Cinders On Ice - part 4 (Melbourne - Aug 2008)

Melbourne
We were supposed to have a 'down week' in Melbourne as it would take a week to sea freight bits over from New Zealand. I never thought about this at the time, but as sea freight is cheap and we were sending some stuff by sea, why were we air freighting the set? Its only occurred to me now, so I never asked. We had added and extra day to the run in Wellington as we were selling so well the box office was struggling to accommodate the punters that needed re-seated from the cancelled performance. Our flights were already put back a day to allow more time for the get out. So that was two days lost. We were starting the get in 8 hours early in Melbourne and there was a days work added mid week. So the 'down week' was vanishing. However after four weeks on the go with no days off it was good to have a lazy two day.

The next day four of us had a forgettable day at a haulage depot looking at air-freight pallets. DULL DULL DULL, but needed doing.

That night we were invited to the Edward Scissorhands end of Australia party (they were the show in before us at our next venue and also being a UK show a lot of our guys knew their guys). I had a good long call back to the UK to The Dr (an hour and a half, that was expensive) before I headed over to the party. I was feeling pretty fed up and disalusioned. I couldn't say that I was working out with the scope of my contract or that my contract didn't match my interview, but my interview didn't match my job in practice. There is obviously flexibility in our 'standard' job title, but as a rule of thumb theatre departments become more focused on their area of responsibility the bigger the show and bigger the company. We were a sizable show and sizable company and the thing that had been discussed before I signed didn't paint the picture I was looking at.

However once I was off the phone and at the party I soon forgot about all that for the night. Really late on that night I was at the bar, turned and next to me was a dancer I knew from the UK, our dance captain from panto. What a lovely supprise. So we chatted away and I made a twat of myself. I asked if he was dance caption on Scissorhands. No he was Edward. Well I always thought he was good.

We were off the following day off and then back in to fit up again. The week went okay, the venue management were trixy and we were filming the show for the DVD so it was a long week, however it was all right all in.

I spoke to my PM towards the end of the week about being hacked off and feeling cheated, kinda went like this.
- I was interviewed for ASM/ book cover and would 'help' with exceptional moves.
- I've not seen sight of the book and am doing every and all in and out.
- I have not had time to do my primary job properly IMHO, we even had to get a prop buyer as I was struggeling to get time to prop (and as an ASM thats a big part of the job)
- I feel that the job I interviews for and accepted are not what I am doing
- I took the job for the book cover as it gave me progression and I'm not getting any.

And the answer came, 'you should never have been interviewed for ASM / book cover as there is no such job, it was always Technical ASM.

Bugger.