I'm in a play right now. The Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov. An excercise in fristration. I almost quit a few weeks ago, but chickened out when the time came. So I'll stick with it, without complaining, for the duration.

Last night we stuck around for an extra forty minutes after rehearsal. The director had a vision where the stage would be entirely dark at the end of the second act. He wanted one of the actresses to take the last candle from the stage as she rushed outside to go on a date. The actress disagreed, saying that someone rushing outside to go on a date wouldn't stop to tidy up a candle on her way out the door for a carriage ride. The disagreement went on for forty minutes. The actress burst into tears and we agreed to table it.

I agreed with the actress. I didn't take sides during the argument itself, because I've spent about a third of my rehearsal time arguing with the director myself. The director put it this way: what happens when the director's vision disagrees with an actors? I would have put it another way: what happens when the director has a surface vision, and wants to accomplish it expediently, regardless of the logic?

I direct, myself, and I suppose there are two responses to when actors have a problem: Tough, and Shit. But I act as well, specifically to give myself insight into these situations. I don't know.