stage managers and the world

um...so last week the Lincoln Center Theater fired their South Pacific stage manager, Michael Brunner for allegedly using his iphone to videotape one of the actresses in her dressing room. sources said: "He said it was just a stupid mistake on his part and that he was very sorry." ... a stupid mistake...

i feel like once again we are reflecting on the state of society in the digital age. or more precisely, the ipod age. here is a variation of the want for that (fake) intimacy the close up creates. here you have a person who sees what he wants and it seems perfectly natural to record it and own it. now the "peeping tom" is nothing new, nor is photographing or recording women secretly, obviously. but i wonder how much today's relationship with media is an influence on this type of behavior?  does our ability to watch whatever we want, when ever we want- to download any song we want to hear- heck, even to read up on practically any tidbit about a celebrities life on sites like tmz and the drudge report-- do things like that push a person from "normal" to "peeping tom"?

but then, you have to ask yourself where you fall on the spectrum...

still all that crap aside, as an actress, you don't want to hear of your stage manager testing these boundaries...

in most shows, there is an intimate relationship between stage managers and actors. i've had awful stage managers and i've had wonderful stage managers. regardless, you kinda become a child, regulated by the rules and timetables of a rigid stage manager. now this is their job and a good stage manager makes life (ie rehearsals, performances, and everything in between) an efficient machine, that holds up our structured world around us so that we, the actors, can play without worry.

doing a fair amount of off-broadway or off-off, i've come to appreciate even the "awful" stage managers. even the meglomatic parent, is a parent after all.

i like being an actor, doing my bit without worrying about anything else.

i remember once in grad school being asked what my goals were. my answer was not sufficient, not specific enough for my professor, however it is still my goal: to work with the best people. i want the best team all around me, doing their thing with all the passion, artistry, or just shear determination that is possible.  with that structured world, designed by the best minds, crafted by the best hands, and filled with the best playmates--you can't help but be lost, be alive in that imagined world and thus be the best actor it is possible for you personally to be.

and what other goal could an actress possibly have?