking ship and float to calmer waters.

Check out the full story in all it's dramatic glory below, and see if you think this person pulled off their malicious compliance in the right way, or if you think they shouldn't have deleted a thing.

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“Your job is done. I don’t want you to do anything related to the project ever again.”

via Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash+

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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This person made an admirable attempt to stick up for the cast members who made them stick around in the first place! When you see actors melt into a role, giving jaw-dropping performances again and again while learning how to play a character, it's normal to feel protective toward them. But that's not quite where the story finished, because this person chose to honor only themself in the end…
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via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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Typical! This writer/producer/micromanager underestimated the importance of some of the less glamorous roles. Your lighting dude might not get to take a bow on the stage, but they're still utterly crucial to the production. This person chose to skimp out on her play, and that's exactly what she got in return – a missed opportunity on a project months in the making.
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via Kyle Head on Unsplash+

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}

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