So an update. The company I was working for decided to let me go with no notice - which sucked. Their reasons were that I was defaming the company at every opportunity with my cast. Which was 100% inaccurate, I never called on the company at any point in the process. I stated quite openly that the production was unsupported and in the private conversations on how to handle this with my assistant I was quite harsh - but I never publically showed my frustrations. That would be incredibly unprofessional.

My number one focus in community theatre practice is to create A) a happy cast a cast that had fun C) a good show. I achieved all of these with my most recent project, and i'm very proud of it. Even if certain people in the company aren't happy with my style of working, it's just that everyone works in different ways - and the introduction of a different style (a more professionally aimed style in my cast's view) just didn't function with the group. Which is good to know

I think they felt threatened myself, but that's beside the point. I know that I'm leaving them with my head held high, knowing that artistically I directed two quite good shows for them. It is a shame that they let me go, because I have got a hold of the script for the new show I was going to direct for them - and it is frankly dreadful. They're doing nothing more than what I would call a very bad mish-mash of words, in comparison to JM Barrie's fantastic original script. Why do you think it keeps getting revived? Because it's a bloody fantastic piece of writing, for a younger cast. They've retracted into an overly simplistic, boring style - which doesn't work with kids. The script went from 52 pages to 23 pages. And it's apparently going to be the same length... I genuinely don't understand it. But it's none of my business - I just care about the cast and the kids I was going to work with (who I cast darn it.)

But as i said in my other blog. It is a huge learning curve, and I know how now to work as an artistic director of a company. It's almost as if the last 10 months have been a 'How Not To...' Guide for me. Which is fantastic for my development as a director.

I was going to carry this blog onto another topic, but i'll leave this here for now and I'll do that one in a seperate one in a few days

Onwards and upwards!