Post 149 - August 7, 2020

Day 149…

In my experience, everyone wants to be told what to do.

People need to know that there’s somebody with the bigger picture in mind who is taking care of things. Somebody has to be in charge or else people feel anxious and there is anarchy. People have to trust that that person is on top of things.

That, in a nutshell, is what my job is. I tell people what to do.

Do they always listen? No, of course not. I have worked with plenty of people who want to be told what to do so that they can do the exact opposite. There are also plenty of others who consider being told what to do merely the first step in a negotiation.

The most notoriously “difficult” stars I have worked with all, more or less, follow the rules. Almost all of them will listen to reason, but they will certainly question the reason and you’d better be ready with an answer. Invariably, what is easier for me, is not going to be what they want to do. Oh well, that’s why I get paid for what I do.

There is a union rule that requires every actor in a professional production - no matter at what level - to be at the theatre half an hour before showtime. Repeated violations of this can result in termination.

I worked with a star on a Broadway show who flatly refused to show up on time. For no reason other than I think he just didn’t like being told what to do. He was (more or less) professional in most other ways. Thankfully, he was completely terrified of his co-star and wanted her approval, so he never broke any rules too badly.

Star or not, if someone in my position doesn’t enforce the rules with one person, you then can’t enforce them with anybody. So, we worked out that he could be five minutes late every day, and we got the producers to approve it. That way it was official. If anybody else complained that it wasn’t fair that he was late and they couldn’t be, I could say that it had been negotiated with the producers. It was one of the perks of having above the title billing.

He wouldn’t follow the overall rule, but he had no issue with following the compromise rule. He was almost never late for his new call time. I took it as a win.

Elaine Stritch, who is no longer with us, so I am mentioning her by name, was somewhat in a class by herself when it came to following rules. Elaine Stritch was a Broadway fixture on and off the stage. She was… something. She spoke her mind and lived by her own rules. Seemingly.

I did a production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance on Broadway with her for about eight months.

Elaine could take up a week of posts all by herself, but she very well may be one of the most difficult people to work with that I have ever encountered. It’s not that she was mean - she wasn’t at all - she had a huge heart underneath it all. It’s that she could only thrive if there was utter chaos offstage. She changed the rules constantly.

She was, I think, terrified of being onstage. She was getting older and memorizing lines was getting more difficult. She was an alcoholic in program, although after our run and for the last few years of her life she started drinking again because, I guess, what the heck.

Alcohol had given her the courage to go onstage in the early part of her career but without it, she needed something else, so she created drama. She never actually broke any union rules that I can remember - her terror meant that she was usually at the theatre quite early so that she could review her lines with me.

She was a devout Catholic and very much believed in a higher power. She yelled all the time. She liked me and still yelled at me all of the time. Once in the middle of a tirade, she stopped for a second, looked at me and said, “Gosh, I love yelling at you.” I had to laugh.

She drove her co-stars completely insane. Once she had stirred everything up backstage to the level she liked, she was able to go out and act. Second guessing her was impossible. She was much too smart and intuitive for me to be able to do that, so I just went with it.

She respected me enough that she complied with some of things that I asked her to do. I didn’t flinch in front of her, and I think she liked me for that.

If you are going to be the President of the United States, you need to be prepared for attacks from millions of people just like Elaine Stritch. You are never going to make everybody happy, that’s not actually what the job is.

The job is to provide leadership. Leadership rarely makes you popular across the boards. You aren’t going to make the right decisions most of the time, but you are going to make decisions that at least start the discussion going. You may end up having to backtrack and rethink what you decided, but that doesn’t change the fact that your initial decision is what was necessary to start the process.

I don’t know that I have ever been aware of who the Governors of various states were before this year. Maybe I’d hear about one of them if they got involved in a particularly juicy scandal. Now, I am completely aware of a large percentage of them and I know what they are doing. They are who is leading us through this pandemic.

In the absence of any sort of direction and leadership whatsoever coming out of the White House, there are fifty people who are each attempting to lead their citizens on their own. Fifty different people each charting their own course is a recipe for disaster, and that is exactly what we seem to be cooking - a disaster.

Some of the Governors are doing well and some of them are in way over their heads.

In those states with weak and ineffectual Governors, policy and the implementation of it are now falling below the state level to individual municipal and county officials.

Some of those officials are doing well and some of them are also in way over their heads.

As schools reopen in areas with poorly prepared people in governmental positions, teachers and principals are having to take decision-making into their own hands.

Again, some of those people are equipped to do that, and some of them simply aren’t.

All of these people have been put in a position that they wouldn’t be in if somebody effective was living in the White House. Our lack of strong central leadership is the single greatest crisis that we are currently experiencing.

Even under past Presidents, the worst of them made decisions that allowed discussions and arguments to occur. Some officials would support those decisions and implement them, and some would try and fight them. Regardless, they would still be obligated to follow those decisions under the law.

The country moved forward and with it, we, the people. We weren’t always happy about where we were going, but we were at least moving forward.

Our current President is simply not leading at all.

He is making no decisions.

By all reports, he is not actually aware of what is going on in the country because he doesn’t read any of his daily briefings. He actually does not know what is going on. He reportedly does not want to know. He actually does not believe that it is his responsibility.

He was more than happy to be the guy hurling criticism at whomever the President was via Twitter, but it really appears that he does not want to be the President, himself, at all.

Back in 2016, everybody in his inner circle said that him winning was a big surprise. I’m sure it was. I can’t imagine that he actually thought he would win.

He is not a leader. In his heart, I think that what he wants is to be led and then be able to complain about it.

So, here we are with no central leader and, as a result, 50 different people running around trying to figure out how to manage their own states. Some of the Governors have banded together, like ours in the Northeast, to try and make unilateral decisions that are good for everyone. Some are just out at sea without somebody above to guide them.

Somebody here in Provincetown has told everyone what to do. People in positions underneath that person are carrying out those orders and enforcing them.

There’s a level of calm here that doesn’t seem to be occurring in many other places at the moment. Like it or no, everybody here knows what is expected of them and they are doing it. Wearing masks is non-negotiable, so rather than obsessing about whether or not to wear them, they are, instead, out and about and living their lives. And enjoying themselves. Masks aren’t in discussion, so people are talking about where to eat and which beach to go to.

Being told what to do, sometimes, is a freeing experience. Somebody else is worrying about it so that I don’t have to.

I like being in charge at the level I am usually in charge. There is always somebody above me steering the ship. I respect and admire those people who are willing to actually be the guy at the top.

I hope we get one of them in November.